Day: 14 January 2021

High demand from the EU region, especially from Spain and Belgium, notably pulled up Turkish mills’ coated coil exports in the first eleven months of the year.

Turkish mills exported 1.54 million mt of coated coil in widths of 600 mm and above in January-November, up 19% on year, according to the latest Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) data observed by S&P Global Platts.

Spain became Turkey’s main buyer in the eleven-month period, importing 316,200 mt, 37% higher on year, while Turkish mills’ coated coil exports to Belgium reached 195,000 mt in that period, significantly higher than the 45,500 mt imported in the same period the previous year.

Israel imported 125,200 mt of coated coil from Turkey in January-November, around double year on year, while exports to Iraq reached 108,500 mt, up 35% on year.

Turkish mills’ other big coated coil export destinations in that period were: Italy (95,600 mt), Greece (92,800 mt), Ukraine (75,900 mt), Romania (65,500 mt), Portugal (60,000 mt) and Egypt (59,900 mt), the latest data showed.

After rising above $1,000/mt ex-works as of the last weeks of 2020, representing a $300/mt rise since mid-October, due to strong demand from EU and higher HRC costs, Turkish mills’ hot-dip galvanized coil offer prices have begun to show some softening in recent days on slowed demand in the domestic and export markets.

The direction of the prices will be determined by demand from Turkey’s traditionally main export market, the EU region, in the coming weeks, sources observed.

— Cenk Can

European traders have confirmed this week that Indian mills remain the most competitive for hot rolled coil import offers into the EU.

Since the beginning of the new year, major Indian mills have been sending offers to Europe at €695/tonne ($845) cfr southern Europe. The price is reasonably in line with domestic offers, though the appetite for imported material remains small, Kallanish notes.

Turkish suppliers have left the market after provisional anti-dumping measures were imposed. Earlier in December competitive offers from Korea and Egypt were heard, but these are not available now.

Rumours have also been circulating of competitive Chinese offers returning after the slight price correction seen since end-December; nevertheless, traders remain sceptical. “We are monitoring the Chinese situation, because prices moved down a little there just before Christmas,” a trader says. “Having said that, Chinese mills remain not interested in the European market and the existing duties of 18.1% and above make most offers uncompetitive.”

NLMK increased output of hot rolled coil last year, the company says. Volume amounted to more than 6.51 million tonnes, up by 6.2% on-year, Kallanish notes. 

This is the maximum production volume over the past 30 years, which is close to the all-time historical record posted in 1989 of 6.55mt, the enterprise claims.

“NLMK plans to expand production of new grades of high-strength steel and improve product quality,” it says. “We will achieve these new goals with reconstruction of the equipment of heating furnaces, main drives of stands and conveyor line of the mill, as well as installation of new systems of ultra-fast strip cooling and technological lubrication.”

NLMK previously said that global business activity began to recover gradually in the third quarter of 2020, driving an uptick in demand for steel in traditional sales markets and an increase in steel prices (see Kallanish passim). The company’s strategy is to ramp up iron ore output and continue with development projects in 2021.

Consolidated crude steel output in Q3 totalled 3.9 million tonnes, up 3% on-year and flat on-quarter, and sales grew 11% on-year to 4.4mt. Nine-month-through-September output of crude steel remained flat at 11.9mt, but sales grew 3% on-year to 13.3mt.

Service centre EMW Stahl Service has commissioned a new high-performance leveller at its site in Neunkirchen, North Rhine Westphalia, Germany.

The new machine was supplied by Heinrich Georg Maschinenfabrik (Georg) and replaces a machine that could process strip of 300 N/mm2 yield strength at the maximum.

The main target of the project was to broaden the supply range of coils to include strips with yield strengths between 600 and 1,000 N/mm2 and thicknesses between 1.0 and 1.5mm, Georg informs Kallanish.

The new machine is equipped with 19 levelling roller sets of six-high configuration. All levelling rollers have a diameter of 50mm. The machine is suitable to process strips with surfaces as challenging as electro-galvanized steel sheet and grades for car body shells, for example.

EMW processes hot-rolled coil – pickled or galvanized – and cold rolled coil with inorganic or organic coatings.

Tubemaker Tenaris has signed an agreement with Italian energy suppliers Edison and Snam for a project aimed at using hydrogen in some steelmaking operations at the Tenaris Dalmine seamless tube plant in Italy.

The project will focus on studying the supply of hydrogen to the plant and adapting the mill to use the gas in the steelmaking process. Dalmine is an electric arc furnace-based steelmaker, and the use of hydrogen could further lower CO2 emissions from the site, Kallanish notes.

The agreement is part of the Dalmine Zero Emissions project launched by Tenaris for its Italian unit, putting the mill at the forefront of sustainability in the steel sector.

After initial tests, further applications of hydrogen beyond steelmaking will be evaluated at the mill.

Italian sections producer Duferdofin, part of Duferco, has been renamed to Duferco Travi e Profilati after the exit of former US partner Nucor, Kallanish learns from a company statement.

The extraordinary general meeting gathered at the company’s steelworks in San Zeno Naviglio has appointed Franco Monteferrario and Augusto Mario Gozzi as Duferco Travi e Profilati president and chief executive respectively.

In December Duferco and Nucor signed the financial closing that ended their partnership in joint venture Duferdofin, owner of the San Zeno beam mill in northern Italy.

The Covid-19 pandemic and consequent cut in Nucor’s overall investment budget was at odds with Duferco’s intention to proceed with the already deliberated and approved €180 million ($218m) investment in San Zeno. The plant has a 1 million tonnes/year production capacity, Kallanihs notes. Nucor left its Italian joint venture with Duferco 12 years after its creation.