Steel Products
Goncalves Bullish on Cliffs' HBI Prospects
Written by Tim Triplett
March 24, 2018
“The trend is our friend,” said Lourenco Goncalves, the chief executive of Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., pointing to the growth of electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking around the world. Cliffs is on track for commercial production of hot briquetted iron (HBI) by mid-2020 at its facility under construction in Toledo, Ohio, he told executives at S&P Global Platts’ Steel Markets North America conference Tuesday in Chicago.
Cliffs’ new plant will have the annual capacity to produce 1.6 million tons of HBI, which will have a big impact on a 3-million-ton market. “To displace half of what is imported now should be an easy task,” Goncalves said.
Steel minimills that use EAFs need pure iron units to dilute the impurities in the melted scrap. HBI is a cheaper alternative to pig iron, which is produce by integrated mills in their basic oxygen furnaces (BOFs). Asked during Q&A if he is concerned about integrated producers bringing back idled capacity to produce pig iron, Goncalves noted that restarting a BOF takes a lot of time and money. “I don’t see an integrated mill restarting pig iron production to support an EAF mill that is a competitor,” he added.
Tim Triplett
Read more from Tim TriplettLatest in Steel Products
Galv buyers less optimistic about short-term market
“It was a little more of a seller's market as contractors seemed to be protecting themselves against a potential run up in prices," one buyer said.
SMU flat-rolled market survey results now available
SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Past survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]
US, offshore CRC prices continue to fall
US cold-rolled (CR) coil prices were down again this week, slipping six weeks in a row and seeing the sharpest drop-off since last July.
Asian HR remains much cheaper than US, EU product
Domestic hot-rolled (HR) coil prices fell this week, now down seven of the last eight weeks.
April service center shipments and inventories report
Flat rolled = 57.6 shipping days of supply Plate = 54.5 shipping days of supply Flat rolled US service centers’ flat-rolled steel supply edged up in April, as shipments slowed. At the end of April, US service centers carried 57.6 shipping days of supply, according to adjusted SMU data. This is up from 56.4 shipping […]