Posts Tagged: ‘steel production’

Daily Steel Market Production Report – Eastern Europe Increases While the West Cuts

October 23, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal announced that the Dunkirk, France facility’s #2 blast furnace will remain idled until at least the end of 1Q13, extending the original target of three months from August. The facility is expected to produce 6.1 mt this year, or about 90% of capacity, despite the shutdown.

Steel Market Production Increases – Russian steelmaker Mechel has restarted the 810,000 tpy billet plant in Otelu Rosu,Romania following a one-month outage.

Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Interpipe plans to increase production to 80-85% of capacity at the new EAF billet/bloom plant in Dnepropetrovsk, with output reaching 90,000 tpm – or 1.08 mtpy – in December and nearing nameplate capacity of 1.32 mtpy in mid-2013.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing

Daily Steel Market Production Report – ArcelorMittal Invests in Luxembourg

October 22, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Increases – ArcelorMittal plans to upgrade the EAF at the 1 mtpy Esch-Belval, Luxembourg facility, increasing its capacity by over 10%.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Argentinian steel producer Ternium Siderar will idle one of two blast furnaces – about half of the plant’s 3.89 mtpy capacity – for approximately four months.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Japanese steelmaker Tokyo Steel commented that it had no plans to re-start the 1.8 mtpy pickling line at the Tahara works after it was damaged by a fire, and it might not be re-started until year-end.

Steel Market Production Increases – Peruvian steelmaker Aceros Arequipa plans to increase the company’s 900,000 tpy longs capacity by adding an additional 650,000 tpy rolling mill by year-end.

Steel Market Production Increases – Danish plate processor Dansteel announced a plan to “revamp” their new rolling mill, increasing capacity to 550,000 tpy.

Steel Market Production Increases – Palestinian steelmaker Hassouneh Group will begin production at a new 300,000 tpy EAF facility in Jordan by 2Q13.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing

Domestic Raw Steel Production Falls Again at a Lesser Pace

October 22, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

For the week ending October 20, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production declined 0.8% to 1.722 million tons (mt), the fourth consecutive week setting a new low (post-Jan 2011), and some 14.1% below May’s peak. Over this four week period, however, the rate of decline has lessened with each week – from the first decrease of 2.4% to 1.3%, 1.2%, and now 0.8%.

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 again to 69.7% this week, below last week’s 70.3% and like production, is at the lowest level since January 2011.

The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008, while the highest level 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

September Global Steel Production Posts Weaker-than-Seasonally-Normal Uptick

October 22, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

New Report Preview:

September average daily steel production rose 3.3%, less than the typical increase of nearly 5%, driven by weaker-than-normal global production with the exception of …more

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September Chinese Steel Production Unexpectedly Jumps – Or Does It?

October 19, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

New Report Preview:

The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics released final September steel production yesterday along with other economic data, reporting final Chinese steel production …more

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Daily Steel Market Production Report – China Plans to Slim Down

October 18, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Cuts – The Chinese province of Shandong is implementing a plan to remove about 23 mtpy of steel capacity by 2015. The plan calls for cuts of 700,000 tpy of ironmaking and 400,000 tpy of steelmaking capacity by the end of 2012 with additional reductions of 3 mtpy and 5.85 mtpy respectively in 2013.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Nucor will idle theBirminghamrebar mill over the weekend of October 27 and will resume production on October 30.

Steel Market Production Increases – Venezuelan steelmaker SIDOR plans to increase crude steel production from 1.85 mtpy to 4 mtpy next year.

Steel Market Production Increases – Kryvyi Rih, the Ukrainian subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, said that rebar output will be reduced by 10-15% to 235-245,000 tpy in  October.

Steel Market Production Cuts – The 1.8 mtpy pickling line at Tokyo Steel Manufacturing’s Tahara facility has been halted due to a fire, but the line was only operating at a run-rate of 120,000 tpy so the impact will be less severe.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Korean steelmaker Posco is following the lead of Dongbu and Hyundai with a planned HRC output reduction of 30,000 tonnes in October.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis

Chinese Steel Production Flash – Early-October Rises – Likely Early-Month Reporting Glitch

October 17, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

New Report Preview:

Chinese steel production estimated by the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) overnight came in at 1.916 million tonnes per day (mtpd), up some 4% from the last 10 days …more

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Daily Steel Market Production Report – Two Nucor Mills Scheduled for Maintenance

October 16, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Cuts – Nucor is planning to idle the Marion, Ohio rolling mill for a week beginning October 21 and will also idle the Kankakee, Illinois bar mill from October 28 to November 3. Both of the outages are for routine scheduled maintenance.

Steel Market Production Increases – Indian steelmaker JSW announced that a scheduled 21 day maintenance outage at the No. 2 hot strip mill was completed ahead of schedule and increased capacity from 3.5 mtpy to 5.0 mtpy.

Steel Market Production Increases – Russian steelmaker Severstal plans to begin operations at the new 1 mtpy Balakovo longs facility in 2Q13.

Steel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau Long Steel NA has delayed an expected 5-10 day maintenance outage from October to November 1st at the 800,000 tpy Beaumont rolling mill.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Korean steel production will decrease in October as Dongbu Steel plans to cut HRC levels by 50,000t and Hyundai Steel plans to cut rebar production by 60,000t, due to weakness in their respective markets.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis

Daily Steel Market Production Changes – U.S./India Increasing, Europe Cutting

October 15, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Increases – Evraz North America announced that production at the 200,000 tpy Portland, OR spiral pipe mill will resume in 1H 2013 after being idled since 2009.

Steel Market Production Increases –Esmark Steel Group will restart the Yorkville cold-rolled mill that was purchased during the liquidation of RG Steel’s assets. The mill will begin production in early 2013 with plans to purchase 300,000 tpy of hot-rolled substrate initially, and ramp up to 500,000 tpy “over the next two years.”

Steel Market Production Cuts – Indian steelmaker Tata Steel Europe stated that output was reduced from 18m tpy to 14m tpy this year, while also commenting that maintenance on the Port Talbot No. 4 blast furnace will be completed in December – although the company has not decided if it will be restarted.

Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal Galati announced that the No. 1 plate mill has been idled because of decreasing demand. The outage is temporary and operations will “resume immediately once the market situation improves.”

Steel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau plans to begin production of the new 300,000 tpy SBQ rolling mill at the Kaylani Gerdau Steels facility in India by year end after operations of the 350,000 tpy blast furnace started in August.

Steel Market Production Increases – Indian steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) is increasing crude steel capacity at the Vizag facility from 3.3 mtpy to 6.3 mtpy by year end. RINL has plans to eventually increase capacity to almost 11.5-12m tpy , of which 4.0-4.5m tpy would be flat-rolled production.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, AMM, SeeNews

Domestic Raw Steel Production Continues Downward Spiral

October 15, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

For the week ending October 13, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production declined 1.2% to 1.736 million tons (mt), the third consecutive week at the lowest level since January 2011, and some 13.4% below May’s peak.

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 again to 70.3% this week, below last week’s 71.1% and like production, is at the lowest level since January 2011.

The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008, while the highest level 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