Steel processor JM Steel, a JENNMAR affiliate, will expand its footprint at the site of Steel Dynamics new flat roll steel mill in Sinton, Texas. The JM facility will include three slitting lines capable of producing 30,000 tons of steel a month. The first line will have capabilities of 0.500″ by 84″ at 80,000 psi, […]
O’Neal Steel is expanding with the opening of a new metal distribution center in St. Joseph, Mo. The 64,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center will open on June 1. “We are thrilled about our expansion into the St. Joseph market. This new facility opening aligns with growing demand in the area, and we are extremely well […]
Algoma Steel welcomed a decision by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to initiate an antidumping investigation regarding hot-rolled heavy steel plate exported from Chinese Taipei, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia and Turkey. Algoma submitted a complaint to CBSA on April 6, 2020, alleging that the goods indicated were illegally dumped, causing injury to Canadian producers […]
Alliance Steel, LLC, is open for business at its new headquarters in Gary, Ind. The company’s Bedford Park location will cease operations in mid-2020. Alliance, a leading distributor and processor of flat rolled steel, has been in operation on Chicago’s south side for 20 years. The company announced its plans to relocate to Northwest Indiana […]
By CRU Analyst Nikki Ni, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Over the past month, Chinese steel demand has accelerated, resulting in lower inventories while output remained at a high level. The ongoing demand recovery has improved the Steel PMI to 45.9 in April, up by 3.7pp m/m. Despite being below the 50-mark, the consecutive m/m improvement […]
U.S. Steel announced a four-year agreement to sell a “substantial volume” of iron ore pellets to Algoma Steel in Ontario, Canada. The purchase agreement runs from 2021 through 2024 and provides a new long-term customer for U.S. Steel’s Minnesota mines. Monday’s announcement follows an iron ore purchase agreement with Stelco in April that gives Stelco […]
Wholesalers of HVAC products for the construction market report surprisingly strong sales given the coronavirus situation, but also concerns about construction demand in the second half when current work is completed and there are fewer new projects in the pipeline. In a conference call this morning, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors […]
Wholesalers of HVAC products have weathered the pandemic surprisingly well so far and are more concerned about construction demand months from now than they are about their near-term prospects. Consider what has happened since April as a result of the market’s response to the virus: Steel mills are operating at just above 50 percent of […]
By CRU Economist Anissa Chabib, from CRU’s Economic Outlook On May 8, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the official U.S. unemployment data for April. Unemployment increased to 14.7 percent from 4.4 percent in March. This is the highest rate and the largest month-on-month increase in the history of the series, which was created […]
Cleveland-Cliffs expects operations to normalize during the second quarter as end-markets begin recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Although the pandemic effect led to automotive plant shutdowns over the past six weeks, the timing and pace of production restarts as well as consumer sales data have both exceeded our expectations,” said Cliffs’ Chairman, President and CEO […]
By CRU Senior Consultants Amir Sabet and Josefa Carrere, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The Covid-19 pandemic has generated significant uncertainty in the commodities market. For the steel sector, this has resulted in a fall in demand and steelmakers have responded by taking a wide range of capacity-related actions. In this Insight we show […]
Tenaris announced it will reduce the workforce at its Bay City tubular mill by 200 employees. “We have an unexpected combination of events straining U.S. and global markets—a drastic drop in demand caused by the pandemic and an oversupply triggered by the price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia. In these stark conditions, we must […]
Canada’s Imperial Manufacturing Group has acquired Pointe-Claire/Green Valley Steel Group, Inc., a steel service center headquartered in Hamilton, Ontario, with facilities in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, and Bolton, Ontario. Imperial Manufacturing, based in Richibucto, New Brunswick, is a conglomerate of businesses centered around the HVAC and building products industries. “After working on this agreement for quite some […]
International steelmaker ArcelorMittal was hit particularly hard by the pandemic, dealing with closures and economic recessions across the globe. The company reported a loss of $1.1 billion for the first quarter of 2020 and expects the remainder of the year to be challenging. “There are still too many uncertainties to accurately predict what the rest […]
Ryerson CEO Eddie Lehner says the last three months have felt like three separate years due to the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic: BCV (Before the Coronavirus), DCV (During the Coronavirus) and ACV (After the Coronavirus). After a slow start to January due to weak demand from OEMs, the quarter gave way to a “pandemic […]
Canadian steelmaker Stelco sold out its mill and shipped to capacity despite the coronavirus pandemic in the first quarter of 2020. CEO Alan Kestenbaum attributes a higher value mix, excellent service to customers and a tremendously loyal customer base for its ability to fill order books when competitors are struggling. The company shipped 621,000 net […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth and Analyst Alexander Ordosch, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service 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 ~75 percent of global output is produced through the BF/BOF, […]
A significant development in Sweden may allow a cleaner, more environmentally friendly way to heat steel in the future. Steelmaker Ovako and its partner Linde Gas AB have successfully completed a full-scale trial using hydrogen to heat steel before rolling. In trials at its Hofors rolling mill, the company said it proved that the heating […]
Russel Metals’ first-quarter results, while still profitable, reflect the downturn in the U.S. and Canadian economies and the weakness in the energy sector. Russel generated net income of $11 million on revenues of $815 million in the quarter, compared to income of $34 million on revenues of $1 billion in the 2019 first quarter and […]
U.S. Steel remains focused on its acquisition of Big River Steel even as the COVID-19 crisis forces the idling of U.S Steel operations and layoffs of employees. The success of U.S. Steel depends on having the best of integrated and EAF steelmaking, said the company during its first-quarter earnings call. “Make no mistake, our ‘best […]
Olympic Steel said it is weathering the COVID-19 crisis well, managing to earn a profit and supplying metals to essential industries making products for health care, transportation and food service markets. “We are sure to face some difficult times ahead, but we have weathered challenges and cyclical downturns throughout our history,” said CEO Rick Marabito […]
Canadian steel mill Stelco has entered into a new eight-year pellet sale and purchase agreement with U.S. Steel. The eight-year contract runs until Jan. 31, 2028, and will provide 100 percent of Stelco’s iron ore pellet requirements at Lake Erie Works including volume required to support the expansion in production projected after the upcoming blast […]
Steel Market Update sources and other trade press and are reporting that Cleveland-Cliffs is planning to immediately idle the hot strip mill at AK Steel’s Dearborn Works in Michigan for an indefinite period, possibly permanently, in response to the coronavirus crisis and other market pressures. Cleveland-Cliffs, parent of AK Steel, declined to comment, saying the […]
A strong beginning to the first quarter in Mexico supported shipments for Ternium S.A. as operations were locked down in South America due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company expects shipments to decrease about 30 percent in the second quarter and increase going forward in the second half of the year. “We don’t see a […]
Nucor has resumed production at its Louisiana direct-reduced-iron plant, but its DRI facility in Trinidad remains closed. As company executives reported during their conference call on Tuesday, the Louisiana facility was brought safely back online after a brief pause earlier this month. “Our DRI plants give us a great deal of flexibility and are a […]
Nucor Corp.’s sales and shipments saw healthy increases in the first quarter, prior to the coronavirus crisis. The first quarter was still a profitable one for the steelmaker, but the company is expecting a loss in the second quarter as the economy struggles with the government restrictions to stop the spead of COVID-19. Nucor reported […]
Thyssenkrupp Materials NA, Inc., Southfield, Mich., has filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariffs. The North American distribution arm of Germany’s Thyssenkrupp, TKMNA is an importer of steel and aluminum. The complaint, filed April 21 with the U.S. Court of International Trade, alleges that the Commerce Department has granted exclusions […]
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 […]