EC confirms definitive duties on Chinese plate
The European Commission has concluded its investigation regarding imports of heavy plate from China. It has confirmed definitive anti-dumping duties of a similar magnitude of the provisional measures imposed in October 2016, Kallanish understands from an official release.
The duties imposed range from 65.1% to 73.7% depending on the supplier, with Minmetals Yingkou Medium Plate Co being the company with the lower level of duties thanks to its cooperation during the investigation. Duties will be applicable to all imports from China of plates of “… a thickness exceeding 10mm and of a width of 600mm or more, or of a thickness of 4,75mm or more but not exceeding 10mm and of a width of 2050mm or more”.
As reported, the EC imposed the registration of imports of heavy plates since August 2016, as it continued its investigation. Since then the imports of heavy plates from China into Europe have lowered significantly therefore the Commission has decided that the definitive duties will not be collected retroactively.
In 2015 the average monthly import volume of such product from China stood well above 100,000 tonnes/month. The level in Q2-Q3 2016 however fell by over -35% y-o-y.
The investigation was initiated in February 2016 following the complaint lodged by Eurofer, the Europen steelmakers association. In August 2016 the registration process began and in October 2016 provisional measures were imposed, as reported.
ITLA and Giuseppe F.lli Bonaiti signed formal agreement to form joint venture
ITLA, a company controlled by CLN Group, and Giuseppe F.lli Bonaiti announce that a formal agreement has been signed for a new joint venture set up that will merge the activities of I.T.L.A. s.r.l., based in Oggiono (LC) Italy, with the activities of Giuseppe e F.lli Bonaiti S.p.A., based in Calolziocorte (LC) Italy.
The assets and the activities of the Italian manufacturing facilities of Oggiono (LC), Mogliano Veneto (VE) and Palazzago (BG) will merge in the joint venture, which will take the name of Itla Bonaiti. The Calolziocorte (LC) manufacturing line of steel wires is excluded from the agreement.
The birth of this joint venture represents a further step ahead in the consolidation process in the Italian sector of high carbon steel re-rolling and contributes to the making of a leading company in the Italian market of cold rolled high-carbon and alloyed steel strips.
The new joint venture, in which ITLA will have a majority, will benefit from all the synergy advantages offered by the merger: from the integration of the product portfolios, to the optimization of production capacity, to a greater penetration of European markets, not to mention the improvement in its economical results.
Klöckner opens up online shop to third parties
Klöckner & Co keeps widening its efforts to promote digitalisation and online retail with a new strategy. It will allow third party vendors to sell steel on its online platform, it confirms. A trial period to that effect with candidate vendors is being carried out in the first half of 2017.
“We want to open up to competitors which could complement us, either regionally or in terms of products,” ceo Gisbert Rühl said at Klöckner’s annual press conference. The steel distributor also intends to widen its portfolio by adding products and services related to construction, he added.
Rühl has been pushing digitalisation systematically for the last couple of years, with 12% of Klöckner’s revenues now generated online, and a share of 50% targeted for 2019. The ceo emphasises that steel is not an easy product group to sell online. He tellsKallanish that a first attempt some years ago cost the company some €1.5 million ($1.6m), but that this was much lower than sums sunk by others in the industry in similar efforts.
One error in principle on that occasion was to offer too many products from the outset, which then became too confusing for customers to handle. “We then re-started with a narrow base of customers’ immediate requirements, and then kept building up,” says Rühl, outlining the concept. He notes that with the steel industry’s traditionally conservative nature, mills are especially “… slow players in this game.”
Regarding potential competition from outside the steel world, Rühl anticipates that Amazon or Alibaba will become players in selling steel. However, Klöckner is banking on a vertical set-up offering services tailored to the industry. “Amazon will be fine for the repair shop that needs the occasional [… steel] sheet, but if you need steel and process continuously, you will need a vertical platform like ours,” he adds.
Italian companies combine in cold rolled strip JV
ITLA, a company controlled by Italian CLN group, and Giuseppe e F.lli Bonaiti has announced the merger of some of its units to create a new entity named Itla Bonaiti. This will specialise in cold rolled high-carbon and alloyed strip products and is due to bgein operations in June 2017, Kallanish learns from a release.
The new entity will include the ITLA plants located in Oggiono, together with the plants from the Bonaiti group located in Mogliano Veneto and Palazzago, in northern Italy. ITLA will have a majority control in the new joint-venture.
The steel wiremaking plant controlled by Bonaiti in Calolziocorte will not be part of the operation and will continue to be controlled solely by their current owners.
“The birth of this joint venture represents a further step ahead in the consolidation process in the Italian sector of high carbon steel re-rolling and contributes to the making of a leading company in the Italian market of cold rolled high-carbon and alloyed steel strips,” ITLA says in the statement.
“Itla Bonaiti will benefit from all the synergy advantages offered by the merger: from the integration of the product portfolios, to the optimisation of production capacity, to a greater penetration of European markets, not to mention the improvement in its economic results,” the statement adds.
US distributor opens Hungary facility
United Performance Metals (UPM) has opened a new 1,000-square-metre specialty metals distribution, sales and processing facility in Budapest, Kallanish learns from the US-headquartered stainless steel distributor.
The facility is UPM’s third outside the US after Belfast and Singapore. “This is a great opportunity to bring our full line of products and processing services to our customers throughout Europe,” says Dick Santoro, UPM’s Director of International Business. The Hungarian facility will help UPM better serve the EU market, the distributor says.
