Steel Market Production Increases – French pipemaker Vallourec is planning to increase production to 50% of capacity at the new 500,000 tpy OCTG mill in Ohio and 40% of capacity at its 300,000 tpy Vallourec Sumitomo do Brasil facility in Brazil.
Steel Market Production Increases – Korean steelmaker Posco commenced production at a new 450,000 tpy hot-dip galvanized coil line at its Shunde facility in southern China on November 3.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market
HRC lead times for the week ending November 4 moved down slightly to 3.2 from last week’s levels of 3.3.
HDG lead times came in at 5.4 weeks for the fourth week straight while CRC lead times posted the lone increase rising to 6.0 from 4.9 in the week prior.
Sources: The Steel Index, Steel Business Briefing
HRC = Hot Rolled Coil CRC = Cold Rolled Coil HDG = Hot Dipped GalvanizedSteel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau hopes to resume production at the 600,000 tpy Sayreville, NJ plant by next week or sooner. The facility had lost power due to Hurricane Sandy, but avoided any damage and is in the process of being restarted.
Steel Market Production Increases – Korean HRC producer Hyundai Steel will increase hot strip capacity by 2 mtpy to 5.5 mtpy at the Dangjin facility, bringing the mill’s total HRC capacity to 10.3 mtpy by June 2013.
Steel Market Production Increases – Indian company Tata Steel is increasing sheet and coil capacity at the Jamshedpur facility from 6.8 mtpy to 10 mtpy by year end.
Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Industrial Union of Donbass aims to increase output of the Alchevsk subsidiary in November by 7% for rolled steel and 10% for crude, to 330,000 tpy and 365,000 tpy respectively.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Indian steelmaker Sail has backtracked on the previously reported plan to increase crude capacity to 24 mtpy by March 2013, and has reduced expectations to 18 mtpy. Current capacity is about 14 mtpy and the company still plans to reach 24 mtpy eventually.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis
New Report Preview:
Chinese steel production estimated by the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) for the last 11-days of October came in at 1.926 million tonnes per day (mtpd), down 3.7% from …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Bagang plans to acquire Baosteel’s 3 mtpy Nanjiang integrated longs facility, bringing the company’s total capacity to 11 mtpy. The Nanjiang project has been under construction since 2010 and Bagang announced that trials will begin in 2Q13. Once completed, the facility will operate two 850,000 tpy bar mills and a 600,000 tpy wire rod mill.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Hebei Xinjin Iron & Steel has commissioned a 600,000 tpy wire rod mill – the company’s second – lifting wire rod capacity to 1.1 mtpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Baotou Iron & Steel plans to begin production at a new 400,000 tpy heat-treated rail line in about a year.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Russian steelmaker Severstal North America was forced to halt crude production at the Dearborn, MI facility due to an explosion in a cold air pipe; the outage could potentially last as long as five weeks.
Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal announced that it is reducing operations at the 750,000 tpy Georgetown, South Carolina wire rod mill by cutting down from three crews to two. The reduction is due to bad market conditions caused by imports and will be returned to normal once conditions improve.
Steel Market Production Increases – Swedish steelmaker SSAB has completed a 200,000 tpy expansion of the quench and tempering line at the Mobile, Al plant that produces high-strength plate for mining and construction; some of the plate will be shipped to China.
Steel Market Production Increases – French steelmaker Vallourec has commissioned a new 350,000 tpy seamless pipe mill (initial capacity) for OCTG in Youngstown, Ohio and plans to begin sales in “early 2013.”
Steel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steel producer Gerdau plans to commission a new 800,000 tpy HRC line at the company’s Acominas facility by year-end 2012, with commercial production beginning by the end of 1Q13. The company estimates that 2013 shipments could reach approximately 300,000 – 400,000 metric tons.
Steel Market Production Increases – Korean autosheet producer Hyundai-Hysco is building a new 1.5 mtpy pickling and cold-rolled mill scheduled to come on-line in May 2013.
Steel Market Production Increases – Ural Steel, a subsidiary of Russian steel producer Metalloinvest, has begun operating a 1.2 mtpy vacuum degasser at its EAF melt-shop.
Steel Market Production Increases – Indian steelmaker SAIL is planning to increase steelmaking capacity at the Bhilai facility from 3 mtpy to about 7 mtpy and will potentially supply the plant with iron ore from the new Eklama mine (license pending).
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chilean steelmaker CAP is reducing HRC output by operating the Talcahuano plant for only 15 days out of the month. The decrease is due to falling prices and low demand caused by cheap Chinese imports.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Indian steelmaker JSW is planning an outage of at least one month at the hot-dipped galvanizing line at the Vasind facility starting in the third week of November. The outage will reduce production by about 20,000 – 25,000 metric tons.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis
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
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
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
