Nerds of Steel - The Steel Industry Blog

World crude steel production down over 3% in July

James Moss — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:22:25 +0000

World crude steel production was down a little over 3% in July after similar falls in May and June. I’m afraid we’re only likely to know what this means as the full context of 2010 develops unless someone wants to share what they think it all means now. I’m withholding judgment. It was a general [...]

Repairing steel demand

James Moss — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:00:44 +0000

The four worst post-war (WWII) declines in US steel demand occurred in 1958, 1975, 1982 and last year, 2009. In the recent US Steel Q2 conference call, US Steel CEO John Surma wisely reflected, in the context of how much capacity to keep running, that some of the recent steel demand destruction could be permanent. We [...]

China’s steel demand to peak at over 1 billion tonnes?

Tony Taccone — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:08:32 +0000

The Australia National University recently held a conference called China Update 2010. A complete list of papers presented at the conference can be found here. Among the papers was a very interesting analysis of China’s steel intensity. See paper #5 China’s metal intensity in comparative perspective by Huw McKay, Yu Sheng and Ligang Song. The authors attempt to [...]

2010 and 2011 GDP and steel demand growth

Tony Taccone — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:01:00 +0000

The IMF recently updated its forecast for world GDP growth in the latest World Economic Outlook. The global economy is projected to grow at 4.6% this year and 4.3% next year. If you look at the historical relationship between world GDP growth and world steel demand growth, the IMF forecast would lead one to expect [...]

Ternium, Gerdau, and Gerdau Ameristeel Q2 earnings

Tony Taccone — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:07:03 +0000

Ternium, Gerdau, and Gerdau Ameristeel recently announced Q2 2010 earnings. If you want to read the earnings announcements, I’ve provided links below. Ternium’s press release Gerdau’s press release Gerdau Ameristeel’s press release All three companies reported improved EBITDA per ton in Q2 relative to Q1. Ternium had the strongest second quarter, reporting EBITDA per ton of $202 up from [...]

Global steel production dips slightly in June

James Moss — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:23:37 +0000

Sorry for the delay in posting this release from worldsteel which appeared on July 20th. Global liquid steel production dipped a little over 4% in June compared to the prior month but only a little over 1% on a daily output basis. No region bucked the trend. There seems to be a considerable amount of [...]

ArcelorMittal Q2 financial results

Tony Taccone — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:26:49 +0000

ArcelorMittal announced Q2 financial results today. The press release is here. EBITDA was $119 per ton in Q2 up from $80 in Q1. This is the second highest Q2 EBITDA per ton achieved so far among companies tracked on the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet.

US Steel and AK Steel Q2 2010 results

Tony Taccone — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:18:51 +0000

US Steel and AK Steel reported Q2 2010 results today. US Steel’s press release can be found here and AK’s results are here. Both companies showed improved EBITDA per ton. AK’s Q2 EBITDA per ton was $83, up very marginally from $82 in Q1. US Steel’s improvement was more substantial. EBITDA per ton rose to [...]

Nucor, Steel Dynamics, and California Steel Q2 2010 earnings

Tony Taccone — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:03:49 +0000

Second quarter results are starting to come in. This week, Nucor, Steel Dynamics, and California Steel announced Q2 2010 earnings. Nucor’s earnings release can be found here, Steel Dynamics’ here, and California Steel’s here. Of the three companies California Steel had the highest EBITDA per ton, reporting $102 up from $72 in Q1 2010. This compares to [...]

US flat products imports drop 21% in June

Jessica Wagner — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:50:45 +0000

Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports declined 21% from 639,000 short tons in May to 506,000 tons in June. This can be compared to 252,000 tons of flat products imports in June 2009. The decline was driven by hot rolled imports which dropped by 107,000 tons due to lower imports from a [...]