Month: February 2018

ArcelorMittal is increasing the capacity of its sheet service centre in Neuwied, northwestern Germany, by 100,000 mt to 500,000 mt/year, the company said Tuesday.

The company is investing €16.50 million in the SSC, which processes sheet from its own Bremen, Eisenhuettenstadt and Ghent mills. The investment also comprises of a new slitting line, crane facility and a cutter block.

The slitting line is expected to be operational by the end of this year and increase the annual capacity of the site by 100,000 mt. The line can slit coils with a thickness of up to 4mm.

“We are investing in a significant capacity expansion and several automation projects to increase productivity and health and safety at the sote, said managing director Friedrich Raffauf. Neuwied supplies primarily the automotive, mechanical engineering and plant manufacturing industry, the company said.

The SSC, which has its own jetty to the river Rhine, was opened in 1998. ArcelorMittal has six service centers in Germany and 16 distribution centers, as well as its integrated flats and longs works.

Laura Varriale, PLATTS

ArcelorMittal is investing a total of €16.5 million ($20.1m) in its steel service centre in Neuwied on the Rhine, Kallanish learns from the company.

It has already spent €6.5m, and will spend another €10m up to the end of the year, some of which will be invested in setting up a new slitting line.

In January, the Neuwied site began operating a new slitter shaft robot, with a second one following in March. The robots will automatically equip the steel shafts with blades weighing 20 kg, and then forward the shafts into the coil cutting machinery. The automation of this process increases operator safety the company says. Two new crane units will also be ready to start operation in March

The new slitting line intended to commence operations at the end of the year will be able to handle coils of 30 tonnes weight and a strip thickness of up to 4mm. Neuwied will then be able to raise its production capacity by another 100,000 tonnes/year, in addition to its current capacity of 400,000 tonnes. The new line will also be equipped with slitter shaft robots and automatic separation shafts. In addition, there will be a new packaging line that automatically prepares cut sheet and coil for transport.

Managing director Friedrich Raffauf says that the modernisation will mean that employees are spared from the dangerous handling of heavy machinery. The Neuwied plant employs 100 people and processes strip from the group’s mills in Ghent, Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt.

Global steel output continued to grow in January, despite the headwinds in China caused by the winter steel capacity cuts, according to the World Steel Association.

Global output in the month was 139.4 million mt, an increase of 0.8% compared to the January 2017 total. However, at 70% the utilization rate was down 0.2% compared to a year earlier suggesting global capacity – as recognized by the World Steel Association – has come back online and weighed on overall utilization.

Production in China was down 0.9% year on year to 67 million mt, but overall Asian output grew 0.3% on growth in Vietnam (+38.8%), India (+2.5%) and South Korea (+2.7%). Indian output was just 2,000 mt lower than Japan’s (9.3 million mt) as the country looks set to become the world’s second-largest producer.

In the European Union, production grew 1.4% to just under 14.4 million mt, with growth in Italy particularly strong at 5.3%. Turkish output also remained strong, registering 7.6% on year growth to 3.2 million mt, while Russian output slipped 3.9% to 5.7 million mt.

North American production fell on the back of a 2.2% decline in the US, even as prices rose dramatically and imports were squeezed by the raft of duties.

In South America output rose 3.2% to 3.6 million mtas Brazil, the powerhouse, maintained moderate growth of 1.3%.

Africa (+15.1%) and the Middle East (+11.4%) recorded the strongest growth, with Egypt and Iran driving production in the two emerging regions.

Australian output also saw a surge of 12.9%, likely related to Liberty’s takeover of Onesteel.

Peter Brennan, PLATTS

Technology provider Fimi has upgraded the existing coil cut-to-length (CTL) line of Holland-based Laura Metaal in order to process heavier gauge, and stronger and abrasive grade hot rolled coil, Kallanish learns from a statement.

The existing line was installed by Fimi in 2009; it has now been upgraded to reach a maximum thickness of 25mm and increase yield strengths. Fimi stated it is now to be considered among the most powerful and performing CTL lines for heavy gauge, ultra-high strength materials in the world.

ESH Euro Stahl-Handel, the steel division of construction and DIY purchasing cooperative E/D/E has entered a cooperation with steel.shop, the online trading entity formerly known as #netzwerkstahl, Kallanish notes. The partnership is set to pave new ways for ESH’s small and medium-sized members in the digital competition with large steel stockholders and producers, the company says.

“The increasing digitalisation in steel distribution is a clear and irreversible trend,” ESH’s managing director says, referring to the arrangement. “With steel.shop, we can offer our members an individually configured and branded online shop system to open another sales channel and become visible in the digital world,” says its other managing director, Joachim Hiemeyer. E/D/E – ESH is one of two large German steel purchasing cooperatives of similar size. In 2017 the company processed a sales volume of just over €1 billion ($1.25 billion).

steel.shop is a digital service supplier that emerged from the former #netzwerkstahl which was started up around three years ago to become a full-on steel trading platform. While that scheme was abandoned, its parent company, Swiss-based distributor Montanstahl, changed the name and direction of the project, turning it into a provider of software for distributors to set up their own platform.

