Steel Market Update sources report that U.S. Steel plans to idle the #1 blast furnace at Mon Valley Works by the end of this week. The furnace, located at the Edgar Thomson Plant, has a daily capacity of 3,460 tons and would leave only the No. 3 furnace at the facility operational at 3,100 tons […]
ArcelorMittal will expand its furlough of employees to include 250 workers at the Cleveland facility. The company has already laid off more than 300 union workers in Indiana and recently cut about 30 percent of its salaried workers. “The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions to business throughout the world and increasingly across the […]
The global Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in sharply falling steel demand all over the world. For the steel industry, it is a challenging task to reduce production levels as ~70 percent of global output is produced through the BF/BOF, or integrated steelmaking, process route. Blast furnaces (BFs) suffer from low operational flexibility—they cannot typically be […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum said demand remains healthy, especially in construction, despite impacts from the COVID-19 crisis. The company posted net sales of $2.57 billion for the first quarter of 2020, a 13 percent decrease year-over-year due to lower metal prices. Net income was $61.7 million, down from $190.1 million in the same quarter last […]
Another iron mine is temporarily idling production. ArcelorMittal said on Tuesday that it will idle Hibbing Taconite on May 3 with plans to resume operations on July 6. “Due to the unprecedented and challenging times presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the joint venture partners of Hibbing Taconite will be idling the operation,” said ArcelorMittal in […]
Liberty Steel will idle its Georgetown steelworks for at least three months. The facility will be placed under care and maintenance in order to reopen quickly when the market improves. Wire rod orders will be filled by Liberty’s steelworks in Peoria, Ill. “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have seen demand for our products soften […]
“The SDI team shines in moments of challenge,” said Steel Dynamics President and CEO Mark Millett. First-quarter results support that confidence as the company reported strong earnings for January-March despite the coronavirus pandemic. First-quarter net sales totaled $2.6 billion and net income $187 million, an improvement from Q4 2019 for both metrics. Selling price per ton […]
ArcelorMittal USA has idled the C blast furnace at Burns Harbor for a scheduled outage. “The company is currently in a quiet period in advance of Q1 2020 earnings and therefore we are unable to provide further details about the duration of the outage at this time,” said a company spokesperson. According to sources at […]
JSW Steel USA will idle facilities and lay off workers at its plants in Mingo Junction, Ohio, and Baytown, Texas, in an effort to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and chaos in the oil and gas market on steel demand. The company said it will temporarily idle the hot rolling mill and EAF […]
U.S. Steel has added to its facility closures, idling Keetac mining operations due to declining demand resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. “After further study of current demand, we must make additional adjustments to our raw materials production and indefinitely idle our Keetac facility to respond to the sudden and dramatic decline in business conditions resulting […]
Extreme times require extreme measures and rigorous planning, as shown in the Cleveland-Cliffs business update on April 15. Cleveland-Cliffs claims that its liquidity is assured during the COVID-19 crisis even under “extreme stress test assumptions.” Liquidity in an extreme scenario, not including proceeds from additional financing, would reach a trough of $370 million in September […]
Nucor Executive Vice President Ladd Hall will retire on June 20 after 39 years with the company. Hall began his career at Nucor Steel-Utah in 1981 in sales, progressing through several managerial positions until his promotion to Vice President of Nucor in 1994 and to Executive Vice President in 2007. “Ladd has been an exceptional […]
U.S. Steel will idle furnace #8 at Gary Works due to low market demand. The furnace was restarted in late 2019 to supplement production during a scheduled maintenance outage for the #4 furnace in 2020. The #8 furnace has been banked in order to quickly restore production should market conditions improve. “We are not in […]
Nucor has idled its direct-reduced-iron facility in Louisiana due to impacts from the coronavirus. “With the state of Louisiana having been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 outbreak and economic uncertainty nationwide, we have temporarily suspended operations at our Nucor Louisiana direct reduced iron plant,” said a spokesperson for Nucor. “Our steel mills that use […]
Cleveland-Cliffs will temporarily idle Northshore Mining in Minnesota and Tilden Mine in Michigan due to current market conditions. The iron ore supplier plans to work down current inventory from the operations to fulfill its commercial agreements with steel customers. Demand is down at U.S. steel mills, with several adjusting production due to closures in the […]
