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The World Steel Association (WSA) reduced its 2012-13 global steel outlook by 0.9% and 2.1% from the April forecast due primarily to downward revisions for the EU …more
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Our Advance/Decliner Index fell for the second consecutive week as global pricing weakness remained broad-based and the positive impact of Chinese pricing …more
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Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) announced that the 1.2 tpy Saldanha facility may be affected by an iron ore shortage due to a force majeure at the plant’s supplier, Sishen Iron Ore Co. The shortage is expected to last “approximately two weeks” and the steel plant only has inventory to continue operations for a week and a half.
Steel Market Production Increases – Italian steel plant maker Danieli plans to restart semi-finished production at a limited rate of 300 tonnes per day at the company’s 500,000 tpy capacity Sisak Works in “the first week of November”.
Steel Market Production Increases – Czech pipe producer Trinecke Zelezarny commissioned a new anti-corrosion coating line at the Ostrava tube facility.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing
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Overnight, Baosteel surprised the market by keeping November prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled coil (CRC) unchanged from October despite spot price …more
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Steel Market Production Cuts – The Italian government has ordered the steelmaker to obey the order given on September 17 and shut down the Taranto plant by October 11. The facility has been running at 70% of capacity, or 22,000 tonnes of pig iron per day, since the end of July.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Essar Steel Minnesota is backtracking on their originally proposed slab plant due to “current market conditions” and will not make any plans to build the new facility until conditions improve.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Yuzhong Iron and Steel Co commenced operations at a new 2,800 cubic meter blast furnace with a designed capacity of about 2.3 mtpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Middle Eastern steelmaker Moulds & Metals is targeting 2H13 for the start-up of a new 250,000 tpy wire rod mill in Poti, Georgia. To accommodate the new mill, designed capacity for billet will be doubled to 400,000 tpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Italian steelmaker Ferriere Nord commissioned a new 1m tpy wire rod mill in Osoppo at the end of September, replacing an outdated rolling mill with less capacity.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis, American Metal Market
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According to just-published data from American Metal Market (AMM), October prices for shredded scrap (obsolete) and #1 busheling (prime) scrap plunged….more
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For the week ending October 6, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production declined 1.3% to 1.757 million tons (mt), the second consecutive week at the lowest level since January 2011.
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 71.1% this week, below last week’s 72.0% 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
The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China was unchanged for the week ending October 5, 2012, coming in at $104.20/tonne each day of the week, and remained some 17.1% higher than the recent low of $89.00 on 9/7/2012.
For the first quarter of 2012, the spot price for iron ore averaged $141.84, and for 2Q, $139.35; this compares to an average of $176.90 for 1H 2011 and $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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No More Good News? The September Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Steel Survey may actually be the worst report we have seen, as even the green shoots we …more
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