Tata Steel UK to operate BF4 until September, BF5 closing this week
The UK’s largest steelmaker Tata Steel UK confirmed to S&P Global Commodity Insights July 1 that its blast furnace no. 4 at its Port Talbot site in Wales will continue to be operative until the end of September along with other iron and steelmaking assets as previously planned after the Unite union agreed to pause its industrial action.
At the end of June, Tata had said it would have been forced to pause or stop its hot end operations, including both blast furnaces, at Port Talbot this week if the strike went ahead. The spokesperson confirmed BF5 would cease operation this week, as planned.
The Unite union called for a unilateral strike from July 8 in protest at Tata’s plan to close the site’s BFs while it converts to an electric arc furnace to be commissioned in 2027.
Unite confirmed to Commodity Insights on July 1 that its current industrial action had been paused.
“The decision follows confirmation from Tata, arising from high level talks throughout the weekend, that it is prepared to enter into negotiations about future investment for its operations and not just redundancies, in South Wales, including at Port Talbot,” Unite told Commodity Insights.
“This is a significant development in the battle to protect jobs and the long-term future of steel making in South Wales,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.
“Investment from Labour secured by Unite will be key to the future of the site,” she added, referring to a pledge by the opposition Labour party, which is expected to win this week’s general election and form the next UK government.
Tata representatives previously said that the shutting down of the BFs would go ahead no matter which party won the July 4 UK election.
Tata Steel UK produced 2.99 million mt of liquid steel in the financial year ended March 31, down 1% year on year, while deliveries stood at 2.80 million mt, down 5.1%. The UK steel sector produces 5.6 million mt/year of crude steel, around 70% of the UK’s annual demand of around 7.6 million mt.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the weekly UK hot-rolled coil price at GBP595/mt DDP West Midlands on June 27, down 7% since the start of 2024.
Annalisa Villa
Austria’s steel production rebounds in May, down on-year
Austria’s steelmakers increased crude steel production in May compared with the previous month, according to worldsteel data.
Output amounted to 650,000 tonnes, up by 2.7% from May, but 3% less year-on-year, Kallanish notes. Austria remains in 21st place in the ranking of top ten global steel producers, worldsteel data show.
In January-May, the country produced 3.18 million tonnes of steel, up 1% on-year.
Overall EU output in May increased by 0.6% y-o-y to 11.6mt. In the first five months of the year, steel production was 0.1% less on-year versus January-May 2023 at almost 56.1mt.
Austria’s largest steelmaker, voestalpine, said earlier that market trends have not changed significantly following the start of its 2024/25 business year in April (see Kallanish passim).
In fiscal 2023/24 – ending March 2024 – voestalpine achieved satisfactory results, with overseas markets performing better than Europe. Looking at its customer segments, it expects good demand from railway infrastructure, aerospace, and warehouse technology to continue. The automotive industry and the energy sector, as its main segments, should largely continue their stable development to date, the group noted.
The group’s revenue in 2023/24 was its second-highest in history, at €16.7 billion ($18.2 billion), after achieving record revenue of €18.2 billion in the previous year. Key figures have now “returned to normal” in the latest reporting year, voestalpine noted. Ebitda reached €1.7 billion, down from €2.5 billion.
In 2023, Austria’s commerce chamber, Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (WKO), expressed concern over the crash in demand and orders for commodities in the country (see Kallanish passim). WKO saw orders declining by as much as 30%, with no relief in sight.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
Europe needs Chinese cooperation for decarbonisation
Europe’s role as leading region in the race for decarbonisation was questioned at “Green Steel World”, a trade fair plus conference set up by publishing house KCI last week in Essen.
In a discussion following a presentation on hydrogen, speaker Joachim von Schéele of Linde AG addressed the weakening role of Europe as an industrial region, despite its leadership in forward-thinking. “People in the world do appreciate our CBAM. However, we [Europe] have become small in industrial terms,” Kallanish heard him say at the conference. “Its relative economic power is half of what it was when I was a kid.”
Europe has become a somewhat “tiny” player in the world steel industry, but has still maintained a technological “thought leadership”, he noted. In the transition towards low-emission steelmaking, most reference and pilot facilities are operating in Europe.
Until 2040, Europe’s steel industry will reduce its CO2 emissions by 60%, and China by 40%, according to figures von Schéele provided. One helping factor in China will be the increased usage of scrap, which is expected to accrue massively in the country in the mid-term future. Overall, scrap availability will increase globally, to a stronger degree than steel production will, “which is essentially good news”, Schéele said.
He maintained that Europe needs to cooperate with China if the global steel industry wants to go ahead with decarbonisation. But he recommended a change of attitude because “China does often not appreciate the way European politicians speak”.
Regarding the shift towards hydrogen in Europe, he pointed to “tremendously” high costs for renewable energy in Italy, and high costs in Germany, while France, Spain and Scandinavia have a much better position. He noted that power suppliers often maintain elevated prices for renewables, to make the business profitable, calling the scenario an “econondrum”.
Christian Koehl Germany