Steel Market Production Cuts – ThyssenKrupp Steel USA says it will lay off almost 200 employees from its Calvert, AL rolling operations citing weaker market conditions than originally anticipated.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese pipemaker Hengyang Valin Steel Tube has lowered its output target by 7% to 1.3 million tonnes after having just brought a new 500,000 tpy seamless pipe mill online last week.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Markets

Steel Market Production Cuts – A local court ruled this weekend that the Italian steelmaker Riva Group’s 11 million tpy capacity Ilva plant nearTarantocannot continue operating while required environmental retrofits are made.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Yukun Steel has begun operations at its new 1.227 million tpy capacity blast furnace inYunnanProvince.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Masteel has shut its medium plate line on August 11 for an output loss of 15,000 tonnes and no restart time specified.

Steel Market Production Increases – South African producer Evraz Highveld has restarted operations after having temporarily suspended them since the end of July due to a strike.

Steel Market Production Increases – Trinidadian steelmaker Centrin has resumed operations today following a demand induced stoppage on June 17 – the company plans to produce steel at its longs mill at a rate of 8,000 tonnes per month.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis, SteelGuru and  Evraz Press Release

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Klöckner and Co. (KCO) reported 2Q EBITDA of €33m, or €50m after adjusting for restructuring charges, slightly below the Street’s €52.7m and at the low end of… more

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Gerdau SA (GGB) reported 2Q EBITDA of R$1.244B, in line with the Street’s R$1.233B, but some 23% above 1Q’s R$1.008B, with strength driven by… more

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Steel Market Production Cuts – Shagang began maintenance on one of its hot-rolled coil lines on August 7 with the restart time unclear – resulting in 13,000 tonnes per day of lost output.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Taishan has begun dismantling its two 420 m³ No. 4 and 5 blast furnaces.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmakerNanjinghas broken ground on a new 3.5 million tpy mill and continuous slab workshop with completion set for September of 2013.

Steel Market Production Cuts – German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp has announced that it plans to continue reduced working hours at five locations inEuropefor September as well as August as was previously announced.

Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal has begun offering voluntary redundancy to the workers at its Romanian plant in Hunedoara with the aim of improving productivity.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Tiawan’s China Steel Corp. has announced plans to cut it utilization rate to 95% in September from 100% in August in the face of weaker domestic demand and global pricing.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Russian steelmaker Mechel is releasing 400 workers from its Campia Truzii wire rod and rebar rolling plant in Romania.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing and SteelOrbis, SteelGuru, MySteel

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Canam Group (CAM) reported 2Q earnings of C$0.10/share, which adjusted to C$0.06/share, beating the Street’s C$0.01, 1Q’s loss of (C$0.03) and the loss of … more

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The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China fell to $113.80 for the week ending August 10, 2012, to the lowest level since the week ending December 18, 2009, down some 2.5% from $116.70 last week.

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

Weekly domestic raw steel production for the week ending August 11, 2012 rose 1.9% to 1.899 million tons (mt) from 1.863 mt last week and up 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 75.4% last week to 76.9% this week, slightly below the year-ago level of 77.0%.

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

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ThyssenKrupp (TKA) reported JunQ adjusted EBIT of €122m, which cleaned up to €172m, well ahead of the Street’s €115.1m, and up from MarQ’s €134m. The increase was… more

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