SSAB Americas President Chuck Schmitt joined SMU for a Community Chat webinar last week during which we talked plate, renewable energy and fossil-free steelmaking. We also got to some good questions from you about the hydrogen-based steelmaking SSAB is undertaking in Sweden through its HYBRIT partnership with iron ore miner LKAB and power producer Vattenfall. […]
Editor’s note: Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on how to upgrade to a Premium-level subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Prices for all but one of the steelmaking raw materials tracked in this SMU analysis increased from May to June, with most products following large gains seen in […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. plans to take a 45-day maintenance outage at the big No. 7 blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor steel works in East Chicago, Ind., a company spokeswoman said. The planned outage, for a partial reline of the furnace, is scheduled to start on Sept. 1, she said. The No. 7 furnace has capacity […]
The Russian government has proposed levying tariffs on the country’s ferrous and non-ferrous exports from Aug.1 until year-end to offset extra costs faced by the state’s sub-contractors due to much higher metal prices. “In order to rule out price manipulation during export, as well as the temptation to understate the value of export contracts and […]
A Whimper or a Bang…? An interesting comment was made by one of the wholesalers on this morning’s HARDI galvanized steel conference call. I am paraphrasing here, but essentially the wholesaler was making the point that even when the mills catch up, the underlying demand is still there. From this executive’s perspective, as long as […]
SSAB and its green steel partners LKAB and Vattenfall claim to have made a major breakthrough in environmentally friendly steelmaking. The HYBRIT team said it has produced the world’s first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron, a major step toward fossil-free steel. The HYBRIT pilot plant in Sweden – a joint project undertaken by steelmaker SSAB, iron ore […]
2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference Revised Agenda as of June 20, 2021 There are 55 days before the start to the 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We should have close to 300 companies and 800+ executives attending this year based on where we are today. The conference agenda is close to its final shape. There […]
2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference Revised Agenda as of June 20, 2021 There are 55 days before the start to the 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We should have close to 300 companies and 800+ executives attending this year based on where we are today. The conference agenda is close to its final shape. There […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran U.S. sheet prices are still trending higher, which has supported further gains in raw materials, slabs and imported steel. Even though CRU HR coil prices have increased 7.4% m/m to $1,655 /s.ton on June 16, market contacts still report a lack of workable offers, especially given lead times into […]
As a co-founder of Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), Mark Millett has had a front row seat to the dramatic changes the steel industry has staged over the past three decades. Actually, he has played a leading role in many of those changes and continues to choreograph the latest act in steel’s story with the imminent […]
It is a good time to be a steel producer. Both Steel Dynamics and Nucor are expecting record earnings for the second quarter of 2021 supported by strong demand and unprecedented steel prices. And U.S. Steel expects second quarter adjusted EBITDA more than double that in the first. SDI expects earnings to be in the range […]
SMU’s Community Chat webinar with Bank of America metals and mining analyst Timna Tanners last week was our second-best attended ever. Barry Zekelman, executive chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, still holds the title. But Tanners gave him a run for his money. We received more questions during the webinar than we were able to […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Richard Lu, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor In September 2020, President Xi Jinping formally announced that China will aim to achieve a peak in carbon emissions before 2030, followed by carbon neutrality before 2060. As part of the decarbonization efforts, the Chinese government at the start of the year announced […]
Steel prices will correct sharply as supply catches up with demand, potentially falling back to an average of $575 per ton ($28.75 per cwt) in 2022, according to one leading industry analyst. “This too will pass,” was the title chosen by Timna Tanners, metals and mining analyst at Bank of America, for her SMU Community […]
ArcelorMittal Mines and Infrastructure Canada have reached tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers on a new labor contract following government-mediated negotiations. If ratified, the four-year collective labor agreement will cover 2,500 members in five union locals working at ArcelorMittal mining operations in northern Quebec. Workers launched a strike on May 10 after voting to reject a […]
