The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States rose for the second straight week to 1,931 for the week ending August 10, 2012, up 0.1% from the prior week but down 1.4% from the year-ago level.

The highest weekly rig count in the United 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 fell again this week by 1.3% to 299 compared with 303 last week and down 35.6% 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 Increases – An Italian Courthas stopped the shutdown of Ilva’s 11 million tpy capacity plant in Taranto Italy provided that the plant be upgraded to reduce its environmental impact.

Steel Market Production Increases – Italian Steelmaker Lucchini plans to restart the blast furnace at its Piombino works on August 26 after having stopped it for four weeks due to a weak market – the company is currently running at 1.2-1.4 million tpy of its installed capacity of 2.4 million tpy.

Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Alchevsk has announced that it plans to increase production by 21 percent in August to 290,000 tonnes of crude steel for the month.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing and SteelOrbis

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July net Chinese steel exports dropped 23.5% to 3.13 million tonnes (mt) from 4.09 mt in June, as the combination of government-guided production cuts in late July and a… more

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Nucor has raised net transaction prices of rebar, merchant bar and beams by $50/ton effective September 1, following the $83/ton increase in scrap prices, ahead of … more.

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Our Advance/Decliner Index jumped this week to the highest level since mid-April when Chinese pricing weakness began. Our Ex-China Index hit a 4-month… more

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July steel import licenses dropped a scant 2.4% from June, far less than early reports indicated which used premature data, which was confused by reporting nuances. Not only were imports far higher than early reports indicated, but there were… more

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Steel Market Production Cuts – According to the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) average daily production for the last 11 days of July came to 1.949 million tonnes per day, down 2.2% from the number reported for the middle 10 days of July.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese producerTangshanplans to undertake maintenance on its 3,200 cu m blast furnace for 45 days from September 15 for a total output loss of 300-350,000 tonnes of pig iron.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese producer Pangang has decided to delay the commissioning its 2,500 cu m blast furnace until October from its initially scheduled start this month.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Shanxi Zhongyang has announced an upgrade of its steelmaking facilities which will bring their total steelmaking capacity to 4 million tpy of crude steel when production begins in October.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Korean steelmaker Hyundai Steel has scheduled annual maintenance on the A and B sections of its Dangjin works, inSeoulfrom August 31 – September 5.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Korean steelmaker Dongbu Steel plans to undertake repair works from August 16-22.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Beltrame has decided to idle its 800,000 tpy EAF, which has been running at 50% capacity since early 2012, until at least October due to weak market demand for merchant bar.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian longs producers usual summer stoppages are reportedly on par with 2011’s summer stoppages of 4-5 weeks.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese pipemakerBaotouplans to begin production on a new 620,000 tpy seamless pipe mill on October 1.

Steel Market Production Increases – Indian producer Bushan Steel plans to increase the capacity of its Dhenkanal works with a second phase that will increase capacity to 5 million tpy from the present 2.5 million in December.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing and  SteelOrbis

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After a disappointing 1.8% jump in mid-July, Chinese steel production reported for the last eleven days of the month came in at 1.949 million tons per day (mtpd), down 2.2% from… more

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After shredded (obsolete) and #1 busheling (prime) scrap prices plummeted a total of $103 and 108/ton in June and July – the largest two-month declines since the recession began – August prices of both grades soared to… more

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Weekly domestic raw steel production for the week ending August 4, 2012 rose 0.9% to 1.863 million tons (mt) from 1.846 mt last week, but was down some 0.9% 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 as it is right now, the weekly data is actually understating the change.

Capacity utilization also rose from 74.7% last week to 75.4% this week, slightly below the year-ago level of 76.8%.

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