First quarter sales for Severstal North America flat rolled steel products increased 1.0 percent quarter over quarter to 1.83 million tonnes (2 million tons). Production at Severstal Dearborn fell 8 percent q/q due to severe weather and resulting higher natural gas prices. Prices for steel products were mostly flat. Average price for steel rolled products […]
More than half of steel buyers in the March Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Steel Buyers Survey are expecting incoming orders to rise in the next three months. The percentage rose from 27.3 in February to 53.3 in March with the rest expecting the order trend to remain the same. Backlogs are expected to remain […]
Business activity was flat for New York manufacturers in April according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The main index for general business conditions fell four points to 1.3. New orders declined slightly in April while the shipments index showed little change. The unfilled orders index was negative at […]
Coast Guard cutters are still helping iron ore freighters to navigate to their destinations on the Great Lakes. Ore freighters Sam Laud (destination Duluth), Stewart J. Cort and Algoma Discovery (destination Superior), Edwin Gott and Edgar B Speer (destination two Harbors) are in a convoy of five ships underway in Lake Superior at the tip of […]
Olympic Steel announced the promotion of Stephen Reyes to Vice President, Sales and Marketing—Flat Rolled. Reyes will be responsible for the planning and execution of Olympic Steel’s flat-rolled sales and marketing strategies on a company-wide basis. He will remain based in Minneapolis and will report to Raymond G. Walker, President and Chief Operating Officer – […]
Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld is expecting great things for aluminum—“The opportunity in auto is tremendous,” he said in Alcoa’s first quarter conference call. Kleinfeld said he expects aluminum automotive sheet demand to top 1 million metric tons by 2025. “We believe that the aluminum content in cars is going to quadruple very, very soon, basically […]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch gave their quarterly global steel outlook on April 8. BofAML predicts demand for finished steel in China will grow 4.4 percent in 2014. Chinese crude steel production is expected to increase 4.6 to 815 million tons. The outlook is for a trend of slowing but positive growth. Despite mill closings […]
Seaborne freight rates are in a valley trough right now according to the April 9 MID-SHIP Report. Freight prices dropped dramatically in all segments of the Baltic market as oversupply of ships caught up with diminished demand, exacerbated by extreme winter weather this year. Other pressure to rates included China turning away shipments of US […]
Building permits authorizations for construction of single and multi-family dwellings in Canada fell 23.8 percent in February and 0.6 percent year over year, according to data by Statistics Canada. Total permits were 14,011 units compared with 18,398 in January and 15,650 in December. Multi-family authorizations fell sharply during the month to 8,289 units, plummeting 29.3 […]
The Senate Finance Committee passed a bill on Thursday that would restore key tax credits for the wind industry. The renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit were included in the Committee’s final tax extender package after the PTC was passed over in the first draft. Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) sponsored the […]
Unusual ice build-up on the Great Lakes has caused delays of raw materials headed for steel mills in the Midwest. Earlier this week, US Steel notified customers that Gary Works blast furnaces and steelmaking operations will be down temporarily due to “unforeseen and unprecedented ice conditions on the Great Lakes that is delaying the transportation […]
Steel producers and distributors can expect an influx of orders for steel plate for rail tank cars in the next several years. After several serious tanker accidents involving crude oil transport, the Association of American Railroads Tank Car Committee (AARTCC) and Railway Supply Institute Committee on Tank Cars (RSICTC) have each submitted higher safety standard […]
The following is a press release of TranSystems: The TranSystems Transportation Activity Index report for March was released this week, and we saw a flat trend between February and March, but a strong surge over March of last year. The composite reading across all transportation modes came in again at 59.2, flat against February of […]
US Steel recently announced a series of executive changes. David Britten, current Senior Vice President – Tubular Operations, will assume the newly created position of Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Britten will be responsible for a further expansion of the company’s worldwide innovation, technology, engineering, and research and development of products, services and […]
Another Chinese steelmaker has filed for bankruptcy. Jiangsu Shente Steel Co., Ltd., a large scale mill and distribution center, is the latest company forced to close. Earlier in the month Haixen Steel, a steel mill in China’s Shanxi province, shut down operations after defaulting on loans, fueling concerns of widespread default for Chinese corporations. Tighter […]
