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Our latest issue covers a broad range of markets. Tom Wendt Jr. explains the growth of the metals-recycling technology business Wendt Corporation. The steel section includes trends in US, Middle East, Indian and Chinese business. Our annual Arab aluminium section focuses on the continuing growth of the region’s primary aluminium sector. Other valuable features include a new plant orders list with example new technologies, steel industry efforts to reduce carbon emissions, a copper market overview and new technology for small tube production.
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Alcoa will permanently close one of four potlines at its smelter in Wenatchee, Washington, in the United States, despite the high-price environment brought on by import tariffs.
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The Avebury nickel mine, in Australia’s island state of Tasmania, is set to restart after almost ten years of inactivity, because of the current high price for nickel and healthier prospects for demand, Metal Bulletin reported on Wednesday July 11.
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Baowu Steel, China’s largest steelmaker, is adding 4.03 million tonnes to its hot metal capacity and 3.61 million tonnes to crude steel capacity at its Zhanjiang city production site in Guangdong province, south China.
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The US Commerce Department has denied Borusan Mannesmann Pipe US’ requests for Section 232 tariff exclusions that the company previously said would enable an expansion of operations at its mill in Baytown, Texas, Borusan Mannesmann Pipe US chief executive officer Joel Johnson told American Metal Market via email on Tuesday July 10.
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Following a ground-breaking ceremony at its greenfield aluminium rolling mill in Kentucky earlier this month, Braidy Industries is primed to begin selling into the automotive market by mid-2020, according to the company’s top executive.
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Bristol Metals LLC has completed its acquisition of Marcegaglia USA’s galvanized tube operations for $10 million, parent company Synalloy said on Monday July 2.
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Intek Group has announced that its copper producer subsidiary KME has reached an agreement to take over Germany’s Mansfelder Kupfer und Messing (MKM), another major participant in the European copper industry.
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Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) will supply bauxite produced by its Guinea Alumina Corp (GAC) subsidiary in West Africa to Vedanta from 2019.
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Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) plans to boost output of alumina powders to meet growing demand in the 3D printing sector.
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Italian wire rod producers Feralpi and Caleotto – the latter a joint venture between Feralpi and steel trader Duferco – have each ordered new four-stand wire rod rolling lines and water-cooling equipment.
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Ferroglobe PLC has entered into a joint development agreement with BioSolar Inc to pursue opportunities in the lithium-ion battery market.
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Norwegian ferro-silicon producer Finnfjord Smelteverk will cut about 3,500 tonnes of production in Q3 of this year because of planned maintenance to one of its furnaces, according to an industry source.
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Pasar copper smelter in the Philippines is expected to undergo repairs to its sulfuric acid cooling plant during the second half of the year, Metal Bulletin learned.
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Global crude stainless steel production totalled 12.77 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2018, according to figures released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) on Tuesday July 10.
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The world’s largest coking coal producer, BHP, is “cautiously optimistic” about India’s economic potential, with the country on the brink of becoming the top importer of the steelmaking raw material.
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Indian steelmaker Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) – also known as Vizag Steel – has increased its steel capacity by 1 million tpy with the commissioning of a new continuous caster at its Visakhapatnam steel mill.
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State-owned PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (PT Inalum) will become a 51% shareholder in Grasberg, the world’s second-largest copper mine, buying shares from Rio Tinto and Freeport-McMoRan in a deal totalling $3.85 billion, Rio Tinto and Freeport-McMoRan said on Thursday July 12.
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Italy’s industry minister Luigi Di Maio is expecting to see a new proposal from ArcelorMittal about jobs and the environment at Italian steelmaker Ilva, he said at a meeting with trade unions and the steelmaker in early July.
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Liberty House Group has reopened its wire rod mill in Georgetown, South Carolina, with a ceremony on June 25.
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Swedish state-owned iron ore producer LKAB has applied for a new environmental permit that would allow it to increase output at its main mine in Kiruna, northern Sweden, the company said.
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Oil and gas conglomerate BP plc is to buy Chargemaster, the UK’s largest electric vehicles (EVs) charging company, and plans to deploy the network across its forecourts in the country over the next 12 months.
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Metal concentrates trading platform Open Mineral has joined others in the metals industry to make use of blockchain technology to facilitate secure information exchange and to track parcels on a new platform called Minerac.
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New tariffs threatened by the United States on imports of cars from Europe could jeopardize as many as 1 million jobs in manufacturing and 3.3 million jobs in the retail sector, according to the European Union.
