Steel and Stainless Steel Industries – Page 14

Finland’s Outokumpu plans cost cuts to stem losses (Reuters India – February 11, 2016)

February 11, 2016

http://in.reuters.com/

Feb 11 Outokumpu, the Europe’s largest stainless steel maker, on Thursday posted an underlying loss from the fourth quarter and forecast more losses in the first quarter, adding it aims to improve profitability with new cost cuts.

Outokumpu, 26 percent owned by the Finnish state, has suffered as a steep drop in the price of nickel, an ingredient in stainless steel, has made distributors hold back orders, while production problems have also harmed the business.

The fourth-quarter underlying operating loss was 11 million euros ($12 million), compared to analysts’ average expectation of a loss of 38 million euros in Reuters poll.

Time to step up for steel – by Mike Verdone (Sault Star – February 3, 2016)

February 4, 2016

http://www.saultstar.com/

Sault Ste. Marie MPP David Orazietti urged the federal government Wednesday to adopt a new trade policy to ensure fair trade for Canadian steel workers.

He said the current federal trade remedy system is antiquated and must be changed. “It’s more than 20 years old, it’s outdated. This system does not reflect the global realities of trade today,” Orazietti said.

He called on Ottawa to immediately embrace the Trade Remedy Modernization plan as outlined by the Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) during a press conference Wednesday afternoon at his constituency office while flanked by local industry stakeholders, including union and company representatives from Essar Steel Algoma and Tenaris Algoma Tubes Algoma, as well as reps from retiree groups.

China’s Top Leadership Driving Steel Output Cuts, Cliffs Says – by Jasmine Ng (Bloomberg News – February 2, 2016)

February 2, 2016

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Steel production in China will extend declines this year as the country’s top leadership has endorsed a concerted push to cut back on overcapacity in the country that accounts for half of global supply, according to the head of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.

“If the central government has said they want 100 to 150 million tons of steel capacity shut down, they may not get that much but I’m sure they’ll get some,” Lourenco Goncalves, chief executive officer of the largest U.S. iron ore producer, said in an interview. “It’s a decision and it’s a task force led by the Premier Li Keqiang, who’s the number-two guy.”

China’s leaders have vowed to reduce excess capacity in state enterprises including steel even as they battle the slowest growth in a quarter century, announcing targets last month to shutter more factories and help workers cope with layoffs.

Stelco’s takeover by U.S. Steel no net benefit for Canada – by Jennifer Wells (Toronto Star – January 30, 2016)

February 1, 2016

http://www.thestar.com/

The 2007 takeover ended in insolvency and is now mired in the courts. It’s hard to imagine a sorrier corporate saga than U.S. Steel’s disastrous foray into Canada.

I refer, of course, to the 2007 takeover of Stelco, just one of a spree of foreign takeovers that substantially contributed to a diminishment of Ontario’s profile on the world economic stage. (Think Falconbridge, Inco, Rio Algom.)

At the height of the foreign takeover mania, the federal government of the day offered repeated assurances that the Investment Canada Act provided all the protections necessary to ensure such transactions would be of “net benefit” to Canada.

In remaking Stelco into U.S. Steel Canada Inc., the Pittsburgh parent committed to a number of binding undertakings, 31 in all.

Essar restructuring on time and on budget – by Elaine Della-Mattia (Sault Star – January 29, 2016)

January 29, 2016

http://www.saultstar.com/

Kalyan Ghosh said Essar Steel Algoma’s restructuring plan is on a tight timeline and the public will see the process keep moving forward, especially over the next couple of weeks.

The CEO of the financially strapped steelmaker said the timelines set for the restructuring plan by the debtor in possession (DIP) financers and the courts has some strict deadlines and specific milestones that must be met along the way.

Essar Steel Algoma received US $200 million from a syndicate of lenders led by Deutsche Bank to continue its operations throughout the restructuring process.

Ghosh said he expects that loan to be enough money to finance the company until the end of the restructuring program, provided that there is no other major economic impact the steelmaker has to contend with.

A Canadian Steel Industry Is Vital for Our 21st-Century Economy – by Marty Warren (Huffington Post – January 19, 2016)

January 21, 2016

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Marty Warren is a lifelong social and labour activist and United Steelworkers Director for Ontario and Atlantic Canada, representing 74,000 working people.

As the crisis in Canada’s steel industry deepens, tens of thousands of working families and pensioners grow increasingly anxious for support from their political leaders.

These families and pensioners are now being joined by their fellow citizens, community groups, labour and municipal leaders in mobilizing to bring attention to the steel crisis and urge our federal and provincial governments to act now — before it’s too late.

Unless our governments take decisive, meaningful action, not only will the livelihoods of so many be jeopardized, we could soon witness the irrevocable loss of a cornerstone of the 21st-century manufacturing economy that Canada needs.

Remember This? Helen Mine started it all [Algoma Steel] (Soo Today – January 17, 2016)

January 18, 2016

https://www.sootoday.com/

It was named after its original owner’s sister

At the end of the 19th century, local prospectors Benjamin Boyer, Jim Sayers and Alois Goetz found what they thought was gold while searching for minerals in the Algoma area.

The men took their sample to Francis H. Clergue who recognized the mineral as iron ore, not gold. The three men offered the land to Clergue for $500. Upon purchase Clergue created the Helen Mine which he named after his sister.

Mining began at the new Helen Mine and on July 1, 1900 the Canadian Blast Furnace Company (of Midland, Ontario) purchased and processed the first iron ore. The payroll at that time was just $107,535 for almost 400 employees.