A Houston, Texas jury returned a verdict for $52 million in damages against Nucor Corp., Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co., its unit Chapel Steel Corp., American Alloy Steel Inc., and JSW Steel Inc. in an antitrust lawsuit brought by former plate steel distributor MM Steel, LP. SSAB was also named in the lawsuit but settled […]
US automotive sales reached 1.53 million units in March besting estimates by WardsAuto who pegged sales at 1.48 million units. Projected sales for the year rose to 16.38 million. Lingering winter weather kept consumers away from dealerships early in the month but sales picked up in the latter half to finish strong. GM CEO Mary […]
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI was at a five month low in March registering 52.4, down from 53.2 in February. The index has indicated expansion for sixteen months with March’s reading above its average for the period. All components of the Global Manufacturing PMI remained in growth territory for the month with expansion slowing […]
CENTRIA Coating Services has promoted two longstanding employees of the organization. Jim Connelly will assume the newly created position of Director of Continuous Improvement and Supplier Relations and Charlie Hamilton has been named Director of Coil Coating Operations for the company’s two plants. “Both of these individuals exemplify CENTRIA’s ‘That’s How We Roll’ swagger,” said […]
The March Chicago Business Barometer slid to its lowest level since August, down 3.9 points to 55.9. The Barometer averaged 58.4 during the first quarter of 2014 indicating recovery but was down from the 2.5 year high of 63.3 in Q4 2013. First quarter results were likely impacted by the harsh weather during the quarter. […]
ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) announced Chris Richards has been appointed president of AM/NS Calvert. Richards will oversee all areas of operations at the Alabama mill and will report to and serve on a joint venture managing board. He most recently served as president of the AM/NSSMC joint venture I/N Tek and […]
New residential sales of single-family homes dropped in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 440,000 according to estimates by the Commerce Department. Sales were 3.3 percent below the revised January rate of 455,000 and 1.1 percent below the February 2013 estimate of 445,000. Inventory was still tight at 189,000, a 5.2 month supply. […]
Barge shipping is beginning to accelerate as winter ice melts on US waterways. The MID-SHIP Report says navigation has resumed on the Illinois River and the middle section of the Upper Mississippi, north to Clinton, Iowa. The Upper Mississippi is still ice covered and chunks of ice on both rivers are slowing barge transit. The […]
US Steel is considering replacing additional blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces (EAF) according to President and CEO Mario Longhi. In January, US Steel announced it was seeking permits to replace the blast furnace at Fairfield, Ala., with an EAF, a process that would take approximately three years from application to completion. The EAF would […]
ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) announced Chris Richards has been appointed president of AM/NS Calvert. Richards will oversee all areas of operations at the Alabama mill and will report to and serve on a joint venture managing board. He most recently served as president of the AM/NSSMC joint venture I/N Tek and […]
A former Severstal executive has been indicted for hiding as much as $7.5 million from US tax authorities in Swiss bank accounts held at UBS AG. Victor Lipukhin, a former steel trader for Russian steel maker Severstal, hid assets in two Swiss UBS bank accounts from 2002 through 2007, said the Justice Department and IRS […]
Sales of new single-family homes dropped in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 440,000 according to estimates by the Commerce Department. Sales were 3.3 percent below the revised January rate of 455,000 and 1.1 percent below the February 2013 estimate of 445,000. Sales on a three month moving average were 445,000, up slightly […]
Steel industry leaders met with members of the Congressional Steel Caucus this morning (March 25, 2014) to discuss the need for policy reform on trade, energy, environment and infrastructure in order to keep US industries competitive. SMU has reprinted the short version of the American Iron and Steel Institute press release below. The full testimonies […]
Big River Steel is cleared to begin construction. Mississippi County Judge Charles Moulton ruled in favor of the John Correnti led Big River Steel in an air quality permit lawsuit filed by rival steel-maker Nucor Corp. An air permit was provisionally granted on Sept 18, 2013 but subsequently challenged by Nucor on the basis that […]
Following an unsuccessful attempt to block the air pollution permit for Big River Steel, Nucor Corp. finds itself on the on the receiving end of tighter air pollution orders from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has ordered the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to require Nucor Steel Louisiana to take additional steps […]