ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) announced Chris Richards has been appointed president of AM/NS Calvert. Richards will oversee all areas of operations at the Alabama mill and will report to and serve on a joint venture managing board. He most recently served as president of the AM/NSSMC joint venture I/N Tek and […]
Last week Steel Market Update published an article from one of our contributing writers, David Phelps who was the former president of the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS). The article was about Big River Steel and Nucor. You can link to the original article by clicking here. One of our readers had strong opinions […]
US Steel has essentially lost a steel mill – Great Lakes in Ecorse, Michigan – for how long is the unknown question. Part of the roof collapsed in the building which houses their basic oxygen furnace (they called it a basic oxygen process or BOP). It is the most critical piece of equipment in the […]
US Steel’s Great Lakes (Ecorse) facility suffered a roof collapse at the #2 BOP on Thursday evening which has ceased steelmaking operations at the plant. According to our sources, the USS Great Lakes facility in Ecorse, Michigan only has one basic oxygen process plant (BOP) which is fed molten pig iron from the blast furnaces […]
Even as other companies were issuing lower guidance due to weather and its impact on negatively impacting their earnings during the first three months 2014, Worthington Industries reported their fiscal year 2014 3rd Quarter results which ended on February 28, 2014 as being the best in the company’s history. The company reported earnings of $40.6 […]
According to recently released data from Novileptsk (NLMK), their North American operations sold 737,000 net tons of flat rolled steel products during the 4th Quarter 2013. This includes sales of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steels. The new number represents an improvement of 240,000 tons compared to the 4Q 2012 (+30 percent). For the […]
The following article was written by contributing writer David Phelps. Mr. Phelps is recently retired from his duties as the Director of the American Institute for International Steel. In that capacity he had occasion to interact with the domestic steel mills. The following article contains the viewpoint of Mr. Phelps regarding Big River Steel and […]
US Steel is considering replacing additional blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces (EAF) according to President and CEO Mario Longhi. In January, US Steel announced it was seeking permits to replace the blast furnace at Fairfield, Ala., with an EAF, a process that would take approximately three years from application to completion. The EAF would […]
ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) announced Chris Richards has been appointed president of AM/NS Calvert. Richards will oversee all areas of operations at the Alabama mill and will report to and serve on a joint venture managing board. He most recently served as president of the AM/NSSMC joint venture I/N Tek and […]
A former Severstal executive has been indicted for hiding as much as $7.5 million from US tax authorities in Swiss bank accounts held at UBS AG. Victor Lipukhin, a former steel trader for Russian steel maker Severstal, hid assets in two Swiss UBS bank accounts from 2002 through 2007, said the Justice Department and IRS […]
Would you want to start up your own service center in today’s environment? The risk and rewards are much different than in the past and, more often than not, entrepreneurs are not opening steel distribution centers. Last week, Steel Market Update attended the Platts Steel Markets North America conference, where the challenges of service center […]
One of the keys watched by Steel Market Update is service center spot pricing into their customers – especially the manufacturing segment of the industry. We have found if service centers are lowering their spot prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels, especially after a price increase announcement, it is more difficult for […]
Big River Steel is cleared to begin construction. Mississippi County Judge Charles Moulton ruled in favor of the John Correnti led Big River Steel in an air quality permit lawsuit filed by rival steel-maker Nucor Corp. An air permit was provisionally granted on Sept 18, 2013 but subsequently challenged by Nucor on the basis that […]
Following an unsuccessful attempt to block the air pollution permit for Big River Steel, Nucor Corp. finds itself on the on the receiving end of tighter air pollution orders from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has ordered the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to require Nucor Steel Louisiana to take additional steps […]
Stemcor, a privately owned steel trading company hit hard by the global financial crisis, has secured a $1.15 billion syndicated loan to bolster trading activity that fell sharply after the company defaulted on an $850 million loan last year. Stemcor received approval last month by the UK courts to restructure its billion dollar debt and […]
