Category: Latest Updates

ArcelorMittal confirms it has decided to postpone the planned restart of blast furnace no.1 at its plant in Fos-sur-Mer, southern France. The facility was idled in March in response to the slump in demand linked with the coronavirus pandemic. It will now remain idled until further notice.

The company announced at the beginning of September the intention to restart the BF, together with other relaunches of idled capacities in Spain and northern France. ArcelorMittal did not give reasons for the restart postponement, but unions believe it is linked with economic reasons. In recent weeks numerous market observers have called for EU steelmakers to avoid rushing to restart idled blast furnaces as the market remains uncertain.

According to a recent calculation published by UBS bank, 20 blast furnaces were idled in Europe, mainly in response to the Covid-19 emergency. Slightly more than a third are being restarted, Kallanish notes.

Indian hot rolled flat products exports soared by over six-fold on-year in June to a mammoth 1.19 million tonnes in a single month, according to Indian commerce ministry provisional data seen by Kallanish. As with their 291% on-year surge in May, June exports were driven by deliveries to China which reached 520,115t versus virtually zero a year earlier.

Strong demand also continued from Vietnam, which increased intake over 12-fold to 459,195t. United Arab Emirates increased intake 7% to 54,204t and Taiwan took in 53,513t compared to zero last year. Nepal, however, decreased intake -36% to 34,306t.

Spain and Saudi Arabia also considerably increased intake in June, but intake by Belgium slumped.

The most-exported product was HR unpickled wide strip below 3mm thick under HS code 720839 whose shipments reached 966,069t. Their average value was $374/tonne versus $522/t in June 2019 and $376/t in May 2020.

Indian HR flats exports in January-June thus surged 74% on-year to 3.67mt, with top three markets Vietnam, China and UAE respectively all increasing intake. Fourth and fifth-placed markets Italy and Nepal decreased intake.

After the end of the first quarter Indian HR flats exports had slumped -17% on-year to 1.13mt (see Kallanish passim). Their revival in Q2 was driven by Vietnam and especially China. The latter sourced zero from India in Q1, yet in the first half of 2020 it took in 959,399t versus 41t in H1 2019.

Oyten/Hilden – In November 2019 wurde symbolisch der erste Spatenstich gesetzt und 247TailorSteel begann mit dem Bau seiner Produktionsstätte in Hilden bei Düsseldorf. Nach Monaten harter Arbeit konnte das Unternehmen nun das neue Werk am 1. September 2020 offiziell beziehen. Etwa ein Jahr nach Spatenstich möchte 247TailorSteel das Ergebnis und die offizielle Eröffnung der Produktionsstätte feiern und lädt Sie herzlich dazu ein. Sind Sie dabei?

Notieren Sie sich das Datum für die offizielle feierliche Eröffnung in Ihrem Kalender: 20.11.2020, 9.00-14.00 Uhr
Details folgen in Kürze!

Offizielle Eröffnung: Keine Angst vor Corona:

247TailorSteel hofft auf eine interessante Eröffnungsveranstaltung und auf zahlreiche Gäste. Natürlich hält sich das Unternehmen In Sachen Corona an die aktuellen Richtlinien und Empfehlungen des Ordnungsamtes und an die gesetzlichen Regelungen in NRW. Das Unternehmen beobachtet die Situation sorgfältig. Sollte die Eröffnung aufgrund der aktuellen Umstände verschoben werden müssen, wird 247 TailorSteel Sie umgehend informieren.

Autor: von Angelika Albrecht

08.09.2020

The European steel coils market held steady Sept. 11, with most conditions now in place for the market to rise further, sources told S&P Global Platts.

The Platts TSI hot-rolled coil index was calculated Sept. 11 at Eur475/mt ($562.26/mt) ex-works Ruhr, falling Eur1.

Cold-rolled coil remained stable and unchanged from Sept. 10 and was assessed at Eur532.50/mt EXW Ruhr, a level last seen April 23.

In Southern Europe, HRC slipped 50 euro cent to be assessed at Eur471/mt EXW South Europe.

An Italian mill source said that they would be offering at Eur480-Eur490/mt EXW Italy but that “the market is not there yet,” suggesting other mills would follow.

“The [material] shortage is real — everyone needs material, SSC tube makers and rerollers,” the mill source said.

An Italian buyer said the market would be moving fast and that a deal struck at Eur443/mt EXW Italy was not possible anymore the next day as prices increased to Eur460/mt.

An Italy-based service center source said he was now looking for the uptrend to continue until the end of the year.

“I am bullish until the end of December, beyond that I cannot tell and January is an unknown element at the moment,” he said.

“Prices went up aggressively in September and nothing is possible now below Eur470-Eur480/mt,” he said adding that at current levels tube manufacturers and end-users have made bookings but Italian service centers would consider current prices expensive and approach the market cautiously.

A German distribution source said that steel producer furnace restarts will bring capacity online and result in the market peak by November.

“I believe the market could top out by November as capacity comes back to the market, so I am not buying anything, for now, I will wait until then,” he said.