Besides a wide range of stainless steel, UPM stocks cobalt, nickel, titanium and aluminium.
US service center supply falls to 31-month low
The volume of steel supply on hand at US service centers plummeted to 2.2 months in January from 2.8 months in December, according to Metals Service Center Institute data released Wednesday. Canadian steel supply at service centers followed a similar pattern.
The last time the inventory-to-shipment ratio, or supply on hand, reached 2.2 months was in May 2014.
At the end of January, service centers stocked 7.3 million st of steel, which was 8.3% lower year on year, and at the current shipping rate, represented 2.2 months of supply. In January 2016, service centers carried 8 million st of steel, representing 2.6 months of supply.
Service centers shipped 3.34 million st of steel in January, which was 9.4% higher than in January 2016.
Flat-rolled steel supply on hand dropped to 2 months in January from 2.7 months in December. Service centers carried 4.63 million st of flats at the end of January, which was 11.8% lower than January 2016.
Flat-rolled steel shipments from US service centers reached 2.27 million st in January, 9.7% higher year on year and the highest level seen since August.
Plate inventories totaled 737,400 st at the end of January, flat year on year and representing 2.5 months of supply. Plate shipments jumped 9.3% year on year to 291,800 st.
Structural steel inventories in January rose 6% year on year to 513,300 st, which represented 2.6 months of supply.
Service centers shipped 195,700 st of structural steel in January, up 11.6% year on year.
Bar inventories at the end of January totaled 483,900 st, down 2.4% year on year. Stocks of bar products represented 2.1 months of supply. Service centers shipped 226,300 st of bar products in January, up 10.7% year on year.
Pipe and tube stocks in January were down 18% year on year at 471,500 st. This represented 2.4 months of supply. Service centers shipped 194,800 st of pipe and tube in January, up 2.2% year on year.
Stainless steel stocks at US service centers rose 11.2% year on year to 465,300 st and represented 2.9 months of supply. Stainless steel shipments increased 9.9% year on year to 158,500 st in January.
Canadian service center inventories decreased 5.8% year on year to 1.18 million st in January. Based on shipment levels, January stocks equaled 2.9 months of supply. Canadian service centers shipped 411,800 st of steel in January, up 5.7% year on year. The Canadian figures include all steel products except structural, MSCI said.
Canadian service centers carried 742,400 st or 3.3 months of flat-rolled steel supply at the end of January. This was down 4.7% year on year. Canadian service centers shipped 224,400 st of flat-roll in January, up 1% year on year.
Estelle Tran, PLATTS
ISTA elects new chairwoman
The International Steel Trading Association (ISTA) elected Simone Jordan as chairwoman at its AGM earlier this month.
Jordan, a trader at Ronly Ltd., takes over from Jeff Kabel who served as chairman for three years. Tony Singer was re-elected as president while Brian Paterson of Duferco UK and Alan Fowle of Fowle & Co. will serve as deputy chairman and treasurer.
In recent years ISTA has taken a prominent role in promoting free trade and opposing anti-dumping investigations in the European Union. The association has also expanded its operation, opening a branch in Singapore in last June under the leadership of Stemcor’s Asian managing director Gerry Craggs.
Peter Brennan, PLATTS
Stalprofil, Izostal win $35.5m Gaz-System pipe contract
Stalprofil has won an order as part of a consortium with Izostal to supply internally-coated DN 1,000 pipe to Gaz-System for construction of two pipelines in Poland.
The PLN 144 million ($35.5m) contract will ensure supply of pipe for sections of the Lwowek-Odolanow and Zdzieszowice-Kedzierzyn pipelines, which have a combined length of 66km. Delivery of the pipe will be carried out over twelve months starting 1 July 2017.
The Lwowek-Odolanow pipeline will be 168km long when completed by end-2018. It will improve Poland’s energy security and will form an important part of the North-South gas corridor.
Last December Stalprofil and Izostal won an order to supply pipe to Gaz-System for construction of a 60km section of the Zdzieszowice-Wroclaw DN 1,000 pipeline (see Kallanish 29 December).
Last September Stalrprofil said that, despite huge plans by Gaz-System to invest into new pipelines, these projects have not yet broken ground, resulting in a difficult 2016 for firms specialising in pipeline construction (see Kallanish 17 September). These projects are, however, expected to accelerate in 2017.
EU gives OK for distribution JV between AM and Cellino
The European Commission has authorized the acquisition of “joint control” of the Italian company Steelcame by the French arm of ArcelorMittal and the Italian company Cellino, it announced Monday in Brussels.
Steelcame is a newly created company to which ArcelorMittal and Cellino will contribute pre-existing assets in France, Italy and Poland. The new company will be active in the markets of industrial sheet metal working and steel distribution through oxycutting centres.
As previously reported, this move is part of a reorganization among ArcelorMittal Distribution’s affiliated companies, as Cellino will also acquire part of the former Solustil company, a business owned in the past by AM Distribution.
Annalisa Villa, PLATTS
Russia files WTO complaint against EU over anti-dumping duties on steel
On 27 January the Russian Federation notified the WTO Secretariat that it had requested WTO dispute consultations with the European Union regarding anti-dumping duties imposed by the EU on imports of certain cold-rolled flat steel products originating from Russia.
Further information will be available within the next few days in document WT/DS521/1
What is a request for consultations?
The request for consultations formally initiates a dispute in the WTO. Consultations give the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further with litigation. After 60 days, if consultations have failed to resolve the dispute, the complainant may request adjudication by a panel.