Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Report – Former RG Steel Yorkville Re-Start Delayed

December 5, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Cuts – Esmark Steel Group had originally planned to re-start the cold-rolled mill at the former RG Steel Yorkville facility in January, but has now pushed the start date back to March or April due to concerns over environmental liabilities.

Steel Market Production Increases – China-based Wuhan Iron and Steel Co (WISCO) has begun production at the company’s new hot-rolled pickling line, with capacity expected to reach 300,000 tpy in 2013.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Egyptian Iron & Steel Co. is suffering from a shortage of coke due to “technical problems” at its supplier and has been forced to reduce production from 1.2 mtpy to about 0.5-0.6 mtpy.

Steel Market Production Increases – ArcelorMittal has restarted the coil-coating lines at the Liege facility in Belgium after a week-long stoppage due to a strike.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis, American Metal Market

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Tags: global steel, steel, steel market, steel prices, steel production, steel production cuts, steel production increases
Categories: Steel Production

Advance/Decliner Index Falls on Chinese Pricing Weakness; Europe Pocket of Strength

December 4, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

New Report Preview:

Our Advance/Decliner Index fell from last week’s levels, driven by our China Index which fell for the fifth straight week as still buoyant production levels – averaging 1.95 mtpd …more

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Tags: china, chinese steel, global steel, steel, steel imports, steel market, steel prices, steel production
Categories: Steel Prices

November Steel Imports Decline; Chinese Imports Surge

December 4, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

New Report Preview:

November steel import licenses dropped 6.0% from October levels to 2.3 million tonnes, driven by meaningful declines for key products such as hot-rolled sheet (-26%) …more

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Tags: china, chinese steel, global steel, steel, steel imports, steel market, steel prices
Categories: Steel Market

Steel Market Production Report – Ilva See-Saw Continues as Plant Will Now Re-Start

December 3, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Increases – Italian steelmaker Ilva has received authorization from a governmental decree to resume production at the 11 mtpy Taranto facility, according to the environmental plan that was issued to the facility in late October. The plant will resume production on Friday, after a week-long idling as a sign of respect to a worker that died in a storm-related accident last Wednesday.

Steel Market Production Increases – Russian steelmaker TMK plans to commission a 900,000 tpy EAF at its Tagmet facility by mid-2013, replacing three open hearth furnaces with a combined capacity of 600,000 tpy. Later in 2013, TMK will also commission a 600,000 tpy seamless pipe mill at the Seversky facility.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Baotou Iron and Steel said that it is close to completing the upgrade of the No. 2 rolling line at its rail and beam facility, which will raise capacity to 1.5 mtpy.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Shaogang has begun trials of the company’s new 670,000 tpy round bar rolling mill in southern China, with an additional mill for small-diameter bars set for commissioning by year-end.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis

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Tags: china, chinese steel, global steel, steel, steel market, steel prices, steel production, steel production cuts, steel production increases
Categories: Steel Production

Iron Ore Price Falls for the Second Consecutive Week

December 3, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China declined for the second straight week, falling 2.8% to $115.60 for the week ending November 30, 2012, and is at the lowest level in six weeks. However, the price is still some 29.9% higher than the recent low of $89.00 on 9/7/2012.

The spot price for iron ore averaged $141.84 in 1Q, $139.35 in 2Q, and $112.12 in 3Q; this compares to an average of $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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Tags: china, chinese steel, global steel, iron ore, iron ore prices, steel, steel market, steel prices, steel production
Categories: Steel Market

Domestic Raw Steel Production Rises After Thanksgiving Holiday

December 3, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

For the week ending December 1, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production rose 3.1% to a 10-week high of 1.818 million tons (mt), compared to 1.764 mt the previous week – which was most likely affected by the Thanksgiving holiday – and is now up some 8.3% from the recent low of 1.679 for the week of October 27, 2012.

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 came in at 73.6%, the highest since late September, and up from 71.4% last week but down from the year-ago level of 74.9%.

The lowest production since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008, while the highest 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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Tags: AISI, domestic steel, global steel, steel, steel market, steel prices, steel production, steel production increases
Categories: Steel Production

U.S. Rig Count Falls After 3 Weeks of Increases

December 3, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States fell for the first time in a month – declining by 6 to 1,811 for the week ending November 30, 2012 – down 0.3% from last week and 9.1% from a year ago.

