Day: 17 November 2022

Cognor has ordered from Danieli Centro Maskin a cand inspection line for its plant in Stalowa Wola, allowing the Polish steelmaker to benefit from up to 15% savings in energy consumption and full line set-up times, says Danieli.

The new installation will consist of a fully automated, high-productivity straightening line, a deburring unit and bar handling to process diameters up to 250mm, and with speeds up to 25 m/minute. It will commission at end-2023.

The line is designed for future predictive maintenance through the monitoring and analysis of the data acquired by the sensors installed across the line, to predict the remaining lifetime of the components and to set a preventive maintenance service, Danieli observes.

Earlier this year, Cognor contracted Danieli to replace the existing transformer serving its 48-tonne electric arc furnace in Stalowa Wola (see Kallanish passim). The Stalowa Wola steelworks belongs to Cognor’s Huta Stali Jakosciowych (HSJ) unit, which produces heavy plate and various long products, as well as stainless and alloy steel.

Last year, Cognor also contracted Danieli to supply a merchant bar rolling mill that will replace the current line at its Zawiercie location, as well as a rebar spooling line that is to be located at its Krakow site.

The firm said last month the EAF/blast furnace cost competitiveness trend reversed in the third quarter, in favour of EAF mills like Cognor, as scrap prices dropped faster compared to those of iron ore and coking coal. This supported the firm’s billet sales. However, high energy costs pushed Cognor to promptly deliver some previously contracted supply to cover costs arising from stoppages.

Adam Smith Poland

The European Commission has confirmed definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of electrolytic chromium coated steel (ECCS) from China and Brazil. The Commission also confirmed the collection of provisional duties imposed since May this year.

The investigation started last year following a complaint lodged by Eurofer. On average during October 2021-January 2022, Brazil and China supplied into the EU a combined 6,000-7,000 tonnes/month of ECCS.

The investigation concerned flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, plated or coated with chromium oxides or with chromium and chromium oxides, classified under HS codes 7210 50 00 and 7212 50 20. European producers of such products include ArcelorMittal in Spain and France, thyssenkrupp in Germany and Acciaierie d’Italia in Italy.

The definitive duties for Chinese companies have been set at 30.7-77.9%, depending on mill. China’s Baoshan was given the lower definitive duty of 30.7%. For all Brazilian imports, the duty has been set at 53.2%, Kallanish notes from the Commission statement.

Emanuele Norsa Italy

Spanish rebar prices have been volatile over the last few days. After mills announced a decrease on Friday of almost €40/tonne ($41.59) for 16mm material, levels have rebounded by almost half this week, Kallanish notes.

“The market saw a positive momentum for buying material last week,” one stockist observes. “However, on Monday some mills raised their selling price by almost €20/t and put pressure on selling centres since they bought a lot of material last week,” he comments. “Now, most distributors are evaluating the international market, anticipating a new correction.”

Meanwhile, the construction sector continues to demand steel. “Large companies are trying to build stock to be able to finish the delayed projects. Although costs of construction remain high in Spain, steel purchases continue growing since the economic situation is not promising for the planning of new projects next year,” one source observes.

On Monday, most mills and the steel distribution chain declared themselves against the indefinite strike by one of the national transport unions. The action lasted only one day and has had minimal follow-up. It has not had a major impact on the steel sector, market participants conclude.

Rebar is currently sold domestically in Spain at €405/tonne ($421.75) base. Including €262/t size extras and €21/t loading expenses, transaction values are at €688/t ex-works. Some offers have also been heard at €685/t delivered for 16mm rebar.

Todor Kirkov Bulgaria

Steel decarbonization needs to focus on implementing technology, markets: OECD The steel industry is making progress towards decarbonization in several areas, while development and implementation needs to strengthened as the sector is not on a trajectory compatible with climate goals, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report.

Support to scale up innovative steel production technologies and nurturing markets for near zero-emissions steel are needed, the Paris-based OECD said in a November paper. Additional sector investments, international cooperation and trade policies for ensuring competitiveness and a global playing field, and a consideration of strategic inputs and social areas are also required, it said.

While an increasing number of initiatives have been launched to support steel decarbonization, the sector’s contributions to meeting the Paris Agreement climate goal by 2050 lags behind, said the report led by OECD analyst Cecile Seguineaud. The steel sector accounts for nearly 8% of global emissions from the energy sector, the OECD said.

“While the nature and implications of the transformation have been largely explored, turning ambition into action is now the imperative,” Seguineaud said. “This echoes the COP 27 Presidency’s call for implementation, the current decade being critical to achieve the Paris Agreement’s objectives.”

While last year’s UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26, raised the urgency of increasing ambition and enshrined the momentum for steel decarbonization through its ‘Breakthrough Agenda’, the focus at this year’s COP27 in Egypt earlier this month has been on active changes for cutting emissions, the report concluded.

The OECD said more than 90% of global steelmaking capacity and production is now located in countries that have announced a net-zero target, while areas with carbon-pricing mechanisms currently cover less than 20% of global steelmaking capacity. Carbon prices have not reached the level that would be required to be in line with a net-zero pathway by 2050, the group said.

There is also a mismatch between country-level pledges and corporate commitments even as steel companies increasingly announced net-zero targets, it said.

“As of end-2021, companies with net-zero targets accounted for 30% of global steel production. This share has doubled over the last year, though more commitments would help reduce the mismatch even more,” it said.

