Nucor Corp. has announced a change in leadership as part of its planned succession process. John J. Ferriola, 67, will retire as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer on Dec. 31. Leon J. Topalian, 51, was named President and Chief Operating Officer, effective Sept. 5, and will succeed Ferriola as CEO on Jan. 1, 2020. Ferriola […]
The remaining days for AK Steel Ashland Works are numbered. Employees received final notices on Tuesday from AK Steel regarding the permanent shutdown of the Ashland plant scheduled for Dec. 31. The letter from the company sent to about 260 employees states: “As you know on Jan. 28, 2019, AK Steel announced its plans to […]
Alro Steel Corp. is reportedly investing $12 million in improvements to the former Central Steel & Wire Co. facility on Milwaukee’s south side, which it purchased for $7.1 million earlier this year. The Jackson, Mich.-based distributor plans to relocate its Wauwatosa distribution center there by late 2020. Alro is in the process of constructing a […]
Nucor has received more than 2,300 applicants for 250 positions at its $400 million steel plant in Sedalia, Mo. The rebar plant is expected to open in November. Jessica Craig, Sedalia-Pettis County economic development executive director, says 153 employees have already been hired, some coming from as far away as Columbia and Kansas City, more […]
Steel demand from the agricultural sector is down substantially, according to a panel of steel distributor and processing CEOs at the 2019 SMU Steel Summit. North American farming profits were hit hard in 2019 by weather, high steel prices and retaliatory Section 232 and 301 tariffs, impacting the ability of farmers to invest in equipment. […]
JSW USA is delaying construction of an electric arc furnace at its Baytown facility due to current market conditions. “While JSW USA is fully under way in modernizing the Plate Mill at Baytown, Texas, given the current market conditions and the prevailing policy environment, the company has for now decided to put on hold the […]
U.S. Steel announced that it will idle its East Chicago Tin facility due to low capacity utilization and consolidate production from three to two facilities. The company hopes to transfer about half of the 297 employees at East Chicago to Gary Works and the Midwest plant. The statement below was sent to employees on Friday. […]
ArcelorMittal announced that it will lay off 100 workers at its Weirton, W. Va., tin plate plant. The company joins its competitors, U.S. Steel and NLMK USA, in cutting back production in recent weeks. ArcelorMittal said in a statement: “In order to maintain its position as a competitive and sustainable tin plate producer, ArcelorMittal Weirton […]
The Steel Manufacturers Association announced today that Big River Steel has joined the association. SMA President Philip Bell welcomed BRS as an “epicenter for steelmaking innovation.” Big River Steel is located in Osceola, Ark. It calls itself the world’s first Flex Mill, merging the wide product mix and superior grade capabilities of an integrated mill […]
It’s official: North Star BlueScope in Delta, Ohio, will be getting a new EAF. Australian parent BlueScope Steel announced the expansion during its FY 2019 earnings presentation. The $700 million investment will add a third electric arc furnace and second caster at the facility, boosting annual capacity by 850,000 metric tons (936,949 net tons). Commissioning […]
U.S. Steel Corp is citing lower pricing and waning demand for the temporary layoff of approximately 200 workers at its Great Lakes Works in Ecorse, Mich. In June, U.S. Steel announced that due to market conditions it would idle a blast furnace at Great Lakes as well as one at Gary Works in Indiana. At this […]
North Star BlueScope was a key contributor to FY 2019 results for Australian parent BlueScope Steel. Revenue at North Star totaled $916 million in the first half of the fiscal year and $784 million in the second half. Total FY 2019 revenue was $1.7 billion, up from $1.49 billion in FY 2018. North Star BlueScope’s […]
Canada’s Russel Metals has expanded its presence in the oilfield with the $160 million acquisition of City Pipe & Supply Corp. City Pipe & Supply supplies pipe, valves and fittings to oil and gas companies in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Granite Wash, Barnett and Haynesville basins, which collectively represent approximately 60 percent of the active […]
ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor has the honor of providing the steel for the first U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carrier to be built in more than 35 years. Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding held a ceremony at its shipyard to celebrate cutting the first sheet of steel to be used in the construction of the vessel for Interlake Steamship […]
Canadian steel producer Stelco Holdings pulled off a profit for the second quarter despite significant headwinds. Second-quarter revenue decreased 39 percent from a year ago, shipping volume was down 27 percent and the average selling price per ton fell 15 percent to $761, the company reported during its earnings call on Wednesday. (All figures are […]
