Steel Times International Digital Edition December 2020

Since 1866

www.steeltimesint.com Digital Edition - December 2020 - No.16

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

CONTENTS - NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 – DECEMBER 2020

Since 1866

www.steeltimesint.com Digital Edition - December 2020 - No.16

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

EDITORIAL Editor Matthew Moggridge Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855151 matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com Consultant Editor Dr. Tim Smith PhD, CEng, MIM Production Editor Annie Baker Advertisement Production Martin Lawrence SALES International Sales Manager Paul Rossage paulrossage@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855116 Sales Director Ken Clark kenclark@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855117 Managing Director Tony Crinion tonycrinion@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855164

2 LEADER

by Matthew Moggridge, Editor of Steel Times International.

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Chief Executive Officer Steve Diprose SUBSCRIPTION Elizabeth Barford Tel +44 (0) 1737 855028 Fax +44 (0) 1737 855034 Email subscriptions@quartzltd.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 A look back at the news of 2020.

Steel Times International is published eight times a year and is available on subscription. Annual subscription: UK £178.00 Other countries: £254.00 2 years subscription: UK £320.00 Other countries: £457.00 ) Single copy (inc postage): £40.00 Email: steel@quartzltd.com Published by: Quartz Business Media Ltd, Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX, England.

Tel: +44 (0)1737 855000 Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034 www.steeltimesint.com Steel Times International (USPS No: 020-958) is published monthly except Feb, May, July, Dec by Quartz Business Media Ltd and distributed in the US

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2020 WAS DEFINED BY ONE THING: COVID-19.

63 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE BEEN INFECTED AND ALMOST 1.5 MILLION HAVE DIED. THE VIRUS HAS DOMINATED THE NEWS AGENDA AND HAS AFFECTED THE LIVES OF EVERYBODY ON THE PLANET. HERE’S PRAYING THAT 2021 WILL BRING US HOPE.

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LEADER

This time last year, who would have believed it?

Matthew Moggridge Editor matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com

Digital Edition - December 2020

I remember the end of 2019 clearly. I was in Brussels attending a EUROFER event and found the time to wander the streets of the European capital before jumping on a crowded Eurostar to London. Before departing, I looked at watches and eventually bought one, and when I got home there was Christmas to look forward to, followed by what we all expected to be a Happy New Year.

There was little news about COVID-19, flights from Beijing were coming into the UK thick and fast and nobody, least of all the British Government, had much to say about a virus that originated in a Wuhan wet market. It was ‘over there’ not over here, out of sight and largely out of mind.

All of sudden, however, people started to take notice, but still those flights from China were landing in London and right through to March people were acting as if there wasn’t a problem...until we all went into lockdown. It was a similar story the world over and even then most people thought it would be short-lived; but no, it’s still going on today. We all found ourselves working from home through what turned out to be an amazing summer

here in the UK, with high temperatures and, in my house, a long-running plague of ants. The news pages of this magazine started to feature COVID-19 stories, initially reporting that there was no real problem for global steelmakers, but it wasn’t long before there was talk of plant closures and job losses and soon every story was accompanied by an illustrative representation of the virus. Conferences and exhibitions were cancelled and steelmakers talked of the precautions they were taking to keep their employees safe.

And so it goes on. Today we hear that US electric steelmakers have proved more resilient than integrated mill operators, largely because their end-use markets, such as construction, were more buoyant than the automotive sector.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, or so they say. A vaccine is looking promising, events are being rescheduled, capacity utilisation rates are improving.

This issue is all about the news of 2020 from January through to the end of November. It’s also the last issue of the year, so I’ll wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2021.

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• The world’s largest pilot plant for the CO2-neutral production of hydrogen has commenced operation. The plant is part of an EU-funded initiative entitled H2FUTURE, a multi-partnered venture involving Austrian steelmaker voestalpine, Austrian power company Verbund AG, Siemens, Austrian Power Grid, K1-MET and TNO. The aim is to replace fossil fuels in steel production.

Source: Green Car Congress, 28 November 2019.

• The JSW Group, which owns JSW Steel, India’s second largest steelmaker, has commissioned an 18Mt/ yr iron ore terminal at the state-run Paradip port in Odisha. The port, which has a loading rate of 100kt/yr, ships iron ore fines and pellets.

The company also owns the Dharamtar port on India’s west coast.

Source: Argus Media, 28 November 2019.

• It’s looking highly likey that Aditya Mittal will become chairman of the board of directors of Essar Steel once ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel (the two acquiring partners) get their feet under the table.

Source: Economic Times, 27 November 2019.

• Sort it out or get rid of it, that’s the advice of Union Investment, a company described as a top-10 investor ‘in ailing conglomerate ThyssenKrupp’, which last year had a negative cashflow (for the group) of -1.14 billion Euros, according to an online media report. Ever since a planned merger with Tata Steel collapsed, workers have been in a state of anxiety over their future and now it’s up to new CEO Martina Merz to get it sorted. Union Investment’s fund manager Michael Muders argues that if you can’t make money out of steel in Europe perhaps it’s time to offload it.

Source: Business Standard. com, 28 November 2019.

• Improving efficiency and reducing costs is the name of the game for state-owned Indian steelmaker SAIL. The company has initiated a cost control drive at all plants and is engaged in what chairman Anil Kumar Chaudray described as ‘aggressive cost control’. Workshops are being organised across the business with a view to improving operations and operational efficiency.

Source: Times of India, 27 November 2019.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• A US$433 million coke delivery deal has been agreed between the Polish JSW Group and the Romanian steelmaker Liberty Galati. The contract is for five years commencing 1 January 2020. Liberty House Group purchased the Galati mill from ArcelorMittal in July 2019.

Source: Seenews.com, 30 November 2019.

• Sunnapuralla palle village in Jammalamadugu mandal, India, looks like the place where AP High Grade Steels Ltd will build a steel plant, following an announcement by chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The foundation stone will be laid on 26 January 2020 and it is said that a multi-national company based in China will construct the plant.

Source: The Hans India, 29 November 2019.

• Iran is on track to produce 28Mt of steel by the end of the Iranian calendar year (to end March 2020), according to Khodadad Gharibpour, Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade and the CEO of IMIDRO (Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation).

Mr Gharibpour said that Iran exported more than 6Mt of steel between 21 March and 22 September 2019.

Source: Mehr News Agency, 1 December 2019.

• No injuries were reported after a fire at Gerdau Ameristeel at 1678 Red Rock Road in St. Paul in Minnesota, USA. Flames rose 70 feet in the air and firefighters battled with the blaze for 15 hours.

Source: Twin Cities.com-Pioneer Press, 1 December 2019.

For more global steel news, log on to our news website, www.steeltimesint.com

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • Valast 450 is the name of a new steel product from Tata Steel. It is claimed to be an abrasion-resistant strip product that provides superior surface quality when compared with conventional abrasion-resistant plate products in ‘as rolled’ condition. It is claimed that the product will enhance Tata’s offer to long-standing customers in the field of construction, mining and quarrying equipment.

Source: AggNet.com, 1 December 2019.

• According to the Trend International News Agency, Iran intends to invest over four billion Euros in its copper industry.

Source: Trend International News Agency, 2 December 2019.

• With the sole aim of increasing its annual crude steel capacity from 12.8Mt/ yr to 21.4Mt, state-owned steelmaker SAIL has undertaken a modernisation programme for its five integrated steel mills at Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Bokaro (Jharkhand), Rourkela (Odisha), Durgapur and Burnpur (both in West Bengal), and the company’s special steel plant at Salem in Tamil Nadu where a new steel melt shop has been added to enhance the capacity of the facility’s cold rolling mill.

Source: Indus Dictum, 2 December 2019.

• High-speed rail systems are part of a glowing future for Indian state-owned steelmaker SAIL. The company plans to make special rails at its Bhilai plant in Chhattisgarh as well as its IISCO facility in Burnpur, West Bengal. Work is expected to commence within the next two years, said Anirban Dasgupta, CEO of SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant.

Source: Urban Transport News.com, 3 December 2019.

• South Korean steelmaker POSCO has been highlighting its continued commitment to corporate social responsibility.

Towards the end of last year the company joined forces with another big South Korean player, SK Group, to promote CSR and talk up a possible partnership between the two giants to generate social value for sustainable growth. POSCO chairman Choi Jeong-woo has led a number of CSR projects under the ‘With Posco’ slogan, an initiative that has won the support of SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won.

Source: Korean Herald, 3 December 2019.

• Flooding at US Steel’s Gary Works mill in Indiana has caused problems with the blast furnaces. A 36-inch wide water pipeline ruptured and flooded a portion of the complex, but the company managed to restart two furnaces. None of the furnaces were damaged and there has been no impact on customers.

Source: Inside Indiana Business, 3 December 2019/ SP Global, 6 December 2019.

• In a place called Farrell, north of Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania, NLMK Pennsylvania has laid off 100 of its 430-strong workforce and cut 35 salaried office positions. The company has cited higher import costs since Trump slapped 25% tariffs on imports from Russia and other countries last year. Bob Miller, the company’s president, claims that his firm had paid more than $160 million in tariffs so it could keep buying steel.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, 3 December 2019

• ArcelorMittal is seeking immunity from any future investigations into the Ruia family, the previous owners of Essar Steel. The world’s largest steelmaker wants to avoid a situation similar to that experienced by JSW Steel following its acquisition of Bhushan Power and Steel.

Source: Economic Times.com, 4 December 2019.

Digital Edition - December 2020

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Online media reports are claiming that US sanctions on Iran are pretty ineffective in the minerals sector. According to the World Steel Association, Iran was the world’s 10th largest steel producer in 2018 despite the reimposition of sanctions by the USA. In 2018 Iran produced 25Mt of crude steel, up 17.7% on 2017 and it could rise to 28Mt in the current Iranian year, which ends in March.

Source: Tehran Times, 4 December 2019.

• Indian state-owned steelmaker SAIL recorded a 36% growth in sales in November 2019.

Source: The Hindu Business Line.com, 4 December 2019.

• The profitability of Indian steelmakers is under the spotlight according to online reports with big players like Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Jindal Steel and Power starting the new decade with weakening profits due to a softening of demand, falling steel prices and rising raw materials costs. According to The Hindu, the profitability of Indian steelmakers will decline a further 5% in 2020 following a sharp decline of around 25% in 2019.

Source: The Hindu.com, 4 December 2019.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• Much to the annoyance of the Chinese company Jingye, the French factory of British Steel is for sale separately from the rest of the company.

According to an online report a process is underway to sell what is regarded as a strategic industrial asset for the French Government.

Source: City AM/Financial Times, 5 December 2019.

• Swedish bearings manufacturer SKF has signed a performance-based deal with Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau to increase productivity and reduce unplanned downtime at two mills. For SKF the deal marks the beginning of a new future strategy whereby it is paid a fee based on preagreed performance levels.

Source: Reuters, 6 December 2019.

• It’s been going on for almost a year, but only now is it looking likely that JSW Steel is getting closer to acquiring Vardhman Industries (VIL). The Indian steelmaker has been locked in discussions with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) which last month (December 2019) ruled in favour of JSW Steel.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, 6 December 2019.

For more steel industry news and features, visit www.steeltimesint.com

• The first above ground jaw gyratory crusher in Australia will be installed

by ThyssenKrupp at the Roy Hill iron ore mine in Pilbara, Western Australia. The new crusher has been designed for high-performance and cost-effective operation. Jaw gyratory crushers can handle bigger chunks of material than straightforward gyratory crushers and have a higher crushing ratio.

• If the Jingye/British Steel deal falls through, there are plenty of other interested parties willing to snap up the latter if the Chinese company pulls out. A key potential buyer if things go awry is Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Group.

The company already works closely with British Steel in the UK and for many industry observers is seen as the likely candidate should the situation change in any way.

Source: City AM, 8 December 2019.

• A micromill in Sedalia, Missouri, will be the first of its kind to run on wind energy.

The $250 million facility is expected to be up and running by the year end and is a partnership between electric steelmaking giant Nucor and local power company Evergy.

Evergy will power the plant after a 75 megaWatt power purchase agreement between the two companies.

Source: CNBC, 7 December 2019.

Source: International Mining, 10 December 2019.

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Rather than shut up shop and close its Orb steelworks in Newport, South Wales, UK, Tata Steel has decided to ‘mothball’ it instead. The difference between ‘close’ and ‘mothball’ is fairly simple: if you close something, that’s effectively the end of it, but if you ‘mothball’ you stop using it and keep it in good condition so that it can readily be used again. The Orb plant makes electrical steel for power transmission and the workers there are to be redeployed in other parts of the business, including Port Talbot, according to a BBC online report. There are, of course, interested parties, such as Liberty Steel, but also the US steelmaker Big River Steel, which has said it would like to use the site, but only with another company operating it.

Source: BBC, 11 December 2019.

• Polluting the atmosphere is a costly business, as US Steel discovered to its cost recently. A proposed settlement with members of the public living close to the Clairton Coke Works involves paying residents $2 million and investing $6.5 million in equipment upgrades at the plant.

Source: Triblive.com, 11 December 2019.

• Italy-based Marcegaglia Group has acquired Evraz e Bertoli, one of Italy’s largest steel production sites, for 40 million Euros. Bertoli specialises in manufacturing heavy quarto plates and processes over 400kt of steel annually.

Source: Global Legal Chronicle, 12 December 2019.

• The US Department of Commerce has said it lowered its anti-dumping duty on hot-rolled steel from South Korean steelmaker Hyundai, the country’s second-biggest steelmaker. The new weighted average dumping margin is 0.94%, down from 5.44%.

Source: Reuters, 12 December 2019.

• German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp is said to be in discussion with Elon Musk about ‘carrying out certain services’ for the latter’s planned e-vehicle manufacturing hub in Berlin, or so said TK board member Klaus Keysberg to Germany’s business daily Handelsblatt last month.

Source: Financial World.org,14 December 2019.

www.steeltimesint.com

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• Russian steelmaker MMK has stopped taking export orders for February and March 2020 hot-rolled coil production because of mill maintenance. The company will stop its 2,500mm wide hot strip mill in March, one of two at its Urals site, for 110 days, according to a report by Platts.

Source: SPGlobal.com, 12 December 2019.

• Workers at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) in India joined forces to protest against a planned joint venture between the company and South Korean steel giant POSCO. Plans by the region’s chief minister YS Jagonmohan Reddy to provide 75% employment to locals will only become possible according to CITU state president Narsinga Rao if VSP is expanded within the government sector. Rao wants the Government to pass a unanimous resolution stating that VSP’s land is not given away to private companies.

Source: Times of India, 13 December 2019.

Digital Edition - December 2020

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• What a difference a day makes in the British Steel rescue talks. On 14 December the Telegraph reported that talks with ‘potential buyer’ Jingye were close to breaking down, but then, one day later, the BBC claimed that talks were ‘making progress’.

Outside of online and media reports, some industry observers believe that the deal will fall through, leaving other contenders, like Liberty Steel, in the frame.

Source: Daily Telegraph and the BBC, 14-15 December 2019.

• In India, the Odisha government has awarded Tata Steel BSL with the Odisha State Energy Conservation Award 2019.

Saroj Kumar Banerjee, chief of environment for Tata Steel BSL, received the award from Dibya Shankar Mishra, Odhisa’s energy minister.

The company received the award for improving energy conservation performance through reducing carbon footprint and fossil fuel consumption and generating power through waste heat recovery and energy efficient projects.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, 15 December 2019.