New Star Metals has acquired Material Sciences Corporation (MSC) a provider of acoustical products used in brakes, body panels, and engine components. MSC also specializes in electro-galvanizing and coil coating of flat-rolled steel and aluminum and provides products and services to the automotive, construction, appliance, and lighting industries. “We are excited to complete the purchase […]
AK Steel expects to report a net loss of $0.44 to $0.49 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2014 due to outages and weather related energy costs, according to earnings guidance released by the company. Significant costs of $47 million resulted from the unplanned outage of the Ashland Works blast furnace and planned […]
A new $1.1 billion credit facility agreement is expected to improve AK Steel liquidity and strategic flexibility. AK Steel announced the it has entered into the 5-year revolving credit facility with a group of lenders led by Bank of America NA, JP Morgan Securities LLC and Wells Fargo Capital Finance. The new facility replaces an existing […]
Extreme cold temperatures resulted in lower earnings for Steel Dynamics in first quarter 2014. In earnings guidance released this week, Steel Dynamics said severe winter weather resulted in increased energy costs, transportation problems, reduced production and lower shipments. Earnings guidance was in the range of $0.13 to $0.17 per common share, a drop from $0.24 […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments in February declined by 225,000 tons but this was because shipping days declined by two to twenty. Tons per day (t / d) shipments rose from 158,500 tons in January to 161,600 in February. Intake was 162,820 t / d leading to a monthly surplus of 24,400 tons and […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released steel service center shipment and inventories for the month of February. The 20 day month was impacted by severe weather around the country and saw total steel shipments drop from 3,648,200 tons in January to 3,380,000 tons during February. Even so, the daily shipping rate rose to 169,000 […]
Canadian steel service center shipments for all steel products were reported at 448,500 net tons (NT) in February, down 9.4 percent over January figures and down 3.2 percent from February 2013 shipments. With 20 shipping days in February, daily shipments are calculated to have been 22,400 tons per day, down from 22,500 tons per day […]
HARDI steel conference call members were of the opinion it is too early to tell if the just announced price increases will stick. Steel Market Update (SMU) participated in the monthly HARDI galvanized steel conference call this morning. The wholesalers, service centers and manufacturing companies on the call felt the price announcements were “good” for […]
Nucor says weather and imports affected steel sales for first quarter 2014. Nucor revised its forecast for first quarter results downward from its guidance in fourth quarter 2013. Nucor expects a $0.53 decrease per diluted share in the first quarter ending April 5, 2014 as compared to fourth quarter 2013 earnings. Results are expected to […]
Severstal NA announced the appointment of Mr. Anupam Sengupta as Chief Information Officer. As CIO, Sengupta will be report to Chief Financial Officer Olga Petrova and be responsible for the technological direction of the company. “We are pleased to have Anupam join our team. He will work within the organization to understand and evaluate how […]
The partnership between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp (NSSMC) has created a new sales entity for a portion of the flat rolled produced at what was once ThyssenKrupp Steel USA in Calvert, Alabama. The new 50/50 joint venture mill, renamed AM/NS Calvert, will have two sales groups much like I/N Tek which […]
ArcelorMittal USA is building bridges, or at least starring in a supporting role. All three of the ArcelorMittal USA mills—Burns Harbor, Coatesville and Conshohocke—are supplying high performance plate steel to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York. The project is one the largest contracts in New York history and the largest transportation infrastructure project […]
Takashi Imura, General Manager US Flat Rolled Division for Metal One, announced that with the purchase of the ThyssenKrupp Steel USA steel mill in Calvert, Alabama by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Corporation and ArcelorMittal the new company: AM/NS Calvert has nominated Metal One to sell their flat rolled steel products. Metal One has been involved […]
Steel Market Update has been aware for awhile that at least one, and probably more than one, domestic steel mill has been trying to convince the rest of the industry to support dumping suits on coated products. This would most likely include galvanized and Galvalume steels. The countries being mentioned include China, India, Taiwan and […]
The rumor mill has been buzzing for a number of months about the potential for flat rolled steel dumping suits on galvanized and Galvalume steels. The focus of attention seems to be on China, India, Taiwan and South Korea as being the major offenders. However, Steel Market Update, which has a long background in coated […]