Category: Latest Updates

Italian passenger car output increased further in September after ticking higher in August, Kallanish notes from preliminary data released by local carmakers’ association Associazione Nazionale Filiera Industria Automobilistica (Anfia).

Passenger car output registered an increase of 36.1% year-on-year in September to 68,286 units. In the first nine months of the year 279,204 cars were produced in the country, a fall of -34.5% y-o-y, Anfia says.

In Q3, Italy produced 74,715 light vehicles, up 6.7% y-o-y, and 189,875 light vehicles in the first nine months of the year, down -18.8% y-o-y. In Q3 11,742 trucks were produced, down -15.7% on Q3 2019. In the period January-September Italian car makers produced 30,731 trucks, also down -33.5 y-o-y, Anfia reveals.

Total automotive output including heavy transport decreased by -29.2% y-o-y in January-September to 499,977 units. In Q3 227,813 units were produced, a y-o-y increase of 16.5%.

In 2019 the country’s total output of vehicles including heavy transport was 914,826 units, of which 542,007 were passenger cars. This was down from 1.06 million units produced in 2018.

Italy has 23 production plants. By comparison, Spain has 17 plants, France 31 and Germany 42, Kallanish notes.

The Czestochowa district court has ordered the administrator of Huta Czestochowa (HCz) to submit by 23 November the terms of the tender for the sale of the bankrupt Polish plate mill. This comes after it dismissed the administrator’s application to extend the deadline for tender terms submission until end-December.

The extension would have likely been to give Sunningwell Steel Polska more time to find a solution to participate in the new tender. The investment firm is the current lessee of the plate mill and, having operated it since September 2019, is best-placed to acquire it.

However, last month the court ordered a third sale tender to be held after Sunningwell, which won the second tender, was adjudged to have failed to come to an agreement to buy the steelworks in the stipulated time (see Kallanish passim). According to Polish law, this rules Sunningwell out from participating in the next tender.

After winning the previous tender, Sunningwell was readying to incorporate HCz into its steel holding. This was set up in 2019 to operate steel assets acquired in Poland, Romania and potentially other Central and Eastern European countries.

The firm said it did not finalise an agreement to purchase the plate mill because crucial documentation was missing. It previously applied to the court to change the tender rules to allow for an extension of the deadline to sign an agreement, but this was dismissed by the court. Sunningwell said last month it was still interested in acquiring HCz and was seeking ways to participate in the next tender.

Electric arc furnace-based HCz has a 1.2 million tonnes/year capacity of heavy plate.

The European Commission has started registering Turkish hot-rolled coil arrivals from 13 November, a day after it announced the decision in the official journal, and will apply it for nine months.

The registration of imports is necessary for the commission to be able to apply anti-dumping duties retroactively, should the ongoing investigation conclude in imposition of the measure. The request for imports registration filed by Eurofer in September alleged dumping margins of 4-8%. The commission estimated the value of possible future duty at the highest dumping margin, “…namely 8% as a proportion of the CIF import value of the product concerned.”

Market sources told Kallanish they were satisfied with the registrations timing, as some were expecting it would applied for all arriving volumes starting from October. Additionally, several sources said registrations will not automatically lead to retroactive application of duty, but they are a legal necessity, in case the decision is made.

Reawakening demand for HRC in the EU continued to lift Turkish exporters’ prices in the past week, ending in one sale just above $560/tonne fob to Italy (see separate article) and several in $550-560/t fob range. Kallanish understands European buyers are taking on payment of the possible duty, which they estimate at around 5%, with at least one Turkish supplier confirming that it is not involved in liability sharing.

The decision is expected in January, amid a loud backdrop of European independent HRC processors voices speaking against the imposition. Turkish HRC has been a preffered feedstock for European steel industry for a few decades, due to its quality, easy logistics and long established partnerships, Turkish suppliers maintain.

Tata Steel confirms it is in talks with Sweden’s SSAB over the potential sale of its unit in the Netherlands.

Group management is in talks with the supervisory board and management of Tata Steel Netherlands, and the process will move to the next stage including due diligence and stakeholders’ consultations, it says. Proceeds of any strategic restructuring will be deployed towards additional deleveraging of the balance sheet, it adds.

“The company has initiated the process to separate Tata Steel Netherlands and Tata Steel UK and will pursue separate strategic paths for the Netherlands and UK business in the future,” Tata Steel says in a note seen by Kallanish.

The steelmaking group adds that it continues talks with the UK government on potential measures to “…safeguard the long-term future” of Tata Steel UK. It is “…also reviewing all options to make the business self-sustaining without the need for any funding support from Tata Steel India in the future.”

SSAB says it “…has participated in several different discussions concerning consolidations in the European steel industry. The discussions with Tata are on-going but no decisions have been made. There can be no certainty that any transaction will materialize, nor as to the terms of any such potential transaction. Further announcement will be made in due course.”