Seasonal destocking for year-end along with ongoing coronavirus second-wave risk could also impact the market recovery, the source said.

— Len Griffin, Laura Varriale

ArcelorMittal is planning to cut its Dunkirk steelworks’ CO2 emissions by -33% by 2030. This is in line with its plan announced earlier this year to reach carbon neutrality on a global level by 2050, Kallanish learns from the company.

In a presentation on Dunkirk’s decarbonisation project to French industry minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the company revealed its roadmap to operating a green blast furnace. This will see steelmaking gas recycling replace fossil fuels and reduce emissions by -17%.

The plant will also capture CO2 to purify and liquify it, before reusing or storing it. The capture and restock project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by -8%. This will be done by doubling the plant’s current amount of recycled steel to 2 million tonnes/year without consuming more energy, ArcelorMittal explains.

“With these concrete developments, ArcelorMittal is committed to the decarbonisation of its steel production and the circular economy,” the firm states. “We are therefore fully in line with the objectives of the French government plan “France Relance” which accelerates the transformation of the French industry in terms of sovereignty and decarbonisation.”

Last month the company confirmed it is ramping up operations at its idled blast furnace no.3 in Dunkirk to target a full production restart in early September. The furnace was idled, together with BF2 in April, following the spread of coronavirus in Europe and the negative impact on steel demand. The Dunkirk integrated site has since only operated using one blast furnace, BF4 (see Kallanish passim).

Earlier this year ArcelorMittal announced its plan to cut CO2 emissions at all its European plants by -30% by 2030.

NLMK says work is progressing to repair the collapsed iron ore conveyor gallery at Stoilensky plant, which supplies the firm’s principal Lipetsk steelworks. The steelmaker estimates repairs will take 15 days, after which it will take 24 hours to achieve full capacity of the gallery and another 24 hours to reinstate the full processing cycle.

The firm’s dispatches of steel products will not be impacted by the incident, NLMK says, but merchant pig iron dispatches may be affected. The company’s iron ore needs are currently met by existing stocks and external supply has been secured. Kallanish learns that Metalloinvest is supplying the feedstock, and market participants say it is likely the China import price was used as a benchmark.

Stoilensky’s conveyor gallery collapsed on 7 September, halting the iron ore processing chain and leaving NLMK with just ten days of iron ore to supply Lipetsk (see Kallanish passim). This plant produces all of the company’s merchant metallic and semi-finished products, including slab for its European re-rolling assets. Its monthly needs are around 200,000-230,000 tonnes.

Provided the repairs and recommissioning go according to plan, there is unlikely to be any effect on finished product sales and prices, although some degree of support to pig iron merchant prices is expected. Following the incident, some CIS pig iron suppliers have withheld from entering into direct negotiations, and some reviewed their offers upwards to around $355-365/t fob Black Sea, depending on the market. One Russian supplier voiced offers at $380-390/t fob to all markets.

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US automotive sales in August slid over 10% from the same period last year, but buying activity showed signs of recovery on a monthly basis, according to industry consultants.

Industry analyst Cox Automotive said sales reached a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 15.2 million units in August, rising from an SAAR of 14.6 million units in July, according to a newsletter Sept. 9.

The higher buying activity in August marked the fourth month of continuous month-over-month improvement, Cox added.

Still, August numbers declined about 11% from August 2019.

However, Cox said dealerships did not benefit from a Labor Day boost in sales, with the holiday weekend falling fully in September this year as opposed to last year.

“All eyes now turn to watch September’s sales pace and volume, which will be important indicators of the recovery’s strength,” Cox said.

In a separate report, Cox senior economist Charlie Chesbrough said the selling rate in August demonstrates a base-level demand for new vehicles, but sales are still constrained by a number of factors.

“There are headwinds holding back sales — limited inventories, fewer cash incentives — and those likely suppressed some activity as potential buyers could not find what they wanted,” he said.

Consulting firm JD Power provided similar numbers for the US vehicle market with total vehicle sales in August estimated at an SAAR of 15.1 million units, according to a recent report.

On an SAAR basis, August sales were down from 17.1 million units in August 2019 but up from 14.6 million units in July, according to JD Power data.

Like Cox, JD Power said September will likely benefit from the full Labor Day weekend and its heavy sales promotion activity.

“The unusual gap between the August close and Labor Day weekend means there is the potential for higher-than-average promotional activity and, therefore, stronger sales,” Thomas King, JD Power’s president of data and analytics, said.

“Consumer demand coupled with any inventory improvement could help the industry take another step forward in the recovery.”

— Nick Lazzaro

The modernization enables the company to achieve a significant increase in efficiency, also improving the energy efficiency of the plant and reducing maintenance costs. The average shift output has been increased by five percent.

The modernization works lasted 35 days and were carried out during the 2019-20 winter shutdown in order to minimize disruption of production.

The modernization aims to increase the furnace throughput up to 160 mt of hot rolled coil per hour and to upgrade the combustion system, along with some other equipment.

The upgrade of the combustion system will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions and fuel consumption.

The completion of the project is scheduled for January 2021.