The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China rose 0.4% to $120.10 for the week ending November 2, 2012, after increasing 3.7% the week before, and is now 34.9% higher than the recent low of $89.00 on 9/7/2012.
The spot price for iron ore averaged $141.84 in 1Q, $139.35 in 2Q, and $112.12 in 3Q; this compares to an average of $167.59 for full-year 2011.
The post-recession low was $59.10 on March 27, 2009, while the high was $190.19 on February 17, 2011.
Source: The Steel Index
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Steel Market Production Cuts – Russian steelmaker Severstal North America has been forced to halt crude production at the Dearborn, MI facility due to an explosion in a cold air pipe, but the finishing end will continue to operate.
Steel Market Production Increases – U.S. Steel announced that a 500,000 tpy continuous annealing line will be commissioned at the PRO-TEC joint venture in early 2013. The line will produce “high-strength, lightweight steels for the auto industry.”
Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal South Africa announced that it has idled the EAFs at the Vanderbijlpark plant due to government claims it has violated emission regulations.
Steel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau will begin operations at a 770,000 tpy hot-strip mill in December or January next year and is considering increasing crude steel and longs capacity by 280,000 tpy and 425,000 tpy at the Colina facility in Chile.
Steel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steel producer Usiminas has commissioned a 2.3 mtpy hot strip mill and a 500,000 tpy finishing line at the Cubatao facility.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Beltrame announced that it will permanently shutter two merchant bar rolling mills in Luxembourg and Belgium with 450,000 tpy of combined capacity.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Shagang is planning a two-month maintenance outage that will result in 400,000 tonnes of lost output.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis
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Steel Market Production Increases – U.S. Steel announced that the maintenance outage for the Gary Works No. 14 blast furnace has been completed and the BF can now operate at a higher capacity with “significantly” lower consumption of coke.
Steel Market Production Increases – After the start-up of another 3 mtpy of crude steel capacity a week ago, Chinese steelmaker Yuzhong Iron & Steel plans to begin production at two 800,000 tpy wire rod mills sometime around November 10, with the projects lifting both crude and finished capacity to about 4 mtpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Indian steelmaker Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd will import billet for the 500,000 tpy rebar mill at the Raigarh facility until the company can begin production at the facility’s new billet plant in August, 2013. An additional 700,000 tpy plate mill is planned for early 2013 and the entire brownfield integrated steel project is expected to add 1.5 mtpy of capacity when completed.
Steel Market Production Cuts – While it was previously reported that Peruvian steelmaker Aceros Arequipa planned to add an additional 650,000 tpy rolling mill by year-end, the company has pushed the start date back to February 2013.
Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Interpipe plans to install a new 325,000 tpy rotary hearth furnace at the Niko Tube facility in the first quarter of 2013, replacing the old 212,000 tpy furnace.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Russian coil producer Vektron has permanently ceased operations at their 100,000 tpy hot-dip galvanized coil mill inUkraineand plans to relocate the line in the first half of 2013; Vektron is considering Russia.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Ilva has temporarily halted production of the finishing end and will reduce production of the hot end after a worker was killed in an accident on Oct. 30. The plant was operating at about 70% of capacity – or some 22,000 tpd – despite recent environmental sanctions and will be idled for “a few days”.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market
For the week ending October 27, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production declined 2.5% to 1.679 million tons (mt), dropping to the lowest level since December 2010, and is now down some 16.3% below the peak on May 12.
We would caution readers that only half of the AISI reporting companies release their weekly production in “real time” so the other half of this data is estimated using the last month’s reported production & operating rate. What this means is that when production is changing, the weekly data is actually understating the change.
Capacity utilization fell from last week’s 69.7% to 67.9% this week, also dropping to the lowest since December 2010.
The lowest production since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008, while the highest was 2.005 mt for the week of May 12, 2012. The lowest capacity utilization rate since the recession began was 33.5% for the week of December 27, 2008; the highest was 81.1% on May 12, 2012.
Source: AISI and Steel Market Intelligence