Rumours about the future of Tata Steel Europe assets have circulated the market for many years. Last year the European Commission blocked the proposed merger between Tata Steel Europe and thyssenkrupp’s steel unit on competition concerns. However, observers agreed the next European steel industry consolidation move would involve Tata Steel and its strategic Ijmuiden site. This has two blast furnaces and is capable of producing some 7.5 million tonnes/year of coil.

If SSAB reaches an agreement to include Tata Steel Netherlands in its group, it will represent a significant further increase to its capacity after its acquisition of Finland’s Rautaruukki in 2014.

Die XOM Materials GmbH bietet mit der digitalen Lösung XOM eProcurement eine Möglichkeit zur Vereinfachung des Beschaffungsprozesses, ohne dass Einkäufer mit Veränderungen der eigenen Systeme konfrontiert werden. Mit XOM eProcurement kann der komplette Beschaffungsprozess von Werkstoffen in einem einzigen Tool optimiert und automatisiert werden: Von der Bedarfsbündelung, dem Anfrageprozess, dem Angebotsvergleich, über Nachverhandlungen bis hin zur Bestellung.

Die Vorteile des digitalen Procurements

Der Beschaffungsprozess in der Werkstoffindustrie hat sich in den letzten Jahren stark verändert. Das stellt den Einkauf vor neue Herausforderungen. So ist zum Beispiel das Bestellverhalten von Kunden im digitalen Zeitalter anders als früher, papierloses Arbeiten erhält immer mehr Einzug, Losgrößen sowie Spezifikationen haben sich durch Smart Factory verändert und der Druck im eigenen Unternehmen, Bestände und Kosten zu optimieren, wächst. Um die steigenden Anforderungen des Qualitätsmanagements zu gewährleisten, gilt es Lieferketten transparent und nachverfolgbar zu machen und nachvollziehbar mit Lieferanten zu kommunizieren.

Das XOM eProcurement-Tool ermöglicht es, alle unnötigen Arbeitsschritte zu eliminieren, Medienbrüche zu vermeiden und klare Entscheidungen zu treffen. Einkäufer sparen auf diese Weise Zeit, Geld und Ressourcen, vermeiden Fehler und können sich mehr strategischen Aufgaben widmen. Einheiten und Niederlassungen mit unterschiedlichen Teams sowie Lieferanten können einfach in das Tool eingebunden werden. Es lässt sich individuell in bereits bestehende IT-Infrastrukturen integrieren, eigene IT-Ressourcen werden nicht benötigt.

Angebotsvergleich einfach und übersichtlich abgebildet

„Ein großer Vorteil für unsere Kunden ist die Angebotsmatrix, bei der alle Angebote möglicher Lieferanten übersichtlich und transparent aufgeschlüsselt dargestellt werden“, erklärt Alexander Bindrim, Sales Manager bei XOM Materials. „Kunden sehen, welcher Lieferant zu welchen Konditionen Material bereitstellt und wann dieses verfügbar ist. Der Kunde kann dann sehr schnell entscheiden, welcher Lieferant den Zuschlag erhält“.

XOM eProcurement als modulares Baukastensystem

Wie in einem modularen Baukasten-System können Einkäufer jeder Unternehmensgröße – vom Kleinstunternehmen bis hin zum Großkonzern – die auf Ihre Bedürfnisse zugeschnittenen Features bei XOM eProcurement zusammenstellen. Angefangen bei einer Starter-Version, die alle wichtigen Prozessschritte mit fixen Funktionalitäten abbildet und das Management eigener Lieferanten ermöglicht, bis hin zu einer anpassbaren Enterprise-Version mit vielen anpassbaren Features, um eine kundenindividuelle Lösung für alle wichtigen Anwendungsfälle zu schaffen.

Quelle und Foto: XOM Materials GmbH

13.11.2020 05:03:00 von Hubert Hunscheidt

Die Swiss Steel Group hält im Zusammenhang mit verschiedenen Medienberichten fest, dass die Gesellschaft, wie bereits bei Bekanntgabe des Halbjahresabschlusses 2020 kommuniziert, regelmäßig Gespräche mit Banken, Ankeraktionären und potenziellen Investoren im Rahmen des Finanzierungskonzepts führt.

Ziel der Investorengespräche ist es, das Eigenkapital weiter zu stärken, um der Gesellschaft wieder mehr unternehmerische Freiheit zu verschaffen und die Reserven zu erhöhen.

Die Gesellschaft verfügt mit Aktionärsdarlehen und Staatskrediten über genügend Liquidität. Das Transformationsprogramm läuft weiterhin nach Plan.

