General Motors has restarted production at one U.S. assembly plant but taken additional downtime at a host of others because of a microchip shortage that has plagued the auto industry since late last year. The Detroit-based automaker, the largest in the U.S., will resume production at its Wentzville, Mo., assembly plant on the week of […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. Topics will include infrastructure, supply chain disruptions stemming from COVID-19, and port congestion. […]
Former Big River Steel chief commercial officer Keith Shuttlesworth has left the company, according to market participants. U.S. Steel declined to confirm Shuttleworth’s departure, noting that it does not per policy comment on personnel matters. “From the beginning of Big River Steel becoming a part of U.S. Steel, the management of both companies has been […]
U.S. Steel has repaired a broken pipe that led to a brief outage at its Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa., company officials said. And both of the mill’s blast furnaces are back online, a U.S. Steel spokeswoman told Steel Market Update on Thursday, April 8. “We do not expect any impact on customer deliveries,” […]
U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa., has been hit by an unplanned outage stemming from a burst water main, according to sources familiar with the matter. Crews have been working to repair the issue at the Pittsburgh-area steel mill since approximately 2:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 6, they said. U.S. Steel, which is […]
U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa., has been hit by an unplanned outage stemming from a burst water main, according to sources familiar with the matter. Crews have been working to repair the issue at the Pittsburgh-area steel mill since approximately 2:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 6, they said. U.S. Steel, which is […]
Steel prices might be at record levels, but the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Steel Committee remains worried about global overcapacity. “While steel prices declined in 2020, they have recently increased as steelmaking capacity idled during the heights of the pandemic could not be brought online quickly enough to meet recovering steel demand and […]
Former President Donald Trump overstepped his powers when he extended Section 232 tariffs to downstream products such as steel nails, a trade court ruled. The U.S. Court of International Trade made the decision on Monday, April 5, in favor of the plaintiff in the case, PrimeSource Building Products Inc., and against the defendant, the United […]
Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) has declared force majeure on its contracts after a fire at its port facilities in Sept-Îles, Quebec. The blaze broke out on the No. 2 reclaimer on March 31, and the cause of the fire “remains unknown at this time,” the Canadian iron ore miner and pellet producer said. […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
Ford is taking extensive downtime at several U.S. assembly plants and its only Canadian facility because of continued parts shortages stemming from a global semiconductor supply squeeze. The automaker’s Dearborn, Mich., truck plant, which makes the popular F-150 pickup truck, will be down the weeks of April 5 and April 12, a company spokeswoman said. […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
Imports of flat-rolled steel jumped to their highest levels in nearly two years in March on increased shipments of coated products. The upswing included not only hot-dipped galvanized steel but also “other” metallic coated products, a category that includes material such as Galvalume. All told, the U.S. was licensed to import 800,789 metric tonnes of […]
Imports of flat-rolled steel jumped to their highest levels in nearly two years in March on increased shipments of coated products. The upswing included not only hot-dipped galvanized steel but also “other” metallic coated products, a category that includes material such as Galvalume. All told, the U.S. was licensed to import 800,789 metric tonnes of […]
Cleveland-Cliffs has restarted the blast furnace at its Middletown Works in Ohio, a company spokeswoman said. The Middletown furnace returned to operation over the weekend after two weeks of preventative maintenance. “As in all planned outages of this nature, ahead of the stoppage we positioned our work-in-process and finished goods inventory in proper shape. By […]
The United Steelworkers (USW) union has gone on strike at nine Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) facilities. The strike started at 7 a.m. ET on Tuesday, March 30, over what the USW contends are “unfair labor practices.” The union represents approximately 1,300 workers at ATI, and it says they have not had a wage increase since […]
Automakers continue to take downtime at assembly plants across North America because of persistent and widespread supply chain snarls. The problems include not only the microchip shortage, which has been a drag on the industry since late last year, but also broader parts shortages stemming from port congestion and from the lingering effects of severe […]
Nucor increased plate prices by $50 per ton ($2.50/cwt) in the afternoon on Friday, March 26, after SSAB had earlier in the day lifted plate tags by $100 per ton. It was not immediately clear why there was such a large difference. The steelmakers don’t always increase plate prices by the same amount, but a […]
The United Steelworkers (USW) union has informed Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) that it will go on strike beginning on Tuesday, March 30. “We have provided the (strike) notice to ATI to ensure an orderly and safe shutdown of the equipment and facilities,” the union said in a bargaining update on Friday, March 26. The USW […]
SSAB Americas aims to increase plate prices by $100 per ton ($5/cwt) on all new non-contract orders, effectively immediately. The price hike applies equally to as-rolled mill plate, cut-to-length plate more than 72 inches wide, hot-rolled coils more than 72 inches wide, normalized plate, and quenched-and-tempered plate, SSAB said in a letter to customers Friday, […]
President Joe Biden will be in Pittsburgh next week to unveil his administration’s multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure spending plan. The plan will focus on both physical and technological infrastructure, the president said in a press conference. Spending on infrastructure is about both creating jobs and making the United States a more attractive place to do business, Biden […]
President Joe Biden will be in Pittsburgh next week to unveil his administration’s multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure spending plan. The plan will focus on both physical and technological infrastructure, the president said in a press conference. Spending on infrastructure is about both creating jobs and making the United States a more attractive place to do business, Biden […]
I want to write a few words today about Section 232. Not for or against it. Just some reflections on a trade action that’s been with us for a lot longer than I expected. The catalyst for that reflection was a conference call the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington policy think tank, held earlier this […]
California Steel Industries (CSI) has closed its June flat rolled order book just a week after opening it. “We want to thank you for your continued support during these difficult times. … We will contact you when we open the flat rolled order book for July,” CSI said in a letter to customers dated Wednesday, […]
Section 232 tariffs should remain in place because they backstop a stable U.S. steel industry, the benefits of which will outlast a temporary price spike, a panel of industry experts and trade union members said. “These typically last six to nine months. So we can expect that these price bubbles–and that’s really what they are–are […]
JSW Steel USA’s electric-arc furnace (EAF) and slab caster are up and running, but the company has decided to keep the plant’s hot strip mill idle, a company spokesman said. JSW’s Mingo Junction, Ohio, flat-rolled steel mill will make slabs and will “continue with outside tolling,” he added. “Right now, the hot strip mill is […]
North American auto assembly plants continue to see production hobbled by a global microchip shortage. The chip supply squeeze could become more intense because of a fire on Friday at Japanese microchip supplier Renesas Electronics. And the trouble doesn’t stop there. Parts requiring petrochemicals are in some instances in short supply because severe weather in […]
Labor talks between Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) and the United Steelworkers (USW) continue – although the union has suggested the two sides are at loggerheads. The two parties most recently exchanged contract proposals on Thursday. And while USW members authorized a strike on March 5, they continue to report to work in the meantime, an ATI […]
Ford is building some vehicles in North America without certain components because the global semiconductor shortage has collided with a broader parts shortage. The automaker said it would assemble its popular F-150 pickup truck and its Edge SUV without some electronic modules because they contain “scarce semiconductors” and because of “parts shortages created by the […]
The U.S. steel market could lose one million tons of production in the months ahead because of several lengthy blast furnaces outages, and the volume of iron and steel impacted could be well over one million tons when shorter-duration electric-arc furnace (EAF) and hot strip mill outages are considered. The issue is particularly relevant because […]