Category: Latest Updates

ISD Dunaferr has begun the revamp of its hot-dip galvanized coil line that will increase its capacity by 20-30%, Kallanish learns from the Hungarian steelmaker.

The line’s furnace is being completely reconstructed and the zinc bath is being revamped, while two rapid jet coolers will be installed and three water cooling towers built. Besides increasing capacity, the work will improve HDG surface quality. Tenova, which originally supplied the furnace, is carrying out the revamp.

Production at the HDG line stopped on 21 October and will resume in mid-December after a 50-day downtime. Half of the stock of finished goods will be moved to a different hall during the work, but HDG deliveries will continue.

Earlier this year ISD Dunaferr, part of Ukraine’s Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD), said it will increase HDG output to 130,000 tonnes/year (see Kallanish passim). In 2018 its hot rolled coil sales rose 1% on-year to 639,925t, with cold rolled coil and HDG sales up 3% and 4% respectively to 319,210t and 104,330t. Overall steel sales rose 5% to 1.64 million tonnes.

Oliver Sonst übernahme die Geschäftsführung von einem der größten und modernsten Stahl-Service-Center in Europa. Er steht für die Neuausrichtung des Unternehmens auf die Zukunft – durch Technologieführerschaft im Bereich der Hightech-Stahlverarbeitung, starke Partnerschaften in der Automobilindustrie und die Expansion in den osteuropäischen Markt.

Die Zukunft kann kommen: In diesem Jahr nimmt Stahlo sein neues Werk in Gera in Betrieb, das mit neuester Produktionstechnik in Europa seinesgleichen sucht. Mit dem Neubau verdoppelt das Unternehmen nicht nur die Zahl der Anlagen, sondern erhöht auch die Produktionskapazität auf jährlich rund 400.000 Tonnen Stahl in Gera. Bereits Ende letzten Jahres übernahm Stahlo die Firma Blech-Service Nordhausen und erweiterte damit sein Leistungsspektrum deutlich.

Für die Zukunft steht der Ausbau des Geschäfts in den osteuropäischen Märkten auf der Agenda. Große Aufgaben für den neuen Geschäftsführer von Stahlo, der seit 1. Oktober die Geschicke des Unternehmens leitet.

Quelle und Vorschaufoto: Friedhelm Loh Stiftung & Co. KG

Spain saw its automotive production continue to recover year-on-year in September, marking the third consecutive month of growth, Kallanish learns from automotive association Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes de Automóviles y Camiones (Anfac) data. Year-to-date output growth, however, remained negative.

“This recovery is mainly due to the increase in sales of light vehicles seen in most European markets,” the association says. “There was also a growth in Turkey, with an increase of almost 100.7% on-month in September.” Sales in Brazil, Japan and South Africa also recovered.

Spain’s automotive production totalled 234,108 units in September, 17.2% more compared to the same period of 2018. During the first nine months this year, the country’s output amounted to 2,127,208 vehicles. This volume was -1.9% less than in January-September of 2018.

Spanish vehicle exports were 195,709 units during September, an increase of 21.1% compared to the same month last year. Nine-month shipments abroad fell by -2.1% to 1,731,987 units, show Anfac data.

Crude steel production in Germany was 3.352 million tonnes in September, minimally higher than in August, but -4% down on September 2018, steel association Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl (WV Stahl) tells Kallanish.

This defies the observation of “… a first sign of stabilisation, even if on a moderate level” that WV Stahl had stated in August, when output was actually 0.8% up year-on-year. 

The different production routes reduced their output at different degrees. While the September drop was -4.9% at oxygen-route mills, it was only -2% at EAF mills. This is in line with the more profound difficulties in the automotive industry, which is supplied strip mainly from oxygen mills, against a relatively strong construction industry and its EAF-dominated rebar demand.

Over the year thus far, the trend still had a different emphasis, with production at oxygen-route mills down -4% in the first nine months, while that of EAF mills was down -5.3%. Total crude steel production from January through September was 30.552mt, down -4.4% on the first nine months of 2018.

Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) is focused on the sale of assets as well as other structured financial initiatives to reduce its debt. The company indicated this during its third-quarter earnings conference call with analysts monitored by Kallanish.

“The debt is our greatest concern,” said ceo Benjamin Steinbruch. “We are negotiating the sale of Germany-based longs mill Stahlwerk Thüringen (SWT). It’s simply an issue of price… Now, if we have had a year of negotiation it’s because there is interest on the part of the buyer side as well as on ours as a seller. We’re reaching the final stage, and not surprisingly we could sell SWT in a week or two weeks or not have any business at all.”

Steinbruch also mentioned the possible sale of an 8% stake in the CSN iron ore unit. “If we have to sell part of the mining to reach a more comfortable position in working with a less leveraged company, we will. 8% will be readily available for sale,” the ceo explained.

CSN holds an 88% stake in CSN Mineração. The other 12% is owned by Asian investors.

CSN saw its Q3 results underperform mainly due to the scheduled maintenance of blast furnace no. 3 and consequent planned consumption of stocks, Steinbruch continued.

“This has been a quarter of transition. We had an impact on the purchase of slabs. We paid at 30 days, while our cycle is normally 180 days. The depreciation of the Brazilian real, as well as the payment of dividends also affected our performance in Q3,” confirmed the ceo.

“With the revamp of BF3, we were limited to produce 330-340 tonnes of steel in Q3. The restart of the facility goes according to the plan. We are through a ten-day period of a gradual and controlled increase in production and on 15 November we do believe we will return to a normal. Therefore, our output should be able to reach 400 million tonnes of steel during the fourth quarter,” Steinbruch explained.

