Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Ilva has announced the closure of the entire 11 mtpy Taranto facility and all down-stream facilities after Italian officials issued a court-order to seize all steel produced over the prior four months. Representatives of Italy’s unions, Ilva’s chairman, the prime minister, and other government officials will meet on Thursday, November 29, in an attempt to resolve the standstill.

Steel Market Production Increases – Severstal North America has restarted the blast furnace at the Dearborn, Michigan facility after finishing repairs. The BF has been offline since November 2 due to the explosion of a cold-air pipe.

Steel Market Production Cuts – The planned restart of Tokyo Steel’s 1.8 mtpy pickling line at the Tahara facility has been pushed back until March of next year. The line has been out of commission since October 15, when a fire broke out at the plant.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau is delaying the re-start of the 135,000 tpy Muña longs mill in Colombia from sometime in 2012 to early 2013 due to low demand.

Steel Market Production Increases – Jordanian Taybah Steel will begin production at a new 500,000 tpy rebar facility in Saudi Arabia sometime around August 2013.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese pipemaker Fangrui Steel has increased its capacity for welded pipe from 50,000 tpy to 200,000 tpy after the start-up of two new production lines and plans to add an additional 100,000 tpy by year-end 2013.

Steel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau has acquired a 2-strand billet caster for the company’s Mexican (Corsa) operations and plans to begin operations in March 2013, boosting the production run-rate to 400,000 tpy.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market