Day: 28 February 2020

ArcelorMittal will supply steel for railway infrastructure projects in Spain, Kallanish learns from Spanish state-owned company Adif.

“The Board of Directors of Adif has approved the award to ArcelorMittal of the new rail supply and transport contract for the needs of works, repairs and spare parts in the General Interest Railway Network (RFIG),” Adif says. “The value of the contract is €42,350,000 million ($46.3 million).”

ArcelorMittal will fulfil the agreement by supplying rails from its rails and special sections plant in Gijón, northern Spain, under an open order system without a firm purchase commitment. The provision of rails will depend on Adif’s needs to deal with maintenance and renovation work on roads and treatment of diversions and stations, the railway infrastructure company adds.

The project will be co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Spanish Multi-Regional operational program 2014-2020 and the “Connect Europe” mechanism (CEF).

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) warns that the Italian stainless steel market is facing a steep drop in production.

The country is dealing with a series of challenges, such as the steep increase in slab imports from Asian markets, and a significant reduction in finished products sales prices due to an influx of products from northern Europe. Another challenge is stainless steel mills’ continuous attempts to reduce scrap prices through the massive use of ferroalloys, which have become more competitive.

In the BIR’s latest quarterly report monitored by Kallanish, Ruggero Ricco from Italy-based Nichel Leghe says that the beginning of this year has been “…even worse than expected.” He adds: “No one could have imagined such a marked slowdown in the final quarter of last year, resulting in a complete halt to stainless steel scrap sales in December. In fact, the main Italian consumer of stainless steel scrap has totally stopped its purchases while the other players have drastically reduced them.”

The reasons behind this, he says, are lower quantities sold by mills as well as their desire to cut their significant inventories. In addition, there has been an increase in slab imports, thus reducing the need to melt scrap and ferro-alloys.

The sector is hoping for the first positive effects from the European Commission’s safeguard measures. Sources are pinning their hopes on these reviving consumption and production of stainless steel in Europe. That was, however, before the spread of the coronavirus.

The European stainless steel sector in Europe is going through a stagnation and low-price phase that was reflected in mills’ and distributors’ 2019 financial results. However, Kallanish earlier learned from sources in the industry that mills are now registering a surge in sales to the distribution sector after a major and long process of destocking.

Import offers of hot rolled coil into southern Europe are still uncompetitive, despite some source believing service centres will soon need to replenish their stocks.

Turkish suppliers are still reported to be offering at €480-490/tonne ($527-537) cfr. This is well above the €440-460/t ex-works base transaction levels registered in Italy and not competitive compared with offers in the Spanish domestic market.

“Service centres in Italy are sniffing around, but domestic material remains more competitive than imports,” a trader notes.

The market is in limbo this week due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy. Arvedi, a local flat products supplier, says production and deliveries are not impacted. Nevertheless, a trader notes demand will be hit. “The market should not suffer from the recent news in Italy, but, effectively, demand will be impacted negatively during the next weeks,” he says.

According to the Kallanish price series, import prices for HRC remain at their peak since June 2019. The differential of €35/t is also very high compared with recent periods. This indicates that if import levels remain elevated, domestic mills should have the possibility to further lift transaction prices in their respective markets.

Turkish integrated long steel producer Kardemir has taken the first step to enter into flat steel production by starting to produce narrow tool steel plate, also known as platina, at its rail and profile rolling mill, the company said on Thursday.

“We have started commercial production of narrow platina with 20-80 mm thick and 200-405 mm wide with an initial capacity of 25,000 mt [per year],” the company’s general manager, Huseyin Soykan, said. He added that their target is to reach 100,000 mt/year of production capacity soon and to raise the width to as much as 520 mm.

“We will continue to focus on value-added steel and our new narrow platina production could be evaluated as Kardemir’s first step into flat steel production,” the general manager said.

Kardemir, which relighted its fourth blast furnace after a revamp at the beginning of October last year, also launched its second basic oxygen converter and lime plants in the fourth quarter of 2019 following capacity increase investments.

Within the scope of the 3.5 million mt/year steel production capacity target as well as the performance increase and productivity, the company will build a new blast furnace with a capacity of 1 million mt/year, as S&P Global Platts has reported.

Kardemir currently has 2.5 million mt/year of liquid steel production capacity.

— Cenk Can

En el siguiente enlace pueden acceder a la edición de Febrero de nuestra revista: Infoacero febrero 2020

A continuación destacamos algunos de sus contenidos:

1. Opinión – D. Josep Roca –Miembro Junta Directiva de  la UAHE. 
2. Evolución del Índice de Precios de Productos Siderúrgicos – UAHE.
3. Formación:  Calendario de Cursos UAHE para el primer cuatrimestre.
4. Siderurgia: Previsión de Eurofer sobre el mercado europeo del acero 2020-2021.
5. Jornada UAHE: Asamblea General y Conferencias, Madrid, 4 de Junio.
6. Colaboración ASCEM: Ventajas del Acero en Estructuras Sismorresistentes.