• Leon Topalian is rich beyond his wildest dreams!

Nucor Corporation’s new head honcho will get a base salary of $1 million with a target for annual incentives of $1.5 million and long-term incentives of $2 million. Topalian started on 1st January 2020 and will likely become chairman ‘in a year or so’ according to one online report. John Ferriola, his predecessor, had a base salary of $1.4 million in 2018 along with an annual incentive that year of $2.1 million.

Source: BizJournals.com, 16 December 2019.

• A 250kt/yr coil paint line is to be added to Nucor Corporation’s sheet mill plant in Mississippi County in Arkansas, USA. The aim of the expansion is to diversify the leading US steelmaker’s product and market mix by adding processing capability, according to Jay Henderson, VP and general manager of Nucor Steel Arkansas. He said it would also improve the quality and service provided to pre-paint customers.

Source: PR Newswire, 18 December 2019.

• A timely Christmas president for Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil involved a chat with The Donald in which the latter backed off on a threat to impose tariffs on Brazilian metal. According to Bolsanaro, relations between Brazil and the USA are getting stronger by the day.

Source: New York Times, 21 December 2019.

• Five people were injured at a POSCO steel mill in Gwangyang following an explosion that took out a generator facility. One of the five was seriously injured. The fire had no impact on operations and was not related directly to production operations.

Source: Reuters, 24 December 2019.

• SSAB Americas’ Montpelier facility in Iowa is believed to be powered solely by renewable energy sources, according to a report by SP Global, which also claims that the company plans to produce steel in North America using a fossil fuel-free process by the start of 2026.

Source: SP Global, 17 December 2019.

• Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel was announced as the preferred buyer for Bayou Steel in a deal worth $28 million. The plan is to restart recycling operations in 2020 and steelmaking in 2021, according to City AM. Source: City AM, 24 December 2019.

• Donald Trump famously boasted that his tariffs had saved the US steel industry. Then why is it that US Steel Corporation is laying off 1,545 workers and closing a giant plant in Detroit?

And why is it that the same company laid off 200 workers in Michigan earlier in 2019? Well, according to economics professor Alan Deardoff from the University of Michigan, the US steel industry has been in trouble for years and Trump’s tariffs never stood a chance to save the industry, according to an online report.

Source: Salon.com, 21 December 2019. www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Ever since British Steel was ‘plunged into insolvency’ the British taxpayer has been funding the company’s operational losses – to the tune of £1 million per day!

Source: The Guardian, 2 January 2020.

• Nucor Corporation in Memphis, Tennessee, has purchased heat treating equipment from Energy Alloys of Conroe, Texas.

Dave Smith, VP and GM of Nucor Steel Memphis, said the new equipment will improve the quality and properties of the heattreated steel currently produced at the site.

Source: Daily Memphian, 3 January 2020.

• A toxic gas leak at an Indian state-owned steel plant run by Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has left six people ill. The incident involved blast furnace number eight and was due to a material slippage inside the furnace which caused a pressure build-up to release the gas through the drain pot of the hydraulic U seal, which is installed to deal with pressure build-ups of this nature.

Source: Hindustan Times, 3 January 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

• Good news for the US steel industry is that the New Year started well with a capacity utilisation rate of 82% according to figures released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

Source: AISI and AG Metal Miner, 7 January 2020.

• Job cuts are on the agenda if Jingye takes over at British Steel, according to a leading UK-based national broadsheet. According to The Guardian newspaper, the National Trade Union Steel Coordinating Committee (which includes the Community and Unite Unions) is concerned about possible job cuts should the deal go through as planned. Since the collapse of British Steel in May 2019, the British Government has been funding the company’s £1 million/day losses.

Source: The Guardian.com, 10 January 2020

• Troubled German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp is said to be stepping up efforts to sell it’s Industrial Solutions business. Among the interested purchasers are a number of Chinese stateowned enterprises. Industrial Solutions is one of the worst performers in the TK portfolio, according to the Financial Times.

• The Q3 crude steel output of Indian steelmaker JSW Steel has declined by 4.9% to 4.02Mt, down from 4.23Mt the previous year. Flat-rolled products were down 1.3% to 2.86Mt, long-rolled products were down 14.4% to 0.89Mt. JSW Steel is part of the $14 billion JSW Group.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, 13 January 2020.

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• Aditya Mittal, son of Lakshmi, has big plans for ArcelorMittalNipponSteel India (formerly Essar Steel). He plans to double production at the Hazira plant to 15Mt and is in the process of setting up a dual feed petrochemical annual capacity of 1.2Mt through the HPCL Mittal Energy JV. The company owns the 11Mt Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bathinda, which was built in 2012 at a cost of $4 billion.

Source: Business Today, 14 January 2020.

• It looks as if workers at Tata Steel Ijmuiden will be guaranteed work until October 2021. According to an online media report, while eventual layoffs are inevitable, the management of Tata Steel Nederland will adhere to previously made agreements with the trade unions. While job cuts in the rest of Europe will likely go ahead, the 1,600 jobs in the Netherlands will be put on hold.

Source: NL Times, 14 January 2020.

Source: www.FT.com, 12 January 2020.

For more steel industry news and features, visit www.steeltimesint.com

Digital Edition - December 2020

10 NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• An unexploded World War Two bomb led to the evacuation of construction workers at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot steel mill back in late January. The device was unearthed during construction work and was removed safely. Some 1,500 people are employed on-site.

Source: BBC, 23 January 2020.

• Gerdau Special Steel North America is laying off around 140 employees at its facility in Jackson. Melting and rolling operations will stop at the 3100 Brooklyn Road plant, but finishing operations will continue there. A Gerdau spokesman said that melting and rolling equipment would be maintained in case a restart is ‘deemed feasible’.

Proof, perhaps, that tariffs aren’t working?

Source: Mlive.com, 23 January 2020.

• If the deal between Jingye and British Steel falls to pieces, British Steel will be broken up and sold in parts, according to an online news report. It’s looking as if around 500 jobs (10% of the workforce) will be lost if the deal goes ahead.

Jingye is looking to buy the business from the Government’s liquidators. Currently, it is estimated that the business is losing £1 million per day.

Source: The Northern Echo, 25 January 2020.

• Jingye might build a new metals recycling furnace at British Steel’s Lackenby facility, bringing steelmaking back to Teeside after ‘decades of industrial decline’ according to a report by the Financial Times. At the moment, the plant’s beam mill turns basic metal into products for the construction industry.

Introducing an EAF would enable the plant to produce its own primary material from scrap metal.

Source: Financial Times, 25 January 2020.

• Things might be getting a little hot and bothered over at ThyssenKrupp following news that Marc Tuengler, managing director of DSW, the German investors’ association, has criticised, among other things, the massive pay-off being handed to former CEO Guido Kerkhoff (a cool 6.5 million Euros!). When you consider that the German steelmaker has issued four profits warnings AND botched two restructuring attempts, according to an online report, you might conclude that Tuengler has a point.

Source: Reuters, 24 January 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• Tenova has been awarded a contract from Nippon Steel to supply a Consteel EAF to be installed at the company’s Hirohata works. Tenova believes that the facility will save around 400kt/yr in terms of CO2 emissions by installing the new equipment.

Source: Foundry Planet.com, 13 February 2020.

• ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) is to report a 4 billion Rand ($2.8) loss for the year ended December 2019 – a challenging year for the South African steelmaker. The company plans to shed 1,000 jobs following a loss on profits of 1.7 billion Rand ($951 million).

Source: ETNOWNEWS.com, 26 January 2020.

• If it all goes Pete Tong between Jingye and British Steel, then worry not because there’s a Turkish industrial giant lurking in the wings.

Cengiz is ready to bid for the out-of-luck British steelmaker and is watching developments closely. Cengiz owner Mehmet Cengiz is a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The company claims it is well-placed to acquire overseas assets.

Source: BBC, 26 January 2020.

• Falling demand and the slowing growth of the world economy are the reasons behind JFE’s decision to idle parts of its steel plate plants in Japan. The aim is to dramatically reduce fixed costs. Workers at plants in Kawasaki and Chiba will be relocated to other positions, claims the company.

Source: Nippon.com, 13 February 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

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• The USA is getting a little hot under the collar over structural steel imports from Canada, Mexico and China.

The US Commerce Department claims that fabricated structural steel from these countries has been sold at less than fair value at rates of up to 6.7% (Canada); 30.6% (Mexico); and 154% (China).

It is also reported that steel from China and Mexico had received unfair subsidies at rates of up to 206% (China) and 69% (Mexico).

Source: Hellenic Shipping News, 27 January 2020.

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• The privately owned Indian steelmaker JSW is to delay by six months the completion of its 5Mt/yr expansion of its Dolvi plant on India’s west coast. The likely completion date is now September 2020.

Work started on-site in 2017 but weather issues (prolonged monsoons) and manpower problems have been cited as the main reasons for the delay.

Source: Argus Media, 28 January 2020.

• A US$300 million expansion project is on the cards for US steel giant Nucor Corporation.

The company is planning to expand its Berkeley County steel operations as part of a multi-billion dollar spending spree over the next two years.

Source: Post and Courier, 17 February 2020.

• In the USA, the state of Indiana accounts for about a quarter of the nation’s steel output, despite a 7% decline in production. In 2019, the state produced 24.7Mt as opposed to 26.7Mt in 2018. US steel mills in general shipped 96.1Mt last year, up 0.9% from the previous year.

Source: Inside Indiana Business, 18 February 2020.

• Sluggish growth in domestic steel demand has forced Tata Steel in India to slow the planned expansion of its Kalinanagar steel plant in Eastern India. In 2018, the original plan had been to grow the capacity from 3Mt/yr to 8Mt/yr and complete operations by 2022. A new deadline has not been given.

Source: Argus Media, 14 February 2020.

• 100kt of steel produced

by Tata Steel Europe in the Netherlands is exempt from paying a 25% tariff announced by US president Donald Trump in June 2018.

Dutch foreign trade minister Sigrid Kagg said it was good news for the Netherlands and for Dutch employees.

Source: Reuters, 28 January 2020.

• Finnish elevator giant Kone has moved away from discussions to acquire ThyssenKrupp’s elevator technology. Apparently, TK had already ruled out Kone as a bidder in favour of two private equity buyout consortia.

Source: Reuters, 17 February 2020.

Italian plant builder Tenova has been contracted by Russian steelmaker NLMK Ural to supply the company with an intelligent electric arc furnace (iEAF). The unit will be installed at the Revda plant in Russia and bolted on to the existing EAF. Source: India Education Diary, 17 February 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• In India, a country that depends largely on oil and coal for its energy, the nation’s biggest gas utility is talking to steel mills with a view to convincing them to switch to less polluting fuel – and revive their own sales growth! As demand from its existing client base wanes, GAIL is on the hunt for new business.

Source: LiveMint, 18 February 2020.

• There’s more to plant safety than preventing employees from falling into a blazing furnace. At a Tata Steel mill in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India contract worker Laxmi Soren was attacked by father-of-three Badal Hansda who had been engaged in a threeyear long affair with Soren.

When she discovered his marital status she started to avoid him so he decided to attack her in the plant and close to blast furnace D. Hansda hit her on the legs with a rod and twice around the head until she fell unconscious at the scene.

Source: The Avenue Mail, 18 February 2020.

www.steeltimesint.com

13

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• South Korean steelmaker POSCO says it will continue to assist communities in need around the globe. The company has recently sent 1 billion won ($820,159) to crisis-hit Wuhan in the wake of the further spread of the Corona virus (COVID-19).

POSCO sent masks and hand sanitisers to prevent the further spread of the disease.

Source: The Korea Herald, 26 February 2020.

• Job losses at Tata Steel's UK sites will be fewer than 500, according to Tata Steel Europe's CEO Henrik Adam. He is now saying that job losses across Europe will be 1,250 rather than 3,000 as originally envisaged. Adam wrote to staff in early March describing the company's financial situation as 'serious'.

Source: BBC, 10 March 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

• Higher raw materials costs and falling margins are to blame for South Korean steelmaker Hyundai’s plummeting profits. Total steel production dropped by 1.21% year-on-year in 2019 to 21.22Mt, including 9.36Mt of EAF steel, which was down by -3.31%. Consolidated revenue declined by -1.28% year-onyear to 20.513 trillion won ($16.93 billion), as a result of lower sales volumes and prices following a demand slowdown. Net profit slumped by -93.63% to 26 billion won.

Source: Kallinish Commodities, 25 February 2020.

• Tata Steel has been named as one of the world’s most ethical companies – for the ninth time! The award comes from Ethisphere, a global organisation that defines and advances standards of ethical business practices.

Source: Orissadiary.com, 25 February 2020.

• A new high-strength, abrasion-resistant steel has been introduced by Tata Steel (in collaboration with Steel Warehouse) for use in the mining, agriculture, construction, refuse and recycling industries. Valast 450 is claimed to offer manufacturers a variety of advantages compared with conventional abrasionresistant plate-steel products.

The new product is available in widths of up to 81 inches, 30% more than products offered by Tata’s rivals.

Source: CISION PR Newswire, 25 February 2020.

• The risks of acquiring ThyssenKrupp’s elevator business are larger than the opportunities, according to Kone CEO Henrik Ehrnrooth.

Speaking at a shareholders’ meeting in Helsinki, Finland, he said that profiting from the situation would be the way ahead. That Kone had been pushed off the bidding process didn’t disappoint those shareholders who came to listen to Ehrnrooth.

Maintenance services and modernisation of old equipment were the ways forward, he said.

Source: Reuters, 25 February 2020.

• Berry Metal Company has forged a partnership with Acciarium Alliance to grow market participation with BOF and EAF steelmakers in Europe. According to David Werner, president of Berry Metal Company, the fit between the two companies is perfect. Mauro Bianchi Ferrias, managing director of Acciarium, said that the Berry team was absolutely great.

“I am very happy to be part of the same family now,” he added.

Source: Berry Metals, 26 February 2020.

• Driving domestic steel demand in India is top of mind for ArcelorMittal’s Lakshmi Mittal. Mr Mittal dropped in on India’s Union Steel Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan and by all accounts the two men had a fruitful discussion.

The chat revolved around boosting steel consumption and making the Indian steel and oil & gas industries more vibrant and competitive.

Source: IndiaTVnews.com, 25 February 2020.

14 CORONAVIRUS UPDATE...

• Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and Azov Stal, two steel plants owned by Russian steelmaker Metinvest are being criticised by residents of Donetsk Oblast for polluting the atmosphere. Locals refer to the company as ‘Deathinvest’. The company is also under attack in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol for polluting the atmosphere and creating a huge 40m pile of industry waste dubbed ‘Slag Mountain’.

Source: Kyivpost.com, 26 February 2020.

• ThyssenKrupp has sold its elevator division to a private equity consortium including Advent, Cinven and the German RAG foundation for 17.2 billion euros ($18.7 billion). TK will reinvest 1.25 billion euros from the monies it receives from the sale for a stake in the business.

Source: Reuters, 27 February 2020.

• World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 154.4Mt in January 2020, a 2.1% increase when compared to January 2019. Of that figure, China produced 84.3Mt. Source: World Steel Association, 27 February 2020.

• Iran is claiming that it is now making enough steel to satisfy domestic demand and export to target markets.

According to the World Steel Association, Iran produced almost 3Mt of crude steel in January, up 46.7% on last January’s 1.971Mt. The global average growth rate is 2.1%.

