Category Archives: steel news

“Power Restriction Tide” Restarts

Due to the increasing electricity load, there has been a “wave of electricity curtailment” in many places across the country recently.

In the past few weeks, the Zhejiang Provincial Energy Bureau issued a power-saving proposal. It is advocating that enterprises in the province use electricity off-peak. The city’s electricity supply and demand situation are tense this summer. We advocate industrial enterprises stagger and avoid peak power supply through planned maintenance and other methods. And actively support the relief of power supply pressure during peak hours. “Let electricity be used by the people” became hot words.

The “power curtailment wave” has had a considerable impact on the production of industrial enterprises in many places, and the steel industry is no exception. This makes many market participants worry about whether it will cause an imbalance between supply and demand. It will affect the stable operation of the industrial chain and supply chain.

On August 14, the Sichuan Electric Power Company made it clear that due to the further intensification of the current situation of power supply and demand tension. In order to ensure the safety of the Sichuan power grid, ensure the power consumption of people’s livelihood. And ensure that there is no “power cut-off” phenomenon, all industrial power users in Sichuan will implement production Full stop, high-temperature holiday. According to industry statistics, one of the two pig iron enterprises in Sichuan completely stopped production on August 15. Due to the influence of the local power curtailment policy. Due to self-generated power, normal production can be basically maintained. But this round of power curtailment will still affect its average daily output of pig iron of 8,000 tons. (“Power Restriction Tide” Restarts)

Steel supplier–Dongguan Otai Special Steel Co Ltd. We keep 1500 tons of 4140 Steel Flat bars in our warehouse.

Tata is to invest £30m in its Port Talbot steelworks, the company has announced

The Indian firm said it would install a 500-tonne steelmaking vessel at the plant and make other upgrades to prepare it for the future.

The equipment will help it produce advanced forms of steel used in electric and hybrid cars as well as the building industry, Tata said.

It follows recent calls for Welsh jobs to be safeguarded at the plant.

Announcing the investment, part of a series of planned investments inits UK business, the company said it would also replace cranes at the plant and install emission-reducing systems.

• New Tata pensions deal agreed
• Call to safeguard Welsh steel plant jobs
• Final pensions deal ‘days away’
• Tata Steel to launch sale of UK plants

Port Talbot’s project manager Dave Murray said the new steelmaking vessel was needed.

“We have two steelmaking vessels and they run 24/7 at temperatures of up to 1,700C, apart from short planned maintenance periods. Despite this they last for around 20 years each and replacing them is an important part of ensuring reliable operations,” he said.

Tata Steel UK chief executive Bimlendra Jha said: “These investments will help us to increase our reliability and demonstrate our commitment to the longer-term future of steelmaking in the UK.”

He added that the UK steel industry was “still facing challenges” and it was “vital we continue to work with government to find ways of levelling the competitive playing field with our European competitors”.

Analysis from Brian Meechan, BBC Wales business correspondent

This will be welcomed by workers as a sign of Tata’s commitment to investing in Port Talbot.

They already had assurances from the company that it would remain operating as the merger with the German steel giant Thyssenkrupp continued.

But this £30m investment is only part of an agreement the company has made with unions for £1bn to be invested over 10 years, if market conditions allow it.

What unions really want to see is Tata relining Blast Furnace Number 5 at Port Talbot which would cost a substantial sum of money and show a long-term commitment to the plant.

Further investment by Tata is in the pipeline including at its other Welsh sites.

Tata announced in September it had agreed the first stage of a deal to merge with German steel manufacturer Thyssenkrupp – which is expected to lead to about 4,000 job losses across the firm.

It led to calls for assurances over workers’ jobs, with First Minister Carwyn Jones saying he “can only take Tata at their word” that the Welsh workforce would be unaffected.

Welsh Government Economy Secretary Ken Skates said he had been “given assurances” that there would be no closures of “assets that exist across Wales and the UK”.

Almost 7,000 people are employed by Tata in Wales, including more than 4,000 in Port Talbot – the largest steel works in the UK.

Souce from: BBC News

Naoto Umehara (centre), executive vice-president of Kobe Steel, bows along with other managers as they announce the company is scrapping its financial forecasts CREDIT: BLOOMBERG

Kobe Steel, the Japanese industrial giant that has been rocked by revelations that it falsified data about its products’ quality, has scrapped its financial forecast in the wake of the scandal.

