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Monday, May 02, 2011
On Monday afternoon executives from the American Iron and Steel Institute provided an update on the state of the steel industry. After Thomas Gibson, president and CEO of AISI, welcomed everyone, Dan DiMicco, AISI chairman and CEO of Nucor Corp., began with the latest industry data.
DiMicco started off by saying that they are seeing positive signs that the economy continues on a slow but steady recovery, with steel shipments at approximately 22 million tons in the first quarter of 2011. With an expectation to see a strengthening of demand for the second quarter and the second half of the year, the estimate is for a shipment of 95 million tons in 2011, an increase of roughly 14 percent over the 83 million tons the industry shipped in 2010. DiMicco also mentioned that domestic capacity utilization rose to 75 percent in the first quarter, a five percent improvement from the first week of January, similar to the positive improvement that was experienced in the first quarter of 2010.
DiMicco reported that finished import market share is currently at 21 percent, the same level as in 2009 and 2010. Yet the most recent steel import monitoring and analysis data from the March recorded a sharp rise in finished imports, bringing it to the highest level since January 2009.
In terms of AISI’s policy priorities, safety remains a top priority for the industry, DiMicco said. AISI also supports a strong pro-manufacturing strategy that will assist U.S. manufacturers in competing in today’s global economy. With a primary focus and support to see the government avoid excess regulation that reduces industrial competitiveness, the need to keep trade laws strong and strictly enforced remains important. Additional policy priorities include addressing China’s currency manipulation and encouraging the development of energy efficiency and breakthrough technologies.
Mario Longhi, AISI director and president and CEO of Gerdau Ameristeel Corp., offered the AISI’s energy policy perspective saying that the steel industry offers both opportunities and challenges in regards to energy. Presently the energy sector is a strong source of steel demand, and it is expected to remain strong throughout the decade. All areas of energy–oil pipelines and offshore drilling, natural gas extraction and transport, clean fuel, nuclear power, wind, solar–require large amounts of steel. Representing 7 percent of steel demand and along with the continuing resurgence in the automotive sector, the energy sector is an important market, Longhi said.
Longi continued, saying that natural gas is a strategic domestic source that can help drive economic recovery. Government policy should support the further development of natural gas resources and the climate and energy policy must take into account international competitors and how the cost of compliance with government policy can alter the competitive balance in the marketplace. Longi went on to say that Congress must act to prevent the misguided plan of the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gases from undermining efforts to promote economic growth and job creation.
While the U.S. steel industry has achieved a 30 percent reduction in energy intensity per time of steel produced since 1990, making it a global leader as compared to steel industries in other nations, the challenge is to continue to make further reductions through the use of completely new technologies, which the U.S. lags far behind. Longi said that government incentives to further energy efficiency goals should be part of an effective natural energy policy.
John Surma, AISI director and Chairman and CEO of the United States Steel Corp., said that to strengthen the economy and competitiveness, the manufacturing sector needs to grow. The government’s approach to trade policy is critical to AISI’s ability to support this goal. Priorities are to withstand rules-based trade, keeping strong the trade laws against unfair trade and injurious surges, strictly enforcing trade agreements and combating Chinese currency manipulation and other protectionist foreign government policies. Surma said that the AISI continues to urge Congress to pass legislation to address China’s currency undervaluation, by passing the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act.
Regulo Salinas, AISI vice chairman and vice president of Ternium Mexico, reported that the NAFTA region is also experiencing a slow but steady recovery. In Mexico, economic growth is expected to be in the range of 4 to 5 percent this year. While the automotive market has been a solid source of steel demand, construction continues to lack throughout the NAFTA region. A NAFTA-wide infrastructure conference is scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C., on June 7.
Following the reports from the executives, a short question-and-answer session was held.

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metalconstructionnews.com

Posted 06/22/2011
Based on preliminary Census Bureau data, the AISI reported that the U.S. imported a total of 2,692,000 NT of steel in May, including 1,838,000 NT of finished steel. Up 6-and down 5-percent , respectively, from April’s final data.