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Lead-zinc producer Recylex has started the hot commissioning phase of the new reduction furnace at its lead smelter at Nordenham in northern Germany, operated by Weser-Metall.
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Russia is to set retaliatory measures in response to US Section 232 tariffs, announcing a list of US goods that will be hit with increased trade duties starting in August.
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Steel Dynamics Inc (SDI) has completed its $400 million purchase of Heartland Steel Processing LLC, the former US operations of Brazilian iron ore and steel producer Cia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN).
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Big River Steel in the United States continues to explore building a second greenfield flat-rolled steel mill, possibly in Brownsville, Texas, according to sources familiar with the matter, who noted that the steelmaker’s doubling of capacity at its existing flat-rolled mill in Osceola, Arkansas, will not slow that process down, reported American Metal Market.
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The proposed acquisition of platinum group metals (PGMs) producer Lonmin plc by Sibanye-Stillwater has been unconditionally approved by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), with the deal now requiring the go-ahead from the South African competition authorities.
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SSAB Americas plans to take a routine, three-week maintenance outage at its Iowa plate mill early in the fourth quarter.
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In perhaps the first instance of job reductions resulting from the United States’ Section 232 tariffs on Canadian steel, Tenaris laid off 40 workers at its Algoma Tubes mill in Ontario, according to a union official.
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New Turkish flat steel producer Yildiz Iron & Steel has started production of hot-dipped galvanized coil at its facility in Kocaeli, the company stated on Monday July 2.
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Germany’s Wieland Group is set to invest $20 million over the next year to construct a new production facility that will double its surface tube production capacity in the United States, the company said early in July.
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Zekelman Industries’ new Z Modular plant in Birmingham, Alabama, has begun production, the company said on Thursday July 5.
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Metals recycler B.L. Duke has expanded its scope of business
with the addition of a subsidiary that offers stevedore services for finished steel products.
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Calstrip Industries is building a $15 million processing
facility at Nucor Steel Arkansas as part of the company’s efforts to support traditional medium-and high-volume service center customers.
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China’s major steel mills raised their crude steel output rates
in early May on healthy profit.
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Commercial Metals Co (CMC) has commissioned a non-ferrous recovery plant at its facility in Lexington, South Carolina.
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Cobalt 27 has agreed to an $80 million revolving credit facility to help fund its investments in the mineral industries, including streaming and royalty agreements, the company said in mid-May.
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The draft regulations required for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC’s) new mining code have been completed and will be reported to the Minister of Mines by the inter-ministerial commission appointed to carry out the task, major international mining companies active in the country said.
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Mass production of electric vehicles (EVs) will transform the nickel market, which must evolve from pricing and supply perspectives in order to meet the anticipated surge in demand, a Vale executive said ahead of Metal Bulletin’s 6th International Nickel Conference, which began on May 31 in Toronto.
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The London Metal Exchange has shelved its idea of developing a dealer-to-client platform following the results of last year’s discussion paper, LME chief executive officer Matthew Chamberlain said.
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Nucor Corp’s Decatur, Alabama, steel mill is undergoing a $4-million investment that will increase production by 80,000 tons per year.
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Outokumpu continues to focus on improving operations
at its mill in Calvert, Alabama, while simultaneously growing
its market share in the United States and expanding its product offerings, according to the company’s top executive.
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Salzgitter expects its earnings to rise in 2018 despite “strained market conditions,” the German
steelmaker said in its first-quarter results published on
Tuesday May 14.
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Big River Steel chief commercial officer Mark Bula has left the company he has been involved with since its inception.
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SteelCo USA has purchased certain assets of West Coast
steel processor Douglas Steel Supply to expand its
production capabilities, according to the service center.
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Ta Chen International (TCI) will invest $1 billion in the aluminium market in the United States in response to a growing supply deficit, the company’s top executive said.
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Tharisa has acquired a 90% stake in Salene Chrome Zimbabwe Ltd for an undisclosed sum, the South African chrome producer announced on Wednesday May 16.
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The head of Chinese metals trader Maike Group aims to convince the country’s authorities to allow a network of warehouses that are bonded to the London Metal Exchange to be established on the mainland within the next five years.
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Australian miner Admiralty Resources will invest around $70 million in developing the Mariposa iron ore project in Chile’s northern Atacama region, now that approval has been granted by national environmental agency Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental (SEA).
