Steel Market Production Increases – French pipemaker Vallourec reportedly plans to roll its first seamless pipe this fall at its new 500,000 tpy capacity Youngstown seamless pipe works after having successfully pierced its first billet at the end of June.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Zhu Hongren, a chief engineer at China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) confronted China’s problems with overproduction by stating that over the next five years the Ministry will halt excessive capacity expansion, offer support to backwards capacity reductions and slash the number of steelmakers through support of M&A.
Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal’s CEO Lakshmi Mittal refused to rule out new European production cuts in the company’s 2Q12 conference call and went on to say that its integrated mill in Florange will remain idled until next year and that its blast furnaces in Gijon, Spain and Dunkirk, France will be down for maintenance during Q3.
Steel Market Production Cuts – German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp’s Steel Europe plans to introduce short-time working hours at its locations in Duisburg-Hamborn, Duisburg-Hüttenheim,Bochum,Dortmundand Siegerland with their Finnentrop location initially excluded.
Steel Market Production Increases – Russian steelmaker NLMK has announced the successful commissioning of its new 3.4 million tpy Blast Furnace No. 7 at itsLipetsksite which along with a new basic oxygen furnace (BOF) will increase crude steel output by 36% to 12.4 million tpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Egyptian mill Taybah Steel is reportedly hopeful that it will receive a power allocation from the Egyptian government for its new 450,000 tpy capacity electric arc furnace billet plant by the end of the year.
Steel Market Production Increases – Armenian steel producer ASCE Group OJSC has ordered a new 200,000 tpy capacity billet mill from Austrian plantmaker Siemens VAI Metals Technologies that is scheduled for completion in mid-2013.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, Bloomberg, MetalBulletin, SteelOrbis, SteelGuru, Vallourec Corporate Website, NLMK Press Release
