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Steel and Stainless Steel Industries

Canadian billionaire Barry Zekelman weighs his options after amassing equity stake in Algoma Steel – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian billionaire Barry Zekelman isn’t ruling out a takeover of Algoma Steel Group Inc. as he weighs several options after his privately held steel products company recently took an equity stake in the venerable Canadian steel maker.

Chicago-based Zekelman Industries in late July revealed in a 13D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it amassed a 5-per-cent stake in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based Algoma. Such filings are required for activist as opposed to passive investors. In the filing, Zekelman Industries said it may engage with management and the board, or other shareholders about “potential business combinations, dispositions or other transactions.”

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Biden close to blocking Nippon Steel deal to buy U.S. Steel, sources say – by Jeff Mason, David Shepardson and Alexandra Alper (Reuters – September 4, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – The Biden administration is close to announcing it will block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel, two sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday, amid growing bipartisan political opposition to the $14.9 billion deal.

The panel that is reviewing the proposed merger for national security reasons has not sent its formal recommendation to the president, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said. White House spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Biden’s plans but reiterated the president’s view “that American steel companies ought to be American owned.”

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Green steel: Inside Algoma Steel’s massive project to go electric – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – September 1, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Algoma Steel Inc.’s smokestacks have been a fixture on the bank of the St. Marys River at the eastern end of Lake Superior for more than a century. Its mill has played a crucial role churning out an essential ingredient for the country’s industrialization as well as jobs for generations in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

That’s meant long-term benefits, as the company provided the region with employment and an economic base. But with that has come uncertainty during a number of flirtations with bankruptcy as steel markets gyrated. The use of coal in its blast furnaces triggered climate-warming emissions along with health concerns among nearby residents.

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Stelco takeover expected to face little pushback from Ottawa, experts say – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Stelco Holdings Inc. is likely to get the nod from Ottawa, industry experts say. The Cleveland-based steel company on Monday announced it had reached a friendly deal to acquire Canadian steel maker Stelco for $3.85-billion.

Originally called the Steel Company of Canada, Stelco is the biggest steel maker in the country. Founded in 1910, it operates the Lake Erie Works steel plant and Hamilton Works, both in Ontario. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne will scrutinize the deal to make sure there are no national security concerns and that it makes economic sense for Canada under a net benefit test.

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Cleveland-Cliffs CEO confident of Ottawa’s approval on proposed Stelco acquisition – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 15, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. chief executive officer Lourenco Goncalves signalled he is confident of obtaining Canadian government approval to buy Canadian steel maker Stelco Holdings Inc. a little more than a week after Ottawa tightened its foreign takeover rules.

The Cleveland-based steel giant announced its intentions on Monday to buy Hamilton-based Stelco. Cleveland-Cliffs is offering $60 a share and 0.454 of its stock for each Stelco share. The buyout is worth $70 a share, an 89-per-cent premium on Stelco’s $36.97 close on Friday and puts an enterprise value on the company of $3.4-billion.

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Forget Copper and Gold as Steel-Making Raw Material Outperforms – by Paul-Alain Hunt (Bloomberg News – June 12, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Manganese, an essential steel-making ingredient, has outstripped copper, gold and many other commodities this year after a cyclone halted exports from the world’s second-largest mine in March.

Prices of 44% grade manganese ore have almost doubled since the start of the year, beating gains of 15% in copper, 12% in gold and almost 30% in tin.

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Biden vows to shield US steel industry by blocking Japanese merger and seeking new Chinese tariffs – by Chris Megerian and Will Weissert (Associated Press – April 16, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

PITTSBURGH (AP) — President Joe Biden suggested to cheering, unionized steelworkers on Wednesday that his administration would thwart the acquisition of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company, and he called for a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel, seeking to use trade policy to win over working-class votes in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

The Democratic president’s pitch comes as Donald Trump, his likely Republican opponent, tries to chart a path back to the White House with tough-on-China rhetoric and steep tariff proposals of his own.

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Cleveland Cliffs gets part of $6 billion funding to slash emissions in industrial facilities – by Rick McCrabb (Dayton Daily News/Associated Press – March 25, 2024)

https://www.daytondailynews.com/

Middletown steel plant among projects that will slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

MIDDLETOWN — Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works is expected to receive a major investment up to $500 million to overhaul the ironmaking systems and install a new environmentally friendly system.

The 100% hydrogen-ready, flex-fuel direct reduction plant will be directly coupled to two electric melting furnaces to produce iron with nearly zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) office.

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Biden opposes plan to sell US Steel to a Japanese firm, citing the need for ‘American steel workers’ – by Josh Boak (Associated Press – March 14, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden came out in opposition to the planned sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, saying on Thursday that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers.”