The annualized total and finished steel imports in 2011 would be 28.0 and 21.1 million NT, respectively, up 17- and 12 -percent compared to 2010. The finished steel import market share in May was an estimated 21-percent and is also 21-percent year-to date.

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Oct 12, 2010

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ — United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) is pleased to announce the addition of a new high-quality, value-added product to our lineup of construction steels that supports “green” building design and practices, positively impacting these projects’ environmental sustainability. ACRYLUME CF™ Coated Sheet, a new coated flat-rolled steel that has a chromium-free clear polymer coating, continues to provide all of the quality and performance attributes inherent in the new product’s predecessor, ACRYLUME® Coated Sheet.

U. S. Steel’s new ACRYLUME CF™ offers the environmentally conscious metal building construction industry the nation’s first chromium-free acrylic coating on GALVALUME® Coated Sheet, which exceeds anticipated environmental regulations in the United States. ACRYLUME CF™ also meets numerous European Union environmental directives, including Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances (REACH).

The original ACRYLUME®, which meets all current environmental guidelines in the United States, will continue to be available to customers for commonly used applications such as metal roofing and siding.

The new ACRYLUME CF™ provides users with exactly the same benefits as traditional ACRYLUME®. ACRYLUME® set the standard for enhancing the outstanding corrosion protection of GALVALUME® Coated Sheet by sealing it in a tough, clear polymer coating. ACRYLUME® and ACRYLUME CF™ also minimize staining and discoloration issues during storage, handling and installation, and both products can be used in the same end-use applications, side-by-side if needed. In addition, neither product requires the application of lubricants prior to roll forming, thus they can be delivered to a job site free from slippery substances, providing customers with increased safety during handling and installation.

United States Steel Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., manufactures a wide variety of flat-rolled and tubular steel products, coke, and taconite pellets at facilities in North America and Central Europe and has an annual worldwide raw steelmaking capability of 31.7 million net tons.

SOURCE United States Steel Corporation

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Mar 14, 2011

PITTSBURGH, March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) announced today that its tubular products subsidiary, U. S. Steel Tubular Products, Inc., has entered into an agreement with Surface Enhancement Technologies (SET), part of Lambda Technologies Group, to permit U. S. Steel Tubular Products to be the exclusive tubular products manufacturer to utilize Low Plasticity Burnishing (LPB®), an advanced, patented technology that can be applied to a variety of tubular products to improve their performance and extend their service life.

By utilizing LPB, U. S. Steel Tubular Products’ pipe performance designers will be able to engineer an applied layer of high residual compression to any specific area of a tubular product. U. S. Steel Tubular Products’ Product Development group and representatives from Lambda are also testing the ability of the LPB process to mitigate sulfide stress cracking in high-strength P110 grades.

LPB extends component life by creating a deep, stable layer of compression in part surfaces. Unlike other surface treatments, LPB induces a very low amount of cold work, making the protective layer thermally and mechanically stable. Processing is performed using basic Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) machines or robots, allowing for quick and easy integration into manufacturing facilities. No alteration of the component’s material or design is required. LPB can be applied to a wide variety of alloys, including titanium, aluminum, nickel-based alloys and steels, and is currently in use in the aerospace, nuclear and medical industries.

“The LPB process will allow U. S. Steel Tubular Products to offer our customers a wide range of engineered product solutions with longer-lasting, more resistant parts designed to perform in situations that involve challenging field conditions,” said U. S. Steel’s Senior Vice President – Tubular Operations Douglas R. Matthews, who also serves as president of U. S. Steel Tubular Products.

“The relationship that will result from this agreement has almost limitless possibilities. The combination of innovation and experience that Lambda and U. S. Steel Tubular Products possess means that we will be able to do more than ever before to help solve material cracking and fatigue issues,” said Paul Prevey, chief executive officer of Lambda Technologies Group.

U. S. Steel Tubular Products, Inc., a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation, is the largest tubular products manufacturer in North America, with total annual production capability of 2.8 million net tons. Energy industry customers utilize U. S. Steel Tubular Products’ casing, tubing, line pipe and couplings to help locate, retrieve, transport and refine the oil and natural gas products that fuel the world.

