Steel Strip

The city of Ostrava, north Moravia, is preparing to sue the Czech Republic’s largest steel producer, Mittal Steel Ostrava (MSO), over 114,650 shares the city sold back to the company in 2004.
If filed, the suit will be the third in a series of lawsuits brought against MSO by its former minor stockholders, who say MSO [...]

Swedens’ SSAB has announced that it has made a formal bid for Canadian Steelmaker Ipsco.
The following announcement is from Ipsco’s website:-
LISLE, Ill., and STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — IPSCO Inc. (NYSE/TSX: IPS) and SSAB Svenskt Stal AB (STO: SSAB.A, SSAB.B) today announced that they have entered into an agreement providing for IPSCO to be [...]

Again spotted over at purchasing.COM 
 
Department of commerce trade officials have accepted a ruling by the World Trade Organization that requires global adoption of one formula for investigating allegation of dumping and imposing punitive duties. Because of the recalculation, most dumping duties on 15 steel products from European mills have been changed.
The duties eliminated were on [...]

 There is an interesting article over at purchasing.COM on steel sheet and coil prices from the view of the buyers. Whilst demand is not increasing the mills continue to push prices to recover the higher cost of scrap. It’s well worth reading the whole article, and extract of which follows:-
Steel sheet mills have been increasing [...]

HOT ROLLED STAINLESS STEEL COIL
Transaction values for grade 316 moved up again this month in all regions. Another alloy surcharge rise occured in North America. In the EU, basis figures reduced but offset only 53 per cent of the surcharge growth. The gap between Eastern and Western prices narrowed as Asian mills imposed another significant [...]

MEPS latest forcast:-
 
We still forecast a steady improvement in the average flat products price up to the middle of the year. Demand should hold up reasonably well in most countries in the region over the next few months. This is expected to provide opportunities for further price increases. However, in China, substantial new capacity (particularly [...]

Despite rising steel prices and many steelmakers posting increasing profits, Stelco the Canadian Steelmaker continues to struggle. Speculation continues about them being a possible takeover target. Following is an extract from an article in the Toronto Star where the Stelco chief Rodney Mott talks about the current situation.
 
Stelco Inc. chief Rodney Mott says he doesn’t know [...]