New Report Preview
Final August Chinese steel production came out overnight at 1.89 million tonnes per day (mtpd), down a whopping 5% from July’s 1.99 mtpd, down some 6% from… more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
Steel Market Production Cuts – An Italian Court reportedly ordered the stoppage of raw materials being shipped to Ilva’s the 11 million tpy capacity steel plant in Taranto, Italy – the company reportedly has enough raw materials on hand to run for 15-20 days.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Angang will be commissioning a new 1.6 million tpy special steel mill in November of this year.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Jiyuan has been ordered byChina’s Ministry of Industry & Information Technology (MIIT) to eliminate 800,000 tpy of steelmaking capacity through the shutdown of two converters.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Tianli has been ordered by China’s MIIT to permanently shutter its 300,000 tpy blast furnace.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Fulong has been ordered by China’s MIIT to eliminate 300,000 tpy of steelmaking capacity through the shutdown of two EAFs by December of this year.
Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Alchevsk plans to increase its output of crude steel in September by 10% compared to August to around 321,000 tonnes.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis
Weekly domestic raw steel production for the week ending September 8, 2012 fell 2.8% to 1.811 million tons (mt) from 1.864 mt last week and was down 3.1% year-on-year.
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 prior months’ reported production & operating rate. What this means is that when production is changing, the weekly data is actually understating the change.
Capacity utilization fell to 73.3% this week, below the year-ago level of 76.4% and the lowest since last November.
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
New Report Preview:
The August ISM Steel Survey reflects more of the bi-polar recovery we had been seeing the past few years, with both a bit more optimism and a bit more pessimism as …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
New Report Preview:
August net Chinese steel exports dropped 3.8% to 3.01 million tonnes (mt) from 3.13 mt in July, as the combination of government-guided production cuts… more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China fell 0.4% to $89.00 for the week ending September 7, 2012, the lowest level since the week ending October 30, 2009. Iron ore prices have now fallen for five straight weeks for a total decline of 23.7% over that time period.
For the first quarter of 2012, the iron ore price 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
ArcelorMittal just announced a tentative agreement with the USW. No details are available, and we expect to see few in the coming weeks, as the ratification process is typically sensitive and typically companies – both USS and Mittal in this case – have very little to say until the contract is voted on.
We believe this development is a healthy one for the industry, as the high profile of the tenor of negotiations most probably was unnerving some buyers – unnerved buyers double order, build inventories and seek out imports.
So this is good news for all.
Update from Pittsburgh: September 8, 2012 – 1 p.m. EDT
The following statement is from ArcelorMittal USA and includes a quote from Michael Rippey, President & CEO, ArcelorMittal USA:
ArcelorMittal has reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers (USW) on a new, three-year labor contract covering nearly 14,000 USW-represented employees at 15 of ArcelorMittal USA’s flat carbon, long carbon and iron ore mining locations. The tentative agreement will replace the existing contract that was originally set to expire on September 1, 2012 and remains subject to ratification by the USW membership.
“We are pleased to have a new, tentative agreement with the USW and to have reached a fair and equitable outcome without disruption to our business operations,” said Michael Rippey, president and CEO of ArcelorMittal USA. “We extend our appreciation to our employees, customers and the community for their patience and support during the negotiation process.”
New Report Preview:
Reacting to a global steel deep freeze and plunging iron ore costs, just-released Midwest scrap prices – the benchmarks that drive domestic steel – posted… more
For a full copy of our report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States fell to 1,864 for the week ending September 7, 2012, down 1.6% from the prior week, 4.8% from the year-ago level and the lowest since June 2011.
The highest weekly rig count in theUnited States since 1940 was recorded on December 28, 1981, at 4,530; the lowest was recorded on April 23, 1999, at 488.
The number of rigs in Canada increased this week by 9.2% to 345 compared with 316 last week but was down 33.0% from the year-ago level.
The highest rig count forCanadawas 727 on February 3, 2006; the lowest was 29, recorded on April 24, 1992.
Source: Baker Hughes Inc.
Steel Market Production Cuts – The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) reported that for the last 11 days of August average crude steel production was 1.8715 million tonnes per day, down 3% from the middle 10 days of August.
Steel Market Production Cuts – China’s Ministry of Industry & Information Technology (MIIT) has released a variety of new environmental and productivity standards to be enforced starting October 2012, including a rule that requires a company that produces common steel products have a capacity of 1 million tpy and specialty producers have a capacity of 300,000 tpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Hebei has admitted that local government has discouraged permanent cuts to steelmaking capacity – instead favoring short-term maintenance outages.
Steel Market Production Cuts –China’s Ministry of Industry & Information Technology (MIIT) has reported that it intends to carry on with its campaign to close 7.8 million tpy of steelmaking capacity along with 10 million tpy of iron making capacity in 2012
Steel Market Production Cuts – Custodians of Italian steelmaker group Ilva’sTarantoplant have reportedly received a letter from Italian prosecutors asking them to immediately reduce harmful emissions – a request that according to unions could result in the cessation of melting.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmakerHebei’s subsidiary Tanshan Iron & Steel will be conducting blast furnace maintenance for 45-50 days, causing a total loss of 300,000-350,000 tonnes of hot metal output.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Liuzhou has begun production on its 2.25 million tpy iron-making capacity blast furnace number 4 following construction work.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Gerdau Long Steel North America plans to conduct a 5-10 day outage in early October at its 700,000 tpy crude steel making capacity mill inBeaumont,Texasto complete upgrades on the rolling end.
Steel Market Production Increases – Egyptian steelmaker Suez Steel will begin production this November on a new 1.25 million tpy capacity EAF.
Steel Market Production Increases – Mexican seamless pipe producer Tamsa is increasing production capacity by 50% to 1.23 million tpy by way of a new rolling mill that is ramping up production in the central state ofVeracruz.
Steel Market Production Increases – Czech plate and sections steelmaker Evraz Vitkovice has resumed production at its 950,000 tpy capacity meltshop which is now running at 76% capacity.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis
