Workers at Allegheny Technologies received details of the tentative contract proposal on Saturday and were pleased by what they heard. According to TribLive the USW workers said the contract is “better than what we expected” and “overall, it’s not a bad contract.” The new contract includes a $3,500 signing bonus paid over the life of […]
US Steel Canada supporters have been waiting a month for a decision by Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel on whether former parent company, US Steel, is owed $2 billion dollars debt or if that amount is an equity investment. Court hearings on the matter ended January 27 with a promise of a decision within two weeks. Trevor […]
The USW negotiating committee for ArcelorMittal posted a passionate 25th update to the USW website on Wednesday, Feb. 24. The committee called ArcelorMittal “hell bent” on ignoring the real issues and insisting on health care and contract demands on “principle” than on true cost savings. The committee and management have been in negotiations for a […]
ArcelorMittal USA has closed the aluminizing line at Indiana Harbor West. Workers have been transferred to a galvanizing line that restarted after being idled near the end of 2014. The closing has been in the works for more than a year and was actually expected in December. ArcelorMittal has been in talks with the USW […]
“It would be an understatement to say 2015 was a difficult year in the steel industry,” said Olympic Steel president and COO David Wolfort during the company’s earnings conference call. Olympic Steel reported a net loss of $5.0 million for fourth quarter 2015 and a net loss of $26.8 million for the full year 2015. […]
Once a month HARDI wholesalers conduct a conference call for those member companies who are involved in the sale of galvanized sheet and coils to the mechanical contractors involved in residential and commercial construction. Steel Market Update publisher, John Packard, has been involved with the HARDI organization for many years going back to his steel […]
“We will follow the market,” is what Mark Bula, Chief Commercial Officer at Big River Steel, told SMU during a phone interview late last week. We asked Bula to outline the progress of the mill and when they anticipate beginning production. We learned that with the strength of the cold rolled markets, Big River Steel […]
The United Steelworkers and Allegheny Technologies have reached a tentative agreement on a new four year contract. Approximately 2,220 workers have been out of jobs since August 2015 in what the USW and National Labor Relations Board has termed an illegal lockout. The new contract and back-to-work agreements are subject to ratification by the membership […]
The United Steelworkers and Allegheny Technologies have reached a tentative agreement on a new four year contract. Approximately 2,220 workers have been out of jobs since August 2015 in what the USW and National Labor Relations Board has termed an illegal lockout. The new contract and back-to-work agreements are subject to ratification by the membership […]
BlueScope Steel is one of only a handful of major steel companies around the world that is reporting profit. Underlying EBIT for the first half of FY 2016 was $166.5 million, up 35 percent year over year.. Commenting on the outlook for the company, CEO Paul O’Malley said, “Notwithstanding a challenging macroeconomic environment, we are […]
China’s Ministry of Commerce is calling for European Union cooperation to address the world’s iron and steel overcapacity. Current “trade protectionism” will only have a further negative impact on the industry said Commerce spokesperson Shen Danyang in response to new antidumping measures from the EU. At news conference last week, Shen said overcapacity in the […]
Based on Steel Market Update (SMU) analysis of the recently released MSCI service center inventory and shipment data, total service center carbon steel shipments increased by 264,500 tons in January to 2.909 million tons. Shipping days at 20, were down by two from December. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments increased from 120,200 […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released shipment and inventory data for U.S. steel distributors this week. The headline for total steel products is shipments rose from December to January by 275,200 tons or 9.9 percent, but were still 470,400 tons or 13.3 percent below levels from one year ago. U.S. steel service centers shipped […]
A note from the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) regarding a change in data: “For this month’s Metals Activity Reports in Canada, and going forward, there have been changes in the companies in the sample. These changes result in a reduction in the number of product categories being reported. As indicated on the reports Carbon […]
SAULT STE. MARIE, ONTARIO – On January 29, 2016, Essar Steel Algoma appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn the January 6, 2016 decision of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) regarding dumped and subsidized hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate imports from India and Russia. In their ruling, the […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported net income of $68.8 million for fourth quarter of 2014, down 25.7 percent from fourth quarter 2014 but up 33.5 percent from third quarter. Total sales for Q4 were $2.03 billion down 21.4 percent year over year and down 11.4 percent from third quarter 2015. Total tons sold were down […]