Source: Tehran Times, 29 February 2020.

• Yoshihisa Kitano, head of Japan’s Iron and Steel Federation, is calling on the Chinese steel industry to cut production in the face of weakening demand from manufacturers. Chinese steel mills should adjust their output to reflect declining manufacturing activities, said Mr Kitano as steel inventories start to climb.

Source: MarketScreener.com, 27 February 2020.

• Following on from the sale of ThyssenKrupp’s elevator business, there are big questions over what to do with the rest of the German conglomerate. Will other divisions be sold off and if so, which ones? According to one online report, the rest of the business doesn’t make a great deal of money.

Source: www.independent.ie, 1 March 2020

• US steel import permit applications for February totalled 1.82Mt (net tons), a decrease of 47.5% when compared to January figures, according to data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Import permit tonnage for finished steel in February was down 16.8% when compared with January.

More details can be found on www.steeltimesint.com Source: AISI, 4 March 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• With China refining or providing up to 97% of steelmaking's raw ingredients like manganese, silicon and other key raw materials, global steelmakers are beginning to realise just how much they rely upon China.

As a result of the Coronavirus prices for key ingredients rose sharply at the beginning of 2020.

Source: Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2020.

• The Coronavirus is causing many problems for China's steel industry, notably reduced demand (Baowu Steel reports a 5% month-onmonth drop in orders) and rising steel inventories. It is estimated that the impact of the virus will be felt for at least the next two to three years, according to India's Union Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan.

Source: Various online reports.

• Chinese steelmakers are reporting sharp falls in their profit margins because of the coronavirus, with some rebar and hot-rolled coil producers claiming they have barely broken even on sales.

Source: Argus Media, 2 March 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

15

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • Clayton Equipment, the only British independent locomotive manufacturer in the UK capable of designing and manufacturing locomotives up to 150 tonnes, has agreed a contract to supply a further two Hybrid+™ Diesel CBD90 locomotives to Tata Steel, Port Talbot. The steelworks fleet will eventually include a total of five Hybrid+™ locomotives supplied from Clayton Equipment.

Source: Clayton Equipment, 1 March 2020.

• Projects worth more than $1.2 billion are ready to be inaugurated in Iran’s mining sector across the country, according to Khodadad Gharibpour, head of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO).

Source: Tehran Times, 2 March 2020.

The European and US steel industry have yet to report any major incidents concerning the so-called Coronavirus. The European Steel Association (EUROFER) says the virus has not yet had a significant impact on the EU steel market. “EU steelmakers are able to deliver products from their EU mills,” EUROFER told Steel Times International. In the USA, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) commented: “The latest data suggests that domestic steel mills have not been adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak.”

Source: EUROFER/AISI, 4 March 2020.

• Katsuhiro Miyamoto, executive vice president of Nippon Steel, a leading Japanese steel manufacturer, has said that the company needs to prepare for a downside in relation to the Coronavirus. As steel inventories surge 30% in China since the January infections spike, Miyamoto believes there could be wider impacts if things don’t pick up soon.

Source: Reuters, 1 March 2020.

• Jingye Group has signed on the dotted line for the almost doomed British Steel. The Chinese company claims it will save 3,000 jobs, but has admitted that up to 500 might go as the company sets about investing £1.2 million on upgrading the steelmaker’s production facilities. Source: BBC, 9 March 2020.

Li Huiming, Jingye Group CEO

• A number of online media reports discuss the plans of the Advent-led consortium, which intends to spend billions on expanding the newly acquired ThyssenKrupp Elevator business. Apparently there is no shortage of money for global expansion, according to Advent’s Ranjan Sen. Source: Various, 2 March 2020.

• Jingye has also announced how it will be spending its planned £1.2 million. The plan is to introduce an electric arc furnace to facilities in Teesside, construct a new 250MW power plant to serve the Scunthorpe site, invest in rolling mills to produce high quality steel products, and build a new rebar line.

Source: Jingye Group, 9 March 2020.

• Thomas J. Gibson, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), pictured right, will retire in the autumn. A search for his successor will begin immediately. Gibson has led AISI since September 2008. Under his leadership, the Institute successfully advocated for once-ina-generation legislation to strengthen the trade laws against unfair trade practices and level the playing field for steel manufacturers, for successful passage of transportation and infrastructure bills to benefit the steel industry, and for a balanced approach to energy and environmental regulations that do not diminish manufacturing competitiveness and capitalise on the natural gas renaissance in the US. Source: AISI, 6 March 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

• Coronavirus has led to the postponement of Wire and Tube Dusseldorf. The exhibition was going to take place this month (March) but has been put back to December (7-11) following consultation with all partners involved, claimed organiser Messe Dusseldorf GmbH. Source: Messe Dusseldorf, 6 March 2020.

16

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• ArcelorMittal’s dispute with the Italian government over the financially-challenged Ilva steelworks in Taranto is over. The company had threatened to walk away from the plant, acquired in 2018, after a guarantee of legal immunity from prosecution concerning pollution levels and environmental shortcomings was scrapped.

A new deal means that the Italian government will take an equity stake at least equal to that of the world’s biggest steelmaker.

Source: NDTV.com, 17 March 2020.

• Tata Steel, India’s largest steelmaker, has initiated a twice-a-day sanitation of staff vehicles, has disabled biometric attendance and is asking pregnant women to work from home in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The company has set up a dedicated medical task force to assess the medical preparedness of Tata Steel hospitals in Jharkhand and Odisha where the company owns mines.

Source: Moneycontrol.com, 17 March 2020.

• ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine is working with Yuriy Vilkul, mayor of Kryvyi Rih, a city in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast region, to counteract the spread of COVID-19. The company will buy three artificial respirators for Kryvyi Rih medical facilities and convert its ‘Dzherelo’ sanatorium into an observational facility for people who might have the virus. Plans are in place to equipment six ambulances with equipment to safely transport potentially infected people.

Source: MarketScreener.com, 19 March 2020.

• Austrian steelmaker voestalpine has announced a short-time working model to help combat the challenges it faces from COVID-19.

"As a result of massive reductions in capacity and current production shutdowns in the automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, and oil & natural gas industries, in just a few days demand from key voestalpine customer segments has collapsed," the company said, adding that in order meet the required level of flexibility over the coming weeks and to secure jobs, short-time work is being registered in around 50 European Group companies (in Austria as well as in Germany, Belgium, and France).

Source: steeltimesint.com, 25 March 2020.

• ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, is taking steps to reduce production at its European operations in order to ensure the wellbeing of its employees and align production with demand.

The announcement reflects the severity of the COVID-19 situation in Western Europe and the moves taken by the company are designed to protect its employees and prevent the spread of the infection.

Source: ArcelorMittal, 19 March 2020.

• Hyundai Motor’s executive vice chairman Chung Euisun, has been named as chairman of South Korea’s biggest car manufacturer. The appointment is designed to strengthen the company’s ‘responsible management’ team amid growing uncertainties and tougher competition. The company claims it needs ‘strong and implacable’ leadership as the coronavirus impacts sales. Mr Euisun has quit his directorship of Hyundai Steel. Source: Yonhap News Agency, 19 March 2020.

• Production cuts are on the cards for German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp. The company is looking at shortened working hours to fit in with reduced production in the automotive industry due to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus). The car industry is TK’s biggest customer group and the company wants to hold on to as many employees as it can.

Source: Channel News Asia, 19 March 2020.

• Operations have been suspended at Hyundai Motor’s Alabama plant in the USA after one of its employees was infected with COVID-19. Other overseas plants face possible shutdown amid growing infection fears.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, 19 March 2020.

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18 NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • With integrated steel mills in the USA accounting for more than half of automotive sheet production, it is likely they will be hardest hit by shutdowns of automotive plants. Companies like US Steel, Cleveland Cliffs and ArcelorMittal will be badly hit when compared with minimill operators, like Steel Dynamics, which don’t supply as much sheet to the auto sector.

Automotive accounts for 25% of US steel demand and over 40% of sheet demand, according to Key Banc analyst Phil Gibbs.

Source: Seeking Alpha.com, 18 March 2020.

• As steel demand falters because of the corona virus, China Steel Corporation, Taiwan’s leading steel producer, is to lower its domestic price list for all its major steel products destined to be sold in May. The company is to release some steel list prices on a monthly basis starting in April. Hotrolled coil, cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanised coil are being trimmed by TWD 300/ tonne.

Source: Mysteel Global, 20 March 2020.

• The world’s biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, is to close two blast furnaces in France. One will close at Fos-sur-Mer and the other at Dunkirk. The former has two blast furnaces, the latter has three.

Source: Argus, 19 March 2020.

• The COVID-19 calamity has prompted big US-based carmakers GM, Ford and FiatChrysler, as well as Honda and Toyota, to announce temporary production stoppages in North America, something that, no doubt, will focus the minds of US steelmakers serving the automotive sector.

Source S&P Global, 20 March 2020.

• ‘Socially responsible’ job cuts are the way forward for German steel giant ThyssenKrupp. The company has agreed a plan with the IG Metall trade union to shed 3,000 jobs and invest 4.2 billion Euros in its steel business by 2026. TK’s steel business is the second biggest in Europe in terms of sales and the aim of the job cuts and investment is to make TK competitive against rivals ArcelorMittal and Austrian steelmaker voestalpine.

Source: Yahoo Finance, 25 March 2020.

• Russian steelmaker PAO Severstal has set into motion a number of measures designed to protect its employees from the COVID-19 virus. Measures include restrictions on foreign travel and a reduction of trips within Russia, temperature checking for employees as they arrive at work, remote working where possible, enhanced hygiene and cleaning measures and a suspension of all organised activities involving 20 or more people. Mandatory breathalyser tests have been discontinued.

Source: Market Screener, 20 March 2020.

• Despite the devastation caused by the COVID-19 virus, the Chinese have continued to make steel throughout the crisis, producing 154.7Mt of crude steel over the first two months of 2020, up 3.1% on the same period last year. However, disruptions to transportation has meant a build-up of stocks due to weak domestic demand.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News, 23 March 2020.

• ThyssenKrupp’s CEO Martina Merz will be in the job until 2023 and is being kept on to restructure the business. She was responsible for the sale of the company’s elevator business and is regarded as ‘the best conceivable solution for the company’ according to chairman Siegfried Russwurm.

CFO Johannes Dietsch resigned at the end of March and will be replaced by Klaus Keysberg.

Source: Channel News Asia, 20 March 2020.

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20

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• South Korea’s number one and two steelmakers – POSCO and Hyundai Steel – have both initiated plant closures in India because of the spread of COVID-19. POSCO has closed down two coil service centres in Delhi and Pune, and Hyundai has shutdown a service centre and steel pipe plant in Tamil Nadu, Southern India.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, 23 March 2020.

• In India, Tata Steel is closing downstream standalone units in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh but maintaining operations at Jamshepur, Kaliganagar and Angul. The company’s consolidated crude steel capacity is 19.6Mt/yr.

Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal/ Nippon Steel India is claiming that lower demand and curtailed logistics have impacted production. Plants operated by Jindal Steel & Power were still operational at the time of writing.

Source: Business Standard.com, 23 March 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• Concerns over COVID-19 have led to Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau SA postponing all capital expenditure initiatives, according to an online report from Reuters. Operations are being suspended in Peru and Argentina because of lockdowns and US operations are being adversely affected by the slowing down of the automotive industry.

Source: Reuters, 24 March 2020.

South Korean steel giant POSCO is to close two coil service centres in Verona, Italy, because of COVID-19.

The closures follow hot on the heels of announcements made last week regarding the shutting down of two coil service centres in Malaysia and Thailand and in Delhi and Pune in India.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, 24 March 2020.

US Steel is to idle its seamless tubular operations in Lorain, Ohio, USA, because of market conditions, including oil pricing, imports, and demand and not because of COVID-19.

The company expects there to be around 250 job losses.

Source: The Chronicle, 23 March 2020.

• Steel has been declared a 'life essential' industry in the state of Pennsylvania, USA, where almost all businesses have been shutdown. State troopers, local officials, the state Health and Agriculture departments and the Liquour Control Board will enforce the situation Democrat governor Tom Wolf had said he would not use police for enforcement. The move, which was taken to the slow the spread of COVID-19, was roundly condemned by Republicans.

Source: US News & World Report

• Russian steelmaker MMK is taking active measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Foreign business trips for employees have been suspended and trips within Russia are being restricted. The company is recommending that employees who have visited countries with active Coronavirus cases undergo a 14-day home quarantine with the option of working remotely.

There are plans to decrease production volumes and undertake equipment repairs.

Source: MMK, 25 March 2020.

• Due to circumstances surrounding the global problems created by the COVID-19 virus, the Future Steel Forum 2020 has pressed the reset button and rebooted itself to a new date in November (24-25). The conference will still take place at the Grandior Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic, and we're hoping to bring you a virtually unchanged programme.

COVID-19 has effected all societies throughout the world and many conferences and exhibitions have been forced to either cancel or postpone. Fortunately, the Future Steel Forum has chosen the latter option and will still take place.

Source: Future Steel Forum, 25 March 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 21

• As demand for steel from the automotive sector and other industries drops as a result of COVID-19, Tata Steel Europe has announced production cuts at its mills in Ijmuiden in the Netherlands and at Port Talbot in South Wales, UK. The company states that all four of its blast furnaces will continue, but production of liquid steel will be reduced.

Source: Nasdaq, 26 March 2020.

• In Iran, the so-called ‘resistance economy’ is hard at work trying to create new jobs. The Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO) is reviving small and mediumsized mines with a view to creating 3,000 jobs. Since March 2019, IMIDRO claims that it is 95% on target now.

The aim is to revive 150 idled mines, with small mines a top priority. Iran is in 10th place globally in terms of the diversity of its mineral reserves.

Source: IMIDRO, 25 March 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

• State-owned steelmaker The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has claimed that it has rationalised operations at all domestic sites and that run rates have been cut by 30% as a result of India’s COVID-19related 21-day lockdown. The company produced 1.44Mt of crude steel in February, but a 30% cut in run rates means a loss of over 400kt/month of production.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide, 28 March 2020.

• Indian steelmaker JSW has also cut domestic production because of COVID-19. The 18Mt/yr business has shut down one blast furnace at its plant in Vijaynagar, Karnataka and reduced run rates initially by 50% and then by 25-30% at three other furnaces. In February JSW produced 1.49Mt of crude steel. A 30% reduction means a loss of around 450kt/month.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide, 28 March 2020.

• A report by Argus Media claims that US Steel’s raw steel production fell almost 10% for the week ended 28 March 2020 because of the Corona virus. Output dropped 182kt (short tons) to 1.67Mt and fell 13% when compared with the same week in 2019.

Capacity utilisation was 71.6%, down from 79.4% the previous week. These figures

are claimed to be the lowest since January 2017.

Source: Argus Media, 30 March 2020.

• In China, Shagang Iron and Steel’s 2019 financial results show plummeting operating revenue and net profits. The company’s operating revenue of $1.9 billion and net profit of $74.7 million was down 8.41% and 55.7% respectively.

Finished steel prices were down 7.26% while raw materials prices were up just over 11%.

Source: Steel Orbis, 31 March 2020.

• Expansion plans designed to increase both efficiency and sustainability at US Steel’s Mon Valley works have been put on hold because of the Corona virus. The company had planned to ‘break ground’ on an endless casting and rolling line and a cogeneration facility. The situation is likely to remain on hold until market conditions ‘become more certain’ according to US Steel’s president and CEO, David Burritt.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1 April 2020.

