US Steel advised us their number 8 blast furnace at USS Gary Works was “operational” after being down for approximately 3 weeks. We understand from our sources that the furnace came back up late last week. The #8 blast furnace at Gary Works is the smallest operating furnace at that facility. The furnace is rated […]
O’Neal Steel and Leeco Steel have been awarded $117 million in compensatory and punitive damages against vendors who knowingly sold them inferior steel. Jurors in the US District Court in the Northern District of Alabama, agreed that World Steel Unlimited and General Purpose Steel, and their owners, conspired to violate the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt […]
SAULT STE MARIE – ESSAR Steel Algoma Inc. announced today the Company and USW Local 2724, the union representing the Company’s technical, professional and front line management employees, have ratified a collective agreement. Members of Local 2724 voted today in favour of the new agreement which comes into effect August 1, 2014 for a twenty […]
Manufacturing companies as well as their service center suppliers, reported spot service centers prices as basically stable with a tilt toward the beginning of a downward price cycle for service center flat rolled steel spot pricing. Again, this is service center spot price offers to their manufacturing customers which is being measured as opposed to […]
Steel Market Update participated in the monthly galvanized steel conference call sponsored by HARDI. Once per month, HARDI (Heating, Air-conditioning, Refrigeration, Distributors International) conducts a call amongst the HVAC wholesalers and supporting companies about the status of the hot dipped galvanized sheet and coil markets. The very first thing which needs to be mentioned is […]
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 […]
Essar Steel Algoma and USW Local 2742 have reached a tentative agreement for the Company’s salaried employees. The agreement has been unanimously recommended by the USW bargaining committee, said Essar Steel in a statement on Friday. Special Membership meetings will be held on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 and voting will be held on Wednesday, June […]
AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) provided guidance for its Q2 2014 financial results today. The full press release can be viewed here. Below are key sections of the report: AK Steel said it “expects to report a net loss of $0.19 to $0.23 per diluted share of common stock, which is a substantial improvement over its […]
Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) announced today guidance for Q2 ending July 5, 2014. The full press release can be viewed here. Below are key sections of the report: Nucor expects second quarter results to be in the range of $0.35 to $0.40 per diluted share. This range represents an increase from the second quarter of 2013 […]
Canadian shipments for all steel products in the month of May were 509,700 net tons, an increase of 2.7 percent from the month before, but a decrease of 1.0 percent from May 2013. Inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,384,900 tons, down 3.3 percent from last month and down 9.0 percent from […]
HVAC construction equipment won a victory in the passage of “America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014.” The House approved the bill that previously excluded HVAC equipment from qualified business deductions. Under the amendments to the bill, business owners can expense up to $500,000 in new equipment and property, including HVAC equipment. The bill […]
SSAB is looking at a potential expansion to its facility in Montpelier, Iowa that would increase steel production capacity by 1.2 million tons. The expansion would add about 800,000 tons of finished product annually along with 400,000 tons of smelting capacity to be transferred as slab to SSAB’s mobile facility for rolling and finishing. The end […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the HRC pricing […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the hot rolled […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments in May declined by 56,600 tons to 3.584 million tons, April was the highest monthly shipping month since March two years ago. Shipping days in May were unchanged from April at 21. Tons per day (t/d) shipments declined from 173,300 in April to 170,600 in May, both on a […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) expects higher profits in second quarter compared to first quarter 2014. In its Second Quarter Earnings Guidance, SDI said steel shipments and metal spreads are improving despite increased import activity. SDI anticipates demand from automotive, manufacturing and construction will continue to trend upward. Residential construction has rebounded with the return of […]
An explosion at Republic Steel in Lorain, Ohio sent three people to the hospital early Monday morning. The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. according to firefighters. The injuries were reported as “not life threatening.” Lorain Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Gary Burls said a combination of a water leak and scrap metal falling into the […]
“No-one should doubt that steel remains the material of choice for the automotive industry,” asserted ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal at the annual Steel Success Strategies conference in New York. “I want to stress that steel can provide all the weight reduction that auto producers require to satisfy the new fuel efficiency standards; for […]
ArcelorMittal has agreed to pay a $90 million settlement in an antitrust lawsuit brought in the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. The class action lawsuit, filed in 2008 by Standard Iron Works on behalf of direct purchasers of steel products, alleged that eight U.S. steel producers violated federal antitrust laws by […]
“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 […]
Media sources from Serbia report that Esmark Steel Group is in negotiations for a partnership with steel company Zelezara Smederevo. Bojan Bojkovic, financial director of Zelezara, said Esmark representatives visited the factory last week, as reported by American Metal Market. According to sources at Esmark, negotiation information released in Serbia was in violation of confidentiality […]
AK Steel and Union members at Middletown Works settled contract negotiations three months early with a vote for ratification of a new labor agreement on Monday, June 10. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 1943 voted 663 to 243 to accept the new 42-month contract. The agreement will take […]
A federal crackdown is needed on the import and dumping of cheap products in the U.S. said US Steel Corp CEO Mario Longhi to attendees at the West Virginia Manufacturers Association Leadership Summit on Monday. Longhi, known for his strong stance on foreign import trade regulations, told manufacturers at the meeting that stronger trade laws […]
We included this article in tonight’s issue because we saw evidence of confusion between the defunct Warren Steel of RG Steel fame and that of Warren Steel Holdings which is a long products mill also located in Ohio. Long products producer Warren Steel Holdings, LLC (not to be confused with the former Warren flat rolled […]
Total shipments of sheet and strip products including hot rolled, cold rolled and all coated products were up by 0.8 percent year to date (YTD) compared to the first four months of 2013. In the period January through April compared to the previous three months, the total tonnage was up by 4.8 percent. Comparing YTD […]
Steel Market Update sources confirmed that the two Severstal North America (NA) steel mills are for sale. At 7.0 million tons of steelmaking capacity, Severstal NA is the fourth largest flat rolled steel producing mill in the United States. Rumors of the possible sale of the Dearborn and Columbus facilities had been circulating around the […]
The terms Buy America and Buy American are not interchangeable. CSI Executive VP, Finance & Administration Brett Guge explains the difference: “The longstanding historical standard for direct government procurement is “Buy American,” which requires only that the steel products used in government projects must have been “substantially transformed” in the U.S. “Buy America,” on the […]
US Steel has another unplanned outage, this time at their Gary Works facility. The furnace went down on Sunday and is expected to be down for anywhere from three to six weeks according to SMU sources. The furnace, referenced as #8 by US Steel, is the smallest of the four operating furnaces at the Gary […]
Late this afternoon an ArcelorMittal USA customer advised us that AM had opened their August order book. They received a note from the mill which included the following comments: Current demand for light flat rolled products has extended our lead times at all of our Northern producing locations. July order acceptance is now closed for […]
Samuel, Son & Co., Ltd. is investing more than $16 million in an expansion project at its Winnipeg, Manitoba facility. The project will expand the current 88,000 square foot facility by 25,000 square feet and house a Bradbury Cut-to-Length line capable of producing product from coil up to .500 thick x 96” wide in lengths […]