Steel Strip

Following report is from MEPS
MEPS (INTERNATIONAL) LTD. is a leading independent supplier of steel market information. Our regular monitoring of steel markets provides us with a unique insight of consumption and production trends worldwide.

Market sentiment remains depressed. The slightly more positive attitude witnessed at the start of 2009 has evaporated a month later. Producers [...]

It is reported that Britain’s rail industry has delivered a double boost for the recession hit Corus steelworks in Scunthorpe and its 4,500 employees. Its full steam ahead for the town’s new GBP 130 million rail service centre after Network Rail announced a bumper order. Ms Rachel Lowe spokeswoman of Network Rail [...]

Troubled US carmaker Chrysler has asked for another $5bn (£3.5bn) from the US government, saying it plans to axe 3,000 jobs and cut three car models.
The moves form part of its restructuring plan submitted to the Treasury Department on Tuesday.
Meanwhile General Motors has said it would try to borrow up to $16.6bn more from [...]

Today Alistair Darling announced that an agreement had been reached with Royal Bank of Scotland to restrict bonuses to the minimum "within it’s legal obligations".
I’m with Ken Clarke. Don’t pay a penny in bonuses to a failed bank that has been rescued to the tune of Billions by the countries taxpayers.
If they want to sue [...]

An interesting video featuring Nucor employees and CEO Dan DiMicco. As well as illustrating the impact of the recent collapse in steel sales it’s a good background film to the activities an electric arc based steelmaking plant.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYyrqSmhals&eurl=http://www.nerdsofsteel.com/[/youtube]

France on Wednesday fiercely defended its plan to pump almost nine billion euros into its struggling carmakers after EU countries labeled it protectionist and called a crisis summit.
President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to lend PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault three billion euros (3.9 billion dollars) each on top of other measures in exchange for a [...]

ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s largest steel maker, reported Wednesday its first ever quarterly loss - at $2.6 billion - during the fourth quarter as it wrote down the value of assets amid collapsing demand.
The loss compares with a $2.44 billion profit a year earlier.
Sales during the three months to Dec. 31 fell 21 percent to [...]

From a number of sources including Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl  (the German Steel industry Association )we have learned that year on year production in January fell by 36%.
Even more worrying orders received are down by 46%.
This would appear to reflect the situation around Europe, as activity in the automotive and construction industries remain stalled.
Technorati Tags: steel industry,German [...]

ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany’s largest steelmaker, are expected to announce  first-quarter profit down by 69 percent as demand for the metal slumped at the fastest rate since World War II.
Net income dropped to 135 million euros ($174 million) in the three months through December from 435 million euros a year earlier, according to the median [...]

Nissan is to cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, 8.5% of its workforce, over the next year because of a sharp fall in sales.
The Japanese carmaker made the announcement as it said it expected to make a loss of 265bn yen ($2.9bn; £2bn) for its current financial year.
Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn said the the firm’s [...]