Steel Strip

MEPS reported a generally weak market in November with the exception of China.
“Raw steel output continues to climb steadily in the US. Mill utilisation rates were up to almost 65 percent in the first week of November. However, the recent relighting of blast furnaces has not coincided with a similar upturn in consumption. Oversupply could [...]

The EU producers are currently facing low order intake as the flurry of activity in early September has tailed off now that distributors have restocked to appropriate levels. In many countries, prices have been lowered a little to encourage purchasing. Negotiations will start soon for first quarter 2010 business but no official announcements have been [...]

Tata Steel on Wednesday said its European subsidiary Corus will be able to meet full capacity utilisation by the end of the current fiscal, riding on revival in global demand.
Corus, which had cut production capacity of its mills by as much as 50 per cent amid the demand slump last year, has currently revived [...]

Salzgitter Chief Executive Wolfgang Leese on Tuesday cautioned against premature optimism in the steel sector, warning that markets were fragile and that a recovery in demand is unlikely to be sustained.
If things go well, demand will continue to be flat, Leese said on the sidelines of an event in Garbsen, near Hanover, Germany.
Signs of recovery [...]

Eurofer, the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries have put out a press release on Economic and Steel Market Outlook 2009-2011
EUROFER director general Gordon Moffat comments: “While the economy probably reached a turning point, the EU steel market will remain stuck in slow motion for the time being”.
Prospects for the EU’s steel using [...]

Your industry news article on a steel business briefing report:-
Steel Business Briefing warns that demand expectations in the steel industry could drop as low as they did in December 2008, at the height of the global financial meltdown. With the downward trend expected to continue at least into early 2010, this is bad news for [...]

With steel shipments from metals service centers slowly rising, inventories of the metal, in decline since early last year, rose slightly in the United States and Canada, the Metals Activity Report from the Metals Service Center Institute shows. Shipments of aluminum products also rose slightly, but inventories of the light metal continued to decline in [...]

WORKERS at Teesside’s threatened steel plant will have to raise their game if they are to avoid the axe.
In an interview with the BBC Balasubramanian Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel in India and the overall boss of the Corus steel plant in Redcar, warned staff that costs will have to be further reduced [...]

Reuters report that ThyssenKrupp will shed as many as 20,000 jobs in it’s current financial year in response to the current economic slump.
Read full story at Reuters
Technorati Tags: Steel Industry,Germany,ThyssenKrupp

The Times online commenting on a report from the World Steel Association paints a more optimistic picture for the steel industry for 2010.
The long night is almost over for steelmaking, which will enjoy a strong recovery in 2010, the World Steel Association (WSA) predicted yesterday.
Exceptionally strong consumption in China means that demand for the steel [...]