Steel Products
Goncalves Bullish on Cliffs' HBI Prospects
Written by Tim Triplett
March 24, 2018
“The trend is our friend,” said Lourenco Goncalves, the chief executive of Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., pointing to the growth of electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking around the world. Cliffs is on track for commercial production of hot briquetted iron (HBI) by mid-2020 at its facility under construction in Toledo, Ohio, he told executives at S&P Global Platts’ Steel Markets North America conference Tuesday in Chicago.
Cliffs’ new plant will have the annual capacity to produce 1.6 million tons of HBI, which will have a big impact on a 3-million-ton market. “To displace half of what is imported now should be an easy task,” Goncalves said.
Steel minimills that use EAFs need pure iron units to dilute the impurities in the melted scrap. HBI is a cheaper alternative to pig iron, which is produce by integrated mills in their basic oxygen furnaces (BOFs). Asked during Q&A if he is concerned about integrated producers bringing back idled capacity to produce pig iron, Goncalves noted that restarting a BOF takes a lot of time and money. “I don’t see an integrated mill restarting pig iron production to support an EAF mill that is a competitor,” he added.
Tim Triplett
Read more from Tim TriplettLatest in Steel Products
US HR price premium over imports narrows again
US hot band margin over imports on a landed basis has narrowed further.
SMU Community Chat replay now available
The latest SMU Community Chat webinar reply is now available on our website to all members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the community tab and look under the “previous webinars” section of the dropdown menu. All past Community Chat webinars are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the webinar replay, or if your company […]
Nucor’s weekly HR spot price unchanged, again
Nucor’s consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil remains unchanged for another week – now on an 11-week streak. Nucor’s HR coil CSP, still at $750 per short ton (st), has been at that level since Nov. 12. The spot price for HR from Nucor’s joint-venture subsidiary California Steel Industries (CSI) is also flat […]
Price gap between domestic, offshore CRC narrows
The price spread between US-produced cold-rolled (CR) coil and offshore products tightened in the week ended Jan. 17. Domestic CR coil tags were lower week on week (w/w), while offshore products ticked higher. The result? The US premium over imports shrank. In our market check on Tuesday, Jan. 14, US CR coil prices averaged $895 […]
US HR price premium over imports narrows slightly
Hot-rolled (HR) coil prices ticked down in the US last week, while tags abroad varied. The result: US hot band margin over imports on a landed basis has narrowed to a slight extent. SMU’s average domestic HR price last week was $685 per short ton (st), down $5/st from the week before. US hot band […]