29th January 2019

Latest Steel Market News

Section 232 helps US crude steel production

(North America): The US crude steel production up by 6.2% year-on-year in 2018, which was also well above the global growth rate of 4.6%. Restraints on steel imports have been prompting capacity restarts and expansions since section 232 imposed.

 

Tata Steel restarts blast furnace after repair

(Europe): Tata Steel produced has resumed steel production in its blast furnace number five after £75million overhaul of its Port Talbot steelworks in the UK. The repair increased the life of the furnace by seven years.

 

JSW to settles prepayment deal with Duferco

(Asia Pacific): India’s JSW Steel is in talks with a global steel trading firm, Duferco, for a five-year steel prepayment deal, expected to around $600 million. Both companies organised a similar deal in 2006 worth of $150 million.

 

AK Steel to close Ashland Plant permanently

(North America): Most of the steel manufacturing operations at AK Steel’s Ashland plant have remained closed since the end of 2015 except a single HDG coating line. However, AK Steel now plans to idle the whole plant by the end of 2019.

 

Nickel demand is likely to outpace supply in the coming years

(Global): Around three-quarters of the global nickel production usually ends up in the making of stainless steel. In the recent past, the nickel market was tight, and it is likely that the market would remain under-supplied in the coming years. Given the high demand for nickel and increasing stainless steel production in Indonesia, Commodity Inside anticipates that Indonesia would opt for a full ban on nickel exports in the coming years. Consequently, this would further reduce the nickel supply in the international market which would prompt new supplies of nickel in some key markets.

 

Indonesian stainless steel exports set to grow

(Asia Pacific): Indonesian stainless steel HRC exports increased three times whereas stainless steel slab exports doubled in 2018. The country’s stainless steel export is expected to increase further owing to the expansion capacity of a stainless steel factory in Morovali industrial area running at the current capacity of 3.5 million tonnes/year. According to the Ministry of Industry, the capacity of the factory is expected to reach 4 million tonnes/year, making Indonesia the second largest stainless steel producer globally