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Indonesian state-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) has renewed its export licenses for low-grade nickel ore and bauxite.
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Stainless steel producer Aperam has purchased 100% of the shares in Germany-based special alloys producer VDM Metals for €438 million ($540 million).
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Big River Steel will soon decide whether to double capacity as it looks to become a go-to supplier for the electric vehicle market, a company executive said.
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Canada is cracking down further on unfairly traded steel and aluminium following the imposition of Section 232 tariffs in the United States.
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Canadian miner Champion Iron Ore is sending iron ore from the former Cleveland-Cliffs Bloom Lake mine in Quebec to Asia.
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The number of lead-acid battery recyclers in China is expected to triple by the end of this year due to the Chinese government’s recycling-friendly policies according to the recycling metal branch of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Recycling Metal Branch (CMRA).
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Cleveland-Cliffs has broken ground on its $700 million hot-briquetted iron (HBI) plant in Toledo, Ohio, and might build another if merited by demand.
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China Nonferrous Mining Corp’s (CNMC) Lualaba copper smelter will launch in 2020 and produce 120,000 tonnes of blister copper annually in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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Brazilian steel and iron ore producer Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) expects to conclude asset sales worth 2-3 billion Reais ($604-906 million) this year, in order to reduce its debt levels.
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Chinese cobalt producer GEM has signed a long-term strategic procurement contract with Glencore, securing more than 50,000 tonnes of cobalt
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Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) achieved its highest-ever quarterly production of crude steel in January-March 2018 after a new blast furnace began operating.
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India’s JSW Steel Ltd has agreed to buy US flat-rolled steelmaker Acero Junction Inc for $80.85 million.
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JXTG, Japan’s energy and metal conglomerate, expects to post an impairment loss of 65 billion yen ($606.8 million) for its Chilean Caserones copper project following a series of production problems last year.
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Japan’s Kobe Steel plans to increase its automotive steel production to meet growing demand for such steel and is targeting a February 2021 start-up for a 240,000 tonnes per year continuous annealing line for steel sheet at its Kakogawa Works.
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The United Kingdom’s Liberty Recycling, part of Liberty House Group, has chosen the southeastern United States as a starting point to grow its footprint in the US scrap industry, acquiring full ownership of Florida recycler and exporter Export Metals LLC.
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The London Metal Exchange introduced a “temporary conditional suspension” on placing Rusal metal on-warrant which went into effect on April 17.
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Luvata’s North American Tubes has been rebranded as Virtus Precision Tube, with the company looking to start afresh and refocus under new ownership following years
of being for sale, Virtus president Ron Beal told American Metal Market.
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NLMK USA has requested an exemption for Russian slabs from the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariffs aimed at steel from some countries.
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Turkey’s Oyak Group – owner of the country’s biggest steel producer, Erdemir Group – is to invest in a new port in Kocaeli in partnership with Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line).
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PCC BakkiSilicon, a subsidiary of German holding company PCC SE, started producing silicon at its smelter in Húsavík on the northern coast of Iceland in mid-April.
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SeAH Steel USA is planning to install a new tubing mill at its Houston location in response to United States President Donald Trump’s decision to place a 25% tariff on steel imports.
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West China’s Shaanxi Iron & Steel Group aims to extend its international presence as part of the Chinese ‘one belt, one road’ initiative, with two steelmaking projects in Indonesia.
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Keywell Metals has expanded its titanium facility in Falconer, New York, United States, due to a strengthening in its trade and toll-related businesses.
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India’s Tata Steel hit a peak hot-metal output of 10.95 million tonnes in the financial year ending March 2018 at its blast furnaces in Jamshedpur, compared with 10.83 million tonnes a year ago.
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Teck Resources Ltd has increased its stake in Compañía Minera Teck Quebrada Blanca SA (QBSA) through the purchase of private Chilean firm Inversiones Mineras SA (IMSA), the Canada-headquartered company said.
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Vedanta Resources’ planned mid-April restart of its Tuticorin copper smelter in Tamil Nadu, India, has been delayed after its application to do so was rejected by state environmental officials.
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Tungsten-miner W Resources has said it has secured a development grant of €5.3 million ($6.58 million) for its La Parilla project in southwestern Spain from the regional government, the Junta de Extremadura.
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Canadian junior miner Wealth Minerals has entered into an agreement with Chile’s state-owned Empresa Nacional de Mineria (Enami) to help it develop and commercialize its Salar de Atacama and Laguna Verde lithium projects.
