Steel Market Production Cuts – Ukrainian miner and steel producer Metinvest has suspended BF 2 – one of five – at its Ilyich Iron & Steel works for maintenance  – effectively reducing output by a fifth at the 13,000-14,000 tonnes per day plant.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing

The price of iron ore fell some 2.5% to $134.00 for the week ending June 29, 2012, halting an eleven-day upward trend.  The price dropped from $137.40 last week, which was the highest level since May 11, 2012, and current levels are down 26.0% from the peak of $181.00 in the past twelve months.

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

The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States fell 0.4% to 1,959 for the week ending June 29, 2012, the third consecutive weekly drop and now a two-month low.  Despite the decline, the rig count is up 3.9% from the year-ago level of 1,886.

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 9.7% this week to 261, climbing up from 238 last week and reaching the highest count since March 30, 2012.  The rig count is also up 8.8% from the year-ago level of 240.

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 – In the present market, Romanian coil and plate producer ArcelorMittal Galati reportedly sees no chance of restarting its two idled BFs which have a combined crude steel capacity of 2.2 million tpy.

Steel Market Production Cuts – A fire at Japanese producer JFE’s West Japan works yesterday has forced the company to bank their No. 5 blast furnace – leaving 3 furnaces still running at the 10 million tpy  crude steel capacity works that produces sheet, plate, pipe and sections.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Finish steelmaker FNsteel has filed for bankruptcy which, according to the company’s vice president could lead to the shuttering of the company’s 600,000 tpy crude steel capacity integrated steelworks.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steelmaker Yuzhong has successfully commissioned a new long steel mill in Yushi with an annual output capacity of 1.1 million tpy of bar and 1.6 million tpy of wire rod.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese producer Rizhao plans to officially start production this July at its new 520,000 tpy welded pipe mill in Mazhou.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese line pipe maker Chu Kong has commissioned a new 300,000 tpy welded pipe mill in Guangdong.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese steel pipe producer Baoji Petroleum Steel Pipe has produced the first steel pipes at its new 120,000 tpy welded pipe plant in Karamay.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis

Steel Market Production Cuts – The Serbian Government stated in an email today that it officially intends to stop production at the Zelezara Smederovo plant for at least three months starting in July – the plant is currently producing at 60,000 tons a month with an annual capacity of 2.4 million tpy.Steel

Market Production Cuts – Moroccan longs producer Sonasid is currently performing maintenance on its EAF and mill in Jorf Lasfar with other area producers also expected to be down for a few weeks in July.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Tata Steel is reportedly considering delaying the relighting of its 2 million tpy capacity BF4 at its plant in Port Talbot, Wales when its rebuild is completed in November 2012.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, Reuters

Steel Market Production Increases – According to Serbian Economic minister Nebojsa Ciric, the government has no plans to stop production at the Zelezara Smederevo plant formerly owned by US Steel – he further asserted that the government will not allow a full closure of the 2.4 million tpy capacity plant.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese producer Jinan plans to temporarily idle its 2500mm plate mill for routine maintenance starting July 2 – to result in 65,000 total tonnes of lost production over the course of the outage.

Steel Market Production Increases – Chinese pipe producer Zhujiang Steel Pipe plans to implement a project in three phases that will boost its welded pipe output by 960,000 tpy by the end of 2012.

Steel Market Production Increases – A subsidiary of Russian pipe producer OMK has announced the commissioning of a new 50,000 tpy round pipe mill.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, American Metal Market, SteelOrbis

Steel Market Production Cuts – The Serbian government plans to stop production at its 2.4 million tpy capacity Smederevo steel mill next month – with the plant having been running at much reduced capacity since before its sale by US steel.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Saudi rebar mill Al- Yamamah Company has placed its new 1.2 million tpy crude steel capacity EAF based meltshop and billet casting plant on hold while it negotiates with local authorities over power allocation.

Steel Market Production Increases – Italian steelmaker Riva has restarted its EAF based steelworks in Verona, Italy at a crude steel production rate of 2,500-2,600 tonnes per day of billets, rebar and wire rod after stopping two weeks ago due to a lack of demand.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, Reuters

Weekly domestic raw steel production dropped some 1.5% to 1.854 million tons (mt) for the week ending June 23, 2012, falling for the sixth consecutive week from the post-recession high of 2.005 (mt) reached on May 12, 2012, to the lowest level since December 10, 2011.  Production is also down some 0.9% compared to the year-ago level.  The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 for the week of December 27, 2008.

Capacity utilization also declined from 76.2% last week to 75.0% this week, the lowest rate since December 10, 2011, and lower than the year-ago level of 76.5%.  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.

Note: AISI weekly production data only includes real-time input from 50% of producing members; the remainder of the data is a guesstimate based on each company’s prior-month production and therefore the weekly AISI data lags when there are production cuts or increases going on.

Source: AISI and Steel Market Intelligence

Steel Market Production Cuts – Severstal North America’s hot strip mill at Dearborn will be down for seven days next week for maintenance.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Severstal North America’s plant in Columbus, Mississippi will be down for maintenance starting in July during which will result in production losses of 80,000 to 100,000 tons per week.

Steel Market Production Increases – Mexican steelmaker Ahmsa is restarting their blast furnace number 5 in Monclova, northern Mexico after a month long outage for scheduled maintenance.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Chinese steelmaker Jinan plans to conduct maintenance on its medium plate production line for 15 days from July 2-17 which will result in a loss of 60,000-65,000 tonnes of output.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Spanish steelmaker Celsa Group plans to close its plants in Vitoria and Urbina, northern Spain due to poor market conditions. Combined, the plants have a wide hot strip mill, pickling and oiling lines and welded tube and pipe mill.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelGuru