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China’s biggest steelmaker has agreed to a 35-percent price cut for iron ore fines with an Australian supplier, but analysts said the deal is unlikely to end protracted annual contract negotiations.
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Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., parent of Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc., which supplies body sealing, fluid handling and other systems to automakers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
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Car and light truck sales for the top seven automotive brands in the United States accelerated to 850,584 vehicles last month, up 12.6 percent from 755,223 the previous month but still 12 percent behind 967,013 units in July last year, according to an AMM analysis.
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For Ford Motor Co. the last week of July stood “as probably the greatest one-week energy conservation program that came out of Washington ever,” George Pipas, Ford’s U.S. sales analyst, said Monday during the company’s monthly vehicle sales conference call, referring to the huge boost in sales received from the “Cash for Clunkers” program.
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Timken Co. expects to make about $330 million in cash selling its needle roller bearings business to a Japan’s JTEKT Corp., a deal it expects to close by year-end.
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Metaldyne Corp., an auto parts manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy protection at the end of May, received court approval this week for Hephaestus Holdings Inc. (HHI) to serve as the stalking horse bidder for most of its powertrain operations and for Revstone Industries LLC as stalking horse bidder for most of its chassis operations.
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Weak sales volumes across all of its end-markets led Timken Co. to post a net loss in the second quarter, with the company predicting it will draw red ink for the full year as well.
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Pointing to still-negative economic indicators, A.M. Castle & Co.’s president and chief executive officer Michael Goldberg says the company anticipates continued losses until demand improves.
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Caterpillar Inc.’s second-quarter earnings fell 66.5 percent from a year earlier on a big drop in sales, but the major steel consumer reported seeing signs of stabilization in the market.
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A heated debate is looming over Russian and other foreign ownership of lithium-ion battery manufacturers competing to land big slices of the estimated $3 billion in U.S. Department of Energy funding under new federal programs offering grants and loans as part of President Obama’s stimulus package.
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The expected emergence of General Motors Corp. from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and late-summer plans by the Detroit-area Big Three automakers to restart assembly operations have led industry observers to hope for a better second half for cars and metals, but that may be tempered by more bankruptcies by auto parts suppliers, continued job losses and a retreat in consumer confidence.
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Brown Steel LLC, a service center specializing in construction materials such as rebar and wide-flange beams, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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Metals USA Inc.’s top executive sees business conditions improving during the third quarter vs. the second quarter—the bottom of the current recessionary cycle for manufacturing, the overall economy and metals demand.
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Many of the cost-cutting measures taken by service centers over the past six to nine months—layoffs and reduced management salaries—are likely to become permanent, two metal distributors said in a brutally honest exchange on the sidelines at AMM’s and World Steel Dynamics Inc.’s Steel Survival Strategies XXIV conference in New York.
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Generally upbeat views of the service center industry still landed one center mixed ratings outlooks from analysts.
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Trade groups rallied on Capitol Hill Tuesday to urge Congress to “save our jobs” by not allowing U.S. jobs to be exported.
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Steel stamper and toll processor Shiloh Industries Inc. will permanently close its Liverpool Drive manufacturing plant in Valley City, Ohio, sometime during the two weeks beginning July 3, with 111 layoffs set to begin June 22, according to a Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter to the state.
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Citing a rapid and dramatic downturn in demand from end users, metals distributor and processor A.M. Castle & Co. recorded net income of $480,000 in the first quarter ended March 31, down 96.5 percent from $13.8 million a year ago, on revenue that fell 35.9 percent to $252.2 million.
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Slowdowns in aerospace and industrial markets, lower scrap sales and higher expenses in other areas helped push Ladish Co. Inc.’s first-quarter earnings down nearly 80 percent.
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Citing “extremely negative conditions in all of our markets,” Samuel Manu-Tech Inc. reported a net loss of Canadian $9.1 million ($7.6 million) in the first quarter ended March 31, in contrast to earnings of nearly C$3.1 million in the same three months of 2008.
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Investment bank Jefferies & Co. Inc. on Monday upgraded the shares of Reliance Steel and Aluminum Co. to “buy” from “hold,” citing upside potential as “steel prices are likely close to a near-term bottom as is demand,” analyst Yvonne Varano said in a note to investors.
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The hard line the Obama administration has taken with the automotive industry is eliciting some strong reactions from the metals sector.
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China’s Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp. (Wisco) will pay $240 million for a 19.9-percent equity stake in Canadian iron ore junior Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd., in a move one analyst said could signal a new trend of Chinese investment in the sector.