Steel Market Update received trade data from one of our sources regarding Chinese imports and exports of various products including steel. The number that the world markets are discussing is steel exports which totaled 112,400,000 metric tons for calendar year 2015 (123,900,000 net tons). These are big numbers. The U.S. domestic steel industry, which is […]
FORT WAYNE, Ind., Feb. 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ/GS: STLD) today announced the creation of three new leadership positions which will coincide with the retirement of Richard P. Teets, Jr., a co-founder of the company and its Executive Vice President of Steelmaking, and President and Chief Operating Officer of Steel Operations. Effective […]
SSAB faced a tough market in fourth quarter resulting in an operating loss of SEK 802 million ($94.4 million). Low volumes and steel prices in North America and Europe and a maintenance outage at SSAB Special Steels were contributing factors. For the full year 2015, SSAB posted an operating loss of SEK 128 million ($15.2 […]
The National Labor Relations Board is taking Allegheny Technologies Inc. to task for alleged unfair labor practices. The NLRB filed a formal complaint on February 11 accusing ATI of bargaining in bad faith on a new labor agreement with the USW and unlawfully locking out workers on August 15. The 31-page document accuses the company […]
EVRAZ North America announced it will idle indefinitely the Portland Spiral pipe mill in Oregon, effective April 9, 2016. The idling will result in the termination of 130 employees. The closure was “a result of economic challenges from three primary factors: delays in regulatory approvals for pipelines in the U.S. and Canada; the influx of […]
Essar Steel Algoma, under CCAA protection since November 9, 2015, officially went on sale today. The company posted the following announcement on its website: SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – Effective immediately, pursuant to an order by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice of Ontario on February 11, 2016, Essar Steel Algoma Inc. is commencing a […]
ArcelorMittal may be closing some finishing lines at Indiana Harbor according to comments by USW District 7 Director Mike Millsap. Millsap said in an interview in the NWI Times that several lines may be closed, mostly in the East Chicago facility, with others receiving major investments to improve efficiency. By running fewer operations around the […]
China’s Ministry of Commerce says it will take will take definitive steps to cut steel production over the next five years by 100 to 150 million tonnes. China’s excess steel capacity has been has been estimated to be around 300 million tonnes. With domestic demand down, steel production has found its way into exports that […]
Losses keep mounting at US Steel Canada but cash reserves are keeping the company alive for now. In his 21st report, court Monitor Alex Morrison reported an operating loss of CAD$144 million for US Steel Canada in 2015 compared to a loss of $37.9 million in 2014. Shipments totaled 1.8 million tons, a year-over-year decrease […]
Alliance Steel LLC announced it has acquired the working capital assets and customer list of Standard Steel & Wire Inc. (SS&W) based in Chicago, IL. Alliance Steel will concurrently form the Specialty Steel Division of Alliance Steel which will be headed by Dennis Barista, formerly of SS&W. Alliance Steel’s Specialty Steel Division will provide all […]
Mill Steel Co., one of the nation’s largest distributors of flat-rolled carbon steel, has acquired certain assets of S&S Steel Services, Inc. (S&S), an Indianapolis/Anderson based supplier of carbon flat-rolled steel service. Terms of the deal, which closed on January 11, 2016, were not disclosed. S&S Steel services manufacturing customers in the Midwest, Mid-South and […]
During their earnings conference call with the financial analysts, ArcelorMittal spoke about excess Chinese steelmaking capacity which needs to be removed from the markets as well as demand outlook which they believe will improve in the United States and Europe during 2016. The following selected comments were taken directly from the ArcelorMittal conference call transcript […]
The year 2015 was a brutal one for the domestic steel mills as well as the distributors who service the end user markets on a spot basis. Many of the service centers who purchase secondary (non-prime or excess) steel have suffered and have had to change the way they conduct business in order to survive. […]
Contract negotiations continue at ArcelorMittal without any progress reported. In the latest update to union members, the USW said it had made proposals in late January to the company that would “save the company millions of dollars in liability and legacy costs over the course of the contract.” The USW says it has addressed the […]