NLMK names new chief for European strip division
NLMK Europe has named Cornelius Lowrens as the new chief executive of its Strip division, replacing Renaud Moretti who is departing in April for Liberty Steel.
Lowrens will be leading the group that includes the strip and coil operations in La Louviere, Strasbourg and Manage. NLMK also controls a number of units specialised in the production and supply of plate, but these will not fall under the responsibility of Lowrens, Kallanish notes.
The executive previously held the position of chief technical officer of NLMK International and was earlier employed by Tata Steel and ArcelorMittal.
Auto steel suppliers welcome vehicle electrification
US steel players are seeing more opportunities than challenges in the growing electrification of the auto industry, Kallanish hears.
“Electrification actually plays really well for steel. Why? To make vehicles for the masses, they (auto producers) need to hit milestones of range and price,” says a source at one top-tier domestic mill. “We see these vehicle designs spending more money on the range side of the house, making batteries larger, etcetera. So, as that happens, they need to search for the most cost effective solution, which continues to be AHSS (advanced high-strength steel) material rather than alternate materials.”
The greater the range of electric vehicles increases, the greater the need for steel, he summarises.
“More range equals more steel,” he says.
A Midwest flats buyer points out that steel’s technological development is keeping pace with advances in the auto sector – as it has for some time.
“This will not be a problem,” he says. “Every time steel grades needed upgrading, a new generation of steel got developed.”
Third product category exhausts UK safeguard quota
Large welded tubes are the third product category to exhaust their UK tariff rate quotas for the first quarter, after hollow sections from Turkey and other countries, UK steel distributors’ association NASS informs Kallanish.
No other quota categories are “critical”, although Tin Mill Products (6) from China is the nearest quota to become so. There is 667 tonnes remaining of this quota from the original 3,842t, according to the HMRC database.
In the EU, meanwhile, one month since new tariff-free quotas became available, long and tubular products have registered the largest uptake (see Kallanish passim).
As for Northern Ireland, HMRC continues to discuss with the European Commission the application of EU safeguards and the increase in quotas for UK exports into the EU single market to account for direct Great Britain to Northern Ireland movement.
Liberty Steel Group appoints new CEOs at key European operations
Liberty Steel Group, part of GFG Alliance, has made two new senior management appointments to European team, the company said Feb. 2.
Liberty Steel said it has appointed Renaud Moretti as CEO of Liberty Downstream Synergies and Colin McGibbon as CEO of Liberty France.
Moretti, who has almost 20 years of experience within the steel industry and was most recently CEO of NLMK Europe Strip, will be responsible for the overall management of the company’s downstream steel mills in Europe, including the Liberty Magona plant in Italy and Liberty Liege-Dudelange’s three plants in Belgium and Luxembourg. He will join the company in April.
McGibbon will be responsible for the overall management of the company’s French GREENSTEEL businesses, as well as Liberty Ascoval and Liberty Rail Hayange. He joined the company on Feb. 1. McGibbon has more than 20 years’ experience in the metals industry, most recently as the CEO of SLN Nickel Company in New Caledonia.
— Annalisa Villa