The move came as the company posted interim results but warned that it was unable to estimate how much the quality problems would cost.

Kobe has admitted that it wrongly certified the strength and quality of its steel, creating worries for customers as some of its products are used in high-performance and safety-critical applications such aircraft, trains and the nuclear industry.

Kobe Steel has admitted its products were not of the strength or quality advertised CREDIT: BLOOMBERG

As well as abandoning its financial forecast, Kobe added that it had scrapped the dividend for the first half of the financial year.

Executives at the business warned that the scandal could see customers abandon Kobe.

Naoto Umehara, executive vice-president of the company, said: “It’s very difficult to estimate what may happen as far as contracts possibly being cancelled or replaced by other firms.

“Even outside the product areas directly involved in this issue, we expect some clients may begin to have doubts or concerns about Kobe Steel’s products.

“We may have to incur extraordinary losses. That number is very difficult to estimate right now.”

Japan’s bullet trains may have used components from Kobe whose quality faces questions CREDIT: BLOOMBERG

MUMBAI: Tata Steel BSE -1.03 % harnessed the steepest global prices in more than five years to post profits in the three months to September, but India’s oldest maker of the alloy fell short of Street estimates in a quarter that saw a settlement of the pension liabilities in its British businesses.

The steelmaker reported a net profit of Rs 1,018 crore, compared with a loss of Rs 49 crore in the same period last year. Market estimates hovered around Rs 1,600 crore. Consolidated EBITDA stood at Rs 4,726 crore against market estimates of Rs 5,200 crore.

Revenues, in line with consensus, stood atRs 32, 464 crore, up 20% over last year.

The settlement of ¤550 million toward the British Steel Pension Scheme was accounted through “other comprehensive income” in the balance sheet. However, this category does not affect EBITDA and PAT, but adds to the debt of the company.

Gross debt rose Rs 2,447 crore owing to an increase in working capital lines and forex impact, taking the total at the end of the quarter to Rs 90,259 crore.

Tata Steel, which has reportedly shown an interest in the distressed assets of Essar Steel and Electrosteels Steel, is banking on the Thyssenkrupp arrangement in Europe to delever its balance sheet.

“Once the JV is implemented, there will be an impact on the group debt due to deconsolidation in the balance sheet,” group executive director Koushik Chatterjee said.

The company had announced its long-pending merger with German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp in September to tide over losses in its European unit. Out of its capex guidance of Rs 7,000 crore for the fiscal, the company spent Rs 1,834 crore in the September quarter and is currently sitting on Rs 19,800 crore in cash and cash equivalents.

“The liquidity position of the group remains robust,” the company said in a statement.

“Tata Steel witnessed strong volume growth during the quarter as the smooth ramp up of Kalinganagar Steel plant, coupled with our strong marketing franchise, enabled us to….increase our market share,” said managing director TV Narendran. “We remain positive on the outlook of India as encouraging government reforms are expected to facilitate domestic investment and growth in the coming years.”

Souce from:By Vatsala Gaur ET Bureau|Oct 30, 2017, 11.35 PM IST

Steel bosses will confront a top Tory Minister over the Government’s commitment to the British industry after the foreign metal was used in a string of bumper military deals.

Executives from trade body UK Steel will hold a September 20 showdown with Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin amid mounting anger at British products being snubbed for the Royal Navy’s latest warships.

The Tories’ National Shipbuilding Strategy, published today, outlined plans for building five Type 31e frigates to boost the Fleet.

But, as the Mirror exclusively revealed, it failed to offer guarantees that British steel would be used.

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, whose constituency includes Britain’s biggest steelworks, Port Talbot, said: “This month’s meeting will be an important test for the Government – are they going to pursue a patriotic procurement policy, as Labour steel MPs, the steel industry and workforce have been urging, or are they going to continue to hand out substantial Ministry of Defence contracts to foreign competitors?

                                                             “The Tories’ National Shipbuilding Strategy offers, absolutely no guarantees on the use of British steel.

“Tory promises to use British steel ‘when practical’ is pathetic, particularly given their appalling record when it comes to British steel.

