Net profit plummeted 90 percent for Russian steelmaker Severstal in the first quarter of 2013. Read more ...

Colorado Springs, CO –The Board of Directors of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has elected Michael T. Rehwinkel, President and CEO of EVRAZ North America, to serve as Chairman of the Institute until May of 2014 Read more ...

We have a little more than three weeks before our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals workshop. We still have a number of seats left so now is a good time to pull at the boss’s sleeves and plead your case: I want to know more, I want to become a better employee and I want to grow in this business. I want to attend Steel Market Update’s Steel 101 workshop Read more ...

Steel Dynamics announced two new management appointments. Read more ...

One week ago today (Sunday) U.S. Steel Canada locked out the union workers associated with USW Local 8782 which represents the Lake Erie Works facility in Canada. Late last week U.S. Steel Canada spokesperson Trevor Harris provided a letter to two Canadian news organizations which were published. Steel Market Update published a blog post on Friday regarding the issues raised by USS Canada. Today we are publishing the union response Read more ...

An “unfortunate circumstance” is how U.S. Steel CEO John Surma described the lock out of nearly 1000 employees at Lake Erie Works in his company conference call remarks. Read more ...

AM Castle reported a net loss of $10.6 million for the first quarter of 2013, compared to a net loss of 4.3 million in the prior year quarter. Read more ...

The Lake Erie Works union workers were locked out of their jobs by U.S. Steel management at 9 AM Sunday morning. This is the second time USS has locked out USW Local 8782 since the company bought the former Stelco facilities in 2007. They have also locked out Lake Erie sister plant, Hamilton Works when its contract expired in 2010 Read more ...

U.S. Steel has sent a letter of intent advising employees at Lake Erie Works that a lock out will take effect at 9:00 a.m. April 28, 2013. Read more ...

Lake Erie union workers soundly rejected the final contract offer from U.S. Steel on Tuesday. With 92 percent of the membership turning out to vote, 70 percent voted against the package. Read more ...

Chicago, April 22, 2013 – In defense of its patent rights, ArcelorMittal filed complaints before the District Court of Delaware on April 16 to demonstrate that AK Steel, Severstal North America (SNA) and SNA’s coating partner, Wheeling-Nisshin, have infringed upon its Usibor® aluminum silicon coated products patent (Usibor®-AS) by selling steel grades protected under the Usibor®-AS patent to automakers and their supply chains. Read more ...

ThyssenKrupp AG announced on Monday the appointment of Carsten Spohr and Dr. Lothar Steinbach to the Supervisory Board. Read more ...

The following is a letter received by SMU regarding U.S. Steel's Final Contract Offer to USW Local 8782: Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) has a LinkedIn steel group (also named Steel Market Update) and one of our members left the following comment to our ongoing discussion about the contract negotiations at US Steel Lake Erie Works and the potential for a steel strike at the flat rolled steel producing mill located in Canada Read more ...

The international headquarters of the United Steelworkers has ordered Lake Erie steelworkers in Local 8782 to vote on the final contract offered by U.S. Steel. The mandate came after the local union voted 796-4 not to put the company’s final offer to vote, opting for a strike instead Read more ...

The following letter was received by Steel Market Update with an official CRU comment on U.S. Mill announcements to move away from discounted CRU indexed-based deals: Read more ...

The United Steelworkers Union Local 8782 which represents the workers at the United States Steel (USS) Lake Erie Works steel mill in Canada, has voted to give their 72-hour notice of a potential strike. Below is the text of a notice posted on the union website dated today Read more ...

Severstal NA has announced effective base prices on new spot flat rolled steel orders as of April 22, 2013. The base prices announced, if collected, would result in price increases of approximately $40-$50 per ton above our most recent price indices (the average of the SMU price range) Read more ...

Arkansas House legislators gave final approval to fund the $125 million incentive package offered to Big River Steel in Osceola, Ark. Read more ...

United Steelworkers Local 8782 which represents the workers at Lake Erie Works has been unable to reach an agreement on a new contract with U.S. Steel. Their contract expired at 12:01 AM this morning (Tuesday, April 16th). However, the two parties have a “protocol” in place whereby either side must provide a 72-hour notice if they intent to strike or lockout the union. The union has told their workers that the 72-hour protocol has not yet been started by either side Read more ...