• Russia's largest steelmaker, NLMK Group has requested that all employees over the age of 65 stay at home during the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to the company, employees 'of an advanced age' are being given the choice of working from home or taking a paid vacation or quarantine leave until 30 April 2020. The end date could change, based on how the situation develops.

Source: NLMK, 1 April 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

22 NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • Five major North American steel industry groups have urged Congress to include significant infrastructure investment in the next phase of COVID-19 stimulus legislation to provide a clear path toward recovery. The letter, written by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA), The Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports (CPTI), and Specialty Steel Industry of North America (SSINA), stated that 38% of America’s 616,000 bridges are in need of replacement or rehabilitation, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory.

Source: SMA, 2 April 2020.

• ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, has joined forces with leading researchers and medical professionals in Spain to produce ventilators to help tackle the global COVID-19 crisis. The ventilators, produced using 3D printers, took one week to design and are currently undergoing

trials and safety tests. Once approved, they could support patients with acute respiratory difficulties, which occur in severe cases of coronavirus.

Source: ArcelorMittal, 7 April 2020.

• Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) has lowered the tapping ratio of its blast furnaces, extended the time between blasting, and has taken other measures to reduce overall steel output volume in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Japanese steelmaker has also initiated additional measures in response to a sharp drop in demand for steel products and these include the banking of blast furnace number one at its East Nippon Works in the Kashima area.

Source: Nippon Steel Corporation, 7 April 2020.

• Indian steelmakers keen to turn the country into a 300Mt/ yr heavy metal powerhouse are having their efforts thwarted by the Coronavirus, according to one online report. As many steelmakers cut back production by up to 50%, some experts argue that the virus will take its toll on any expansion plans designed to make India the number two player next to China. In fact, plans could be pushed back by between three and nine months, according to analyst Akash Krishnatry from India Ratings.

Source: Financial Express, 8 April 2020.

• Following the conclusion of negotiations between SSAB Group and the company's employees in Finland, the Swedish steelmaker has decided there will be a need for temporary lay-offs averaging three weeks between April and June 2020.

The lay-offs are in response to weakened market conditions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: SSAB, 7 April 2020.

• The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has rescheduled its Steel Safety Day from 28 April (aligned with the International Labour Organisation’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work) to 21 October in order to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 at steel-producing sites.

Digital Edition - December 2020

According to Andrew Purvis, worldsteel's director, safety, health and environment, It is important to say that this is not because safety or frequent interactions with employees and contractors about safety are less necessary now than before the pandemic.

• ArcelorMittal Bremen has commissioned AI company Smart Steel Technologies to introduce its “SST Casting Optimisation AI” and “SST Surface Inspection AI” software products. According to SST, these AI solutions serve to optimise the continuous casting process and automated surface inspection. ArcelorMittal Bremen will permanently reduce downgradings due to surface defects, and will install a system for AI-supported analysis of production data to implement effective further optimisation measures.

Source: SST, 7 April 2020.

Source: World Steel Association, 6 April 2020.

23

• Global production of molybdenum rose by 575.4 million pounds in 2019, up 1% from 571.5 million pounds in 2018, according to figures released today by the International Molybdenum Association (IMOA), a nonprofit trade association representing the interests of the world's molybdenum producers, converters, consumers and traders. Global use was 569.6 million pounds in 2019, a fall of 2% from 583.2 million pounds the previous year.

Source: IMOA, April 20 2020.

• Liberty Steel Hartlepool has secured contracts to build more than 470 km of pipe for use in offshore and onshore energy infrastructure projects in the United States and Caspian Sea regions. The orders, which are claimed to be 'of significant value', will be fulfilled at Liberty’s Longitudinally Submerged Arc Welded Linepipe mill where production has commenced and will continue for the next 10-12 months.

Source: Liberty Steel, 20 April 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

• The Materials Processing Institute has appointed Professor John Fernie as head of the Materials Processing Institute's recently formed Advanced Materials Group.

Professor Fernie has more than 30 years’ experience of managing research and development teams, including creating and implementing technology strategies and securing grant-based and commercial funding from the UK, EU and the rest of the world.

Source: Materials Processing Institute, 20 April 2020.

• Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corporation is lowering the tapping ratio of its blast furnaces, extending the time between blasting, and taking other measures to reduce overall steel output volume in response to the adverse effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Nippon Steel Corporation, 22 April 2020.

World crude steel production for March 2020 was down 6% on figures for the same time last year, according to data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).

In March 147.1Mt of crude steel was produced based on data received from the 64 countries that report to worldsteel. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, these figures are estimates from national and regional associations and may be revised with next month's update, says worldsteel.

Source: World Steel Association, 23 April 2020.

• A report by the BBC claims that Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock believes that Tata Steel in the UK will need around £500 million of government support in order to survive the global COVID-19 pandemic. The BBC report claims that Sky News has reported that Tata Steel, which employs over 8,000 people in the UK, is asking for support because many of its customers have halted production because of the COVID-19 crisis. Both the UK and Welsh Governments have been approached.

Source: BBC, 26 April 2020.

• ArcelorMittal has furloughed 250 employees at its plant in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The company says that its customers – largely in the automotive and construction industries – have closed down plants due to COVID-19 and that this has affected work at the plant. The furloughs are not expected to last more than six months. The world’s biggest steelmaker will be idling production at its Hibbing Taconite iron ore mine and pellet processing plant in Minnesota from 3 May through 6 July.

Source: Steel Times International, 27 April 2020.

• Scandinavian steelmaker Ovako and Linde Gas AB have conducted a full-scale trial using hydrogen to heat steel before rolling. The steelmaker claims that the trial was performed with good results in one of the company’s pit furnaces at the Hofors rolling mill in Sweden. "This historic development for the steel industry proves that carbon dioxide emissions from rolling can be eliminated provided the right financial support and infrastructure are in place," Ovako said.

Source: Ovako, 28 April 2020.

24

• Leon Topalian, president and chief executive of Nucor Corporation in the USA, has spoken out about the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that it 'has touched the lives of almost everyone in some way'. "We would be remiss not to acknowledge the physical, mental and emotional toll so much of the world is experiencing," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are fighting COVID-19 and our condolences are with the victims of this terrible virus and the families and friends who mourn them.

Source: Nucor Corporation, 28 April 2020.

• Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Limited (JSHL) has been awarded the prestigious ‘International Safety Award 2020 Merit’ by the UKbased British Safety Council.

According to JSHL it is the only Indian manufacturing company in the steel and stainless steel industry that has been bestowed with this award among a global pool of over 500 companies from a spectrum of industries.

The award honours JSHL’s commitment and overarching performance to ensure global safety standards at the workplace.

Source: Jindal Stainless, 4 May 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • 38% of America’s 616,000 bridges are in need of replacement or rehabilitation.

Source: Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory

• Despite material substitution threats, steel today remains a key automotive material making up around 55% of light vehicles by weight.

Source: Andrew Zoryk, Deloitte.

• US steel production had declined by as much as 12.7%, by end March, on a year-toyear basis. Falling imports also fell sharply in the first two months of this year, though imports made little impact on US steelmakers.

Source: Steel Times International

• Outokumpu uses 90.6% of the steel slag it produces.

Recycled content makes up 85% of the company’s worldwide production – the highest proportion of recycled material of any producer on the market.

This compares with an average of around 50% for stainless steel producers across Europe and North America, while the global average for steel producers is about 35%.

Source: Outokumpu.

• Somewhere between 20% and 40% of the cost of steel production is in the energy used.

Source: World Steel Association.

• The automotive industry accounts for 25% of US steel demand.

Source: Steel Times International

• Finnish steelmaker Outokumpu’s stainless steel products generate as little as one-tenth of the carbon emissions of steel produced in the Asia-Pacific region.

Source: Outokumpu.

• Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) have contributed to reducing weight by around 25% in many components – helping to ensure competitiveness against other substitution threats, such as aluminium.

Source: Deloitte.

• Over the next five years, mining giant Vale estimates that it will invest US$3.1 billion in dry processing facilities to achieve its goal of 70% dry production.

Source: Michael Schwartz in Steel Times International

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Russian steelmaker NLMK Group’s flagship production site, NLMK Lipetsk, has completed performance testing of new air purification systems installed on facilities that underwent capital repairs in late 2019, namely Basic Oxygen Furnace No. 2, which has a capacity in excess of 3Mt/ yr of steel and Blast Furnace No. 6, which has a capacity of 3.4Mt/yr of pig iron.

Source: NLMK, 27 May 2020.

• The average capacity utilisation of Indian steelmakers in May has improved to 75% following the fall in demand experienced by the industry during the April COVID-19 lockdown. Companies such as JSW and Jindal Steel and Power have released some promising production figures, but most of the products being produced are for export markets. JSW’s capacity utilisation rose from 38% in April to 83% in May. Jindal

Steel and Power’s steel sales were up 28% year-onyear. State-owned SAIL was operating at 55% while Tata Steel managed 65-70%.

Source: Livemint, 7 June 2020.

• Global steel demand will contract 6.4% in 2020 as a direct result of COVID-19, according to the World Steel Association’s Short Range Outlook, but will bounce back in 2021. The worldsteel forecast is that 1.65 billion tonnes of crude steel will be produced this year and that production will increase 3.8% to 1.71 billion tonnes in 2021.

Source: World Steel Association, 4 June 2020.

• The Materials Processing Institute, a Teesside-based research and innovation centre, is to play a leading role in a £10m digitalisation project involving the UKbased Liberty Steel Group.

The organisation will work alongside Liberty Steel Group’s Hartlepool Pipes mill, Stocksbridge-based Liberty Speciality Steels, Warwickshire-based Shiftec and TSC Simulation of Nottingham to create digital twins of the plants in order to demonstrate the huge advances that can be achieved within the production process.

Chris Oswin, who leads the Institute's Digital Technologies Group (pictured above), said the real challenge was retrofitting to existing plant.

Source: Materials Processing Institute, 7 June 2020.

• Former Big River Steel executive Mark Bula (pictured above) has been appointed chief strategy officer and general manager of steel for Everguard.ai, a Californiabased artificial intelligence business. Bula will be responsible for the strategic leadership of overall growth plans and will spearhead the company’s efforts in the steel industry.

Source: Everguard.ai, 27 May 2020.

• The World Steel Association has announced its sustainability champions for 2019. In total, nine companies are recognised including big hitters like ArcelorMittal and newcomers such as Bluescope Steel, China Steel Corporation and Nippon Steel Corporation.

Source: World Steel Association, 3 June 2020.

• Indian stainless steel manufacturer Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL), claims it has regained its footing in export volumes by rampingup production for global markets. With India yet to completely lift the lockdown, JSL’s strategic initiative to recapture volumes in export markets is said to be yielding encouraging results. In the month of May, the company despatched export orders of over 12kt, comprising more than 40% of all shipments.

Source: JSL, 4 June 2020.

• Irvine, California-based 174 Power Global, a leading solar energy company, and Gerdau Long Steel North America, a leading steel producer, today announced that the two companies have entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement to develop one of the largest behind-the-meter solar facilities in the nation.

Source: Gerdau, 2 June 2020.

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28 NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • The European Commission’s steel safeguard review proposal does not consider the sharp collapse in demand following the COVID pandemic, putting the European steel industry's survival at further serious risk, according to the European • Unrest loomed at the Ilva steel plant in southern Italy because of potential job cuts reportedly planned by ArcelorMittal, which could run into the thousands.

Trouble started brewing when Italy’s Industry Minister Stefano Patuanelli accused the steelmaker of breaking the terms of an agreed rescue agreement. A new rescue plan involving 5,000 job cuts had been submitted by the world’s biggest steelmaker – and it was not been well received.

Source: Reuter, 7 June 2020.

• There are signs of worker unrest at Tata Steel Europe’s IJmuiden plant in the Netherlands as the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) claims workers have voted to strike in protest against possible layoffs and the planned merger between the Dutch and UK mills. Workers have been protesting since Theo Henrar, CEO of the IJmuiden facility, made a sudden departure in May. Source: Yieh Corp Steel News, 8 June 2020.

Steel Association (EUROFER). Unbelievably, many EU governments have not yet decided to consider the pandemic as mitigating circumstances.

Source: European Steel Association (EUROFER), 8 June 2020.

• A strange Indian phrase appears to be baffling even the Indians as Google searches for 'Aatam Nirbhar Bharat' was used not only by Indian PM Narendra Modi, but also Sajjan Jindal, chairman of steelmaker JSW. Mr Jindal was talking to TV network CNBC-TV18 explaining how he expects the steel industry to return to normal by September/October of this year following the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that incentives were needed and duties rationalised before a state of 'Aatam Nirbar Bharat' can be attained. Meaning? It means self-reliant India.

Source: CNBC, 8 June 2020.

• Russian steelmaker Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) is continuing to implement its Industry 4.0 strategic initiative.

Digitalisation is a key element of the company's development strategy up to 2025 and is covering an increasing number of MMK's business processes with a view to increasing productivity and product quality.

Source: MMK, 8 June 2020.

• With exports down almost 40% (39.2%) there are reports that US Steel has issued Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices claiming that it will temporarily lay off up to 3,800 workers at the company’s Gary, Indiana, steel plant.

Source: New York Times/Steel Orbis, 8 June 2020.

• There was a moderate Q1 fall in coking coal production in the USA as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to figures released by the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

A report from Argus Media says that the impact of reduced output was softened by a sharper fall in demand and producers raising their output in the same quarter.

Source: Argus Media, 8 June 2020.

• South Korean steel giant POSCO is holding back on restarting one of its nine blast furnaces in Gwangyang, 420km southwest of Seoul. The furnace was due to restart in late May following repair and maintenance, but has been delayed due to low demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are five POSCO blast furnaces in Gwangyang and four in Pohang, 375km southeast of Seoul.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, 8 June 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

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• Two of Germany's biggest polluters, power company RWE and steelmaker ThyssenKrupp, are planning to join forces with a view to reducing carbon emissions by relying upon hydrogen. According to an announcement by ThyssenKrupp, the two giants have agreed to work together towards 'a longerterm hydrogen partnership' to reduce CO2 emissions from steel production.

Source: ThyssenKrupp, 12 June 2020.

• In the USA, Cleveland Cliffs has restarted its Tilden mine, which has been idled since April because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has also restarted construction on a hot-briquetted iron (HBI) plant in Toledo as demand for steel increases (expected completion Q4 2020). The company expects to restart its Northshore Mining operations in Babbitt and Silver Bay by mid-August. Cleveland-Cliffs and AK Steel, a steel company bought by Cliffs earlier this year, are reaping the benefits of increased demand from the automotive sector.

Source: Duluth News Tribune, 9 June 2020.

www.steeltimesint.com

• More good news for the American steel industry, this time from US Steel. The company has announced that it has restarted its idled 1.5Mt (short tons) number one blast furnace at its plant in the Mon Valley near Pittsburgh, PA. The blast furnace was idled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and is back in business to meet increased demand for steel.

Source: Argus Media, 9 June 2020.

• Looking at figures stretching back to 2014, the Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest managed to hold on to 42nd place in the list of the world’s largest steel producers, as compiled by the World Steel Association. In 2019 the company produced 9.58Mt, up from 9.37Mt in 2018 and 9.59Mt in 2017 – all keeping the company in 42nd place. In 2016 the company produced 10.34Mt, taking it into 37th place and in 2015 it went to 40th place with 9.65Mt. In 2014 the steelmaker produced 11.18Mt and moved to 33rd place.