ArcelorMittal plans to idle the #3 blast furnace at Indiana Harbor in East Chicago, according to a report by the Northwest Indiana Times. A memo from USW Local 1010 President Steve Wagner to members stated that the company “has mandated that all employees with less than two years be laid off.” “This is not in […]
ArcelorMittal USA will idle the #6 blast furnace at Cleveland Works due to reduced demand resulting from coronavirus closures in the automotive sector. ArcelorMittal USA President and CEO John Brett said in an April 3 letter to employees that extended closures in the automotive sector and reduced demand in other segments require the company to […]
BlueScope Steel says it will delay the North Star BlueScope expansion under way in Ohio for six months to minimize cash expenses as part of its strategy to maintain financial health during the COVID-19 crisis. The full scope of the project will resume when conditions improve. BlueScope Managing Director and CEO Mark Vassella said, “We […]
Cleveland-Cliffs will idle AK Coal due to reduced demand for coal in internal operations resulting from manufacturing shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company said in a statement: “Cleveland-Cliffs continues to evaluate internal operational requirements for metallurgical coal required for steelmaking. Significant reductions in manufacturing in the United States resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, […]
Tubular steel producer Vallourec said Monday that it will lay off more than 900 employees at its U.S. plants due to a significant drop in activity by its oil and gas customers. The layoffs will be implemented in the coming weeks across all plants and support functions and impact over one-third of Vallourec’s workforce and contractor […]
Nucor’s direct reduced iron (DRI) facility in Trinidad has been shut down by the government in its effort to control COVID-19 infections. “Our Nu-Iron direct reduced iron plant has been temporarily taken down in order to comply with government orders to combat the spread of COVID-19 in Trinidad,’ said Nucor spokesperson Katherine Miller. “With the […]
Schnitzer Steel Industries, a metals recycler and long products producer, posted revenue of $439 million for the second quarter of FY 2020. Net income was $4.5 million for the quarter, improving from a $7 million loss in Q1 but down significantly from income of $13 million in Q2 2019. Autos and Metals Recycling achieved operating […]
Cleveland-Cliffs said it will idle all of AK Steel Mansfield operations for the next two weeks to better align production with current weakness in the automotive market. A 3-4 day maintenance outage was already scheduled for the facility and the company decided to extend it for a two-week period. AK Steel Mansfield, in north central […]
Allegheny Technologies will idle its operations at Midland, Pa., by the end of June 2020 due to the Section 232 tariffs. A&T Stainless imports semi-finished stainless steel slab products from Indonesia to produce 60-inch wide Direct Roll Anneal and Pickle (DRAP) stainless sheet products. The imported steel slabs are subject to 25 percent tariffs under […]
Business remains surprisingly strong for wholesalers who sell galvanized steel products to the HVAC sector, considering the devastating impact of the coronavirus on the economy. In a conference call this morning, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) said the construction industry has dodged the worst of the virus’ effects so […]
Wholesalers in different parts of the country tell a different story about how the coronavirus restrictions are impacting their businesses. In one sense, the virus is picking winners and losers by geography. In a conference call this morning, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International compared notes on their experiences in dealing […]
We are in uncharted waters. The key is not to panic. Learn to separate fact from rumor. I repeat, learn to separate fact from the rumors that tend to envelope this industry. For example: The “rumor” is the domestic steel mills are getting huge order cancellations. Is that a fact or is it conjecture based […]
U.S. Steel announced on Friday a series of aggressive actions to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus and significant demand changes in the oil and gas industry. Flat-rolled: Gary Works—U.S. Steel will idle the #4 blast furnace at Gary Works immediately, moving up a 48-day outage originally planned for April. The scope of the planned […]
AK Steel will idle the C blast furnace at Dearborn Works beginning this week for an undetermined period of time. Dearborn has been impacted by recent shutdowns in the automotive industry and has been criticized for its handling of safety measures during the coronavirus crisis. At least one employee at Dearborn has tested positive for […]
Worthington Industries reported net sales of $764.0 million and net earnings of $15.3 million for its fiscal 2020 third quarter, ending Feb. 29, 2020. Sales were down 13 percent from the prior year due to lower average selling prices in Steel Processing and lower volumes in Pressure Cylinders. Steel Processing net sales were down 12 […]