TK Italian stainless producer Terni to suspend output: unions

Italian stainless steel producer Thyssenkrupp Acciai Speciali Terni will temporarily shut down again this month amid low volumes, unions representing employees at the company told S&P Global Platts on Tuesday, adding that the company expects finished products in May to be about half of previously announced levels.

The company has told its unions that production of finished cold steel products in May will likely reach 47,000 mt, against the 84,000 mt previously expected.

As a result, the company will halt operations at its melting shop from May 23 to June 3, while its cold rolling mill will stop production from May 25 to June 3, and its tube rolling mill will stop from May 29 to June 3.

“We have been told that this decision has been taken mainly from the decrease of orders mainly from the automotive sector. We have been told that the drop due to the coronavirus of auto orders will be of minus 30% for May,” a union source said.

Terni wasn’t immediately available for comment on the matter Tuesday.

Terni’s parent company, ThyssenKrupp, said in its earnings report that total shipments from the Italian unit last year came to 844,000 mt, while in 2018 the company shipped 888,000 mt of steel products.

In the statement, ThyssenKrupp said that its outlook due to the coronavirus pandemic and the associated impacts on the economy as a whole cannot currently be predicted in full for the remaining months of the fiscal year. At the end of March, the company withdrew its forecast for the current fiscal year.

Along with other Italian steelmakers, Terni stopped output at the end of March due to the coronavirus, although it subsequently restarted production after the Easter holidays.

— Annalisa Villa