Source: Interfax Ukraine News Agency, 9 June 2020.

• North American steel giant US Steel has vowed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2030. The news comes as the steelmaker releases its 2019 sustainability report, which outlines the plans. US Steel’s recent 49.9% acquisition of Osceola, AK-based Big River Steel, will play a major contributory role in US Steel’s emissions reduction plan as the steel giant says that EAFbased steelmaking as well as energy-efficiency measures will form the backbone of the initiative. US Steel is the second largest steel producer in the UK. Source: thomasnet.com, 10 June 2020.

• While some North American steelmakers have restarted idled mills and blast furnaces as steel demand improves, news from South Korea isn’t so rosy. POSCO, a leading South East Asia player, is delaying restarting its Gwangyang blast furnace following maintenance work and an expansion project and is blaming a slump in demand because of COVID-19.

The company’s number three furnace will remain idle until around the end of June.

Source: Argus Media, 10 June 2020.

• Previously reported worker unrest at the Tata Steel plant in IJmuiden in the Netherlands, has turned into industrial action, protesting against plans to cut 1,000 jobs. The workers want guarantees of no redundancies. The job cuts are said to be part and parcel of a wider restructuring of the company’s British-based European operations.

Source: Devdiscourse.com, 10 June 2020.

• India’s state-owned steelmaker Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has received a big export order from China. The company will be exporting 30kt of con cast slabs and 30kt of hot-rolled coil as well as 20kt of pig iron.

Including orders from China, a total of 54kt of hot-rolled coil have been made and product has been shipped by rail to designated seaports, claims the company’s Manikant Dhan. SAIL’s Bhilai plant will be exporting 30kt of cast slabs to China.

Source: Telegraph of India, 11 June 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

30

• COVID-19 in the USA has led to a 17% slump in US raw steel production. Falling demand for steel has led US mills to slow production prompting capacity utilisation to dip to multi-year lows.

Source: Yahoo Finance, 11 June 2020.

• The COVID-19 pandemic is having a detrimental effect on JSW Steel’s planned expansion project. The company’s joint managing director, Seshagiri Rao, is experiencing a shortage of workers and construction materials, which will likely put the completion date back from September 2020 to March 2021. The Indian steelmaker had already reduced its capital expenditure for expansion and mining.

Source: Business Today, 11 June 2020.

• ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, is to invest Rs 2,000 crore (US$300 million) in the Indian state of Odisha. It is thought the investment will most likely be on the Sagasahi and Thakurani iron ore mines in region.

Source: Business Standard, 14 June 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • Russian steelmaker Severstal has ruled out any plans to get involved in industry consolidation in Europe, meaning that the list of potential partners for Germany’s ThyssenKrupp is narrowing. According to one online report, ThyssenKrupp might put its steel unit ‘on the block’.

Source: New York Times/ Reuters, 12 July 2020.

• A fire broke out at POSCO’s Pohang Works in South Korea.

The blaze started around 1230hrs on 13 June (Saturday) in North Gyeongsang Province, 365km southeast of Seoul. No casualities reported so far.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, 13 June 2020.

• Indian steelmaker JSW Steel has told 11,000 of its 20,000 workers to work from home following 106 employees testing positive for COVID-19. According to deputy managing director Vinod Nowal the plant is operating at full capacity and the situation hasn’t impacted production.

Source: India Times, 13 June 2020.

• Japanese steelmaker JFE Holdings Inc is anxious to discuss mergers with rivals following the devastation created by not only COVID-19, but also tough global competition and fading domestic demand. No firm deals have been agreed with any company yet, but JFE’s chief financial officer Masashi Terehata believes that cuts in production capacity will be necessary for any merger to be a success.

Source: Gulf Times, 13 June 2020.

• US Steel will indefinitely idle its 1 and 2 Weld Mills in Lone Star, Texas. The idling of the mills, known as Lone Star Tubular operations, will impact 600 jobs, according to US Steel spokeswoman Meghan Cox. ‘Challenging market conditions and high import levels’ were the reasons given. US Steel’s Wheeling Machine Products plant at Hughes Springs will also be idled, but exactly how many jobs will be affected is not known yet.

Source: Kltv.com, 12 June 2020.

• The Iranians are also producing more copper than they used to, with figures for the first two months of the current Iranian year (20 March 20 May) standing at 209kt showing an increase of 2%.

Source: Financial Tribune, 15 June 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein, one of Europe’s biggest packaging steel manufacturers, in collaboration with Hoffmann Neopac of Switzerland, have developed the RecyCan project. Basically 100% of the steel for packaging is reused in can manufacturing.

Packaging from households is ‘detinned’ and melted back to raw steel at Rasselstein’s mill.

Source: Packaging News, 15 June 2020.

• Steel ingot production in Iran reached 4.6Mt during the first two months of the current Iranian year (20 March to 20 May). The figure is 4% higher than it was the previous year.

Steel slab production was up 13% while steel billet and bloom output dipped 2%.

Source: Tehran Times, 15 June 2020.

• COVID-19 is wreaking havoc at Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL). According to one online report, 40 senior and mid-level executives at the company tested positive for the virus, including the chairman and other directors working out of the company’s Delhi headquarters. SAIL’s personnel director, Atul Srivastava is said to have tested negative, but died of cardiac arrest. SAIL’s employee union, however, claim he was diagnosed COVID-19 positive.

Source: Indian Express, 15 June 2020.

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• COVID-19 has seen domestic demand for steel in Russia drop between 5% and 7%, according to Severstal, which claims that increased exports have helped the business maintain production capacity. While business improved in June, according to chief financial officer Alexey Kulichenko, it is 17% weaker than it was in 2019.

Source: Reuters, 16 June 2020.

• Russian steelmaker MMK Group has hit a new output record at its sheet rolling shop number 11. In May the company produced 38kt of galvanised rolled metal at its 450kt/yr galvanising unit, up 1.5% on its previous record achieved back in August 2013.

Source: Steel Orbis, 17 June 2020.

• Gerdau’s acquisition of Siderurgica Latino Americana (Silat) has been given the green light by Cade, the Brazilian anti-trust authority.

Silat, based in the Brazilian state of Ceará, operates a 600kt/yr rebar and wire rod mill. The company is currently owned by Hierros Anon of Spain. There was opposition to the deal from Simec (Companhia Siderurgica do Espirito Santo SA).

Source: Steel Orbis, 16 June 2020.

• Dharmendra Pradan, India’s Minister of Steel, wants the oil and gas industry to rely more upon domestic steel than imported steel and has asked steelmakers and oil companies to prepare a roadmap towards making it happen. Over the next 15 years it is estimated that the oil and gas sector will use around 50Mt of steel products, which would be good business for Indian mills.

Source: Steel Orbis, 17 June 2020.

• JSW Steel USA is to restart its Mingo Junction EAF steel mill in Ohio and recall its 130 employees. The mill had been stopped to complete planned capital expenditure projects, including EAF modernisation and general maintenance.

Source: Steel Orbis, 17 June 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

Digital Edition - December 2020

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• A 100 billion won (US$82.3 million) fund has been set up by rival steelmakers POSCO and Hyundai Steel and the Industrial Bank of Korea to assist smaller and mid-sized industry peers facing difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund is designed to offer emergency relief loans of up to 1 billion won to financially challenged businesses.

Source: Pulse News.co.kr, 18 June 2020.

• Two lowemission, stampcharged coke oven batteries are destined for China’s Wutong Coal Chemical Park in Xiaoyi, around 650 km southwest of Beijing. The order was won

by ThyssenKrupp’s chemical plant engineering business based in Essen, Germany.

Source: Chemeng Online, 18 June 2020.

• The Iranians have managed to export around 809kt of steel during the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (20 March to 20 May). This is considerably lower than for the same period last year, when the country shipped 2Mt of steel.

Source: Tehran Times, 19 June 2020.

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Mobarakeh Steel Company (MSC) produced 1.46Mt of finished steel during the first two months of Iran’s current fiscal year (20 March to 20 May), down 2% on the same period last year. Including semi-finished products (1.71Mt) the total figure was 3.18Mt of output.

Source: Financial Tribune, 20 June 2020.

• A news report by the BBC claims that Tata Steel in the UK needs help in days, not weeks. According to comments made by Aberavon Labour MP Stephen Kinnock and nine other Welsh MPs, who wrote to the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, asking for extra government support for the ailing steelmaker, steel was the backbone of the UK manufacturing sector. He and his fellow MPs want the government to give Tata Steel a temporary loan to avoid the massive cost of doing nothing.

Source: BBC.co.uk, 21 June 2020.

• In a region where COVID-19 has hit pretty badly, members of the Ballari District Chamber of Commerce have called for the closure of the JSW steel plant at Toranagal in the Ballari District of Karnataka, India. However, India’s Heavy and Medium Industries Minister, Jagadish Shettar, claims that a complete shutdown might adversely affect around 200,000 people dependent on the plant.

Source: The Hindu, 22 June 2020.

• Andrey Davydov has been promoted to vice president and head of coal division at the London-based Evraz steel company. He replaces Sergey Stepanov who has left the business. Davydov led Evraz's Sukha Balka iron ore mine in Ukraine for five years before taking over management of the Sibugulemet coal group.

Leonid Kachur is now an advisor to CEO Alexander Frolov. Kachur has been with Evraz since 1993, shortly after the company was formed. He had been senior vice president for business support and inter-regional relations.

Source: Morning Star, 22 June 2020.

• Liberty Steel Group UK (LSUK) will be boosting production at its Rotherham, UK, facilities to over 1Mt/ yr through investments to expand product mix and make more productive use of its rolling mills.

Source: Liberty Steel Group, 22 June 2020.

• A report by the Financial Times claims that ArcelorMittal is planning to sell infrastructure assets in Canada to reduce debts after the financial drubbing it received when key industries, such as car manufacturing and construction, ceased to demand steel at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A 420km railway line, servicing the company’s Mont-Wright iron ore mine in Quebec, is on the list of assets for sale.

According to the FT, they might sell all or some of the assets in order to reduce net debt from $9.5 billion to $7 billion.

Source: Financial Times, 22 June 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

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34

AMAZING FACTS & FIGURES

• LIBERTY Steel Group is the 8th largest steel producer outside China with 18Mt of steel products capacity. It employs 30,000 people across 10 countries and is organised into three divisions: LIBERTY Primary Steel and Integrated Mining; LIBERTY GREENSTEEL and; LIBERTY Steel Synergies.

Source: Liberty Steel Group.

• In 2004, the world’s top 10 steel producers included only one Chinese company, Shanghai Baosteel; the other top firms were American, European, Indian, and South Korean. Back then, just 25.8% of the world’s steel was made in China. In 2018 (the latest year with data available), six of the world’s largest steel companies were Chinese, some of them governmentowned, and China accounted for 51.3% of global steel production – a figure not including Chinese companies in other countries.

Source: Foreign Policy.com

• In 2005, China produced 12.9% of the world’s stainless steel, while Europe produced 34.8% and the United States 9.2%. By 2018, China had more than quadrupled its share to 52.6% of the world’s stainless steel, while Europe’s share had shrunk to 15.6% and the United States had just a 5.5% share.

Source: Foreign Policy.com

Steel produced using new hydrogen and clean-energy based methods will be 80-95% less CO2-intensive by 2050 than they are today, but will also cost significantly more to produce. However, the environmental benefits are huge, claims the European Steel Association (EUROFER). Source: European Steel Association (EUROFER).

Pic courtesy of ArcelorMittal.

• 7th July marked the 90th anniversary of the start of construction on the Hoover Dam and it was an ArcelorMittal legacy company, Bethlehem Steel, that made it possible, according to the world’s biggest steelmaker.

In total, it took 96 million pounds of steel and metal to create the dam, with steel forms holding the concrete in place while it cooled. Were it not for the steel supplied

by Bethlehem Steel, it would have taken 125 years to cool.

Instead of a continuous pour, engineers decided to pour the concrete in 230 large columns, reinforced with 600 miles of steel pipes. By running cold water through the pipes, the curing was done much quicker.

Source: ArcelorMittal.

www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Society publication Tatler reports that Lakshmi Mittal’s brother Pramod has been declared bankrupt with debts of £130 million. Quoting the original source of the story (The Times), the magazine says that the two brothers are estranged and live separate lives. It is alleged that Pramod is suffering financially after being caught up in investigations into organised crime.

Source: Tatler, 29 June 2020.

• Voestalpine Railway Systems is expanding globally through acquisition. The company has purchased Lietaert Industrial Equipment Company in France with a view to supplying the French national railway company, SNCF. Lietart is described as a ‘turnout manufacturing plant’ based near Paris. There are plans to expand activities in other areas where SNCF is active, such as North Africa.

In railway terminology, a ‘turnout’ is a set of points that guide a train from one track to another.

Source: International Railway Journal, 30 June 2020.

35

• South Korean steelmaker Hyundai Steel plans to speed up the development of high strength steels for the automotive market and give itself a head start on its competitors. Last year the company developed 218 different types of ultra high strength steel (UHSS) and this year the plan is to make 1Mt of steel plate and supply it to leading car makers around the world.

Source: The Investor, 30 June 2020.

• US Steel’s number six blast furnace at its Gary Works in Indiana, USA, was restarted after the 4 July holiday weekend following closure in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the company it was being restarted to meet increased demand.

Source: Argus Media, 30 June 2020.

• Pomini Tenova, a leading global specialist in the production of roll grinders, completed the installation of three roll grinders for the Hoa Phat Group, one of the largest manufacturers of construction steels, coated steels and steel pipes in Vietnam. The Italian plant builder claims it has now installed and successfully commissioned 18 machines in the country.

Source: Tenova, 1 July 2020.

• Steelmakers in China and Thailand are both working with Italian plant builder Danieli. In China, Changshu Longteng Special Steel has ordered a 400kt/yr continuous mill for flat bar products. A new SBQ mill and wire rod line was recently started up at the same site and was also supplied by Danieli. In Thailand, Sahaviriya Steel Industries contracted the Italian plant builder to replace a downcoiler reel for its Bang Saphan hot strip mill.

Source: Danieli, 1 July 2020.

• German plant builder SMS group has acquired two Brazilbased companies, joined them together and renamed the business Vetta Tecnologia SA. The two companies – Viridis and Vetta – were both based in Bela Horizonte, Brazil, and specialised in industrial digitalisation, with emphasis on efficiency and sustainability.

Source: SMS group, 1 July 2020.

• 1 July will go down in history as the day when the muchdiscussed USMCA went into effect. For those who have been living in a cave, the USMCA is an agreement between the USA, Mexico and Canada that supersedes NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which came into force back in the early nineties. Some people refer to the USMCA as NAFTA 2.0.

Source: Steel Times International, 1 July 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

36

• Two leading steelmakers have been recognised by General Motors in their annual awards. Nucor Corporation was named the automaker’s Supplier of the Year and remains the only electric arc furnace steelmaker to receive the award. ArcelorMittal was recognised with the 2019 Supplier Quality Excellence Award, claiming that ‘only the best suppliers from around the globe were recognised and several ArcelorMittal facilities in North America were among the awardees’.

Source: Nucor Corporation and ArcelorMittal, 1 July 2020.

• Jindal Steel & Power (Mauritius) aka JSPML has divested its entire stake in Jindal Shadeed Iron and Steel (JSIS Oman). The aim of the decision is to bring down debt and deleverage its balance sheet. According to an online report, the enterprise value of the deal is over US$1 billion.

