US Steel says demand remains healthy for its Slovakian unit USSK’s products amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine, and the firm has inventory on site or in-transit to continue meeting customer demand.
“Alternate sources of supply are underway to continue meeting demand as we closely monitor the rapidly changing geopolitical situation,” US Steel says in a note seen by Kallanish. Although the firm does not elaborate, it is thought to be arranging iron ore and coking coal supplies for USSK from sources other than the CIS. US Steel has captive iron ore mines in the US.
USSK is expected to deliver adjusted Ebitda in the first quarter that is approaching fourth-quarter-of-2021 levels and is expected to be the third-best quarterly adjusted Ebitda. Steel prices and demand were stable throughout January and February, and the European segment benefited from having its third blast furnace back on-line in February after a 60-day planned outage, US Steel observes.
US Steel said in January steel production at its Slovak subsidiary is forecast to amount to 4.1-4.3 million net tons in 2022, flat or slightly down on 2021.
In 2021 USSK’s shipments surged 42% on-year to 4.3mnt, with raw steel production up 46% to 4.93mnt. The Slovakian plant sourced 439,000nt of iron ore from the parent company in 2021, down 69% on-year.
Adam Smith Germany