As of the end of last year, 18% of global steelmaking capacity and production was in countries with a net-zero target enshrined “in law”, with about 60% related to a “policy document” and 18% upon a “political pledge,” it said.

Europe accounts for the majority of companies with net-zero targets, while Asian steel companies have increasingly adopted targets and Asia is the second-placed region after Europe in pledges, it said.

The OECD said blast furnace-based steel capacity represents more than half of newly planned capacity, exacerbating the risk of stranded assets, unless equipped with carbon capture, utilization and storage.

Scrap-based electric arc furnaces need help from a more structural shift in steel production for the sector to decarbonize to near zero emissions, it said.

“Beyond the pledges, near zero emission steel production has not yet taken off sufficiently,” the report said.

— Hector Forster

European steel merchant bar producer Beltrame Group has launched a low carbon steel product called Chalibria to accelerate the transition towards climate neutrality, the long steelmaker announced Nov. 15.

Beltrame said it would obtain the Chalibria products’ carbon neutrality by offsetting CO2 emissions generated by the value chain through the purchase of carbon credits on a voluntary basis, in line with the PAS2060 standard and the ISO14064-1 certification attested by certification company RINA.

The company aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030 and to achieve this has defined a decarbonization plan and a precise roadmap, Beltrame said.

To achieve this, Beltrame had identified four macro-groups of activities, namely production efficiency, a circular economy, procurement of green energy, and hydrogen projects.

“The emissions generated during the group’s activities are well below average international and European sectors, reaching 570 kg CO2 per ton of rolled steel (Scope 1,2 and 3 upstream), about 75% less than the emissions of the global steel industry and about 15% less than the European average for electric furnace steel emissions,” Beltrame Group CFO and Managing Director Raffaele Ruella said.

However, the company aimed to reduce its emissions by 40% by 2030 from 2015 levels, he added.

The investments of the decarbonization plan, which will be implemented within the timeframe dictated by the European programs, will make it possible to reduce emissions from production processes and consequently to decrease also the purchase of carbon credits over time,” it said.

“Steel is a special material, which can be recycled indefinitely and this is inherently sustainable, but producing it generates emissions and a high energy expenditure,” Beltrame Head of Group Business Development and CEO France and Romania Carlo Beltrame said.

As part of the decarbonization plan, Beltrame aims to strengthen its production efficiency strategy by modernizing its main gas heating furnaces, the design and construction of heat recovery systems and the installation of digital control systems.

For hydrogen projects, it said its furnaces were already designed to be able to use hydrogen as a fuel in a mix with natural gas and the company was preparing for developments in the use of low carbon, or green, hydrogen as a fuel, it said.

Meanwhile, its circular economy activities included improving the quality of scrap and other raw materials, reusing waste, such as the slag from steelworks and refining plants, from the production process and replacing raw materials with recycled materials.

“These applications have allowed the group to consolidate the waste reduction process and by-products sent to landfills, favoring their recovery in internal or external cycles factories, covering approximately 90% of their total today,” it said.

Beltrame also aims to increase its use of green energy by developing renewable energy plants for self-consumption and supply contracts of renewable electricity through power purchase agreements, it said.

In 2022, it created a consortium with two other companies to invest in the construction of renewable energy sources and to supply energy electricity produced by the plants to each member.

As part of its increasing investments to minimize emissions, it said good progress had been made on the construction of a photovoltaic park near its plant in Targoviste, Romania to reduce energy consumption.

The park is due to have an installed capacity of 60-65 MW, with the company also planning to install 10 MW photovoltaic panels on the roofs of its buildings to have a total power generation capacity of 70-75 MW by late-October 2023.

Beltrame said it was evaluating further initiatives to increase the share of low carbon energy.

For the emissions that it would not yet be able to reduce through the decarbonization plan’s projects, it would use carbon offsetting, it said.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the weekly TSI Northwest Europe rebar price at Eur800/mt ex-works Nov. 9, up from Eur790/mt ex-works at the start of the year, but down from the intra-year high of Eur1,340/mt ex-works reached March 30.

— Jacqueline Holman

The European Commission has started an antidumping investigation into bulb flat steel bar imports from China and Turkey, according to the official journal of the EU.

In early November, the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association received a letter from Turkey’s Trade Ministry saying the EC could launch a dumping investigation.

The EC will investigate non-alloy steel bulb flat steel bars up to 204 mm width, under HS code 7216.50.91, after a complaint from Spanish special hot-rolled steelmaker Laminados Losal, on behalf of the union industry of bulb flat, the EC said.

The investigation of dumping and injury will cover 12 months from October 2021 though September 2022, while the examination of relevant trends would look at the period beginning Jan. 1, 2019 and ending Sept. 30, 2022.

It was not due to take more than 14 months from the notice publication date, while provisional measures may be imposed not later than seven or eight months from the publication of the notice, the EC said.

An investigation could result in antidumping duties if it is found that bulb flat bar product imports from the two countries are being dumped and causing damage to the EU’s domestic market.

According to TCUD data,, Turkey’s January-September flat bar exports totaled 242,600 mt, down 21.5% year on year.

Turkey’s flat bar exports to the EU, however, remained relatively stable at 67,400 mt, with Romania and Germany remaining the top markets at 16,200 mt and 12,100 mt, respectively.

Turkish long steel pricing has been pressured by low demand. Platts, part of S&P Global, assessed Turkish exported rebar at $627.50/mt FOB on Nov. 15, down from an intra-year high of $960/mt FOB reached April 1.

— Cenk Can