Steel Strip

According to MEPS it is going to be a difficult year for steel users:-
They report:
Although US inventories are down at the distributors, they report that business is not robust. However, margins are holding. Supplyside tightness and ongoing escalating costs for raw materials, energy and freight are driving transaction prices up as producers announce a series [...]

Nippon Steel, the world’s second biggest steelmaker, yesterday reported a 13 per cent drop in quarterly profit due to a rise in the cost of iron ore and other raw materials.
The weak result for the third quarter highlighted the growing cost pressure being felt especially by Japanese producers as a result of booming demand for [...]

We have recently started to receive an increasing number of enquiries for small quantities of hardened and tempered spring steel strip. many of these are coming from engineering companies equipped with laser cutting facilities.
The advantage of hardened and tempered steel strip over annealed material is the cost saving on heat treating components after blanking.
The bulk [...]

The International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) has announced that world crude steel output reached 1,343.5 million metric tons (mmt) for the year 2007. This is an increase of 7.5% on 2006. The total represents the highest level of crude steel output in history and it is the fifth consecutive year that world crude steel [...]

The MEPS EU Average Hot Rolled Coil transaction value moved down in January. Slow buying activity continues to depress local figures. However, imports are expected to reduce over the coming months. This, coupled with rising input costs, is forecast to cause transaction prices to increase once again.
The MEPS EU Average Cold Rolled Coil transaction [...]

Coal could continue to have a strong Welsh future after steelmakers Tata Corus yesterday confirmed its interest in reopening one of the nation’s “superpits”.
The steel giant’s move at Margam, near Port Talbot, could eventually secure 400 new jobs underground.
Ironically, the announcement came on the day before Wales’ last deep mine – Tower Colliery – closed. [...]

In Germany, service centres still have high inventories and mills are holding stocks which have yet to be called off by customers. This is adversely affecting the market as buyers hold back from placing new orders. Producers are highlighting escalating input costs as the driver for price rises in the second trimester but many players [...]

I have been reporting over the past few days about price increases in the Steel Industry. these are taking place throughout the world, driven largely by cost increases. The price of iron ore, oil and electricity are driving up manufacturing costs, and the days when the steel industry would absorb these are long gone.
In the [...]

The worlds fourth largest steelmaker based in South Korea said on Tuesday it will raise its hot-rolled steel prices by 11.5 percent, after other regional steel makers raised their prices.
The widely expected price increase would be the steel maker’s first for hot-rolled steel, POSCO’s key product, since July 2006.
Prices of hot-rolled steel will be [...]

Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal will get a dividend package of £460million this year from his stake in the world’s largest steel producer.
ArcelorMittal today announced its dividend payment schedule for 2008 as part of which it would make four quarterly payments of $0.375 per share in March, June, September and December.
The London-based tycoon, who [...]