Steel Mills

U.S. Steel Committed to Industrial Equipment & Construction Markets
Written by John Packard
November 26, 2019
The following article is written by John Packard, President & CEO, Steel Market Update
On Sunday, SMU published in my Final Thoughts the following: “There has also been discussion about U.S. Steel in the marketplace as to whether the mill has decided to concentrate on auto, appliance, energy and electrical markets and perhaps move away from other market segments. This could explain their decision to move away from indexed-based contracts and the removal of some of their blast furnaces from the existing market. I don’t know if this is indeed the case, and I will attempt to speak about this to U.S. Steel to see if we can get a response.”
U.S. Steel responded with, “We continue to provide products such as heavy gauge, wide hot-rolled coil into Industrial Equipment, as well as the light gauge Galvalume and Light gauge Galvanized products to our construction customers. We value all segments of our customer profile, and any plans to remove or replace certain segments will be communicated to our investors and clients.”
I want to make one thing quite clear to our readers, SMU does not take positions on what markets individual mills should/should not cover. That is a business decision they make based on their capabilities, location of mills to customers, costs to produce and competitive factors.
What is important, in my opinion, is the steel industry is undergoing a rebirth, with new mills being able to roll new products employing new technologies in new locations. U.S. Steel is one of the mills that has begun to make moves that will change the face of the mill and the steel industry over the next few years. The partial acquisition of EAF producer Big River Steel, the announcement of new technologies being introduced to their Mon Valley operation and the construction of the EAF in Alabama are all big moves for USS. SMU will continue to report on the status of construction, the changes occurring within the mill and how their customers (and to a much lesser degree their investors) feel about those changes.

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Mills

Nucor maintains plate prices, opens October order book
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat for a seventh straight month with the opening of its October order book.

ArcelorMittal Mexico to import from sister mills as it works to resume DRI production
ArcelorMittal has partially restarted operations at its direct reduction plant in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan. An explosion on Aug. 18 rocked the massive steelworks on Mexico’s Pacific coast, impacting production of direct-reduced iron (DRI).

Fall maintenance outages are coming in hot
Labor Day has passed, the sun is starting to set a little earlier each day, and cooler weather has begun to find its way down to many of us across North America. And you know what that means for the steel industry… Fall maintenance outages!

AISI: Domestic steel production ticks up
US raw steel production ticked up in the week ending on Sept. 6 after a decrease the week before, according to the most recent data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

Domestic mill shipments slip in July: AISI
US steel shipments decreased month over month in July, but were up from last year, according to the latest figures from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).