New Report Preview:
The November MSCI distributor inventory/shipment report will be released in the next few days, and we expect to see shipments drop to the lowest non-December level in …more
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New Report Preview:
The MSCI October report showing a meaningful decline in average daily shipments of 5.9% sequentially and 5.4% y-o-y most probably overstated the weakness in the month …more
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Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian pipe-maker Interpipe stated that the new 1.32 mtpy Dneprostal EAF plant has been started up and is going to be the largest EAF in Eastern Europe.
Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Industrial Union of Donbass aims to increase output at the Alchevsk subsidiary by 13% in October for rolled steel and 11% for crude, to 310,000 tpy and 345,000 tpy respectively.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Wisconsin-based Charter Steel announced a maintenance outage at the 650,000 tpy Cleveland plant from Nov. 16 through Dec. 3 to upgrade the EAF.
Steel Market Production Increases – Russian pig iron manufacturer Kosaya Gora Iron Works announced plans to restart the 360,000 tpy No. 3 blast furnace sometime in 1H13.
Steel Market Production Increases – The equipment manufacturing arm of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) began operations at a new 100,000 tpy OCTG line pipe mill in September.
Steel Market Production Increases – Italian steelmaker ABS, a subsidiary of Danieli, announced that the Sisak, Croatia mill’s EAF will be restarted in November. The mill was purchased from Commercial Metals Company in June.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis, American Metal Market
Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker ILVA has been given a direct order to shutter the hot end at the 11 million tpy Taranto plant after the judge denied a plan that would allow production to continue at 70% of capacity during the renovation process.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Baosteel, China’s largest steel company, halted operations at the 3 million tpy plate mill in Luojing, Shanghai to prevent further operating losses.
Steel Market Production Increases – Production will begin shortly at Mexican steel company Deacero’s new 500,000 tpy Ramos Arizpe longs mill, with the potential for capacity to eventually increase to 1.5 million tpy, adding to existing output of 3 million tpy.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Japanese rebar producer Kyoei Steel will cut production further in September and October, increasing the total cut from 30-40% to 50%.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Weiyuan Iron & Steel Company has ordered a new 650,000 tpy wire rod mill expected to come on line in 2Q 2013.
Steel Market Production Increases – Turkish steel company Izmir Demir Celik (IDC) is planning to begin test-runs of a new 400,000 tpy medium sections mill sometime in December. The new mill will increase IDC’s total finished steel capacity to 1.3 million tpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Russian pipe maker Vyksa will begin installing three new welded pipe mills before the end of 2012, with a start-up goal of mid-2013. The new mills will replace the current four mills at the No.2 pipe shop and will increase capacity by nearly 50% to 300,000 tpy.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis
New Report Preview:
The MSCI August report held good news and bad news. Inventories for flat-rolled are continuing to decline, completely negating the view that flat-rolled pricing strength …more
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New Report Preview:
Our Advance/Decliner Index increased for the first time in five weeks, after falling to an eight-week low. The uptick was mainly driven by rebounding Chinese …more
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Steel Market Production Cuts – As of today, Italian steelmaker Ilva will have to cut back production at its Taranto plant to upgrade its pollution control equipment. It is unclear how much production will decrease and the plant is already operating at only 70% capacity.
Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal announced today that it no longer plans to invest €138 million in its Liege plant after failing to agree with unions over job losses.
Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal announced on Friday that its Piombino facility in Italy will idle its pickling and cold-rolling lines in the last three months of 2012.
Steel Market Production Cuts – CISA issued an update on Friday on the overhauls being carried out as of September 13. It included outages or planned outages for 13 blast furnaces (5.53 mt), 32 rebar lines (870,000 tonnes), 14 plate lines (1.185 mt), 12 HRC lines (1.305 mt), 3 CRC lines (110,000 tonnes), 5 steel strip lines (122,000 tonnes), and 2 section steel lines (65,000 tonnes).
Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest announced on Friday, that repairs to hot rolled plate mill 3000 – at subsidiary Ilyich Iron and Steel Works – has been completed. The mill was idled for 15 days and has capacity of 2.0-2.1 m tpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Gerdau announced an investment of $253m in its Peruvian subsidiary Siderperú on Friday. The investment includes a new rolling mill for rebar and wire rod that will increase capacity from 300,000 tpy to 1.2m tpy, as well as a new EAF that will add 360,000 tpy of liquid steel, bringing total liquid steel capacity up to 1 m tpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Hebei Zhihang Pipeline Equipment Manufacturing, set a 2012 production target of 120,000 – 150,000 tonnes of ERW from its new mill.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis, Reuters
New Report Preview – Steel Distribution
Metals USA reported 4Q earnings of $0.37/share, which adjusted to $0.33/share after non-recurring items, in line with the Street’s $0.32.
Guidance was qualitative with the company pointing to a more profitable 1Q compared to 4Q, and an “incrementally” more profitable 2Q versus 1Q. Management said the “typical seasonality of the business is back” which is expected to lead to better demand in 1Q, although MUSA noted that the lagging impact of the company’s contract pricing mechanisms will hurt 1Q results but help in 2Q.
We’d note that the “typical seasonality” was actually never gone, but while demand has been fairly normal seasonally, it’s been supply – import/export balance and restarts – that has had as much impact on volume and pricing as end-demand at current ongoing low operating rates.
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