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New Turkish flat steel producer Yildiz Iron & Steel has started production of pre-painted galvanized coil (PPGI) at its facility in Kocaeli.
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Pakistani rebar producer Amreli Steels will increase its rebar production capacity to 750,000 tonnes per year over the next two years.
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ArcelorMittal is planning to invest a further €10 million ($12.31 million) by the end of this year in the expansion of its service center in Neuwied, Germany, which processes around 400,000 tonnes per year of steel.
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ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp (NSSMC) have entered into an agreement to acquire and manage Essar Steel India.
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UK long steel producer British Steel has won a contract to supply German railways operator Deutsche Bahn with 20,000 tonnes per year of rail.
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Century Aluminum Co’s plans to restart production at its Hawesville, Kentucky, United States smelter are now official thanks to US President Donald Trump signing the order to levy a 10% tariff on the country’s aluminium imports.
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Cobalt 27 has formed Electric Metals Streaming, a wholly-owned subsidiary incorporated in Ontario, Canada, to manage its future streaming and royalty investments.
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Brazilian steel producer CSN is negotiating the sale of its LLC subsidiary in the United States.
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Emirates Global Aluminium’s (EGA) strategic upstream integration projects, Al Taweelah alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi and Guinea Alumina Corp (GAC) bauxite mine in the Republic of Guinea, are making “strong progress”, the company has said.
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Evraz has signed an agreement to sell its last Ukrainian asset – Evraz DMZ (EDMZ).
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First American Resources and Flack Global Metals will develop a new coil coating and metal processing facility to meet demand for high-end, surface-critical coated products.
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Grupo Simec has started up its new special bar quality (SBQ) and wire rod mill in Apizaco, Mexico, according to market participants and equipment supplier Danieli Group.
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Idled Canadian special bar quality (SBQ) producer Hamilton Specialty Bar (HSB) could be sold to American Iron & Metal Co Inc (AIM), documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice show.
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Atlas Iron is moving into the export market for manganese ore as prices continue to rally.
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Largo Resources will add vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) powder to its portfolio of vanadium products produced from the Maracas Menchen mine in Brazil.
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Liberty House has restarted the second of two electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) at its special steel mill in Rotherham, northern England.
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Peru’s first independent metal concentrates warehouse and blending facility, Logisminsa, has seen increased demand for its recently added bonded warehousing services.
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Canada’s Matalco Inc plans to build multiple aluminium remelt plants in the United States’ Midwest, which are aimed at increasing its capacity by over 340,000 tonnes annually.
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Naveena Group of Pakistan has announced that it will start production of steel billet and rebar in a new mill in Karachi by 2019.
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Mitsugu Yamaguchi has been named the by the Board of Directors of Kobe Steel as the new president, chief executive officer and representative director of the company.
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Key stakeholders in the US secondary aluminium alloy industry are uniting under one banner with the formation of a new advocacy group.
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Nucor is building a $240 million rebar micro-mill in Frostproof, Florida, United States.
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Italian long steelmaker Pittini has completed the acquisition of the “commercial and logistic facilities” at compatriot steelmaker Ori Martin’s Ceprano rebar mill in central Italy.
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Canada’s Russel Metals has agreed to acquire the operating assets and facilities of structural steel service center DuBose Steel.
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Peruvian state-run investment agency Proinversion says Southern Peru Copper Corporation (SPCC) has won the tender to develop the $2 billion Michiquillay copper mining project in northern Peru.
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Steel Warehouse of Arkansas will expand its facility on the Osceola, Arkansas, campus of Big River Steel with a new stretcher leveler line.
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Indian steelmaker Tata Steel has successfully submitted the highest bid to buy the insolvent Bhushan Steel and Bhushan Power & Steel.
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The US Commerce Department has begun investigations into dumping and government subsidies of imports of cast iron soil pipe from China.
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ERP Iron Ore LLC and Republic Steel could commission a pig iron joint venture in the United States by the end of 2018.
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United States Steel is restarting one of two blast furnaces at the steelmaking facilities of its Granite City Works in Illinois in response to the announcement by US President Donald Trump that he plans to impose tariffs on imported steel as a result of the Section 232 investigation.
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Tungsten miner W Resources has secured a $35 million loan facility to fund its La Parilla development in southwest Spain.
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Wyelands Capital, the banking and financial services arm of GFG Alliance, has started a commodity inventory finance partnership with financial technology company Demica.
