Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Hanzhong, a subsidiary of Shaanxi has begun production on its new No. 2 converter, bringing the total crude steel production capacity of both converters to 3 million tpy.

Steel Market Production Increases – Italian producer Ilva reportedly plans to restart its hot rolling line No. 1 in September after having idled the facility starting June 10^th due to a poor market environment.

Sources: SteelOrbis

Weekly domestic raw steel production for the week ending July 21, 2012 fell for the third straight week, coming in at 1.837 million tons (mt) – the lowest since November 28, 2011 – and down 0.3% from last week’s 1.843 mt, but up some 0.4% 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 the operating rate is declining as it is right now, the weekly data is actually understating the decline.

Capacity utilization also fell from 75.0% last week to 74.3% this week, the lowest since last December and slightly below the year-ago level of 74.8%.

The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008. The highest level since the recession began 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 fell some 5.8% to $125.00 for the week ending July 20, 2012, from $132.80 last week. This marks the second consecutive weekly decline and the lowest price since the week ending November 4, 2011.

For the first quarter of 2012, the iron ore price averaged $141.84, and for 2Q, $139.35; this compares to an average of $178.22 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

Steel Market Production Cuts – South African steelmaker Evraz Highveld has halted production at its steelworks inMpumalangafollowing the start of an industrial action by the country’s largest union.

Steel Market Production Cuts – UAE steelmaker Emirates Steel Industries will be taking their mill offline for some of August and have reported that some 30% of their rebar bookings for August may be delayed until September.

Steel Market Production Cuts –  Japanese crude steel output fell 0.3% in June compared to the previous month, according to the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF).

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis

The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States fell 0.9% to 1,935 for the week ending July 20, 2012, down from 1,953 last week and the lowest since August 5, 2011.  The rig count is now a scant 1.0% above the year-ago level.

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 rose again this week by 10.8% to 328 compared with 296 last week and is the highest count since March 23, 2012.  Despite the increase, the Canadian rig count is down 17.0% from the year-ago level.

The highest rig count for Canada was 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) production estimate for production in the first 10 days of July came in at 1.958 million tonnes per day – down some 0.35% from the estimate of 1.965 for the last 10 days of June.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmakerAnshanis carrying out maintenance for one week this month at one of is HRC mills which will result in a total of 50,000 tonnes of lost output.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmakerTangshanis carrying out maintenance for one week at one of its slab casters that will reduce production by a total of 30,000 tonnes over the course of the outage.

Steel Market Production Cuts – A fire at Indian pipemaker Welspun’sLittle Rock,Arkansas350,000 tpy capacity welded pipe mill has taken operations offline for the next 6-8 weeks as repairs are made.

Steel Market Production Increases – The Indian pipemaker Welspun is currently building a new 175,000 ERW and coated pipe plant inLittle Rock,Arkansaswith commissioning set for March of 2013.

Steel Market Production Increases – Tata Steel reportedly expects their 2.9 million tpy crude steel production capacity expansion at theirJamshedpur,Indiaplant to come online this financial year.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Russian steelmaker MMK is commissioning the second stage of its new cold rolling mill which by the end of 2012 will have 2.1 million tpy of cold rolling capacity, of which 400,000 tpy will be cold rolled coil (CRC), 700,000 tpy will be galvanized and 900,000 tpy will be surface hardened CRC.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, MySteel, PressTrust

New Report Preview

After announcing net transaction price cuts for rebar and beams of $20/ton and $30/ton yesterday, Nucor is now reducing merchant bar list prices by a total of $110/ton effective immediately, according to American Metal Market.  However, the company wasn’t selling anywhere near list prices, so the real reduction is only $30/ton… more.

Our full report provides further thoughts about domestic and global steel prices as well as the implication for steel equities.

For a copy of our report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.

New Report Preview

The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) ABI Index – a leading indicator of non-residential construction activity 9-12 months into the future – came in unchanged in June at 45.9. Readers should caution at thinking a sideways reading month-to-month indicates a flattening out of a trend; any index reading below 50 indicates that overall architects’ billings are still declining. Deterioration in billings since the spring has been clearly driven off of declining domestic business confidence, as global macro fears are chipping away at fragileUSbusiness conditions… more

Our full report is available to subscribers and provides further thoughts on the June ABI Index as well as the impact on steel equities.

For a copy of our report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.