Source: Business Standard, 1 July 2020

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) announced that it had shipped its first batch of R 260 grade vanadium alloyed rails for Indian Railways. The first consignment was sent out from SAIL’s Bhilai steel plant and the company has started to produce the rails at its Universal Rail Mill in Chhattisgarh.

Source: CNBVTV18.com, 1 July 2020.

• Liberty Steel’s head honcho Sanjeev Gupta says he is ready to look again at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot facility in what amounts to a repeat of his offer made three years ago when he nearly bought the plant. Tata is going through a rough time. It needs a Government bail-out in the UK and is experiencing industrial unrest in the Netherlands.

Source: Moneycontrol.com, 2 July 2020.

• Russian steelmaker Severstal announces that maintenance work on one of its four blast furnaces at the company’s Mill 2000 facility will take around a year. The plan is to take the existing furnace down and build another one. The remaining three furnaces will ensure no loss of production.

Source: Steel Orbis.com, 1 July 2020.

• COVID-19 is delaying expansion plans at Indian steelmaker JSW. The company was planning a 5Mt/yr expansion of its Dolvi Works, taking it to 10Mt/yr, but with contractors heading home and a lack of foreign production technology experts, due to international travel restrictions, delays into the second half of FY21 are likely.

Source: Financial Express, 3 July 2020.

• South Korean steelmaker POSCO won the steel industry leadership award at the Global Metals Awards, hosted by S&P Global Platts. The company claims it received the award for its business performance during times of growing protectionism and worsening market conditions. It is also the only Korean recipient of a Global Metals Award and was a winner in 2018.

Source: The Korea Herald, 1 July 2020.

• The JSW Group’s Parth Jindal, managing director of JSW Cement, claims that the group as a whole will bring down $400 million worth of imports from China to zero in the space of two years (24 months). The JSW Group, headed up by Sajjan Jindal, Parth’s father, has its fingers in many pies in the steel, energy, cement and infrastructure sectors.

Source: Times of India, 3 July 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Production at ArcelorMittal’s 370kt/yr coke plant in Monessen, PA, USA, was idled at the end of June because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the steel industry. The plant employs 180 people and there is no indication of when it might come back on stream.

Source: Steel Orbis, 3 July 2020.

• Sajjan Jindal, chairman of JSW Group, has talked about cutting trade links with China following military tensions between the two countries.

He said his company was already looking at suppliers in Turkey and Brazil for his blast furnace refractories. Mr Jindal said he knows it won’t be easy to cut China out – 40% of auto industry components come from China – but commented: “If they (China) have killed 20 of my soldiers, I’m not going to buy products from them and strengthen their armies more.”

Source: Economic Times, 6 July 2020.

• There won’t be any forced job cuts at Tata Steel’s Ijmuiden steel plant, according to the FNV union, following continuous strike action at the facility in protest against potential job losses of up to 1,000 people.

Source: CNBCTV18.com, 3 July 2020.

• The European steel industry has welcomed the launch of the European Commission’s Hydrogen Strategy for a ClimateNeutral Europe’, which sets out a plan to establish an integrated hydrogen energy network in Europe by 2050.

“Clean energy at competitive prices is key to achieving the steel industry’s low-carbon goals,” said Axel Eggert, directorgeneral of the European Steel Association (EUROFER).

Source: EUROFER, 8 July 2020.

• Indian steelmaker Jindal Steel & Power produced more steel than its Indian peers in the quarter ended June 2020.

Production in June alone rose over 23% over preceding months and was up 37% yearon-year.

Source: Bloomberg, 7 July 2020.

• Tenova Goodfellow, a Canadian subsidiary of Tenova, the Italian parent and part of the Techint Group, is collaborating with ArcelorMittal Dofasco on a new project surrounding the digital transformation of secondary metallurgy. The aim is to demonstrate how digitalisation can improve production by minimising manual intervention in the process, reducing process variation and improving final steel properties.

Source: India Education Diary.com, 9 July 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

• Russian steelmaker Severstal has started to ship 100kt of ‘low-basic fluxed’ iron ore pellets to Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), Brazil’s largest fully integrated steelmaker.

Source: S&P Global Platts, 7 July 2020.

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• South Korean steelmaker POSCO claims it has restarted its third Gwangyang blast furnace following 20 months of maintenance and repair work estimated to have cost 400 billion won (US$332.6 million). The furnace’s production capacity has been increased by 25% to 4.6Mt, it is claimed.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, 10 July 2020.

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Russian steelmaker NLMK Group’s flagship site in Lipetsk and the world leading industrial gas producer, Air Liquid, have signed a package of agreements on expanding co-operation.

Under the newly signed agreements, Air Liquide will construct a cutting-edge air separation unit (ASU) in Lipetsk and purchase assets for producing hydrogen and rare gas concentrates from NLMK. Source: NLMK, 16 July 2020.

• GMB, the steel workers’ union, announces it is to hold urgent talks with Tata Steel over job loss fears following reports that plans exist to shut down two blast furnaces and replace them with electric arc furnaces (EAFs). Such a move, it is claimed, could lead to thousands of job losses in the UK. Source: GMB, 21 July 2020.

• Global production and use of molybdenum fell in Q1 when compared to the previous quarter (Q4 2019) according to figures published by the International Molybdenum Association (IMOA), a non-profit trade association representing the interests of most of the world’s molybdenum producers and converters, as well as users and traders.

Source: IMOA, 14 July 2020.

• State-owned steelmaker Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) achieved domestic and export sales of 12.77 Lakh tonnes (1.27Mt) during the month of June. The figure represents a jump of over 18% when compared to last year’s corresponding figures. The company exported 3.4 Lakh tonnes (340kt) of steel and sold 42kt of pig iron.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News, 13 July 2020.

• Japanese car maker Toyota intends to buy some of its electrical steel from China’s Baowu Steel Group, forcing Japanese steelmakers to compete on price. The leading car maker’s endorsement of the Chinese steelmaker’s steel sheet means that the latter is catching up with Japanese rivals in terms of quality.

Source: Nikkei Asian Review, 13 July 2020.

• Roland Junck has been appointed as the new global lead for the GFG Alliance’s CN30 programme, responsible for delivering the company’s ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030.The role sits alongside his existing duties as president, LIBERTY Steel Group Europe & UK and will co-ordinate the GFG Alliance’s CN30 strategy and activities globally across R&D, technology, partnerships, commercialisation, supply chain, and public policy.

Source: Liberty Steel, 29 July 2020.

• Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has been awarded the international Energy Management Insight Award for energy saving and improving the energy efficiency of its production processes in accordance with ISO 50001.The steelmaker received the award at the Clean Energy Ministerial, a global international forum organised by the Energy Management Working Group (EMWG), part of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Experts from 25 countries took part in the event. Source: MMK, 14 July 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• World crude steel production decreased by 7% in June 2020 when compared to June 2019, according to figures released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).

The figures, compiled based on data supplied by the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association, showed that 148.3Mt of crude steel was produced last month based on estimated production due to the ongoing difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: World Steel Association, 29 July 2020.

• Tata Steel claims it is creating the next generation of schools in the United Kingdom (UK) which will give thousands of children access to education in safe, purposedesigned, environmentally efficient buildings. The company, working with construction industry experts in the UK, is developing a kit of parts allowing highly energy-efficient schools to be built off-site and then shipped to their final location.

Source: Tata Steel, 29 July 2020.

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• NLMK Group, which claims to be the largest steelmaker in Russia, and one of the most efficient in the world, has completed a follow-up audit of its management systems in the areas of environmental protection, occupational health and safety, and energy efficiency. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the British Standards Institution (BSI) conducted the audit online.

Source: NLMK, 29 July 2020.

• The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has applauded passage of a measure that would set sufficient funding levels for trade enforcement activities conducted by the International Trade Administration (ITA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance (E&C) to ensure adequate resources to combat unfair trade practices.

Source: AISI, 3 August 2020.

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• A seaweed regeneration project initiated in November 2019 is bearing fruit, according to leading partner Nippon Steel Corporation.

The Japanese steelmaker, the coastal village of Tomari in the Furuu District of Hokkaido and the Furuu District Fisheries Co-operative Association launched the Creation of Sea Forests project late last year using something called the BeverlyTM Unit (an iron-supply steel slag product) in a seaweed bed that was lost because of sea ‘desertification’.

Source: Nippon Steel Corporation, 3 August 2020.

For more steel industry news and features, visit www.steeltimesint.com

• Trials using fossil-free fuels in LKAB’s pellet plant have produced successful results within the framework of the HYBRIT initiative. The world’s very first fossil-free iron ore pellets are within touching distance and the three companies involved in the project – SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall – intend to be the first in the world with a value chain for fossil-free steel.

Source: HYBRIT, 3 August 2020.

• Fives Group and US steelmaker Steel Dynamics Columbus, which is being described as the most modern mini-mill in the US, has produced the first coil with a new continuous galvanising line (CGL 3) in Columbus, Mississippi, USA. The first prime coil was produced on 9 July, 2020 on time and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Fives Group, 3 August 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

40 NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• British Steel is to resume operational control of Immingham Bulk Terminal (IBT), a British port handling millions of tonnes of the steel company’s raw materials. The move to ‘take back control’ follows acquisition by the Jingye Group. IBT is owned by Associated British Ports.

Source: Insider Media.com, 4 August 2020.

• A massive meltdown in demand has led to a sharp fall in earnings for Austrian steelmaker voestalpine. The company has posted an aftertax loss of 70 million Euros (US$82.6 million) and lays the blame firmly at the doorstep of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One year ago the company posted profits of 90 million Euros.

Source: Marketwatch.com, 5 August 2020.

• The US steel industry’s capacity utilisation rate rose to 59.3% for the week ending 1 August, with production standing at 1.33Mt (net tons), according to figures released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). The figures reflect an increase of 0.6% on the previous week’s figures when the rate stood at 58.9%.

Source: Metal Miner, 4 August 2020.

• Mark Bush has been appointed CEO of JSW Steel (USA) and JSW Steel Ohio.

Mr Bush joins from Swedish steelmaker SSAB where he headed up the company’s cut-to-length operations in Houston, Texas. In his new role, Bush will be based in Houston.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, 4 August 2020.

• London, UK-headquartered steelmaker and mining company EVRAZ has announced that its HI 2020 earnings have fallen 28% because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s EBITDA dropped to $1.07 billion (£800 million) in the six months to the end of June.

Source: Sharecast.com, 6 August 2020.

• A sharp decline in demand is behind South Korean steelmakers POSCO and Hyundai Steel’s decision to cut crude steel production. POSCO had planned to produce 36.7Mt in 2020 but has since revised that figure down to 35.3Mt, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason behind its decision. It’s a similar story with Hyundai Steel. The company produced 9.8Mt during H1 2020 against an annual target of 21Mt. Source: Yonhap News Agency, 5 August 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• South Korean steelmaker Hyundai Steel has received a GR certificate in recognition of its eco-friendliness, according to an online media report.

The company, the country’s largest (and first) electric steelmaker, produces 10Mt/ yr of steel and steel bars and received its Goods Recycled Products certification from the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) which is part of the Ministry of trade, Industry and Energy.

Started in 1997, the GR certificate certifies the quality of recycled products.

Source: Korea IT Times, 6 August 2020.

• German steelmaker thyssenkrupp is planning to invest in a new walking beam furnace in its Hot Strip Mill 2 in Duisburg as part of the company’s Strategy 20-30. It is claimed that the new equipment will ensure a significantly improved surface quality of premium sheets, which are used for exterior car body shells.

Source: ThyssenKrupp, 5 August 2020.

• Austrian steelmaker voestalpine says it will restart its idled blast furnace in Linz once its capacity utilisation rate reaches 80%. It is currently at 75%, but it’s impossible to know when it will improve by the required 5%. Until then the Linz site will meet demand using its other two blast furnaces.

The idled blast furnace reduces pig iron production by 20%. The site as a whole has a 5Mt/yr pig iron capacity.

Source: S&P Global Platts, 5 August 2020.

• Two blast furnaces at US Steel’s Gary Works in Indiana, are likely to remain idled throughout 2020.

Source: NWI Times, 9 August 2020.

For more steel industry news and features, visit www.steeltimesint.com

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 41 • Tenaris and Severstal are building a US$240 million welded pipe plant designed to produce oil country tubular goods (OCTG) products. The new plant will be located in Siberia and will come on stream next year (2021).

According to online media reports it will reach full capacity in 2024. Severstal will own 51% of the plant and Tenaris 49%.

Source: Sputnik News, 10 August 2020.

German steelmaker thyssenkrupp is to invest in a new walking beam furnace in its Duisburg Hot Strip Mill 2 as part of the company's Strategy 20-30. The new equipment will ensure a significantly improved surface quality of premium sheets, which are used for exterior car body shells.

The first orders will be placed shortly, and completion is scheduled for 2022.

Source: ThyssenKrupp, 10 August 2020.

• Shagang Group chairman Shen Wenrong expects 80Mt of new steel production to enter the Chinese domestic market in the current year. He claims the new capacities will be part and parcel of capacity replacement plans (capacity replacing old or idled mills) and will likely lead to oversupply in local markets.

The report also claims that Li Xinchuang, vice chair of the Chinese Steel Association, believes such a capacity increase will have a big impact on the market.

Source: Steel Orbis, 11 August 2020.

• The US steel industry’s capacity utilisation rate rose to 60.4% for the week ending 8 August, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). It’s good news in a sense, but the figure is way down from the previous year’s 79.1%.

Production figures for the same week were up 2%, but year-over-year fell 26.5%. Source: AISI.

• As US steelmakers fail to produce enough highperformance steel for the automotive industry, news emerges that Trump has waived additional tariffs on 78% of Japanese steel and aluminium imports and had already waived tariffs on 64% of the same material back in June. In March, tariffs of 25% on Japanese steel and 10% on aluminium had been announced, but it turns out these duties were waived on most products.

Source: Nikkei Asian Review, 11 August 2020.

• July 2020 production at JSW Steel in India has dropped 5% to 1.24Mt from 1.31Mt last July. The company claims it was hit badly by the spread of COVID-19 close to its Vijayanagar steel mill. Joint managing director Seshagiri Rao said that 13,000 employees had been accommodated within the company’s colony and nobody was allowed in or out. A separate loading and unloading zone had been set up and the spread of the virus is now completely controlled.

Source: Hindu Business Line, 11 August 2020.

• During the first four months of the current Iranian year, sponge iron and crude steel production in Iran has increased by 11% and 8% respectively, according to Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development and Renovation. The report claims that production of concentrate, pellets, sponge iron, and crude steel has increased by one, 2, 11 and 8%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Source: Mehr News Agency, 12 August 2020.

• Tata Steel Thailand is sticking to its sales projections for the business despite the fact that the domestic steel industry is likely to contract by 6.9%. The company is claiming that it will be close to sales of 1.1Mt because of its supply contracts with multi-billion-baht projects. The projects in question include the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail development and other significant rail-based projects.

Source: Bangkok Post, 11 August 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

Digital Edition - December 2020

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• ThyssenKrupp has sold its elevator business to a bidding consortium led by Advent International and Cinven.

Agreement had been reached earlier in the year and it is believed that the contractually agreed purchase price was $17.2 billion.

Source: Robots and Automation News, 12 August 2020.

