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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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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
Steel 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
New Report Preview:
As global steel demand continued to slide in October, average daily steel production declined 1.5% from September – a bigger drop than the normal sideways seasonal …more
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For the week ending November 17, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production increased for the third consecutive week, rising 2.6% to a two-month high of 1.792 million tons (mt) compared to 1.745 mt the previous week.. Despite the current string of increases, production levels are still down some 10.6% from the recent peak on May 12.
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 rose to 72.5% from 70.7% last week, the first time above 72% since September 22.
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
Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Jiangsu Tianhuai Steel Pipe has begun production at its new 500,000 mtpy premium quality finishing seamless OCTG facility.
Steel Market Production Increases – American steelmaker Corpac Group has begun construction on a 150,000 tpy OCTG plant near Barranquilla, Columbia and expects to begin production by the end of 2013.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Argentinian steelmaker Ternium Siderar will be forced to decrease planned production in Q4 due to issues while re-starting the No.2 blast furnace. The BF had been idled for maintenance since October 15 and will now be out of commission for an additional 3 to 4 months.
Steel Market Production Increases – South African steel mill CISCO will be restarted after being acquired by Turkish firm DHT Holdings. The facility will begin production in early 2013 at around 220,000 to 260,000 tpy, and will be ramped-up to about 400,000 tpy later in the year.
Steel Market Production Increases – Russian Steel Company MMK has idled the Electric Arc Furnace at the 2.3 mtpy MMK-Metaluji plant in Turkey until at least December 1.
Steel Market Production Increases –Turkish steel company Yolbulan Bastug has restarted its EAF after a four day outage due to repairs being made to the local electricity grid. The facility lost about 18,000 mt of billet production over the four day outage.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis, American Metal Market
