The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China fell to $113.80 for the week ending August 10, 2012, to the lowest level since the week ending December 18, 2009, down some 2.5% from $116.70 last week.

For the first quarter of 2012, the iron ore price averaged $141.84, and for 2Q, $139.35; this compares to an average of $176.90 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

Weekly domestic raw steel production for the week ending August 11, 2012 rose 1.9% to 1.899 million tons (mt) from 1.863 mt last week and up some 0.9% 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 production is changing as it is right now, the weekly data is actually understating the change.

Capacity utilization also rose from 75.4% last week to 76.9% this week, slightly below the year-ago level of 77.0%.

The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008, while the highest level 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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ThyssenKrupp (TKA) reported JunQ adjusted EBIT of €122m, which cleaned up to €172m, well ahead of the Street’s €115.1m, and up from MarQ’s €134m. The increase was… more

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Tenaris (TS) reported 2Q EBITDA of $758.6m, slightly ahead of the Street’s $751.6m, adjusted 1Q EBITDA of $718.2m and the year-ago period’s… more

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Rio Tinto plc reported 1H underlying EBITDA of $10.08B, ahead of analysts’ $9.87B but 29% below the year-ago period EBITDA. Lower commodity prices… more

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Ternium S.A. (TX) reported 2Q EBITDA of $348.0m, 4% short of the Street’s $363.6m and down 6% from 1Q’s EBITDA of $372.0m.  Management attributed the decrease to… more

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The number of active oil and natural gas rigs in the United States rose for the second straight week to 1,931 for the week ending August 10, 2012, up 0.1% from the prior week but down 1.4% from the year-ago level.

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 fell again this week by 1.3% to 299 compared with 303 last week and down 35.6% from the year-ago level.

The highest rig count forCanadawas 727 on February 3, 2006; the lowest was 29, recorded on April 24, 1992.

Source: Baker Hughes Inc.

Steel Market Production Increases – An Italian Courthas stopped the shutdown of Ilva’s 11 million tpy capacity plant in Taranto Italy provided that the plant be upgraded to reduce its environmental impact.

Steel Market Production Increases – Italian Steelmaker Lucchini plans to restart the blast furnace at its Piombino works on August 26 after having stopped it for four weeks due to a weak market – the company is currently running at 1.2-1.4 million tpy of its installed capacity of 2.4 million tpy.

Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Alchevsk has announced that it plans to increase production by 21 percent in August to 290,000 tonnes of crude steel for the month.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing and SteelOrbis