Essar Steel Algoma would like to stress that it is has not filed for bankruptcy or commenced insolvency proceedings in Canada or the U.S. according to a clarification document received by SMU. After reaching an agreement with its parent company for an infusion of cash, deleveraging of its balance sheet, and refinancing of its senior […]
Steel Market Update is well aware of the rumors which have been circulating regarding the potential sale of the Severstal North American steel mills. Late last week we learned from our sources that Steel Dynamics and AK Steel were close to purchasing the two U.S. steel mills owned by OAO Severstal out of Russia. Steel […]
Essar Steel Algoma has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice as part of its restructuring efforts. The filing under Chapter 15 in the U.S. is a recognition proceeding,” said a spokesperson for Essar Steel Allgoma. “The sole purpose of the US […]
Steel Market Update is a member of an association connected to the construction industry called HARDI. HARDI stands for Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International. HARDI and The Institute for Trend Research (ITR), an economic forecasting company, work together to gather economic data to provide a forecast to the HARDI members located in the United […]
Total steel shipments (all products) out of the U.S. service centers totaled 3,687,600 tons according to data released by the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) for the month of June. This represents an increase of 10.2 percent compared to June 2013. There were 21 shipping days during June 2014 compared to 20 shipping days last […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments in June declined by 56,500 tons to 3.527 million tons. This was almost exactly the same decline as experienced in May and which together almost wiped out the April gain. Shipping days were 21 in June, the same as in April and May. April was the highest monthly shipping […]
Canadian shipments for all steel products in the month of June were 481,000 net tons, a decrease of 5.6 percent from the month before, but an increase of 6.0 percent from June 2013. Inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,391,100 tons, up 0.4 percent from last month but down 6.3 percent from […]
Steel Market Update is a member of an association connected to the construction industry called HARDI. HARDI stands for Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International. HARDI and The Institute for Trend Research (ITR), an economic forecasting company, work together to gather economic data to provide a quarterly forecast to the HARDI members located in the […]
North Star Bluescope Steel will not be building a DRI plant at its steelworks in Delta, Ohio. The company, jointly owned by Bluescope and Cargill Inc., announced that it had concluded a feasibility study on building a DRI facility and found that the “forecast risk adjusted returns are not sufficiently attractive to justify the investment.” […]
Essar Steel Algoma Inc., announced on Wednesday that Esssar Global Fund Limited, will provide $300 million of equity infusion along with planned refinancing of Algoma’s senior secured debt. The following press release from Essar Steel Algoma contains details of the agreement. SAULT STE. MARIE, ONTARIO, July 16, 2014 – Essar Steel Algoma Inc. (“Algoma”) announced […]
Rick Blume, Nucor General Manager, Commercial Steelmaking Group, testified on Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations on Homeland Security regarding trade remedy laws. “Nucor relies on trade remedy laws to combat unfair trade practices of our foreign competitors, but we face many challenges in using these laws,” said Blume. “First, we have to […]
Chuck Bradford of the Metals Industry Advisory Group is a well known steel analyst. Mr. Bradford will be participating in our 2014 Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. Mr. Bradford will be part of a panel discussing commodity prices and the influence of China on the world steel industry – especially here in the United States. […]
We have had a number of end users and service centers who are against the filing of any new steel trade cases contact us to express their opinions. Most do not want to be identified. We received the following letter to the editor from an executive at a service center who asked that we not […]
Based on SMU sources we understand there are two steel mills, comprising three separate steel plants, that are for sale and could potentially change hands before the end of this calendar year. The two mills are Severstal NA and Gallatin. Severstal NA SMU understands the bids for Severstal NA were due this past Friday. Our […]
Big River Steel will break ground on the new 1.6 million ton flat rolled mill some time later this month, according to their Chief Commercial Officer, Mark Bula. Construction of the new flat rolled electric arc furnace mini-mill was delayed for about a year as Big River Steel (BRS) had to wait until all air […]
Severstal reported a spike in sales at its North America facilities in second quarter 2014. Severstal NA sold 1,248,084 tonnes (1.38 million net tons) of rolled products, up 6 percent from the previous quarter. Sales for the first half were up 7 percent to 2,430,839 tonnes (2.68 million net tons). The average price of rolled […]
US Steel has been one of the leaders in the push to prevent foreign oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from being unfairly traded here in the United States. US Steel recently closed two of their OCTG manufacturing facilities. One of the main reasons provided by US Steel was the flood of OCTG imports from countries […]
Last week, Steel Market Update conducted our early July flat rolled steel market analysis. One of the items we watch as a key market indicator is how the manufacturing companies and service centers report whether distributors are raising, lowering or maintaining flat rolled steel spot prices. Just as the various indexes saw little movement in […]
Average steel mill lead times maintained their slightly extended status according to the latest survey results from Steel Market Update. These lead times are not to be confused with mill specific promise dates which can vary radically (+/-) from the averages reported here. Hot rolled lead times were reported as averaging 4.63 weeks up ever […]
US Steel agreed in a Northern Illinois federal court on Tuesday to pay $58 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed in 2008 by Standard Iron Works on behalf of direct purchasers of steel products. The suit alleged that eight U.S. steel producers violated federal antitrust laws by restricting production of steel products between […]
Media reports that Russian steelmaker Evraz is considering selling shares of its North American operations in an effort to reduce debt are unfounded according to a spokesperson at Evraz. “EVRAZ is not planning to sell its North American assets and in fact remains completely committed to our operations and continuing to grow our business in […]
Our sources close to the process are advising Steel Market Update that bids on the Severstal North America steel mill assets are due on July 2, 2014. If, and if is a big question with this potential transaction, the bids are acceptable to the Russian parent company, the deal to sell the mills could be […]
Severstal has agreed to pay $30 million to RG Steel in exchange for all of RG Steel Wheeling’s 50 percent interest in Mountain State Carbon LLC (MSC). The settlement will “release, acquit, and forever discharge” Severstal and RG Steel from any further claims or suits by the other, according to the docket filed in the […]
“Following the doubling of steel production from 849 million tonnes in 2000 to 1.6 million tonnes in 2014, we are likely entering a period of consolidation, or at the very least, much reduced growth.” That is the opinion of Becky Hites, analyst and president of Steel-Insights, LLC in a June 7, 2014 report, Fixed Asset […]
Final financing has been approved for Big River Steel in Mississippi County, Arkansas. Construction is expected to begin in July with a formal groundbreaking ceremony in September according to a spokesperson for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC). “It’s truly been a team effort between our investors, local and state leadership, our management team, and […]
Worthington Industries announced it had “a great fiscal 2014” in its earnings report on Thursday. The company reported net earnings of $151.3 million for FY 2014. Net sales were up 20 percent year over year to $3,126.4 million due to the consolidation of joint venture Tailor Welded Blanks, higher steel processing volumes and the acquisitions […]
“When the rules are ignored, circumvented or broken, all Americans lose,” said US Steel President and CEO Mario Longhi to the United States Senate Committee on Finance. Mr. Longhi’s testimony on trade enforcement regarding foreign steel imports is reprinted below for our readers. United States Senate Committee on Finance Testimony of Mario Longhi President and […]
AM/NS Calvert received its first shipment of slab from ArcelorMittal Lazaro Cardenas on May 24 for trial testing. Approximately 2000 slabs were delivered to the former ThyssenKrupp mill. A spokesperson for ArcelorMittal says the company is currently investigating a combination of both domestic and international slab sources for AM/NS Calvert. AM/NS Calvert has a total […]
Our sources close to the process are advising Steel Market Update that bids on the Severstal North America steel mill assets are due on July 2, 2014. If, and if is a big question with this potential transaction, the bids are acceptable to the Russian parent company, the deal to sell the mills could be […]
Last week, while we were in New York City for various steel conferences, the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) published steel inventory and steel shipment data for the month of May. Based on this information and a special analysis of the data by Steel Market Update we produce our SMU Apparent Excess or Deficit of […]