GMB union national officer Ross Murdoch said: “The lack of any guarantees to use only British steel in these builds is another missed opportunity by this Government to give this industry the long term security it needs.”

Unveiling the blueprint in the Commons, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon confirmed the Government could opt to import foreign steel if it was cheaper.

He said: “Where possible we want to see greater use of British steel. But of course, we must also be alive to achieve the best value for the taxpayer.”

The Tory Minister also insisted some specialist metal was only available overseas – despite UK firms insisting they can provide the products if they are given enough notice.

Labour backbencher Stephen Hepburn asked Sir Michael: “Why don’t you insist that British steel and components are used where possible to create jobs and also to fly the flag for Britain?”

Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith urged the top Tory to examine how supply chain orders benefit local communities when awarding contracts.

Due to weak scrap prices and high market inventories, European longs steel prices fell this week, especially the rebar market continued to be affected by delays in the importation of Algeria.

In France, rebar prices fell 15-20 euros/tonne from last month, with a base price of € 165 / t. In southern France, buyers can even get less than 160 euros/ton of resources. Buyers believe that the main problem or Algeria’s import license has been delayed, low-cost resources in southern Europe continue to flow to the Nordic market. In recent months, Italy continued to lower the domestic rebar factory base price, a decline of 100 euros/ton, Benelux rebar factory base price of 180 euros/ton, down 10 euros/ton last week. At present, the Northwest European steel mills ex-factory price of 427-437 euros/ton, compared with the previous decline of 3 euros/ton.

In addition, the past week, profiles and small bar prices are also declining, steel prices fell 25% over the end of February. Heard a large steel mill of type 1 delivery price of 490 euros/ton, small bar delivery base price of 45-50 euros/ton.

For the market outlook, it is expected to come with the summer, the next two months the market demand will remain weak, long steel prices trend to steadily weak.

Source: China Business Network

According to the Japan Iron and Steel Union (JISF) 16 released statistics show that due to export orders greatly reduced, dragged down in March 2017 Japan’s ordinary steel steel orders (domestic demand + export) fell 7.5% from the same month last year to 571,000 tons, For the second consecutive month showed a decline; the above orders mainly reflect the actual 2-3 months after the actual production situation.

Japan’s steel orders grew 0.2% to 68.9 million tonnes in the fiscal year (April 2016 – March 2017), showing growth for the first time in three years.

March domestic demand for ordinary steel steel orders grew 0.2% over the same month last year to 3.685 million tons, export orders by 18.8% to 20.25 million tons.

According to the Nikkei News, Nippon Steel, JFE and other Japanese blast furnace manufacturers to give priority to meet the demand continued strong Japanese domestic car, machinery industry demand, unable to cope with export demand, but also drag the overall order volume continued to shrink.

In terms of domestic demand orders, the amount of orders for construction in Japan grew 3.2% to 1.073 million tons from the same month last year. Orders from the manufacturing sector fell 2.8% to 14.71 million tons.

In the manufacturing orders, machinery and other industrial machinery orders grew 12.7% to 136,000 tons, automotive orders grew 7.1% to 704,000 tons (for the eighth consecutive month showed growth).

Source: China Business Network

The decline in Eastern Europe’s hot-rolled prices has increased pressure on other European markets due to weak demand, and other European mills are increasingly relying on spot trading and therefore lower prices.

Traders said the market is plentiful, the end of last year and early this year, the demand has been released in advance, the current inventory and service center inventory level, the price pressure increases, the steel price pressure is even greater.

Although the major Western European steel mills of the latest transaction volume of the hot-rolled ex-factory price of 530-540 euros/ton (Ruhr area), but the steel market to return to the spot market, then the price level is also difficult to achieve. According to market news, the southern German July delivery volume of hot rolled prices fell 20 euros/ton (delivery price), reported at 470 euros/ton, Benelux service center sent to Poland hot roll delivery price of 490- 495 euros/ton, excluding shipping.

In addition, the hot coil import quotations are also falling, partly due to the appreciation of the euro against the dollar, allegedly Vietnam and India on the European hot roll export price of 480-490 euros/ton (CIF, Antwerp). Cold-rolled imports were quoted at 610-620 (CFR), traders selling price of 670-680 euros/ton, thin profits, so traders scarce procurement.