Steel

• Standard Bank closes steel desk Apr 29, 2013

  Standard Bank Group Ltd. has decided to shut down its steel desk.

• Commerce rescinds review of pipe imports Apr 29, 2013

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration is rescinding its countervailing duty administrative review of imports of seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line and pressure pipe from China from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2011.

• Exports lift Usiminas’ steel sales in first quarter Apr 29, 2013

  Usinas Siderúrgicas de Minas Gerais SA (Usiminas) sold 1.59 million tonnes of steel in the first quarter, up 5.2 percent year on year, the Brazilian steelmaker said.

• Cliffs Natural Resources runs DRI production test in Minn. Apr 29, 2013

  Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. ran a full-scale direct-reduced iron (DRI) production test for two weeks in March at the company’s North Shore iron ore mine in Minnesota.

• Mexican steel imports fall, exports rise in first two months Apr 29, 2013

  Mexico’s finished steel imports totaled 1.14 million tonnes in the first two months of the year, down 9.5 percent from 1.26 million tonnes in the same period last year, according to the latest figures from Latin American steel association Alacero.

• Mexico’s crude steel output down 27% in March Apr 29, 2013

  Crude steel production in Mexico reached 1.14 million tonnes in March, down 27 percent from the same month last year, according to figures released by Latin American steel association Alacero.

• Alliance Steel hires sales director Apr 29, 2013

  Alliance Steel LLC has hired Garrett Sparacio as director of national sales to develop and manage the company’s sales across the United States.

• CPTI elects board officers Apr 29, 2013

  The Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports (CPTI) has elected two board of director officers for 2013-14.

• Cliffs ‘well aware’ of threat from Great Lakes projects Apr 26, 2013

  Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. is "well aware" of the competition it could face from new iron ore projects that have been announced in North America’s Great Lakes region over the past two years.

• Insteel purchases wire line from Tatano Apr 26, 2013

  Insteel Industries Inc. has purchased a production line from Tatano Wire & Steel Inc. to make reinforcing concrete wire products, chairman, president and chief executive officer H.O. Woltz III told AMM.

• Sheet market still awaiting turnaround Apr 26, 2013

  Squeezed margins, lackluster demand and oversupply issues continue to plague the domestic steel sheet market, sources said, noting that either a significant demand boost or a major production outage will be necessary to trigger a turnaround.

• Essar Steel Algoma sues Galvstar for $2.4M Apr 26, 2013

  Essar Steel Algoma Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Galvstar LLC, Galvstar Holdings LLC and Bain Partners LLC for alleged breach of contract and unjust enrichment, claiming it is owed more than $2.4 million in unpaid invoices.

• Labor dispute resolved at Burns Harbor mill Apr 26, 2013

  A labor dispute that reportedly impacted some steelmaking activities at ArcelorMittal USA LLC’s Burns Harbor facility in Indiana has been resolved, a company spokeswoman told AMM.

• Steel plate lead times said factor to watch Apr 26, 2013

  Lead times at some domestic plate mills could start to come in now that planned spring outages at a number of facilities have concluded, sources said, noting that any significant lead time reduction could begin to put downward pressure on the recently stable steel plate market.

• Early deals signal May scrap price direction Apr 26, 2013

  A Northeast scrap dealer says he has sold more than 30,000 tons of shredded automotive scrap to two different brokers who also function as exclusive buying agents for two different steel producers, providing one of the first indications of May price direction.

• SunCoke Energy Partners sees revenue, earnings rise Apr 26, 2013

  SunCoke Energy Partners LP saw its attributable net income rise to $15.3 million during the first quarter from $12.4 million in the same year-ago period.

• US rebar prices backtrack to March levels Apr 26, 2013

  Concrete reinforcing bar spot prices have slipped back to first-quarter levels after a brief late-March pickup.

• AK Coal expects mine permits in 2d qtr. Apr 26, 2013

  AK Steel Corp. subsidiary AK Coal Resources Inc. expects to receive permits to develop an underground coal mine in Pennsylvania in the second quarter of this year.

• Alpha rules out divestiture of metallurgical coal assets Apr 26, 2013

  Alpha Natural Resources Inc. does not plan to sell off any of its metallurgical coal assets in the near future, chairman and chief executive officer Kevin Crutchfield told AMM sister publication Steel First April 25.

• Ahmsa starts up furnace converter to boost crude steel output Apr 26, 2013

  Mexican steelmaker Altos Hornos de México SAB de CV (Ahmsa) has started up a new converter in its basic oxygen furnace No. 1.

• Canada reviewing duties on plate imports Apr 26, 2013

  The Canadian International Trade Tribunal has initiated an expiry review of anti-dumping duty orders on hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate from Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Romania.

• MesoCoat fires up Ohio pipe-coating plant Apr 26, 2013

  MesoCoat Inc.’s pipe-coating facility in Euclid, Ohio, officially opened April 26, with the plant’s CermaClad high-intensity arc lamp fired up a day earlier for a test run, Miami-based parent company Abakan Inc. said.

• Added capacity to hurt iron ore prices in 2d half: Vale Apr 26, 2013

  The commissioning of additional iron ore production capacity is expected to put pressure on iron ore prices in the second half of 2013, José Carlos Martins, executive director for iron ore and strategy at Brazilian miner Vale SA, said April 25.

• Vale confirms VLOC iron ore carrier docked at China port Apr 26, 2013

  Brazil’s Vale SA had confirmed that in mid-April one of its very large ore carriers (VLOCs) docked for the first time at a Chinese port.