Wolfgang Stumm, managing partner of steel.shop, notes that “… implementations of e-commerce solutions are difficult for several reasons.” For one thing, he says, the complexity of steel products could not be captured with standard software products. Also, SMEs are normally lacking the capacity and IT expertise to come up with a system of their own. “And, such insular solutions mean [… an amount of] effort that is hard to calculate,” he adds.

Two companies within the ArcelorMittal group, ArcelorMittal CLN and Industeel, have requested approval from European authorities to take full control of Italian flat stainless and special steels distributor and processor Centro Servizi Metalli (CSM).

Industeel, which currently owns 21% of CSM, is set to take control of 49% of the company. The Italian distribution company ArcelorMittal CLN has an almost 43% shareholding in CSM.

The remaining shares are set to remain in the hand of the current owners.

The European authorities are expected to give an answer to the request by mid-March, Kallanish understands.

CSM is an Italian based distributor of stainless and special flat steel products, with operations in Italy, France and Poland, supported by two further commercial offices in Germany and Benelux.

Stock levels of hot rolled coil among EU service centers dropped significantly year-on-year in December whereas inventories of coated coils remain elevated, according to steel federation EUROMETAL.

Shipments by service centers increased 0.2% in 2017 from 2016 while stock levels moderated between November and December to an index of 107 (100 equals the monthly average of 2015). This meant stock inventories in December were at the same level as they had been in December 2016.

Eurometal identified a significant divergence in products, with apparent hot rolled coil tightness reflecting the strength in the price. The index for HRC dropped to 93 in December, down from 104 a year earlier.

Inventories of cold rolled coil also fell to 99 from 106 in December 2016, despite the continued presence of imports. Whereas HRC imports fell 55% on year in November, CRC imports rose 7%.

At the other end of the spectrum, Eurometal found the index for coated coils in December was 127, well above the 110 in December 2016.

Many in the market have been scratching their heads as to why the hot dip galvanized coil price has been more resistant to offer increases than other products. High zinc costs, rising hot rolled coil substrate prices and strong end user demand have not seen the base grade DX51D HDG market edge much further than €670/mt ex-works in northern Europe.

But the significant booking of imports early in the year, and the lower than anticipated impact of anti-dumping duties on Chinese volumes, means stock levels remain elevated.

The latest customs figures suggest imports will be increasingly less of a factor, with HDG arrivals in November down 23% y-o-y. This compared with a 34% y-o-y increase in the January-November 2017 total. But sources also suggest domestic HDG output is higher with mills producing more galvanized coil in preference to CRC.

Multi-product and proximity stockholders saw their sales in 2017 decline by 0.8% compared to 2016, with only HRC, CRC and tubes performing stronger year on year. Stocks in 2017 were at an index of 101, slightly above index of 99 a year earlier.

EUROMETAL is the European Federation of Steel, Tubes and Metals Distribution & Trade.

Peter Brennan, PLATTS

IMS group has reached an agreement with Outokumpu and Sidenor to become an exclusive distributor of high machinability Prodec stainless round bars in key European countries, Kallanish learns from a statement.

Leading European special and stainless bar distributor IMS is active in more than ten European countries and will sell the product in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, among others. It will offer Prodec round bars in the complete size range from 6mm to 230mm and beyond if requested.

The Prodec range is available in grades 304L/4307, 316L/4404 and 303/4305 and 17-4PH. These are suitable for a variety of machining applications such as fasteners, valves, pressure fittings, nuts, bolts and screws, gears, shafts, and bearings.

The IMS group is owned by French-headquartered Jacquet Metal Service Group.

European steel distributors’ association Eurometal tells Kallanish that European Union (EU) distribution sector flat product’s shipments rose slightly in 2017. Flats’ inventories at the year-end were unchanged year-on-year but differing developments were noted within the range of products, Eurometal says.

Flat steel service centres saw EU shipments increase, albeit slightly, by 0.2%% on-year in 2017 following 5 months of increase. The overall positive trend was registered for both hot- and cold-rolled flats, and galvanised and other coated flats.

The index for stock volumes at flat steel service centres meanwhile closed at 107 at the end of December, the same as in December 2016. Within the product portfolio there were different developments however, Eurometal notes.

The stock index of galvanized and other coated flats registered in December at high 127 (December 2016= 110). The stock index for hot rolled flats, conversely dropped to 93, and that for cold rolled flats lowered to 99, from 104 and 106 respectively in December 2016.

EU Multi-Product & Proximity Stockholding distribution shipments also fell in 2017, by -0.8% y-o-y.

“Among the product lines sold by EU multi-product & proximity steel stockholding distribution, only hot rolled flats, cold rolled flats and tubes registered in 2017 higher shipments than in 2016,” Eurometal confirms.

The index for stock volumes in this sector was at 101 in December versus an index of 99 in the same month of the previous year.