Lambda Technologies Group is an innovative company incorporating a premier materials research laboratory with a world-class engineering and production enterprise dedicated to the development and optimization of surface treatments to improve component performance. Along with U. S. Steel Tubular Products, Lambda has partnered with Delta, NASA, the U.S. Military and other organizations across industries.

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masterbuilders.co.za

Reinforcing steel (rebar) suppliers and manufacturers have now begun defaulting on their contracts with construction companies to deliver processed (cut and bent) rebar, due to the nation wide shortage of raw material available from the local steel mills.

As reported a few weeks ago, the lack of ability of the mills to supply rebar was largely due to the breakdown of ArcelorMittal’s mill in Newcastle as well as the closure of a non-profitable mill in Cape Town, CISCO. The backlog due to the breakdown has never been caught up and with CISCO not being there to supply about 25% of the market, as they used to, the situation has become critical.

The 3 mills currently supplying the market have placed all of their customers on allocation i.e. have limited the quantity each customer may receive, and are apparently at full production. The mills are generally not able to adhere to delivery dates, making it impossible for the companies that process the steel, prior to it being delivered to the construction sites, to adhere to construction programs and deadlines. This is likely to cause massive cost and time overruns for contractors and developers alike.

The South African Reinforced Concrete Engineers Association (SARCEA), to whom most of the rebar processing companies are associated, has reported that its members are all experiencing the same shortages nation wide. “There is very little that the Association’s members can do about this general shortage, barring importing steel bars from international mills, which requires a 2-3 month delivery period and extensive outlays of capital” says Rod Mountford, director of the Association. This is the choice faced by an industry which is reeling from the decline of work in the construction sector, struggling with low margins and is generally cash strapped. To make matters worse and in order to keep the cost overruns of imports to a minimum, it is necessary to import very large quantities, making it unaffordable for the smaller companies.

“Reinforcing bars are made in various diameters or thicknesses and each size is manufactured (rolled) at a set time in the month by each mill. In each reinforced element in a concrete structure, there is a combination of various sized bars required to complete that element. This means that should a processing company run out of any specific size, it has to wait for the next rolling (generally the next month) before it is able to continue installing bars on the construction site. This has resulted in rebar companies swapping bar sizes and assisting one another wherever possible in order to minimize delays but obviously there are cost and time consequences for this additional effort” explains Mountford.

It is uncertain when these shortages will end and some companies have entered into the process of importing steel but it may be a case of “too little, too late” in order to avoid costly delays and time overruns.

C.R. Mountford | Director SARCEA

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titussteelbuildings.com

Here is a copy of the letter:

Dear Secretary Locke and Ambassador Kirk:

I am a strong supporter of market-based policies that create and support American steel jobs and American steel manufacturing. However, U.S. steel companies cannot compete with government-owned and subsidized Chinese companies.

As you may know, China’s Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corporation (“Anshan”) announced on Monday, May 17, that it had signed an agreement with the Steel Development Company of Mississippi to build multiple steel mills in the United States. Anshan is a state-owned enterprise and instrumentality of the central government, controlled by China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (or SASAC).

According to press, the Chinese central government has stated that their steel industry should emulate Japan’s auto strategy and build production capacity in the United States in order to evade trade remedies. As such, it is clear that this investment by the Chinese government is based on political strategic considerations, rather than valid market-based principles.

There is also a matter of equity and reciprocity. Current Chinese policy restricts investments into Chinese steel production. It is extremely unlikely that China would ever approve a substantial investment such as this by a U.S. company, let alone one controlled by the U.S. government, where it sought to build new steel capacity in China. This obvious lack of reciprocity begs the question of whether and why the U.S. should support such an investment.

As President of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) and as a member of the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Steel (ITAC 12), I urge you to raise these concerns with your Chinese counterparts as part of the upcoming meetings of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue next week.

Sincerely,

Thomas A. Danjczek

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