• Problems loom for Japan’s second largest steelmaker, JFE. The company is warning of a net loss of 100 billion yen (US$937 million) between now and March 2021. The reason?

You guessed it, COVID-19.

A restructuring programme announced in March 2020 might be speeded up, according to Koji Kakiki, the company’s president. Steel capacity will be reduced 13% if a blast furnace at JFE’s Keihin plant is shut down.

Source: Reuters, 12 August 2020.

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 • ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, has announced plans to build an electric steelmaking facility at its AM/NS Calvert mill in Alabama, USA. On completion, the new mill will be capable of producing 1.5Mt of steel slab and a broad spectrum of steel grades for Calvert’s end-user markets. The new facility will create 300 jobs.

Source: ArcelorMittal, 12 August 2020.

• Russian steelmaker NLMK Group, which claims to be the largest steelmaker in Russia and one of the most efficient in the world, took on the role of strategic partner in the GreenTech Start-up Booster (GTSB), Russia's first accelerator for environmental start-ups.

Sergey Chebotarev, NLMK Group's vice president for energy and environment, participated in the launch of GTSB, which is organised by the Skolkovo Foundation and supported by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.

Source: NLMK, 13 August 2020.

• Having announced that July 2020 production was down 5% in July when compared with the same period in 2019, Indian steelmaker JSW has since claimed that utilization rates have crept up to 83% and that production had increased on a monthon-month basis across all product categories.

Source: Mysteel Global, 13 August 2020.

• Pressure is mounting on ThyssenKrupp to sell its ailing steel division as it faces losses in the region of 1 billion Euros (US$1.2 billion). It seems that all options are open to the company, including joining forces with big players such as India’s Tata Steel, Sweden’s SSAB or Germany’s Salzgitter – all of whom are considered potential partners according to a report by Reuters.

Source: Reuters, 13 August 2020.

• It looks as if Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) – India’s state-owned steelmaker – is about to appoint its first female chairperson. Soma Mondal (pictured left) has been recommended for the role by the Public Enterprises Selection Board and is currently the commercial director of the business.

She will succeed Anil Kumar Chaudhary who retires in December. Source: Times of India, 13 August 2020.

• South Korean steelmaker POSCO has succeeded in mass-producing lead-free free-cutting steel in response to rising environmental concerns over the presence of lead in products currently on the market. POSCO claims it has been producing graphitebased free-cutting steel since June. Free-cutting steel is used predominantly in the automotive and IT sectors where precision is the name of the game.

Source: Korea Times, 13 August 2020.

• The shipping industry in South Korea is not happy with POSCO’s intention of setting up its Global Smart Platform (GSP) as shippers believe the move will weaken the industry and encourage other conglomerates to join in. The South Korean steelmaker is sticking to its guns as it wants to transform itself into an advanced logistics platform based on artificial intelligence.

Source: Korea Times, 12 August 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Indian steelmakers appear to be recovering fast from the trials and tribulations of COVID-19. An online report by Argus claims that Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) saw crude steel output rise 13% to 603kt and sales up 29% to 637kt in July. Sales at state-owned steelmaker Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) were up 50% in July to 1.58Mt. Domestic sales were up 29% to 1.27Mt. Exports were up 340% to 310kt. Finally JSW’s crude steel output was up 9% in July to 1.24Mt, but production dropped 5.4% from July 2019.

Source: Argus Media, 14 August 2020.

• Any hopes of a UK Government financial bailout for Tata Steel have been lost, claims a report in the Financial Times. It was concluded that the steelmaker had ‘deep enough pockets’ to weather the storm. The same applies to Jaguar Land Rover.

Indian conglomerate Tata Group owns both companies.

There are also reports stating that Tata Steel doesn’t recognise media stories on the talks being shelved.

Source: Financial Times, 14 August 2020.

• Tata Steel is not sounding overly optimistic about the near-term future of the global steel industry.

Most of the steel-producing regions are expected to witness a decline in crude steel output due to pandemic-related cuts in production, according to the company’s annual report.

Steel demand is expected to decline significantly in 2020/2021. Tata’s chairman, N Chandrasekaran described the slump as the ‘worst contraction’ since the 1930s. Source: Outlook, 16 August 2020.

• Chinese steelmaker Wuhan Iron & Steel (WISCO) has issued a final acceptance certificate (FAC) to SMS group following the completion of a modernisation project.

The German plant builder has modernised finishing stands F4 and F7 of WISCO’s high capacity hot strip mill number two, the aim being to increase plant availability.

Source: SMS group, 18 August 2020.

• LIBERTY Steel Group (LSG) has acquired the steel assets of the Hayange and Ascoval steelworks in France following the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Strasbourg’s decision to award the French rail manufacturer to LSG. The deal secures the future of the nationally strategic plants and their 700-strong workforce.

Source: Liberty Steel Group, 18 August 2020.

• China Steel Corporation (CSC) increased carbon steel sales by 17.3% in July thanks to recovery in demand at home and abroad. CSC is Taiwan’s top steel producer and is based in Kaohsiung, South Taiwan.

Source: Mysteel Global, 18 August 2020.

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• An innovative valve application designed to reduce carbon emissions from blast furnaces by up to 97% has been added to three blast furnaces at Hyundai Steel’s Dangjin mill in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. The system was developed in conjunction with Danieli Corus. Hyundai claims it is the first steel company in the world to install ecofriendly bleeder valves.

Source: Pulse News, 18 August 2020.

• Rumours that Tata Steel UK is up for sale are being strenuously denied by Tata Steel. The stories started to surface after media reports claimed talks between the steelmaker and the British Government ground to a halt.

Tata was after several million pounds as part of Project Birch, a scheme to support strategically important companies, but it seems, according to some reports, that Tata isn’t strategic enough and, according to the Government, has deep enough pockets to keep itself out of the financial mire. Plenty of rumours abound that Liberty Steel Group is waiting in the wings to acquire the business and there are rumours that talks between Tata and the Government are far from over.

Source: Nation Cymru, 18 August 2020.

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Digital Edition - December 2020

44 NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Austrian steelmaker voestalpine is to restart a small blast furnace at its steel facility in Linz following closure in March due to COVID-19. There are two other blast furnaces on-site and when all three are up and running, steel production at the Linz site will be almost back to normal levels. Voestalpine has two production sites in Linz and Donawitz producing in total around 6.5Mt of pig iron.

Source: Steel Orbis, 25 August 2020.

• Czech Republic-based Liberty Ostrava, an integrated steel business with an annual production capacity of 3.6Mt, and part of Sanjeev Gupta's sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, has been given Government approval to implement new low carbon technologies.

According to Liberty Steel, the Ostrava facility will now start its EUR750 million journey towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Source: Liberty Steel Group, 26 August 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

• The Chinese HBIS Group has delivered over 100kt of high quality, high rise building steel, bars and wires for the construction of the BeijingXiongan Intercity railway.

The company claims it is one of the world’s largest steelmakers and China’s largest supplier of home appliance steel.

Source: HBIS, 28 August 2020.

• Asked for an Osceola expansion update, Big River Steel’s, CEO Dave Stickler (pictured) said: "We laid out our mill site to accommodate a doubling of capacity, so after having success and an opportunity to access the capital markets, we went about and decided to invest an incremental $700 million to double our hot-rolled capacity. That project was originally scheduled to start up at the end of January 2021, and I'm pleased to say that it's my full expectation that we will start up in November or December of this year."

Source: Big River Steel, 28 August 2019.

• The US Trade Representative’s office (USTR) has announced that it will reduce Brazil’s 2020 quota for semi-finished steel from 350kt to 60kt as a result of market deterioration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also plans for Mexico to establish a strict monitoring regime to tackle surges in steel pipe, mechanical steel tubing and semi-finished exports to the US, according to a Reuters news report.

Source: Reuters, 1 September 2020.

• Microsoft and Tenova have strengthened their partnership for Industry 4.0. The goal of their renewed co-operation is to provide Italian companies in the metals industry with industrial solutions based on Artificial Intelligence technology.

The two companies want to lead the digital transformation of the metals sector, using the Microsoft Azure platform and Tenova's production technology for the steel industry.

Source: Tenova, 7th September 2020.

• Fossil-free steelmaking came a step closer for Swedish steelmaker SSAB recently following the startup of HYBRIT’s ‘globally unique’ pilot plant for the production of fossil-free sponge iron. Key executives from the three companies involved in the project – SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall – along with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Environment and Climate Isabella Lövin, were in attendance at what was described as an ‘historic opportunity’ to ‘hasten the climate transition’.

Source: HYBRIT, 1 September 2020.

• Global direct reduced iron (DRI) production eclipsed 100Mt in 2019 for the second consecutive year and set a new production record for the fourth consecutive year, according to 2019 World Direct Reduction Statistics.

The annual publication of direct reduction industry data and information is compiled by Midrex Technologies, Inc. and audited by World Steel Dynamics.

Source: Midrex, 9 September 2020.

www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 45

• In an effort to protect its domestic steel industry and ensure that Germany is at the forefront of green steel development, ThyssenKrupp has announced plans to build the first direct reduction plant with an integrated melting unit, the latter being branded as ‘blast furnace 2.0’. The German steelmaker plans to use using existing infrastructure and save on costs. The plant will be operated with green hydrogen and green power and is viewed as an important step towards achieving European climate goals.

Source: ThyssenKrupp, 28 August 2020.

• South Korean steelmaker POSCO’s 2020 POSCO Forum took a close look at the fast-changing business environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s chairman, Choi Jung-woo, commented: ‘I hope this forum serves as a place for us to realistically review the nature of our job while we fulfil the demands of our interest groups and their changing thoughts’.

Source: The Korea Herald, 1st September 2020.

• Metininvest BV (the Netherlands) reduced capital investments by 35% between January 2020 and June 2020 when compared with the same period the previous year.

Source: Open4Business.com. ua, 9 September 2020.

• German steelmaker Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH has taken delivery of the world’s largest hightemperature electrolyser (HTE), which is designed to produce energy-efficient hydrogen. The equipment was delivered to Salzgitter by Sunfire GmbH, a company that develops and manufactures systems for renewable industry gas and fuel production.

Source: Salzgitter, 9 September 2020.

• Salzgitter has rejected the idea of an alliance with ThyssenKrupp. Heinz Joerg Fuhrmann said there was nothing quite like independence, but said he was interested in www.steeltimesint.com

• Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine has restarted a small blast furnace in Linz, Austria, that had been closed since March.

After being shutdown it was cleared of 100m3 of coke and generally maintained. It should be fully operational this month (October).

Source: Steel Orbis, 10th September 2020.

• There are reports that job cuts are on the cards for the world's biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, in Luxembourg following drops in demand from key end-user industries such as construction and automotive. Some 570 jobs are at risk, it is claimed, which represents 15% of the company’s workforce in Luxembourg. Positions at both management and industrial sites might well be under scrutiny.

Source: RTL Today, 10 September 2020.

• South Korean steel giant POSCO is one of three large businesses being urged by Amnesty International to sever ties with Myanma Economic Holdings, a company founded by the Myanmar military in the early 1990s. Last year it contributed $14 million to Myanmar’s state coffers.

Members of the military run the business and some of them have been directly responsible for human rights violations, including the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, according to a report published by Amnesty International.

Source: Nikkei Asia, 11 September 2020.

• Is it conceivable that ArcelorMittal might close its operations in South Africa?

Some analysts seem to think so. While the world’s biggest steelmaker had some good years in the country, things have deteriorated, it is claimed, prompting thoughts of a withdrawal.

Source: Financial Mail, 10 September 2020.

co-operating with the IG Metall union with a view to shifting the steel sector to renewable energy sources for blast furnaces.

Source: Steel Orbis, 9th September 2020.

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Two South Korean steelmakers – POSCO and SeAH Steel Corporation – are jointly supplying 12kt of stainless steel pipe for a Canadian liquefied gas project in Kitimat. SeAH Steel has secured orders for 60kt of welded carbon pipes.

The plan is for POSCO to manufacture semi-finished stainless steel plates that will be completed by SeAH and shipped to Canada. The deal is worth $100 million.

Source: Korean Investors, 11 September 2020.

• The Iranian steel industry appears to be on a roll. The Iranians produced over 6Mt of steel products over the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year, up 2% on figures for the same period last year.

Source: Tehran Times, 12 September 2020.

• ArcelorMittal will restart its halted electric arc furnace at Sestao in Spain before the end of September. The news means that all of the company’s Spanish units, stopped during the COVID-19 outbreak, are back in action for Q4. The Sestao plant produced 300kt/yr of hot-rolled coil and 160kt/yr of pickled and oiled coils. It is hoped that pre-pandemic production levels will return as demand recovers. Rolling mills in Lesaka and Sagunto are back in action and so is furnace A at the company’s Gijon works. Source: S&P Global, 14 September 2020.

• Greater visibility and increased productivity are claimed to be the main benefits of switching from a barcode to an RFID system at Gerdau’s Ouro Branco facility in Brazil. RFID inlays are replacing barcodes, but the latter will remain as a contingency, according to an online report. Employee safety and enhanced crane and forklift operations are the chief benefits of using RFID. Source: RFID Journal, 15 September 2020.

• Japanese steelmaker JFE Steel claims it will cut CO2 emissions by more than 20% by 2030. Plans based around using more scrap and more ferro-coke (a technology for improving the reduction rate of iron ore going into the blast furnace) are being considered. The company has linked up with the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, of which it is a member, to examine and develop new technologies and hopes to be carbon neutral by 2050. Source: Reuters, 15 September 2020.

• The US International Trade Commission (ITC) found today that revocation of the countervailing duty order against Turkey and the anti-dumping order against Mexico would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to the domestic rebar industry within a reasonably foreseeable time. All five Commissioners voted in favour of the domestic industry. As a result, these orders will be continued for at least an additional five years.

Source: Steel Times International, 17 September 2020.

• Is COVID-19 threatening Tata Steel Europe's ability to continue operating? The steelmaker was showing a pre-tax loss of £875 million in the 12 months ending 31 March compared with a deficit of £146 million the previous year, according to accounts published at Companies House. Tata claims it has adequate resources to continue operations.

Source: Financial Times, 12 September 2020.

Digitial Edition - December 2020

• LIBERTY Steel Group and Shiftec, two members of the sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, are partnering to deploy sensor technology with the potential to enhance safety and improve efficiency at industrial sites. Under the two-year project, Shiftec will test and pilot its Aquila system, which uses a system similar to GPS to track the precise position of people, equipment and vehicles around factories in real time.

The system reduces workplace accidents, enhances efficiency of movement and can allow for remote control operation of equipment if integrated with Shiftec’s high-speed, long-range network solution.

Source: Liberty Steel Group, 17 September 2020.

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• On 17 September, the European Commission published its revised target to reduce emissions by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. According to the European Steel Association (EUROFER) while steelmakers in Europe are already hard at work developing new ways to produce carbon-lean steels, the EU needs to implement a set of concrete measures, as soon as possible, to ensure decarbonisation is achieved along with growth and sustainability.

Axel Eggert, director-general of EUROFER, commented: “The success of EU climate leadership does not rely on its level of ambition – already unrivalled by any other major global partner, but mainly on its ability to demonstrate that it is possible to combine environmental sustainability with economic growth and social acceptance”.

Source: EUROFER, 18 September 2020.

• As domestic steel consumption increases in India, exports from the country slow down. In August 2020 exports fell by 24.5% to just over 1Mt while domestic demand was up 7.7% to 6.08Mt. Back in March, India’s steel exports surged, according to a report by Argus Media, and China turned out to be India’s largest buyer.

