Steel Strip

Steelworks in Port Talbot, Wales, owned by the Tata Group, one of the foreign firms ‘investing in the UK as a key player in Europe’. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

Britain’s hard-pressed manufacturers have expressed growing unease that the financial sector was defended in Europe by David Cameron at the expense of Britain’s industrial interests.
Steelmakers fear the UK [...]

A hot strip mill at a huge steel plant is to be mothballed because of "continuing poor demand", with the loss of 115 jobs, it has been announced.
Tata Steel said the temporary mothballing of the mill at its Llanwern site in Newport, will take immediate effect.
The move will lead to the loss of 115 agency [...]

Global economic uncertainty is causing steel consumption to slow in Europe. Moreover, buyers are reluctant to place forward orders on the mills, given the current financial climate. Market players feel that worldwide production cuts will hold the key to price stabilisation. Although the mills are curbing capacity, the results are unlikely to be felt until [...]

There is something of an impasse in the west European flat products market as customers prefer to sit on the sidelines rather than place business at the inflated prices being demanded by the domestic producers. Consequently, order intake at the mills is slow. Many companies have stocks that are adequate for now. These were purchased [...]

Thai company SSI has signed the deal over Tata Steel’s Teesside Cast Products (TCP), securing the future of the plant’s 700-strong workforce.
The sale comes a year after the Redcar plant was partially mothballed after a major contract fell through.
The transaction - which should also create hundreds of new jobs at the site - is [...]

 
The MEPS - EU Average Hot Rolled Coil transaction price soared by almost €100 per tonne in February. Buyers are anticipating further increases in domestic values of flat products in the second quarter as steelmakers make large upward adjustments, in line with higher raw material costs. The EU mills are currently busy because of the [...]

Tata have announced a £95 price increase on structural steels in the UK. The increase in prices will take effect on all deliveries from March 6th 2011.
The company are quoting the rising costs of raw materials as the main reason for the price hike.
Flat product prices have risen by an average of around £60.00 already [...]

Steel prices are set to soar by 60 per cent this year according to industry experts.
The expected price rise in 2011, to an average of just under £610 a ton, has been caused by demand in the Middle East and the Australian floods which have shut down coal mines needed in steel production.
If the predictions [...]

Meps Forcast
The MEPS – World Average Carbon Steel Price is forecast to exceed $US 1000 per tonne in the third quarter, according to preliminary analysis by the company. This figure compares with an annual average in 2010 of $US 733 per tonne and an ‘all-time’ high in 2008 of $US 1160.
The sharp rise in steel [...]

ASD Metal Services, a division of German metal group Klöckner & Co, is to double the size of its facility in Leeds.
The steel and aluminium stockholder and distributor has taken a 15 year lease on 215,000 sq ft, creating a combined facility of 400,000 sq ft.
Kaha Avaliani, chief executive of ASD, said “The acquisition of [...]