China steel pullback a new blow for miners – by Scott Murdoch (The Australian – January 12, 2016)

January 12, 2016

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

One of China’s largest iron and steel-producing regions, Hebei, has announced a dramatic cut in production levels this year in a fresh blow to the Australian mining industry.

Regulators have revealed that production at Hebei, which produces a quarter of China’s iron and steel output, will be slashed this year in a bid to alleviate the nation’s worsening pollution problem. Iron production will by cut by 10 million tonnes and steel by eight million tonnes this year.

Hebei governor Zhang Qingwei said steel and cement production would be capped at 200 million tonnes as the nation attempts to reduce the overcapacity that exists in the industry across the country.

Union leader calls for action on steel ‘crisis’ – by Steve Arnold (Hamilton Spectator – December 23, 2015)

January 5, 2016

http://www.thespec.com/

Ontario’s steel industry is in crisis and a union leader wants the provincial government to help find a solution.

In a letter to Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid, United Steelworkers Ontario director Marty Warren calls for an Ontario Steel Industry Action Plan to save an industry that supports 20,000 direct and 100,000 spinoff jobs across the country. Most of those jobs, Warren writes, are in Ontario.

“As you are no doubt aware, the price of steel has dropped sharply, plunging the industry into a worldwide crisis,” he said. “If the crisis is not resolved soon, these thousands of men and women and their families are in critical danger of losing their livelihoods.”

Canada’s steel industry: High-value cornerstone of our manufacturing economy – by Ken Neumann and Marty Warren (Hamilton Spectator – December 9, 2015)

December 9, 2015

http://www.thespec.com/

Ken Neumann is the United Steelworkers National Director. Marty Warren is the United Steelworkers District Director for Ontario and Atlantic Canada.

With a perfect storm threatening Canada’s steel industry, many concerned Canadians are asking, “Will steel manufacturing still play a key role in our future economy?” Well, the answer can — and should — be: “yes.” To understand why and how, let’s look at the facts.

The livelihoods of tens of thousands of Canadian workers and pensioners are at risk and so are the communities that depend on the steel industry for jobs and economic activity. The current crisis is caused by low world steel prices, a sluggish oil and gas sector and dumping of subsidized steel from China and other jurisdictions with poor environmental, safety and working standards.

Dayton issues warning to Essar about paying companies working on Nashwauk site – by John Myers (Duluth News Tribune – November 30, 2015)

December 1, 2015

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday pledged to play hardball with Essar Steel Minnesota, saying he’ll call the state’s $67 million loan to the company on Wednesday if Essar doesn’t pay past-due bills from local construction companies.

Essar has essentially been in default on the state money since October because it failed to live up to an agreement to create jobs at an iron and steelmaking facility in Nashwauk by that date.

The company has moved ahead with work building a taconite plant at the Nashwauk site, but has shelved plans to make iron and steel at the site.

That puts the company in violation of the 2007 agreement signed when the economic development money was awarded by the state.

Tough road ahead for LME’s new steel, aluminum contracts – by Maytaal Angel and Eric Onstad (Reuters U.S. – November 20, 2015)

November 23, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – New steel and aluminum contracts to be launched next week by the London Metal Exchange (LME) are expected to attract initial interest from customers, but building up strong liquidity in the current bear market may be challenging.

The launch on Monday is a key element of a strategy by the LME’s owner, Hong Kong Exchanges and Cleaning (HKEx), to boost profitability at the 138-year-old exchange.

Three new contracts in steel rebar, steel scrap and aluminum premiums will go live nearly three years after HKEx bought the LME for $2.2 billion, pledging to widen the scope of the exchange from its core business in key industrial metals.

China’s unloved steel industry is starting down painful road – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – November 18, 2015)

November 20, 2015

http://www.reuters.com/

Nov 18 – Nobody is happy with China’s steel sector, certainly not producers in the rest of the world complaining about dumping and not even the Chinese, who are battling increasing losses amid a supply glut.

But the question remains as to whether enough is being done, or is likely to be done, to resolve the situation. Record low prices, increasing calls from the rest of the world’s steelmakers for measures to halt the flow of cheap Chinese exports are adding to China’s steel woes.

And this pressure is only likely to increase in coming months, as shown by claims in Australia that not only are Chinese steel imports killing the local industry, they may end up killing locals by being of inferior quality.

Steel Is the Poster Child For Oversupplied Commodity Markets, and It’s in Shambles – by Luke Kawa (Bloomberg News – November 16, 2015)

November 17, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Output has far exceeded demand.

The collapse in oil prices following the shale revolution has stolen the limelight for investors mulling the end of the commodities supercycle.

But the real “poster child for problems in commodities markets is perhaps the global steel industry,” according to Macquarie analysts led by Colin Hamilton, the firm’s global head of commodities research.

The front-month contract for U.S. hot-rolled coil steel futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange is down nearly 40 percent year-over-year.

Forecasts for a boom in Chinese consumption helped spur a rise in production that left the segment with a massive glut. The successful realization of economic rebalancing in China, meanwhile, necessarily entails a material slowdown in that nation’s demand for steel.

Industry crisis testing the mettle of steel makers – by Greg Keenan (Globe and Mail – November 14, 2015)

November 16, 2015

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

As a 36-year veteran of the steel mill that dominates Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Steve Johnson didn’t lose any sleep Monday night after Essar Steel Algoma Inc. was granted creditor protection.

“If I look at the horizon, it hasn’t changed,” Mr. Johnson says. “They’re still making steel. They’re still making iron. We can tell by which smokestack is emitting fumes what’s going on.”

It is the third time in a quarter century that Algoma has been granted protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The steel maker has interest payments of $25-million (U.S.) that it is unable to make amid a collapse in the price of steel and a court battle with an iron ore supplier.