Prices for all of the steelmaking raw materials tracked in this SMU analysis increased from April to May, with most products following large gains seen in previous months. Over the last 30 days, pig iron and coking coal prices have increased 17-19%, respectively. In that same period, prices increased for iron ore 9%, zinc 6%, scrap 5% and […]
Don’t forget to tune into SMU’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, June 23, at 11 a.m. ET with SSAB Americas President Charles Schmitt. SSAB, a Nordic steel company with employees in over 50 countries, claims to be the largest producer and supplier of heavy plate in North America, with a market share of approximately 33% in […]
Don’t forget to tune into SMU’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, June 23, at 11 a.m. ET with SSAB Americas President Charles Schmitt. SSAB, a Nordic steel company with employees in over 50 countries, claims to be the largest producer and supplier of heavy plate in North America, with a market share of approximately 33% in […]
Don’t forget to tune into SMU’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, June 23, at 11 a.m. ET with SSAB Americas President Charles Schmitt. SSAB, a Nordic steel company with employees in over 50 countries, claims to be the largest producer and supplier of heavy plate in North America, with a market share of approximately 33% in […]
Mesabi Metallics isn’t acting like a firm that is about to lose its position on the Iron Range. The company hired a new president and chief operating officer, selecting Larry Sutherland, former manager of U.S. Steel’s Minnesota Ore Operations, to join the executive team. “I am excited to join Mesabi Metallics’ journey to complete the […]
Lourenco Goncalves, chairman, president and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, will be honored as Steelmaker of the Year by the Association for Iron and Steel Technology at this year’s AISTech 2021 conference. The award recognizes Goncalves for his leadership in the iron and steel industry. Said AIST in a press release: “Goncalves is awarded Steelmaker of the […]
United Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal Mines and Infrastructure Canada went on strike Monday night after rejecting a May 7 offer by the company. The strike by 2,500 employees could have a “serious economic impact on the economy of the Côte-Nord and Quebec,” said Quebec Labor Minister Jean Boulet. ArcelorMittal and the USW executives of the five […]
Cargill Metals and Canadian mining company Black Iron are teaming up to create a new iron ore plant in the Ukraine. The May 10 agreement gives Cargill offtake rights to the first 4 million metric tons of ore produced per year for the next 10 years along with profit sharing. On the profit share, Black […]
Record-high steel prices result not from Section 232 tariffs or industry consolidation but instead from uniquely strong supply-demand fundamentals, Cleveland-Cliffs’ top executive said. And an ambitious infrastructure package would go a long way toward keeping those fundamentals, and the resulting investment in the domestic steel industry, stronger for longer, he suggested. “We in this country […]
Record-high steel prices result not from Section 232 tariffs or industry consolidation but instead from uniquely strong supply-demand fundamentals, Cleveland-Cliffs’ top executive said. And an ambitious infrastructure package would go a long way toward keeping those fundamentals, and the resulting investment in the domestic steel industry, stronger for longer, he suggested. “We in this country […]
2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference Revised Agenda as of May 9, 2021 The 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 23-25. The convention center is conveniently located next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The center and the hotels surrounding it are at the first stop […]
2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference Revised Agenda as of May 9, 2021 The 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 23-25. The convention center is conveniently located next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The center and the hotels surrounding it are at the first stop […]
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday that it will cancel the Iron Range mineral leases for Mesabi Metallics after the company failed to meet a May 1 deadline. Mesabi Metallics missed the deadline to demonstrate that it had $200 million of funding available for its half-finished taconite mine project. Said the department in […]
ArcelorMittal’s joint venture AMNS Calvert ran at near capacity in the first quarter of 2021, delivering record first-quarter results. Hot strip mill production jumped 19.3% to 1.3 million metric tons from the fourth quarter. EBITDA nearly tripled to $159 million from $56 million in the prior quarter. The mill is currently supplied with slab sourced […]
In a surprise announcement, U.S. Steel said it is canceling the endless casting and cogeneration project at Mon Valley Works. The company has already spent $170 million on the $1.3 billion project. “This is not the end of Mon Valley,” President and CEO David Burritt emphasized during the first quarter earnings call on Friday. The […]