Market Segment
June 18, 2024
Written by Laura Miller
ArcelorMittal Mexico is suffering a significant production loss as the labor strike at its mill in Lazaro Cardenas is now in its fourth week.
The strike began on May 24 when members of the local mining union began protesting the profit-sharing payments they received from the company. The protest is blocking the entrances to both the mill and the company’s mine.
The United Steelworkers (USW) union will meet with U.S. Steel (USS) on Friday as negotiations around terms of a new labor contract continue. The meeting comes after the USW and Cleveland-Cliffs, one of U.S. Steel’s competitors, agreed to a tentative labor agreement last week. “USS knows how this process works. They agreed to meet with us on Friday. The company knows they need to move, so this meeting should be productive,” the union said in a text to members on Wednesday.
In this week's Market Chatter, steel buyers point to tight supply and steady demand as reasons sheet prices could keep rising, with many expecting HRC to reach $1,400-1,449 per short ton in two months. Views on when the rally will peak are mixed, with some anticipating further increases while others mention softening demand and political uncertainty. Respondents also disagree on tariffs' impact. They say reshoring is generating activity but has yet to translate consistently into demand.
Latin American steelmaker Ternium is considering filing more anti-dumping cases in Mexico, according to a report from Reuters. Ternium CEO Maximo Vedoya told Reuters on Tuesday that the company would “very likely” file more trade cases in Mexico after supporting recent trade actions there. Additionally, Vedoya said the US and Mexico share a common issue in combating unfairly traded steel.
Mesabi Metallics has received preliminary approval for tax incentive terms for a proposed steel plant in Iowa, following a Nov. 10 meeting of the Lee County Board of Supervisors. The company, owned by India’s Essar Group, announced in late September its intention to build an electric-arc furnace steel plant in the state, which, if built, would be the largest in the US.
ArcelorMittal Calvert is progressing on the construction of its new $1.2-billion non-grain-oriented electrical steel (NGO or NOES) mill, with production slated to begin in 2027. The steelmaker reported in its third-quarter earnings that it's on track with the 150,000-metric-ton-per-year project, located adjacent to its existing sheet mill in Calvert, Ala.