A 0.4 increase in January purchases pushed existing home sales to their highest annual rate in six months, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.47 million in January was 11 percent higher than a year ago. The uptick in sales was accompanied by higher home pricing […]
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. […]
The Department of Commerce is initiating a circumvention inquiry on imports of cut-to-length steel plate from China following a petition from Nucor and SSAB. The two steel mills assert that producers, exporters and importers are circumventing duties imposed on CTL by adding alloys, such as boron, titanium and chromium to the product. The Department of […]
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 […]
The Department of Commerce has announced affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping investigations of imports of heavy walled rectangular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Korea, Mexico, and Turkey. The investigations cover heavy walled rectangular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes, which are rectangular (including square) welded carbon steel pipes and tubes that have […]
Metalforming companies in the U.S. and Canada are expecting slightly improved business conditions in the next three months. Surveyed members of the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) reported average daily shipping levels in February were higher than three months ago and anticipate steady order activity for the next three months. Companies reporting workers on short time […]
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 […]
Residential construction is beginning the new year with slower momentum. A blast of winter weather in the Northeast slowed construction starts in January after a warmer than usual December. The Commerce Department reports U.S. housing starts fell 3.8 percent from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.099 million in January, the lowest rate […]
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 […]
After a generally positive performance in 2015, the Architectural Billings Index started the year with a slip to 49.6 in January from December’s reading of 51.3. A score above 50 indicates growth in design services and below 50 indicates a decline. AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker called January “rocky” but noted “the fundamentals are mostly […]
Steel workers and chief executives from 17 European member states took to the streets in Brussels on Monday to protest the dumping of steel products and granting of market economy status to China. Market status would only worsen the European steel crisis, claimed protestors, and cost tens of thousands of jobs. EUROFER, the European Steel […]
Last week, the Senate passed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA). The bill contains important provisions of the Enforcing Orders and Reducing Customs Evasion (ENFORCE) Act that have been promoted by the U.S. steel and manufacturing industries to combat evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties . Evasion is defined as failing […]
Business activity continued to decline for New York manufacturers in the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The general business conditions index picked up 3 points registering -16.6, its seventh consecutive month in contraction. The index was weaker than economist estimates of 10.0 to 10.50. Most indexes in the survey remained in contraction in February but […]
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 […]
Seaborne shipping market rates continue to plummet with the Baltic Dry Index reaching another new low this past week. The Index stood at 290 on Wednesday, Feb. 10; a year ago on that date the BDI stood at 556. To get a better perspective on how bad things are, the highest level ever reached was […]
Carrier, a leading manufacturer of heating, ventilating and air conditioning products, announced on February 10 plans to relocate its Indiana manufacturing operations to Monterrey, Mexico. The move will affect about 1,400 employees and will occur in phases from 2017 through 2019. Chris Nelson, President, HVAC Systems and Services North America, said, “This move is intended […]
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 […]
The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 passed by a margin of 75-20 in the Senate this morning. The customs bill has been advocated by the steel industry to strengthen measures to combat unfairly traded and subsidized imports. The bill now moves to the President for anticipated approval and signature. The American Iron […]
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 […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Board of Directors this week approved the Institute’s 2016 Public Policy Agenda during its meeting in Washington, D.C. The Agenda outlines aggressive pro-manufacturing policy strategies to guide advocacy for the upcoming year and highlights the importance of the steel industry to the U.S. economy and […]
Steel exports from the U.S. dropped 17.2 percent in 2015 to an annual total of 9.97 million net tons. The strong U.S. dollar and a recession in Canada contributed heavily to the decline, says the American Institute for International Steel. More than half of U.S. steel exports go to Canada each year. In 2015 the […]
The Dodge Momentum Index rose for the second month in a row, gaining 2.4 percent in January to register 126.4 from a revised December reading of 123.4. The Momentum Index, published by Dodge Data & Analytics, is a measure of the initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning. The January increase was the result […]