Tag: Mexico

ArcelorMittal Mexico is suffering a significant production loss as the labor strike at its mill in Lazaro Cardenas is now in its fourth week.

North American auto assemblies ticked higher in May, moving up for the second straight month and reaching a nine-month high, according to LMC Automotive data. While assemblies were up month on month (m/m), they are still 1.7% lower year on year (y/y).

The conventional wisdom is that sheet prices will trend down for the next few weeks (maybe the next two months) before rising again in August – around when lead times stretch into the busier fall months. We see that reflected in our survey results and in market chatter. And there are plenty of data points to choose from if you want to support of that position.

As the scrap market for June settles at lowered levels, let’s look at the situation for exports of ferrous scrap from the US East and Gulf coasts. Despite declines in the North American ferrous markets over the last two months, export prices have remained range-bound within a tight trading window. After a brief decline last […]

Canacero has weighed in on the workers' protest at ArcelorMittal Mexico’s Lazaro Cardenas mill, urging a quick resolution to the dispute.

US light-vehicle (LV) sales rose to an unadjusted 1.43 million units in May, up 4.8% vs. year-ago levels, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported. The year-on-year (y/y) growth in domestic LV sales came in with a 7.6% month-on-month (m/m) boost.

Total steel exports rebounded 6% in April, rising to 842,000 short tons (st) according to the latest US Department of Commerce data.

The USMCA is an important trade agreement, as long as the member countries honor its requirements. These were the sentiments echoed by top officials of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) and Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) during a press conference at their annual meeting last week in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Mexican steelmaker Deacero recently broke ground on a $600-million mini-mill in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, in northern Mexico.

Now that June has arrived, the official countdown until SMU’s Steel Summit 2024 – North America’s premier flat-rolled steel conference – has begun. If you haven’t already registered, don’t delay. More than 700 attendees from more than 300 companies have already registered to be in Atlanta this August. In short, it’s poised to be another […]

It feels like the summer doldrums arrived a little earlier than usual this year. I know there had been rumors of a price hike. The prospect of a sharply lower June scrap trade probably didn't help the chances of that actually happening.

ArcelorMittal plans to continue to invest and expand its operations in North America, a senior company executive said in an exclusive interview with SMU. “People were talking about our demise in North America or maybe our exit. And I want to emphasize that nothing could be further from the truth,” said Brad Davey, executive vice president and head of corporate development at the company.

Steel production at ArcelorMittal Mexico has been interrupted due to an “illegal protest” and blockade outside the company’s mill in Lazaro Cardenas, Mich. Some Sindicato Minero union members, dissatisfied with the profit-sharing payments they received, have been obstructing access to the mill since Friday, May 24. As a result, ArcelorMittal had to stop blast furnace […]

We’re just a few months away from SMU’s Steel Summit 2024 – North America’s premier flat-rolled steel conference.

A strike outside the ArcelorMittal Mexico plant in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán, is threatening to impact blast furnace operations at the mill.

Venture Steel announced plans to expand its flat rolled processing facility in Ramos Arizpe, Coah., Mexico.

The free market operates best when it is freest. But all governments intervene in markets in response to conditions that threaten peaceful progress. President Biden decided last week that market intervention was justified. He approved a report from the US Trade Representative (USTR) that recommended continuing the “Section 301” tariffs on Chinese imports into the United States.

The USMCA should be strong enough to handle trade disagreements on steel between the US and Mexico, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute’s (AISI’s) Kevin Dempsey.

Mexican steelmaker Talleres y Aceros (TYASA) broke ground this month on the construction of a new special bar quality (SBQ) rolling mill in the state of Veracruz.

Cleveland-Cliffs’ Lourenco Goncalves thinks trade measures announced by the US government on Tuesday against China were just the opening salvo in a series of trade actions. Case in point: The Biden administration targeted China’s “unfair” trade policies with additional tariffs on an array of Chinese-made goods - including steel, aluminum, and EVs.

The Mexican federal government backed down on the application of tariffs on raw non-alloyed and alloyed aluminum decreed on April 22.

Brazil-based Gerdau has announced it will carry out a feasibility study into the greenfield development of a 600,000 metric-ton-per-year (mt) special steel plant in Mexico.

Klöckner & Co. logged a wider net loss in the first quarter on-year, but the Duisburg, Germany-based service center group expects higher shipments and sales in the upcoming three months.

Thyssenkrupp Materials Services is continuing its expansion in North America. It announced the opening of a new steel service center in Sinton, Texas, to primarily serve the automotive, HVAC, and construction markets.

US steel exports eased through March but remain healthy, having reached a six-month high in February

US announces new import duties on aluminum extrusions The US Department of Commerce has placed preliminary antidumping (AD) duties of 2-600% on imports of aluminum extrusions from 14 countries. The rates are: “[The findings] show just how widespread dumping practices are globally and highlight the importance of strongly enforcing the antidumping laws to shield US […]

United Auto Workers (UAW) members at a Stellantis plant in Michigan have health and safety grievances so severe they are considering going on strike.

Constellium reported its latest quarterly results for Q1'24. Adjusted Ebitda came in at €137 million (USD$147 million), down 8.6% year over year (y/y) amid revenue of €1.7 billion (USD$1.8 billion), down 12% y/y. Shipments totalled 380,000 metric tons (mt) in Q1, representing a drop of 2% y/y.

GrafTech is reporting weak near-term demand for graphite electrodes as economic uncertainty constrains steel production globally.

I’ve gotten some questions lately about whether the huge gap between domestic hot-rolled coil (HR) prices and those for cold-rolled (CR) and coated is sustainable. I remember being asked similar questions about the wide spread between HR and plate that developed in early 2022. I thought at the time that there was no way that spread could hold. Turned out, I was wrong. That was humbling. And so I’m not going to make any bold predictions this time.