Source: Argus Media, 18 September 2020.

• Peter Altmaier, Germany’s Economy Minister, says that the European Union will support steelworkers as steelmakers transform themselves into an environmentally-friendly industry. Speaking in front of EU trade ministers in Berlin recently, he stressed that steel (like the chemicals and raw materials industries) was a core competency that must be preserved. There has been talk of introducing a tax on imports produced in an environmentally unfriendly manner.

Source: MarketScreener, 21 September 2020.

• Russian steelmaker NLMK Group says it is committed to continue reducing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the period leading up to 2023, while simultaneously growing steel production. Its target-specific emission level will be 1.91 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel, compared to 1.98 tonnes in 2019* (a 3.5% reduction). Source; NLMK, 23 September 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

• Indian steelmakers are supplying oxygen for COVID-19 patients. JSW Steel, SAIL and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) are said to be supplying state administrators where their plants are located. RINL supplied more than 4,000 tonnes of liquid oxygen to Andhra Pradesh, SAIL has been supplying up to 400 tonnes per day and JSW 110 tonnes per day from its Vijaynager plant to Karnataka, and 100 tonnes per day from Dolvi to Maharashtra (destined for Pune).

Source: Business-Standard. com, 18 September 2020.

Russian steelmaker MMK is using quadrocopters to receive incoming scrap metal at the external acceptance section of its Koprov shop, which is located in the centre for receiving scrap metal from MMK’s industrial site, as well as from other Russian and CIS cities. Quadrocopters (drones) allow specialists at the workshop and external acceptance site to obtain documentary proof of the presence of waste in scrap metal when unloading the latter from the vehicle.

Source: MMK, 22 September 2020.

47

As of 2019, 72% of the steel in the world came from the BFBOF route mostly processing iron ore, while only about 28% is produced via the electric process, therefore 90% of the CO2 generated for the production of steel came from plants based on the blast furnace-converter route.

Source: Tenova.

• Stainless steels are stable homogeneous alloys composed principally of iron, chromium (11% to 30%) and nickel (0 to 25%).

At Ovako, a Scandinavian, fully scrap-based steelmaker, the EAFs are powered by fossil-free electricity. Final heat treatment is also on its way to being fully electrified and uses fossil-free electricity.

The main challenge remaining is to eliminate CO2 emissions from the heating of steel before rolling.

Source: Ovako

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NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

Producing one ton of liquid steel through the DR-EAF route produces at least 50% less CO2 emissions than the conventional BF-BOF route.

Source: Tenova

• Nucor Corporation has lost nearly 70% of its market value since President Trump’s steel tariffs were imposed.

In mature markets (like North America) the available scrap covers about 50% of the total need of raw materials.

Source: Tenova.

• Coking coal accounts for more than 65% of the primary source of energy in a conventional iron and steel complex (BF – BOF route).

• More than 95% of the world’s hydrogen is presently derived from natural gas and coal, causing 9 to 12 tonnes of CO2 emissions for every tonne of H2 produced.

• Structural steel in the USA has around a 46% market share in non-residential and multi-storey residential buildings.

Source: Deloitte.

• Buildings and infrastructure consumed an estimated 52% of produced steel in 2019.

Steel’s support of global construction helps fuel a market valued at around $11 trillion.

Source: Deloitte.

• In 2016, 96% of global hydrogen production was from fossil fuels; 48% from natural gas; 30% from oil, and 18% from coal.

Source: Midrex Technologies.

• The US is the world’s largest steel importer, importing 26.3Mt (metric tons) during 2019.

Source: United States International Trade Association.

• China was responsible for 43.7% of Brazilian pig iron exports this year against zero in the same period of the previous year.

Source: Steel Times International

• Within the European Union, buildings currently account for about 40% of overall energy consumption and produce around 36% of related greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: Deloitte.

For more steel industry news and features, visit www.steeltimesint.com www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020 49

• It has been suggested that substance abuse within Baffinland Iron Mines in Canada can only be tackled successfully if Olympic-style drug testing methods are employed, according to David Qamaniq, a Canadian politician representing the district of Tununiq in the territory of Nunavit. The mining company, in which the world’s biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal has a minority stake, claims it does conduct tests when it suspects impairment.

Source: NNSL Media, 11 October 2020.

• The World Steel Association has extended the mandates of last year’s Executive Board of Directors due to the COVID-19 pandemic interfering with their duties at the postponed annual general meeting of members and other worldsteel meetings. HBIS Group’s Yu Yong remains as chairman; and Sajjan Jindal of JSW and André Johannpeter of Gerdau stay on as vice-chairmen.

Source: worldsteel, 13 October 2020.

www.steeltimesint.com

• The GFG Alliance has launched a Global Advisory Board whose world-leading industry experience and insight will guide the company in delivering its strategic priorities in relation to its Carbon Neutral 2030 target. GFG Alliance has appointed the board following the consolidation of its businesses into three industry brands; LIBERTY Steel Group, ALVANCE Aluminium Group and SIMEC Energy Group.

Liberty continues to improve governance, transparency and independent advisory structures.

Source: GFG Alliance, 13 October 2020.

• The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has welcomed the European Commission's publication of definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of certain hot rolled stainless steel sheets and coils (SSHR) originating in Indonesia, China and Taiwan.

The duties are seen as a first step towards restoring a level playing field and securing a sustainable future for the European stainless industry Source: EUROFER, 14 October 2020.

• Perhaps it’s just as well that Donald Trump lost the election to Joe Biden (or anyone else for that matter). According to Bloomberg, while Trump promised to revive the steel industry’s fortunes when he was campaigning to be president in 2016, the end result has been tariffs and, ultimately, lay-offs. While steelmakers initially cranked up production and hired new workers, there wasn’t enough demand to satisfy increased production. Companies that relied upon steel had to raise prices to consumers. So, all-inall, Trump wasn’t the saviour of the US steel industry.

Source: Bloomberg Quint, 13 October 2020.

• POSCO International, an affiliate of South Korean steel giant POSCO, is to supply Vietnamese start-up VinFast with half shafts for electric vehicles. A half shaft transmits engine power from the transmission to the wheels. From POSCO’s perspective, the deal could lead to new business in Vietnam.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, 13 October 2020.

• World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 156.2Mt in August 2020, a 0.6% increase compared to August 2019.

Source: World Steel Association, 13 October 2020

• The former SSI steelworks in Redcar, UK, is now under the direct control of South Tees Development Corporation, which is chaired by Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.

The plan is to create jobs, lots of them, with the help of private investment.

Source: The Northern Echo, 12 October 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

50

• South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Company is upgrading its supply chain infrastructure. The aim is to build a logistics system using the expertise of a range of sister businesses to transport hydrogen produced at Hyundai Steel’s Dangjin factory to HyNet charging stations. Specialized storage and delivery trucks capable of carrying up to 340kg of hydrogen will reduce delivery costs and make the fuel more accessible, it is claimed.

Source: Pulse News, 13 October 2020.

• By the end of 2020 China will have banned imports of solid waste, which traditionally meant steel scrap, but new standards have been proposed for high quality steel scrap, which will be reclassified as a resource, not waste, and, therefore, will not be subject to a ban.

Source: MarketScreener, 14 October 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corporation mulls over selling its share in two automotive steel plants in Indiana, USA. The company jointly owned the plants with ArcelorMittal USA, but is now considering selling following ArcelorMittal’s decision to sell its share in the plants to Cleveland Cliffs. Nippon cites restructuring, but also reduced demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Various, 15 October 2020.

• A former Tata Steel research centre in Rotherham is to be developed into housing by property developer Keepmoat Homes. The 16.5-acre site includes historic buildings like Sitwell House, the Coach House, the Lodge and Swinden House. There are plans for 170 new homes and 27 residential units within the original buildings.

Source: Insider Media, 14 October 2020.

• South Korean steelmaker POSCO won the World Steel Association’s Excellence in Sustainability Steelie Award for its Triton Project, which helped to restore the ocean’s eco-system through artificial reef development, promoting the natural sequestration of carbon in marine ecosystems.

Triton fish banks were developed using steel slag and help establish sea forests for marine algae in damaged parts of the ocean.

Source: Korea Times, 15 October 2020.

• The leader of the UK Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has put his weight behind the 'Britain, we need our steel' campaign, which was launched by the Community, GMB and Unite unions. In a video message, Starmer told viewers that steel ‘is not just an industry of our past’.

Source: Labour List, 15 October 2020.

• Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel Group has put in a bid for the ailing German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp.

Gupta told the Financial Times that ‘steel belongs in private hands’. Liberty is not the only steelmaker to be considered as a potential partner, but TK said it would look carefully at the offer. Other companies in the frame include SSAB, Salzgitter and Tata.

Source: Financial Times, 22 October 2020.

• Production of steel products in Iran for the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (20 March to 21 September) is over 7.26Mt, 3% higher than the figure for the same period last year. Iran is looking at 16 development projects that will boost output of steel products by 17.3Mt within the next five years.

Source: Tehran Times, 17 October 2020.

• The process of deciding whether ailing steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG is eligible for state aid will take time, according to Olaf Scholtz, Germany’s finance minister. The company’s CEO Martina Merz is open to all options including selling a stake in the business to the Government.

Source: Reuters, 14 October 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Stallion and Maximus are two new brands of steel launched by AM/NS India, a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Corporation. Stallion is a hot-rolled steel manufactured in Hazira in a variety of strengths from mild to high tensile. Maximus is a range of premium quality rolled plates and serves a broad range of engineering and fabrication needs.

Source: Business Standard, 16 October 2020.

• Tenaris SA, a global steel manufacturer and part of Techint, is to form a joint venture with Mongolia Baotou Steel Company to build a steel pipe premium threading plant for the production of oil country tubular goods (OCTG).

The JV company will be 60% owned by Tenaris and 40%

by MBSC. The OCTG produced by the plant will be used to support the Chinese oil and gas industry.

Source: MarketScreener, 17 October 2020

• Tata Steel India has won a Steelie Award for Excellence in Digital Communications for the second time in a row and has also won a Steelie for Excellence in Education and Training. The Steelie Awards were launched in 2010.

Source: Orissa Diary, 19 October 2020.

• The Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO) reports that Iran’s ingot production in the first half of the Iranian calendar year (which ended on 21 September) exceeded 14Mt, representing a growth of 10% when compared with the same period of the previous year.

Source: MEHR News Agency,19 October 2020.

• Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW) is accelerating the development of its steel solutions for applications such as electric mobility, wind power and fuel cells.

The company claims that it designs and produces its steel solutions in a resource-friendly and future-oriented manner, starting with the selection of steel scrap and relying upon 100% renewable energy.

Source: DEW, 21 October 2020

• Belgium-based NLMK Clabecq, a leading producer of thin premium steel plates and part of the NLMK Group, has embarked on a 30 million euro project to upgrade its rolling mill. The company is a key player in the thin-gauge steel plate and in particular the quenched and tempered steel plates markets. The revamping of the rolling mill includes the installation of a new descaling system with two new descalers and the modernization of a four stand finishing mill, which NLMK describes as 'a unique layout for plate producers'.

Source: NLMK, 22 October 2020.

51

• The European Commission has today initiated an investigation into the dumping of wind towers on the EU market from China.

Wind towers – used to make renewable electricity – are principally built using steel, and the opening of this investigation shows that steel-using sectors also need adequate trade remedies.

“EUROFER welcomes the Commission's initiation of an anti-dumping investigation into the conditions of imports of Chinese wind towers into the EU”, said Axel Eggert, director general of the European Steel Association (EUROFER). “Global steel trade distortions jeopardise entire EU value chains and hundreds of thousands of jobs in Europe. Europe needs to wake up and take trade defence enforcement to a higher level before it is too late”.

Source: EUROFER, 21 October 2020.

• Global steelmaker Liberty Steel Group has made a non-binding indicative offer (NBIO) as part of a thyssenkrupp-led process to acquire the steel activities of thyssenkrupp. Liberty argues that with both transformation experience and an entrepreneurial approach, a possible combination of LIBERTY Steel and thyssenkrupp Steel would create a strong group well positioned to tackle the challenges faced by the European steel industry and accelerate the transformation to GREENSTEEL. Source: Liberty Steel Group, 20 October 2020. www.steeltimesint.com

Digital Edition - December 2020

52 NEWS REVIEW OF 2020

• Figures released by the International Molybdenum Association (IMOA) show that global production rose 3% to 148.2mlbs when compared to the previous quarter of 2020 and the same quarter of 2019. Global use of molybdenum also rose by 3% to 126.9mlbs when compared to the previous quarter, but fell by 14% when compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

Source: IMOA, 22 October 2020.

• Baodian Coal Mine, a subsidiary of Shandong Energy Group Company is running China’s first privately built 5G mobile network. The mine is located in the eastern coastal province of Shandong.

Faster data transmission means that workers have better control of mining equipment hundreds of metres under the ground.

Source: South China Morning Post, 21 October 2020.

• Zekelman Industries, the largest independent North American manufacturer of hollow structural sections and steel pipe, and Everguard.ai, whose AI-based Sentri360™ solution provides proactive interventions to prevent and avoid industrial accidents and the billions in fees and LTIs they cause, are joining together to use AI and sensor fusion to increase safety measures at the steelmaker's facilities.

The two companies have announced an agreement to bring Everguard’s Sentri360™ platform to Zekelman’s Atlas Tube facility in Blytheville, Arkansas, which will create a paradigm shift from a reactive to a proactive approach to preventing workplace injuries and accidents.

Source: Zekelman Industries, 22 October 2020.

• US minimill giant Nucor has broken ground on a new $1.7 billion steel plate manufacturing mill in Brandenburg, KY. An estimated 400 jobs will be created at the plant and it is likely that the facility will rely upon the services of some 1,500 contractors. The mill will open in 2022 and, according to Brandenburg’s mayor Ronnie Joyner, will have a long-term impact on the community’s workforce.

Source: Spectrum News1, 23 October 2020.

• Proposed Tariff Rate Quota allocations for UK steel exports into the EU from 1 January 2021 have been published by the European Commission – much to the relief of the UK steel industry.

Without these UK-specific tariff allocations, the UK sector could have faced an £80 million bill from EU Steel Safeguard tariffs in the first half of next year.

Source: UK Steel, 30 October 2020.

• Tata Steel Europe in IJmuiden, the Netherlands, is to face prosecution for permit violation after it was accused of not doing enough to stop graphite rain from showering people in the nearby town of Wijk aan Zee. Graphite rain contains ‘undesirably high’ levels of lead, manganese and vanadium dust, which can be harmful to young children.

Source: Dutch News, 22 October 2020.

• Martin Lindqvist, CEO of Scandinavian steelmaker SSAB says that his company is NOT taking part in the bidding process for ThyssenKrupp’s TKAG.DE steel business. Still in the running is Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel Group. If successful, he will become Europe’s number two steelmaker with an estimated market share of 14%.

Source: Nasdaq and Reuters, 22 October 2020.

• Having made a Q3 operating profit, following an operating loss for the previous three months, South Korean steelmaker POSCO is optimistic for the future as it believes the pandemic has done its worst and is unlikely to hurt major economies going forward. Sales for Q4 are expected to be an improvement on Q3 and the company might invest in high purity nickel production to meet demand from electric vehicle battery manufacturers.

Source: Korea Times, 23 October 2020.

Digital Edition - December 2020

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