Day: 16 March 2020

ArcelorMittal Bremen has commissioned Berlin-based technology company Smart Steel Technologies (SST) to introduce its artificial intelligence (AI) software products for strip products for demanding applications.

The steelmaker has selected ‘SST Casting Optimization AI’ and ‘SST Surface Inspection AI’ software, which serve to optimise the continuous casting process and automated surface inspection, Kallanish learns from the supplier. ArcelorMittal has already cooperated with SST at its other German strip mill at Eisenhüttenstadt.

According to SST, ArcelorMittal Bremen will install a system for AI-supported analysis of production data to implement effective optimisation measures that include a reduction in rejections caused by surface defects.

“Surface inspection will be improved with a centralised, cross-plant aggregation of all detections and application of robust defect classifiers based on SST’s proprietary Deep Learning technology,” the tech company says. The implementation of the measures in the production process will take place after a project duration of six months.

“We have observed very closely the outstanding performance of Smart Steel Technologies at ArcelorMittal Eisenhüttenstadt. The same quality optimisation project is underway there. The results are convincing,” says ArcelorMittal Bremen board chairman, Reiner Blaschek.

Following the Jingye Steel acquisition of the main UK steelmaking and processing sites of British Steel last week, stockholder Barrett Steel has acquired British Steel’s distribution sites across the UK.

Barrett completed the acquisition early last week, the company says. It is now trading as Barrett Steel North East from Newcastle, Central Steel Services from Wolverhampton and Barrett Steel Dartford. The Scunthorpe, Edinburgh and Cheadle locations are being merged into existing depots. These depots will be integrated with Barrett Steel’s nationwide depot network, Kallanish notes.

This now means that the stockholder will now operate in 30 locations cross the UK. 75 employees will transfer across from British Steel to Barrett, the company confirms.

“This acquisition provides a great opportunity for the group. We are excited to welcome the British Steel teams to our business and we are positive about the future of the steel industry,’ says group managing director James Barrett.

Workers at the former Ilva plant in Taranto have announced a strike until 22 March, a union source representing workers at the site tells Kallanish. The strike started on Friday last week, will last for 10 days and will only involve the Taranto steelworks.

According to the unions, new owner ArcelorMittal Italia has refused to reduce the workforce at the site, and is not taking drastic measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak. “Buses are being used to go to the site and there are only a few protection masks for over 8,000 workers. Changing rooms are being used, it is practically impossible to keep a metre distance when using facilities like the canteen. We believe the company is not applying the rules of the Italian Health ministry,” the source says.

Another Fiom union representative says that the union has written a letter to the authorities regarding the situation. He believes that instead of waiting for the first case of the virus at the plant, the company should reduce the workforce and take the necessary measures to prevent coronavirus spread. He adds that measures can be taken without necessarily stopping production.

A request for comment from ArcelorMittal Italia rmained unanswered before Kallanish publication deadline.

Italian longs’ producer Feralpi tells Kallanish that it is preparing to halt production at its main mill in Lonato del Gardo as from Monday 16 March. The company is headquartered in the Brescia area in Italy, in a region heavily affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The company is the latest longs producer in northern Italy to announce a halt in production. The decision has been taken to join the fight to stop the spread of coronavirus in Italy, although not required by the existing legal measures in place.

The Lonato mill will be closed, with only a small number of workers to oversee the security of the site. Other plants of the group will not close immediately but the situation will be monitored.

The Lonato del Garda EAF-based mill is the biggest of the group in Italy. The company also operates EAF-based steelmaking and rolling lines in Germany and France.

With this latest announcement by Feralpi it is clear that Northern Italian longs supplier are taking the situation very seriously, halting production in most cases, particularly in the Brescia area. As demand for long products reduces in Italy due to the current lock-down in place, the slowdown in production could well support prices in the market during the coming months. This would be due to reduced output and lower product availability when the situation returns to normal, Kallanish notes.

Negative sentiment across the European flat steel market has intensified further as European countries stepped up their measures against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, sources told S&P Global Platts Friday.

The market in Italy remains quiet but production of flat steel would continue for now, unlike several mills of long steel products that have temporarily ceased production in the country, sources said.

“Customers are waiting and not buying and next week I feel that many will be closed,” said an Italian steel service center source. “Prices are stable. I have no info that there is weakening.”

The daily Platts TSI index for HRC Southern Europe increased by Eur2/mt to Eur455/mt EXW S.EU Friday.

More countries started to restrict public life Friday following Italy’s example, while the German government pledged it would support businesses financially if they would introduce short-time working due to the virus.

An Austrian service center source said the outlook on price developments in the coming week were still unclear and that they were not stockpiling material despite others in the market reported to be doing so.

“We are only seeing ex-works prices in Italy, no delivered prices are being offered,” the source said, adding the tradable value was Eur480-482.50/mt EXW Ruhr in Germany and that import material was heard at Eur465/mt CIF Antwerp.

The daily Platts TSI index for Northern Europe remained unchanged Friday at Eur483/mt EXW Ruhr.

Following the continued spread of the virus in Germany, some buyers started to look for material with short-notice deliveries, but some say this too would be risky and that looking at current lead times in May and June there is little material left that can be delivered quickly.

“We are not going to overreact and stockpile, I can understand if small steel shops do that to keep running,” said a German steel stockholder, adding that with current lead times, it would be a gamble to replenish heavily now.

Some buyers have started to look for material from other countries, as they fear that supply would be severely disrupted.

“I don’t know if not buying from Italy helps as lead times are in May, who knows if Italy will have improved then and its affecting production in other countries?” the stockholder said.

— Laura Varriale, Len Griffin

EU publishes a Notice on the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak on anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations (impact the verifications, time-limits and decision-making).

So far, no guidance has been issued by the Commission with regard to the safeguard measures on steel imports and the impact of the outbreak on the on-going review investigation of these measures.