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 rose for the third straight week – up 3.1% to 399 from 387 last week, but was 17.6% below 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.

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Tags: fracking, global steel, Henry Hub, Horizontal Drilling, OCTG, oil country tubular goods, shale, steel, steel market, steel prices, West Texas Intermediate, WTI
Categories: Uncategorized

Steel Market Production Report – SE Asia Sees Increase in Flat-Rolled Capacity

November 29, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Increases – China Steel Corp plans to begin production at the new 1.2 mtpy Vietnamese CRC JV by year-end 2013 and it will have capacity for 300,000 tpy of hot-dipped galvanized, 200,000 tpy of NGO silicon steel, and 300,000 tpy of pickled and oiled.

Steel Market Production Increases – Thai steelmaker G Steel believes it is close to receiving financing for a “raw material supply facility” that will allow it to re-start HRC production at its 1.8 mtpy Rayong facility and 1.5 mtpy GJ subsidiary in Chonburi. The company estimates that it will restart production in February and will ramp-up to full production over four months; the plants have been idled since early August.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Baogang has plans to upgrade the efficiency of its wide hot strip mill No. 1 at the Baoshan facility in Shanghai by installing a new descaler by mid-2013, with a sizing press and roughing stand scheduled for mid-2014.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Vietnam-based Pomina Steel Corp announced that the “Pomina 3” project for a new longs rolling mill is now on hiatus. Pomina has 1.5 mtpy of billet capacity after commissioning a new plant in March, but only has 1.05 mtpy of rolling capacity. While the long-term goal remains to build a plant that would close the capacity gap, Pomina will sell the excess billet until that plan is feasible.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing

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Tags: china, chinese steel, global steel, steel, steel analysis, steel market, steel prices, steel production, steel production cuts, steel production increases
Categories: Steel Market, Steel Production

HRC Lead Times Move Off 7-week Low

November 29, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

HRC lead times for the week ending November 25 rose to 3.5 from last week’s 3.0.

CRC lead times also rose – coming in at an 11-week high of 6.4 weeks from 6.1 in the week prior. HDG lead times posted the lone decrease, falling to 6.3 from last week’s 3-month high of 6.5.

Sources: The Steel Index, Steel Business Briefing

HRC = Hot Rolled Coil

CRC = Cold Rolled Coil

HDG = Hot Dipped Galvanized

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Tags: automotive steel, coated steel, flat rolled steel, global steel, sheet steel, steel, steel market, steel prices, steel service center
Categories: Uncategorized

Steel Market Production Report – Ilva Finally Closes, Set for Meeting with Italian Government

November 28, 2012 Posted by Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Ilva has announced the closure of the entire 11 mtpy Taranto facility and all down-stream facilities after Italian officials issued a court-order to seize all steel produced over the prior four months. Representatives of Italy’s unions, Ilva’s chairman, the prime minister, and other government officials will meet on Thursday, November 29, in an attempt to resolve the standstill.

Steel Market Production Increases – Severstal North America has restarted the blast furnace at the Dearborn, Michigan facility after finishing repairs. The BF has been offline since November 2 due to the explosion of a cold-air pipe.

Steel Market Production Cuts – The planned restart of Tokyo Steel’s 1.8 mtpy pickling line at the Tahara facility has been pushed back until March of next year. The line has been out of commission since October 15, when a fire broke out at the plant.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau is delaying the re-start of the 135,000 tpy Muña longs mill in Colombia from sometime in 2012 to early 2013 due to low demand.

Steel Market Production Increases – Jordanian Taybah Steel will begin production at a new 500,000 tpy rebar facility in Saudi Arabia sometime around August 2013.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese pipemaker Fangrui Steel has increased its capacity for welded pipe from 50,000 tpy to 200,000 tpy after the start-up of two new production lines and plans to add an additional 100,000 tpy by year-end 2013.

Steel Market Production Increases – Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau has acquired a 2-strand billet caster for the company’s Mexican (Corsa) operations and plans to begin operations in March 2013, boosting the production run-rate to 400,000 tpy.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market

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