Day: 14 June 2022

British Steel has been given planning approval for a £26 million ($32 million) upgrade to its ‘special profiles’ business, the second largest UK steel producer said on June 13.

The plans for a new service centre at Skinningrove, which include cut-to-length lines, product milling, machining and warehousing operations, have been approved by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, with the company aiming to start building work later this year and commissioning expected to start in August 2023.

“…This development will ensure we remain a leading global manufacturer and represents the biggest single investment in our special profiles business for more than 30 years,” David Hogg, Special Profiles Plant Manager, said.

David Waine, British Steel’s Commercial Director for Special Profiles, said, “It will enable us to manufacture world-class products to the tightest of tolerances.” “We will also be able to explore new growth opportunities for although our primary product offering will be for forklift mast production, we expect to be able to expand this to include other product applications too,” he added.

The new Skinningrove facility is designed to replace the services currently offered at the company’s site in Darlington, which stores and cuts profiles to customer requirements. As reported in the company statement, this latest scheme builds on previous investments, including the installation of a $2.4 million surface descaling system, a high-tech product processing center and a robotic identification tracking control system. In May, the company also announced the commissioning of a $1.2 million state-of-the art laser measurement system.

British Steel has a steel products capacity of about 3 million mt/year in the UK and Europe.

Platts assessed the Turkish exported rebar down $15/mt on the day at $720/mt FOB June 10.

— Annalisa Villa

Shipments of flat steel products from service centers in the EU27 and the UK in the first four months of 2022 decreased by 0.4% year on year while shipments of long steel products tumbled 10.5%, according data released June 13 by Eurometal, the industry body for European steel distributors.

At the end of April, overall stocks stood 5.7% higher year on year, with all product categories apart from Profiles and Plates up. Month on month stocks were 0.5% lower, with all categories falling apart from Long Steel Products.

Stocks at service centers were the equivalent of 79 days of shipments at the end of April, up from 59 days a year earlier.

The 62% Fe Iron Ore Index was at $141.55/dry mt CFR North China on June 10, down $2.30/dmt from June 9, according to Platts assessments by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

— Annalisa Villa

Alfun Metal Service Center, located in Bruntál, Czech Republic, has received a new cut-to-length line from German machinery maker Georg.

The new device, a hybrid line for cutting carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminium, includes a high-precision side trimming unit, Kallanish learns from the supplier company. Since 2015, Alfun has been operating a cut-to-length line, also by Georg, for 0.3-3mm thick and up to 2,000mm wide strip. This machine can cut sheets of up to 6,000mm in length. With the number of incoming orders increasing, it became necessary to boost production capacity with a new machine.

The new line side-trims and cuts to length stainless steel strip up to 2,050mm wide at processing speeds of up to 60m/min. A key criterion for the new line was the quality of the cut edges because customers often use laser welding to join the cut sheets, Georg points out.

Alfun Metal Service Center was founded in 1999 and supplies a wide range of flat and long products.

Automotive sheets account for a significant part of its services. Furthermore, the company produces stainless steel sheets for the white goods industry, which require high-precision cut edges and exact rectangularity.

Christian Koehl Germany

The first coil made from CO2-reduced steel has left voestalpine’s plant in Linz, Austria, Kallanish hears from the company.

Since the end of last year, voestalpine has offered all flat steel products with a reduced carbon footprint under the “Greentec” label. Examples include electrical steel which is used in wind turbines, and high-tensile steels for lightweight automotive construction.

Carbon emissions are reduced through adjustments to the manufacturing process such as partially replacing coke with a hydrogen-based reducing agent. The CO2 savings are calculated according to the international standard ISO 14064-2. A balance model is applied to distribute the actual CO2 savings across a specific quantity of product. LQRA, a global assurance provider, examines and certifies both the CO2 reduction and the status of the balancing account.

Voestalpine’s plan for decarbonising steel production involves an incremental shift from the blast furnace route to a hybrid-electric steel pathway from 2027.

Christian Koehl Germany

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) and Russian steelmakers have mutually agreed to freeze the latter’s full membership of the association amid sanctions on Russia, worldsteel tells Kallanish.

In response to media reports that worldsteel has suspended Russian steelmakers, an association spokesperson says: “Worldsteel is constitutionally politically neutral, but as it is based in Belgium it has to comply with EU law. EU sanctions that will come into force this week oblige us to restrict access to our platforms, such as our membership extranet, for our Russian members.”

“However, it is important to stress that we have not expelled or suspended our Russian members, rather we have come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement with them in which they are voluntarily and temporarily becoming ‘passive members’. All access to our platforms will be reinstated when EU law allows for this,” the spokesperson adds.

In April, Ukrainian steel association Ukrmetallurgprom said it was suspending its worldsteel membership until the association “says goodbye to associations and companies from Russia” (see Kallanish passim). Earlier, Ukrmetallurgprom appealed to worldsteel on behalf of all steelmakers and miners in Ukraine to throw all Russian companies out of the organisation. 

Evraz, MMK, Metalloinvest, NLMK Group, TMK, Severstal and the Russian Steel Association are worldsteel members.

Ukrmetallurgprom pointed out that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many international organisations decided to suspend Russian participation. “However, unfortunately, representatives of the aggressor country are still taking part in the events of worldtseel,” it added.

Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria

The EU HRC market remained in a wait-and-see mode June 13 with demand muted as buyers gauged approaching price floors against relaxing downtrends in the import market.

S&P Global Commodity Insights assessed hot-rolled coil in Northwest Europe at Eur935/mt ex-works Ruhr June 13, down Eur5/mt on the day.

Trader sources talked about prices in a range of Eur900-950/mt EXW as workable in the quiet market, with latest deals heard at Eur940-950/mt EXW in the week ended June 11.

Conflicting opinions were heard on the price direction and the potential depth of pricing floors, with some expecting prices to slide further before threatening the sustainability of current production costs.

“Everyone is trying to figure out if prices are close to the bottom or not — market opinion is evenly split,” said a trader source. “Some believe there is still room to decline, while others see the bottom since import offers are stabilizing and buyers need to restock. Demand isn’t strong enough to give the market any real stability.”

Import offers to the Northern market were heard stable on the day from trader and service center sources, at Eur870-880/mt CFR Antwerp ex-Asia.

A second trader agreed on the wait-and-see sentiment across the market.

“The market is still waiting. We need production cuts, or at least announcements to that effect,” said the trader. “The future is gloomy what with the automotive situation and risks present in the current market.”

Despite broad expectations to the contrary, mills are yet to announce any cuts to production beyond regular maintenance periods.

In the Southern market, HRC was down Eur5/mt on the day, assessed at Eur870/mt EXW Italy on source indications of Eur860-880/mt as a workable range.

Competitive import offers were heard below Eur800/mt CFR Italian ports ex-India for boron-added material, with commodity-grade import offers heard slightly higher at Eur800-830/mt CFR.

— Benjamin Steven, Maria Tanatar