Die Gesellschaft wird, wie geplant und bereits angekündigt, am 11. November 2020 im Rahmen ihrer ordentlichen Berichterstattung zu den Q3 2020 Zahlen detailliertere Informationen auch zum langfristigen Finanzierungskonzept vorlegen.

Quelle und Vorschaufoto: Swiss Steel Group

10.11.2020 von Hubert Hunscheidt

According to local broadsheet Repubblica,the Italian government is willing to invest €1 billion ($1.18 billion) to relaunch the steelmaker formerly known as Ilva, now ArcelorMittal Italia.

The Italian government has designated Invitalia to negotiate with AM InvestCo, ArcelorMittal’s Italian entity. The amended lease and purchase agreement for Ilva states that the government’s equity investment is to be executed by 30 November. In the event this does not happen, AM InvestCo has a withdrawal right, subject to an agreed payment of €500 million, sources tell Kallanish.

The original industrial plan involved pushing up Taranto’s output to 8 million tonnes/year. However, government negotiators are now rumoured to be compromising on this plan due to the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on steel demand. They are said to be willing to achieve this output over a longer period of time.

Meanwhile, according to local press reports unsubstantiated by the company, in a letter to Italian authorities, Italian steelmaker Arvedi has stated its intention to take part in the relaunch of the former Ilva. When contacted by Kallanish, however, Arvedi denied these reports.

The deadline of 30 November seems to be pushing for a definitive solution to the painfully long negotiations. Meanwhile, in a sign of relaxing tones between the company and the government, ArcelorMittal has agreed to pay all its outstanding debts with suppliers together with the latest lease instalment due to expire at the beginning of November. The company’s debts have already gone down from €40m to €20m (see Kallanish 28 October).

Salzgitter group is delivering 50.000 tonnes of thermomechanically rolled plates for the Spanish group Navantia S.A. for the offshore wind farm “Saint-Brieuc” off the Brittany coast, Kallanish hears from the steelmaker.

The plates are made at Salzgitter’s units Ilsenburger Grobblech and Salzgitter Mannesmann Grobblech, and will serve to build 62 jackets (foundation structures) and 186 piles for mounting the jackets on the seabed.

The wind farm has a capacity of around 500 megawatts and will thus provide clean energy for more than 835,000 people. The operator and owner of “Saint-Brieuc” is Spanish utility Iberdrola. The supply of the plates to Navantia started in August 2020 and will be completed in the spring of 2021. The plates have a maximum thickness of 80mm, a width of up to 4,100mm and a length of more than 12m.

“The wind energy sector is one of the most important branches for the heavy plate producers within the group,” says Sebastian Bross, head of the business unit Heavy Plates/Sections of Salzgitter. He emphasises that the company is one of the few full range suppliers for heavy plates in Europe, and that it aims to further enhance this position.

British Steel announced a partnership with the University of Sheffield to further research into producing the highest quality possible of rails for the market, Kallanish learns from a company statement.

“The company, which supplies the majority of the track laid in the UK and exports to major networks across the globe, is working with the University to ensure British manufacturers remain at the forefront of rail technology and innovation,” British Steel said. “The partnership will see British Steel harness new state-of-the-art equipment, alongside the University of Sheffield’s world-renowned metallurgy and mechanical engineering expertise.”

The company alone will contribute to the reasrch program with £1.6 millions ($2.1m) matched and increased by Research England funds.

“This partnership will help ensure British Steel continues to lead the way in developing and building the railways of the future. In a hugely competitive market, we’re committed to enhancing our product range so we can keep meeting and exceeding the high standards operators and travellers rightly demand,” Ron Deelen, ceo of British Steel said. “Product development, integrity and innovation have never been as important, with major rail infrastructure programmes around the world, including HS2, requiring the high-quality products synonymous with the British Steel name. We’re well-placed to supply significant quantities of rail, and constructional steel, into major projects like these and deliver cost-effective solutions to the challenges our customers face.”

Tata Steel this week has responded to an official request for clarity issued by the National Stock Exchange of India over the ongoing rumours that the company is close to selling some of its European assets, Kallanish reports..

In a note sent to the exchange, the company said that it “regularly evaluates strategic opportunities across various segments of its operations in different geographies.”

“The company is from time to time involved in discussions on strategic perspectives for its business activities. Such discussions are ongoing management tasks and we do not comment on such discussions,” Tata Steel added, noting that accurate disclosures will be made when needed.

Rumours on the possibility that Tata Steel Europe was ready to sign as early as this week an agreement for the sale of its Dutch assets to SSAB have circulated again in the market. It is worth noting, however, that rumours surrounding potential joint ventures and asset sales regarding Tata Steel Europe have been circulating for many years, intensifying further as soon as the prospect of creating a new JV with thyssenkrupp ended back in 2019.