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