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According to Pipe Logix, November OCTG prices declined another $12/ton (or 0.7%) to the lowest since March 2011 as prices for welded and seamless pipe declined…more
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After posting four consecutive increases, our Advance/Decliner Index declined from an eight-month high, but remained at elevated levels. The drop was driven by our …more
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After rising 1.6% in early November, Chinese steel production estimated by the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) for the second 10 days of November came in at …more
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October preliminary steel imports increased 4.1% to 2.54 million tons (mt) from September’s 2.44 mt, marking the first pick-up in six months driven by increases…more
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Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steel company Lucchini will suspend production of the 2.4 mtpy blast furnace at the Piombino longs facility due to “declining demand” and will not resume operations until after the holidays at the earliest.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Beltrame will not resume production at the 800,000 tpy EAF in Turin until year-end; two rolling mills for merchant bar are currently operating at 70% of capacity at the facility(650,000 tpy).
Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Beltrame announced that it will close the 110,000 tpy Marghera special sections mill with no plans to re-open it in the future.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Days after announcing a stoppage of the DEMZ facility in Ukraine, Russian steelmaker Mechel is idling all production in Romania due to “unfavorable prices” and intends to divest all five of the company’s Romanian plants.
Steel Market Production Increases – Indian steelmaker Tata announced a restructuring plan for the company’s UK operations, which includes restarting both the Port Talbot blast furnace No. 4 and the 3.3 mtpy Llanwern hot strip mill.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing
For the week ending November 24, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production fell 1.6% to 1.764 million tons (mt) – a normal occurrence during the week of Thanksgiving – compared to 1.792 mt the previous week, but is still up some 5.1% 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 71.4%, down from 72.5% last week and the year-ago level of 73.3%.
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
The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China declined for the first time since late September, falling 3.2% to $118.90 for the week ending November 23, 2012, and is at the lowest level in five weeks. However, the price is still some 33.6% 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
HRC lead times for the week ending November 18 fell to 3.0 from last week’s level of 3.8 – the largest week-on-week decline in 9 weeks and the shortest lead times in 6 weeks.
CRC lead times also fell – coming in at 6.1 weeks, down from 6.3 in the week prior. HDG lead times posted the lone increase – jumping to a three-month high of 6.5 from 6.1 in the previous week.
Sources: The Steel Index, Steel Business Briefing
HRC = Hot Rolled Coil CRC = Cold Rolled Coil HDG = Hot Dipped GalvanizedSteel Market Production Increases – Chinese pipemaker TPCO America aims to begin production at the pipe and end-finishing facilities in Gregory, Texas by mid-2013, with the seamless pipe rolling mill and EAF expected to start operations in late 2014.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Russian steel company Mechel has halted the 1.1 mtpy DEMZ longs facility due to a “local scrap shortage” and could remain offline until April.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Chonggang plans to commission a 1.5 mtpy longs plant in February 2013, bringing total capacity to 8 mtpy.
Steel Market Production Increases – Egyptian steel company IIC plans to start up the upgraded 250,000 tpy Alexandria wire-rod and bar mill by the end of the year.
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker MCC has completed a 1.2 mtpy pre-painted galvanized coil facility in Shandong that contains a 1.2 mtpy CRC mill, two 600,000 tpy pickling lines, two hot-dipped galvanizing lines, a continuous annealing line, and two color-coating lines.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market
Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian steelmaker Ilva has idled the 1.8 mtpy plate mill and the 70,000 tpy pipe mill No. 2 due to weak market conditions and may still have to shut down the entire plant if the government’s environmental sanctions are not lifted.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Bayi Iron and Steel has permanently shut down two BOF’s with combined capacity of 1 mtpy due to “excessive emissions.”
Steel Market Production Increases – American pipemaker Welspun Tubular will begin operations at the new 175,000-225,000 tpy ERW OCTG mill in Little Rock, Arkansas in January.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Swiss Steel AG will halt production of the 560,000 tpy EAF at the Emmenbrucke plant until about August 2013, to allow Siemens to make upgrades that will boost capacity to 650,000 tpy.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Yuanda Steel Science and Technology has completed a new 1.2 mtpy cold-rolled sheet facility inBinzhou,Shandong. The company plans to add a pickling line, hot dip galvanizing line, and two color-coating lines in the future.
Steel Market Production Increases – Italian steelmaker AFV Beltrame has decided to restart the merchant bar mill at the San Giovanni Valdarno facility in January, after being closed for about a year. However, the mill is expected to operate at a low production rate.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis
