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 the utilisation of its mills to 80 per cent.
"In October, the capacity utilisation had touched 80 per cent. It should be 85 per cent by the end of November and 100 per cent by the end of this financial year," Tata Steel
vice-chairman B Muthuraman said.
Corus produces about 20 million tonnes of steel per annum. "Demand is coming back in the west," he added.
Globally, steel producers have started reviving their production capacities with the rise in demand for their products. ArcelorMittal had revived the capacity utilisation
]]>Britain’s manufacturing sector expanded unexpectedly last month and at the fastest rate in two years as the weak pound made exports cheaper and imports more expensive, according to new data.
Barely a month after Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, said that weak sterling “will be helpful” in rebalancing Britain’s economy, the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index showed that the UK’s manufacturing sector grew at the third-fastest rate since the series began in January 1992.
Read the full story at the Times online
The first bit of good news that we have seen in sometime regarding British Manufacturing, and the recession in the UK. We have seen reports in the last few weeks of signs that the US, Asia and some European economies are slowly coming out of recession, but UK projections have remained relatively pessimistic.
One has to be cautious about single reports but any improvements in the economy has to be welcome and particularly when it relates to UK manufacturing, a sector that has been sadly neglected for many years.
Could the recent announcement that GM is not to sell Vauxhall Opel, provide a needed confidence boost to the UK car industry?
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 over the past weeks are unlikely to be sustained, he cautioned.
The slump in demand - particularly from important industries such as automotive and engineering — has hit Salzgitter and other steel makers.
Read the full story at Reuters
]]>U.S. steelmaker Nucor Corp. (NUE.N) said on Thursday, demand from service centers improved somewhat along with output in the third quarter, but it did not see increased end use demand, and operating rates could fall in the fourth quarter as plants shut for the holidays. "Apparent demand did increase in the third quarter due to the end of customer de-stocking. However, there’s been no meaningful real improvement in end use demand," said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Dan DiMicco.
Read the full story at Reuters
]]>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 sectors – such as automotive and the construction sector – remain subdued. Despite stabilising financial markets, financing is still a bottleneck for many companies. Industrial orders are still weak despite some inventory replenishment. The report shows that while year-on-year output growth should turn positive again in the 2nd quarter of 2010, it could take to 2011 before a more pronounced rebound in output begins.
Weak activity in the steel using industries and sharp destocking in the steel supply chain resulted in steel demand (apparent steel consumption) falling by 45% year-on-year in the first half of 2009 and by almost 32% in the 3rd quarter. The inventory situation is now better aligned with the current weak level of steel demand. Some customers returned cautiously to the market to fill gaps in their stocks; this led to the downward trend in orders at EU mills bottoming out.
The stock cycle will also set the stage in 2010. Some inventory build-up following heavy destocking in 2009 will lead to a ‘technical’ recovery in steel demand. With a forward view to 2011 it is expected that rising end-user activity should provide a broader basis for steel demand growth.
So far this year, imports were at much reduced levels compared with 2007 and 2008. However, Moffat warns: “Global crude steel production increasing in anticipation of a recovery in steel demand which yet has to materialise remains a major risk for the EU supply-demand balance”.
The full report can be viewed in pdf format here
]]>Stainless steel giant Outokumpu is continuing to aim to break even by the end of the year, despite pre-tax losses of €81 million (£73 million) for the third quarter of the year.
The Finnish company, which has major operations in Sheffield, where stainless steel was invented 86 years ago, says uncertainty in markets has continued and there has been no major improvement in underlying demand.
Outokumpu has continued to cut back on production and was working at no more than 55 per cent capacity in the third quarter.
This year the company closed its thin strip business at Meadowhall, with the loss of 230 jobs, and then axed 150 jobs in its Shepcote Lane melting shop as part of a plan to cut costs by reducing annual production to 200,000 tonnes from a maximum capacity of 500,000 tonnes.
Read the full article by Bob Rae at the Sheffield Star
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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 producers as end-use consumption is currently insufficient to boost further demand.
The report goes on to contrast the view with the views of the World Steel Association’s more optimistic view
Read the full article here
]]>Steel Product Activity
September shipments of steel products from U.S. metals service centers totalled about 2.56 million tons, down 31.4% from a year ago but ever-so-slightly higher than August shipments. For the year to date, steel shipments of nearly 22.4 million tons are down 41.2% from the same period last year. Monthly steel inventories, which peaked at 11 million tons in August 2008, rose for the first month since then to 5.79 million tons, or 3% higher than at the end of August, although still 45.7% lower than in September 2008. At current shipping rates, that represents a 2.3-month supply.
Canadian service center steel shipments totaled 455,100 tons in September, 14.8% lower than a year ago but 9.5% higher than in August. Shipments for the first nine months of the year total 3.7 million tons, or 30.4% below the same period in 2008. Canadian steel inventories inched higher to 957,300 tons, or 33.9% below the level of a year ago, but 0.17% higher than in August. At current shipping rates, those end-of-September inventories represent an unusually low 2.1-month supply.
]]>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 to ensure the ongoing viability of the North Eastern steel plant.
The interview can be seen on tomorrow’s Inside Out,on BBC One tomorrow at 7.30pm, presented by Chris Jackson who journeys to Tata headquarters in India and secures a rare interview with the director.
The programme questions why Corus is suffering so badly and Chris discovers that many industry experts believe that Tata paid way over the odds for the Corus takeover and therefore won’t invest in Corus until it has reduced its debt.
]]>Read full story at Reuters
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