Steel Mills

Stelco: Unplanned Outages Cut Q4 Shipments, Q1 Impact Likely

Written by David Schollaert

January 6, 2022

Stelco Holdings Inc. said its fourth-quarter steel shipments were negatively impacted by production challenges and unplanned outages.

The Hamilton, Ontario-based steelmaker shipped roughly 625,000 net tons of steel in the fourth quarter of 2021, below prior guidance of 675,000 to 680,000 net tons.

stelco

Shipments in the fourth quarter were lower than expected due to various production challenges, including unplanned outages on its hot strip mill, logistics hurdles, and delays at the end of Q4 brought on by the Omicron variant, the company said.

The negative news didn’t stop there for Stelco. The Canadian steelmaker also provided its first quarter 2022 guidance – and indicated that steel shipments would be similar to or below fourth-quarter totals.

Stelco said the lower guidance for Q1 is a result of planned outages that have been pulled forward in response to its fourth-quarter challenges. Weaker guidance also stems from declining steel prices, weaker demand, and limited labor availability due to increased COVID disruptions, the company said.

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com

 

David Schollaert

David Schollaert is deputy editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. David joined SMU after more than a decade in the metals and mining industry in a myriad of different roles. Much of his early experience and expertise were within the coverage and analysis of steel-making raw materials and served previously as senior editor of the CRU Prices Service. Most recently, however, before his return to market analysis, David held roles as a metals buyer and an operations manager for raw material suppliers. He can be contacted at david@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-720-1008.

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