Electric arc furnace minimills may have a cost advantage in steel production today, but there are still 19 traditional blast furnaces going strong in the United States. Blast furnaces dominate about three-fourths of global steelmaking, but only three steel producers in the U.S. currently are using BF or basic oxygen furnace technology: U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal […]
As with any mill announcement, be it price, changes in production or in the case of the U.S. Steel’s announcement about how they are going to handle contracts going forward, there are always mixed opinions from steel buyers and from the other steel mills. This afternoon, Steel Market Update, as an index provider, spent a […]
Russel Metals, Inc., Canada’s second largest metals distributor, reported revenues of $937 million in the second quarter. Net income totaled $31 million, about half the $66 million the company earned in the same quarter last year (figures are in Canadian dollars). The company’s gross margins in this year’s second quarter averaged 18.8 percent, well below […]
Mill Steel Co. has added three veteran executives to the sales team at its Mill Steel Framing operation. The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based distributor of carbon flat-rolled steel has appointed Kip Craddick as Vice President of Mill Steel Framing, Steve McDaniel as Director of Mill Steel Framing, and Brett Patton as Senior Account Manager. Together, the […]
Declining steel prices and inventory destocking contributed to a guidance miss for Ryerson Holding Corp. Although shipments increased 0.6 percent to 623,000 tons quarter-to-quarter, net sales fell 2.1 percent to $2.1 billion. Net income was $16.4 million, down from $30 million in the previous quarter and $18 million a year ago. Earnings per diluted share dropped […]
Steel shipments at Ternium Mexico were relatively flat in the second quarter, increasing 0.4 percent from the first quarter to 1.57 million metric tons. Sales of $1.37 billion slipped 3.9 percent from Q1 and fell 17 percent from Q2 2018. Steel prices have declined in the past three quarters in Mexico, mostly driven by a […]
Distributors of galvanized steel to the HVAC sector are paying higher prices to their suppliers, but having difficulty collecting the increase from their contractor customers, reported members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International during their monthly conference call earlier today. Since HARDI’s last call, domestic flat rolled mills have announced three price […]
Demand for HVAC products remains relatively strong in an otherwise lukewarm steel market, but members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) say they are challenged by declining galvanized steel prices and rising intensity from the competition. Polled six weeks ago, nearly all the HARDI members expected galvanized steel prices to stay […]
Distributors of galvanized steel to the HVAC industry remain surprisingly positive despite steel prices that have been on the decline for more than six months. While there is some variance by region and market segment, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International generally expect solid demand for their products at least through […]
Olympic Steel further advanced its strategy to add manufactured metal products to its portfolio with the acquisition this week of EZ-Dumper. EZ-Dumper, a nationally recognized brand, produces steel and stainless steel dump inserts for pickup truck and service truck beds. Built from heavy-gauge materials and backed by a structural steel frame, the dump inserts can […]
JSW Steel (USA), Inc., is seeking relief from the Section 232 tariffs on the steel slabs it must import temporarily to supply its mill in Baytown, Texas. The U.S. arm of the India-based steel producer has filed a complaint against the U.S. alleging that the Commerce Department’s denial of JSW’s request for exclusion from the […]
U.S. Steel has appointed Bryan Lewis as its new chief investment officer. Lewis has served as CIO for the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) since 2016, managing a $30 billion pension fund. Prior to his Pennsylvania position, he was the executive director of the $20 billion Illinois State Universities Retirement System. As CIO for […]
U.S. Steel reported sales of $3.5 billion in the second quarter, down from $3.6 billion a year ago due to lower steel prices. Net earnings totaled $68 million, down from the $214 million in the second quarter of 2018. The company’s flat rolled segment posted earnings of $134 million despite significant weather-related logistics problems during […]
Olympic Steel executives expressed positive sentiments about the company’s performance during an “unusual” second quarter despite declines in both sales and income compared with the same period last year. The Cleveland-based service center reported quarterly net sales of $429 million, 5 percent lower than in second-quarter 2018. Net income for the quarter totaled $2.1 million, […]
ArcelorMittal suffered a net loss of $447 million in the second quarter due to high raw material costs and sharply lower steel prices in the U.S. resulting in impairment charges on fixed assets in ArcelorMittal USA of $600 million. An additional impairment charge of $347 million occurred due to the sale of assets related to […]