Now that Big River Steel is getting government financing to set up shop in Arkansas, Nucor-Yamoto Steel is asking Blytheville City Council for bond assistance for its $115 million steel mill expansion. Read more ...

Written by: Sandy Williams

A strike or a lock-out is possible this week at U.S. Steel’s Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke, Ontario, Canada. The contract between U.S. Steel and Local 8782 of the United Steel Workers is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. April 16. Read more ...

CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) announced today that Executive Vice President of Fabricated Construction Products, Hamilton Lott, Jr., plans to retire on June 3, 2013 after more than 37 years of service with Nucor. Read more ...

The enabling legislation for the $125 million bond incentive for Big River Steel was approved in a voice vote in the Arkansas House Committee Tuesday and by the Senate in 26-6 vote later in the day. Read more ...

ArcelorMittal announces the recent appointment of Raymond Hawkins to General Manager, ArcelorMittal LaPlace, a mini-mill operation in LaPlace, La. that produces long steel products and employs approximately 410, and Dan Tunacik to General Manager, ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor Long Carbon, a mini-mill operation in East Chicago, Ind. that produces long steel products and employs approximately 300. Read more ...

ArcelorMittal announces the recent appointment of Pat Parker to Vice President, Labor Relations, ArcelorMittal USA. Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) received an email this morning from a flat rolled steel service center with the comment that next Monday would be a good day for the domestic steel flat rolled steel mills to raise prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels. Earlier this week, another steel distributor wrote Steel Market Update about the subject of steel price increases and how they are being received by the market Read more ...

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation announced it has completed the equity investment with BlueScope Steel to move forward a coated products joint venture in ASEAN and the U.S. Read more ...

The battle between AK Steel and ArcelorMittal over patent infringement is finished. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 20 refused a re-hearing of ArcelorMittal’s petition, Read more ...

On March 20, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit left in place its December 2012 decision confirming that ArcelorMittal’s pioneer patent (US Patent No. 6,296,805) broadly covers aluminum pre-coated hot-rolled or cold-rolled steel for hot stamping, a product sold worldwide as Usibor®. Read more ...

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp will close the Kimitsu No. 3 blast furnace at the end of FY2015, close a continuous caster and shift to a one BOF operation by FY 2016 as part of a mid-term management plan that includes streamlining operations at all of its steelworks over the next three years. Read more ...

Dr. Ulrich Lehner will be elected Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp Ag at a special meeting on March 19. Read more ...

Dr. Gerhard Cromme is resigning as Chairman of the ThyssenKrupp Supervisory Board effective March 31. Read more ...

Written by: Sandy Williams

Billowing flames, sparks careening upward like thousands of fireflies, the brilliant blue-white glow of the arc, and heat—intense heat. It is hard to adequately describe the power emanating from the electric arc furnace as one stares at it enthralled. Our Steel 101 class felt that power up close and it was an experience to remember.

The tour of the Severstal Columbus mini-mill was definitely the highlight of the workshop. As our bus approached the facility we saw hundreds of steel coils cooling outside in the yard. After meeting our guides and dressing in blue jackets, helmets, safety glasses and earplugs, we broke into two groups to begin our foray into the mill.

The interior of the mill was huge! We walked for nearly three hours, climbing stairs to multiple levels, following the steel from its great melt in the furnace through its journey by huge ladles to the tundish where molten steel was poured into a mold and cooled while moving, then in a continuous process by conveyor to roughing stands, finishing stands and its final ejection as hot coiled rolls onto robotic carts to be whisked away. Then we followed the cold rolled line as it moved its way to the hot dipped coating operation. This ribbon of steel seemed to extend endlessly through the mill until we caught our last sight of it coming out of a zinc bath, rising toward the ceiling.

Each of the mill operations are run by banks of computers located in rooms high above the main floor operated by one or two technicians who may follow an entire line through its processing. Steel making is a highly automated process so we saw very few workers on the floor itself. Robotic cranes and overhead conveyances moved objects, while sirens blared out warnings (the earplugs were a necessity not an accessory). To me it looked gloriously sci-fi.