The company’s targets to clear its steel stock by the end of 2019. CSN has begun to negotiate a price increase in contracts with the automotive and white goods sectors, said Steinbruch.

World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association declined -0.3% on-year in September to 151.5 million tonnes, Kallanish learns from worldsteel. This represented the first monthly decline in 2019.

It came as Chinese output growth slowed to 2.2%, giving a tonnage of 82.77mt. Indian output, meanwhile, grew 1.6% to 8.96mt, but Japanese and South Korean production fell -4.5% and -2.7% respectively to 8.05mt and 5.69mt. Vietnamese output surged again, by 34% to 1.7mt.

EU28 production declined again in September, by -2% to 13.39mt. German production slumped -4% to 3.35mt, but Italian output was up 1.1% to 2.21mt. French and Spanish output fell -10.2% and -1% respectively to 1.21mt and 1.18mt. Notably, Austrian and Swedish production surged 69.1% and 42% respectively to 588,000t and 398,000t. Hungarian output plummeted 29.2% to 109,000t.

The US recorded a -2.5% decline in September output to 7.07mt, while Brazilian output dived -22% to 2.4mt.

Russian output is estimated to have dropped -4.1% to 5.58mt and Ukrainian production fell -2.3% to 1.75mt.

Turkish production, meanwhile, slumped -6.9% to 2.73mt, but Iranian output is estimated to have risen 3.2% to 2.13mt.

For antitrust reasons worldsteel no longer produces a monthly global capacity utilisation ratio. Information on capacity can be found on the OECD website, worldsteel says.

In January-September global crude steelmaking output was still up 3.9% on-year to 1.39 billion tonnes.

Tata Steel Europe has temporarily stopped production from this week at its Segal galvanising plant in Belgium, Kallanish learns from trade unions sources.

The plant has stopped production since the beginning of this week due to market reasons. The company did not respond before press deadline to requests for comment from Kallanish.

Earlier this year the Segal plant was included in the list of assets to be sold following the merger with thyssenkrupp; the plan was cancelled together with the collapse of the merger programme.

Tata Steel Europe confirmed this week that it is developing a savings plan which will also include job cuts at its operations across Europe.

The port authority of Duisburg, Duisburger Hafen AG (Duisport), has announced it will build a trimodal container terminal on the site that used to be the port’s coal island. It claims it is building the largest container terminal in the European hinterland.

This is Duisport’s response to the sharp decline in coal handling resulting from the energy transformation, the company tells Kallanish. In the future, Duisport will instead use the coal island in particular to handle the booming trade with China. The new terminal will be developed into the key European gateway hub, in particular to handle train traffic along the corridors of the New Silk Road, and will therefore operate under the name “Duisburg Gateway Terminal”.

Even now, around 30% of all rail-based trade between China and Europe runs through the port of Duisburg, Duisport says. Currently, between 35-40 trains per week run between Duisport and a dozen different destinations in China. The terminal will thus significantly increase the port’s capacities for trade with China.

On the 240,000 square metre area, 220,000m² are planned for the terminal and 20,000m² for warehouses. Six gantry crane systems, 12 block train platforms with a track length of 730m each, five loading areas and three berths for inland vessels, as well as a container storage area of 60,000m² will ensure rapid container handling in two construction stages.

Pre-carriage and onward carriage of goods at the trimodal terminal are to be handled primarily by water and rail. The investment volume amounts to around €100 million ($111m). The terminal is set for commissioning in 2022. The development will be carried out with international partners Cosco Shipping Logistics, Hupac SA and HTS Group.

SSAB has announced its intention to idle another of its blast furnaces in Europe from the end of November for a period of four to six weeks due to weak market conditions, Kallanish learns from the company.

The stoppage will be implemented at the Raahe plant in Finland, and involve a furnace with a capacity of 1.3 million tonnes/year of hot metal. The restart of the operation will be decided according to market conditions.

Earlier this year, in July, the company stopped production for the same reason at its smaller blast furnace in Oxelösund, Sweden, with a capacity of just 500,000 t/y of hot metal.

“To achieve further reductions of cost and capacity, we will idle one of the blast furnaces in Raahe at the end of November,” SSAB ceo Martin Lindqvist said during the presentation of the company’s third-quarter results. The firm’s profit fell significantly year-on-year in the quarter.

The steel market weakness has forced a number of European steelmakers to drastically reduce their output through temporary stoppages of furnaces and rolling lines across the continent (see Kallanish passim).

Marcegaglia, the world’s largest welded tube producer, will operate the Liberty precision tube mill in West Midlands, reliable market sources told S&P Global Platts.

Liberty Precision Tubes has an annual production capacity of 80,000 mt, but currently produces only 30,000 mt/year, UK sources told Platts. It is understood that Marcegaglia aims to increase production in a first phase and then possibly purchase the company.

The Liberty mill makes tubes for both the UK and export markets, serving automotive, petrochemical, construction, electrical, material handling/conveyors, garden and leisure, furniture and horticulture sectors.

“Marcegaglia in the UK produces already precision tubes so the eventual purchase makes sense in order to increase its presence in UK,” a trader commented.

Marcegaglia UK was established in 1996 and is makes electro-welded carbon steel tubes for a wide range of applications. Its production facilities are located in Dudley (West Midlands) and in Rotherham (South Yorkshire).

Taken together, the facilities, employing 128 in total, have yearly output capacity of 100,000 mt of finished products, making Marcegaglia UK the largest precision tube maker in Great Britain.

Marcegaglia and Liberty when contacted by Platts did not reply before the editorial deadline

— Annalisa Vill and Len Griffin