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    Market Segment

    February 17, 2015

    The Severstal NA Team, Where are They Now?

    Just last week there was an article about Dennis (DJ) Johnson and in his new position as Vice President, Transformation, at Worthington Industries.   Johnson joins others now at Worthington including Jim Mortensen, now Director Strategic Product Development and Pat Loney, Product Manager, Hot Rolled and Coated Products. You might think that most of the leadership of Severstal would stay close to their steel roots, but a quick search yields some interesting assignments.

    Saikat Dey, former Severstal CEO, partnered with Gerrit Reepmeyer Mikhail Zhavoronkov and Anupam Sengupta to establish Ockham Razor Ventures, an “investment holding company with portfolio holdings across several industries”.  The name is a takeoff on a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham which postulates that “plurality should not be posited without necessity” or, as Wikipedia would have it: “Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.”  Saikat and his team are located in Birmingham, Michigan.

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    Price on trade: Steel industry trick-or-treat

    It’s the scariest time of year in Washington, D.C. … election season. The city is a veritable haunted house of prognostication and speculation as everyone tries to discern which way the howling wind will blow. We’ll let the fortune tellers and prediction markets guess the outcomes of the midterms. What we do know is this: the steel industry has experienced its share of tricks and treats over the past few months. Below are a few notable steel tricks and treats this Halloween season.

    Drilling activity holds in the US, moves higher in Canada

    The latest tally of active drilling rigs held steady in the US for a fourth straight week, while activity rose further in Canada this week, according to oil and gas rig count data published by Baker Hughes. The US rig count remained unchanged at 603 rigs this week, maintaining a 17-month high. Compared with this time last year, 57 more rigs are in operation today. Canada’s count rose by six to 226 rigs this week, gaining ground for a second consecutive week. Activity is up from the same week of 2025, with 39 more rigs operating today.

    galvalume steel coil

    SMU Survey: Mill willingness to negotiate price at lowest levels since 2021

    The majority of steel buyers responding to our latest market survey reported that mills continue to hold a firm grip on prices. The share of buyers reporting that mills were negotiable fell this week to the lowest rate seen in over five years. Every two weeks, SMU surveys service center and manufacturer buyers asking if mills are negotiable on new spot sheet and plate orders. In this week’s survey, just 3% of respondents said mills were willing to talk price to secure an order (Figure 1). This is down 11 percentage points from our mid-October survey.

    Algoma’s losses narrow in Q3, but tariffs and EAF transition challenges remain

    Algoma’s net loss narrowed in the third quarter, but the company continues to be affected by US tariffs and the transition to electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based steelmaker reported a net loss of Canadian $129.6 million (USD$92.6 million) in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, narrowing 73% from CAD$485.1 million a year earlier. Net sales dropped 52% to CAD$249.4 million in the same comparison.