In a statement, Biden added: “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”

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Japan’s Nippon Steel to buy U.S. Steel in a $14.9 billion deal (CNBC.com – December 18, 2023)

https://www.cnbc.com/

Japan’s Nippon Steel clinched a deal on Monday to buy U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion in cash, prevailing in an auction for the 122-year-old iconic steelmaker over rivals including Cleveland-Cliffs and ArcelorMittal.

The deal price of $55 per share represents a whopping 142% premium to Aug. 11, the last trading day before Cleveland-Cliffs unveiled a $35-per-share, cash-and-stock bid for U.S. Steel. It is a bet that U.S. Steel will benefit from the spending and tax incentives in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.

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Amid steel industry turmoil, future of tiny turnaround star Stelco is up in the air – by Davil Olive (Toronto Star – October 7, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

Unconfirmed reports say Stelco may be eyeing an audacious takeover of some parts of U.S. Steel. More likely though, writes David Olive, Canada’s biggest steelmaker may become a takeover target.

Six years into his impressive turnaround of Stelco Holdings Inc., CEO Alan Kestenbaum has transformed the company into one of the lowest-cost, highest-margin steelmakers on the continent. But Kestenbaum has fallen short of a goal he set back in 2017 when he bought the 113-year-old Stelco out of bankruptcy. At that time, he hoped to boost Stelco’s revenues to as much as $8 billion.

With 2022 sales of $3.5 billion, Canada’s biggest steelmaker remains one of the continent’s smaller producers. It still lacks the economies of scale to withstand industry disruptions as easily as its bigger U.S. rivals.

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OBITUARY: Canadian visionary Gerald Heffernan introduced less-polluting mini-mills for steel production – by Fred Langan (Globe and Mail – September 2, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Gerald Heffernan, who died in Toronto on July 28 at the age of 104, was an innovative engineer who pioneered steel mini-mills, first in Alberta at the start of the oil boom, then in Ontario. He was as much a scientist as a businessman and was recognized around the world as a leader in creating smaller, less-polluting steel mills.

A mini-mill can make specialized steel products more cheaply than a giant smelter, and it uses scrap metal, making it a form of recycling. “He figured out a way of not having these giant mills but smaller ones that were more efficient and could be placed in different places,” said Alan Bernstein, the past president of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) a group Mr. Heffernan helped found and worked with for a great part of his life.

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The Stainless-Steel Boom Is Tearing a South African Mining Region Apart – by Kimon de Greef (Bloomberg News – July 24, 2023)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Areas with massive chrome ore deposits have become scarred, dystopian free-for-alls.

Twenty-five years ago, to get to school in the morning, Godfrey Molwana would walk 2 miles from his home in Witrandjie, a small village in South Africa. His route passed through communal grazing lands for cattle and goats—a rolling expanse of acacia trees and hardy shrubs, interspersed with the corn plots of subsistence farmers. Some families had graves on the land. “This area was for everyone,” Molwana recalled.

Close to the village lay the remains of a chrome mine, with derelict buildings and dumps of discarded ore where children from the community would play. Chrome is essential for manufacturing stainless steel. South Africa has the largest deposits in the world, but this mine, no longer profitable, had been shuttered for decades. Some older men in the community had worked there as laborers, earning the low wages designated for Black people during apartheid.

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Canada bans Russian steel, aluminum imports as Joly raises ‘regime change’ in Moscow – by Dylan Robertson (CBC News/Canadian Press – March 10, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Canada is banning imports of Russian steel and aluminum as part of its sanctions regime, as Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly raises the possibility of regime change in Moscow. Joly made the remarks at a Friday press conference where she discussed the importance of maintaining a diplomatic presence in Moscow.

“We’re able to see how much we’re isolating the Russian regime right now — because we need to do so economically, politically and diplomatically — and what are the impacts also on society and how much we’re seeing potential regime change in Russia,” she said.

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Global collaboration essential to realise $1.4tr iron, steel decarbonisation investment – by Marleny Arnoldi (Mining Weekly – September 15, 2022)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

To meet 2050 climate goals, the global iron and steel industry will require $1.4-trillion of investment across the value chain, from mining to steelmaking, estimates research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie (WoodMac).

A research report, titled ‘Pedal to the metal: iron and steel’s $1.4-trillion shot at decarbonisation’, published by WoodMac states that iron and steel emit 3.4-billion tonnes of carbon a year combined, equal to 7% of global emissions. This while steel demand growth is not slowing down, and is estimated to reach 2.2-billion tonnes a year by 2050 – 15% higher than the demand for steel in 2021.

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