This was so different from how I envisioned my father’s time as a steelworker in 1950 through 1980. As a child, I thought my dad worked in a subdivision of Hell in downtown Cleveland. It was very dirty--dirty skies, dirty windows, dirty cars in the parking lots and, of course, those ever burning smoke stacks and fires.

Severstal Columbus is nothing like that. The air is clean, the facilities are clean, and efficiency and safety are the norm. Our guides on the tour were terrific--knowledgeable and patient when answering our questions.

As day one drew to a close, we rode back to the hotel exhausted but excited by what we had seen. I was now able to take what we had learned earlier in the day in the classroom and put together a few more pieces of the puzzle of steelmaking.



Next time: Day Two—Marketing Fundamentals

FORT WAYNE, Ind., March 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Steel Dynamics, Inc. [STLD] today announced that John Nolan, Vice President and General Manager of the Company's Structural and Rail Division, has been appointed to the newly created corporate level position of Vice President - Product Development. Read more ...

I have been involved in the flat rolled steel industry since 1977. I cannot recall another time during those 36 years in the business when the domestic steel mills have announced two significant price increases within six weeks of one another – with the target minimum base price being exactly the same Read more ...

The $1.25 million incentive proposal for Big River Steel has been delivered to Arkansas legislators. The House and Senate have until March 13 to review the project funding being offered to Big River under Amendment 82. Read more ...

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) today announced that Burt Caldwell has been named general manager – Sales for its North American flat-rolled sales team based in Chicago, effective March 1. Read more ...

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether U.S. Steel union workers can be compensated for time spent changing clothes for their jobs. Read more ...

Written by: John Packard

Steel Market Update (SMU) ran a number of articles concerning the tepid support service centers were giving spot flat rolled steel price increases into the manufacturing segment of the industry. SMU surveys the industry twice per month and our most recent steel survey was capturing a very modest push by service centers to take their Read more ...

A blast at the Vorkutinskaya coal mine, owned by Russian steelmaker Severstal, killed 18 people on Monday and left nine missing. Read more ...

U.S. Steel announced today that Patrick J. Mullarkey has been named the new plant manager of Fairfield Tubular Operations in Birmingham, Ala. Mullarkey will succeed Dennis Quirk who has retired following 36 years of service. Read more ...

Carpenter Technology announced Wednesday it will be working with United Steel Corporation on the development of new “lightweighting” steel for automotive applications. Read more ...

ArcelorMittal is permanently closing six finishing lines and a coke plant at its Liege facility in Belgium. A seventh line will be maintained only as a repairing line. Read more ...

On Monday, January 23rd, AK Steel announced a price increase on all flat rolled steel products of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). The price increase is for “spot” orders only and is “effective immediately” according to the press release issued by the company Read more ...

Creditors of bankrupt RG Steel are seeking court permission to sue Renco Group founder and billionaire Ira Rennert for deliberately delaying the bankruptcy filing of RG Steel in order to protect his own financial interests.

ArcelorMittal will sell a 15 percent interest in ArcelorMittal Mines Canada to a consortium led by POSCO and China Steel Corporation for $1.1 billion. The deal will be completed over the first and second quarters of 2013. Read more ...

Severstal North America made the following announcement in their press release:

DEARBORN, Mich. December 20, 2012 – Severstal North America, one of the largest steel producers in the U.S., has appointed Mr. Sachin Shivaram, Read more ...

DEARBORN, Mich. December 10, 2012 – Severstal North America appoints Mr. Saikat Dey Chief Strategy and Procurement Officer, effective December 15, 2012. Read more ...

On Wednesday of this week, John Packard, Publisher of Steel Market Update (SMU) spoke to the Chicago Regional Meeting of the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD).  There were more than 100 people in attendance as we discussed the situation at ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and their sister facility in Brazil (CSA).  We also discussed the pipe & tube market and if we expect dumping suits to be filed during 2013 on foreign imports of OCTG and line pipe. Read more ...