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Canadian copper producer Capstone has sold its Minto mine for $37.5 million to mining company Pembridge Resources.
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‘The world is not going to grow itself out of the excess capacity situation. So, for those harping about China cutting capacity, it’s not going to happen.
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The deal is expected to pass customary regulatory hurdles by the first quarter of 2018 with first shipments expected in January of next year.
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U.S. President Trump’s Administration should keep working on its Section 232 investigation instead of tinkering around with Nafta, Burritt advised.
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The U.S. automotive industry consumes roughly 25-million to 30-million tons of steel annually, most of it supplied by integrated steelmakers.
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Lingering uncertainty over the potential ban has the industry in limbo and some prices under pressure as more material is left in the U.S. market.
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A volatile mix of higher distributor shipments and tighter inventories so far this year-overlaid by the Section 232 delays-could pinch supply.
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Chinese mills produced 419.75 millions tonnes of crude steel in the first six months of 2017, up 4.6 percent from the same period a year ago.
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The Group of 20’s policy solutions to combat a global steel glut are being crafted as U.S. steel producers push for relief via Section 232 remedies.
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A missed deadline, stiff opposition from export-oriented industries, and mixed reactions to meetings with Commerce have stirred concern.
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Response to the USTR’s roadmap for retooling Nafta run the gamut from praise to amounting to little more than “tweaking around the edges.”
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Declining prices, relatively high production costs--particularly for electricity--and limited investments in smelting technologies all played a role.
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The agreement brings to a close an exchange of fire that led to the exit of Arconic’s CEO.
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Local media reports indicate that the proposed $1.5-billion mill would supply steel sheet from Brownsville, Texas to Mexican automakers.
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Groundbreaking for Brady Industries Inc.'s proposed facility is set for the first quarter of 2018.
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Annual capacity is pegged at 1.5M tons.
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The former Gerdau Long Steel and Alcoa executive said he had planned the move, which came after USS charter a surprise first-quarter loss.
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'You would get blowback and the blowback would hit those people that were ostensibly trying to help,' a trade lawyer weighs the possible outcome.
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Particular focus will be given to issues like intellectual property and digital trade a letter issued by Lighthizer's office in mid-May pointed out.
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In an executive memorandum signed April 20, 2017, President Donald J. Trump initiated what – at least in the near term – might be called the mother of all trade actions by launching an investigation into whether steel imports pose a threat to national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
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Executives, analysts from across the metals industries discussed and debated what the early days of new administration have brought already.
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The Mustang pellet, tailored to replace the Viceroy pellet formerly shipped out of Cliffs' Michigan Empire mine, was developed with ArcelorMittal.
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As the international titanium supply chain has grown in scope over the past decade, attendance at the ITA conference series has doubled.
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Dearborn will again play host to the annual AMM automotive conference as speakers and delegates will continue the lightweighting debate.
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The conference, co-sponsored by World Steel Dynamics, offers a chance to get both a North American and a global perspective on the industry.
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If the market becomes bullish, the rigs that come back first may still mean weak demand for tubular products even as drilling activity ramps up.
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Service centers can still survive, thrive in rocky world of steel as a tough year just drew to a close, industry sources said, but business is evolving.
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Natural gas drilling has fallen to historic lows this year on the back of depressed prices, and potentially warmer winter weather is leaving energy tubular suppliers unsure about the traditional winter pickup.
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The Clean Power Plan (CPP), and all 1,560 pages of its guidelines and timelines, was officially signed and released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Obama Administration in August.
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Through mid-summer, a number of signs have continued to point to challenges and potential further struggles for some sectors of the steel and scrap industries. Falling prices, lower demand and global economic concerns are all contributing to ongoing problems.
Distributor selling prices for line pipe plunged to new lows in the summer, weighed down by a sagging energy market and a downturn in distributor sentiment.
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Hundreds of international steel industry executives, analysts and other experts are expected to gather in June at AMM’s Steel Success Strategies XXX Conference in New York City to get the best insight into the health of the industry halfway through 2015, and to take advantage of networking and business opportunities.
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After winning an oil country tubular goods trade case in August, U.S. steelmakers may be ready to challenge imports of other products.
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The Justice Department accuses military group of breaking into the computers of American companies with business ties to the country.
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John Correnti’s project took a big step forward when environmental officials rejected Nucor’s complaints and upheld an air permit ruling.