Severstal maintains steel shipments at relatively high levels in August

Wednesday, 24 Aug 2011

It is reported that in August this year, Russian steelmaker Severstal plans to ship around 66,000 tonnes to 68,000 tonnes of commercial galvanized steel against 79,000 tonnes in July including 60,000 tonnes to 62,000 tonnes to the domestic market.

In the given month, Severstal will ship around 18,000 tonnes to 20,000 tonnes of rolled steel with polymer coating against 23,000 tonnes in July, including 18,000 tonnes to 19,000 tonnes to the domestic market.

In January to July period of the current year, Severstal produced around 410,000 tonnes of commercial galvanized steel up by 43%YoY and 131,000 tonnes of rolled steel with polymer coating up by 11% compared to January to July 2010.

(sourced steelorbis)

Nippon aims to up H-beam price even as stocks up

Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:01am GMT

TOKYO, March 10 (Reuters) - Nippon Steel Corp (5401.T: Quote), the world's No.4 steelmaker, said it aims to secure another price hike on its H-beam steel to pass on surging input costs, even though sluggish sales pushed inventories higher in February.

Domestic inventories of its H-beam steel used in construction rose 8.9 percent to 174,600 tonnes at the end of February from the month before, a company official said.

"Shipments were slow in February due in part to the market's seasonal weakness, but with demand from small office and other building projects increasing, we plan to implement another price hike as soon as possible," he said.

Nippon Steel boosted the price of H-beams in February to above 80,000 yen per tonne for a third consecutive price increase, sources told Reuters.

Rival Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co (5423.T: Quote) said last month it would raise prices of all its products in March to cover rising input costs. (Reporting by Yuko Inoue, sourced :Thomson Reuters)

Net income for Gerdau S.A. rises 144 percent in 2010

Friday, 04 March 2011

Brazil-based Gerdau S.A. announced Thursday a net income of R$420 million (US$254.7 million) in Q4 2010, and R$2.5 billion (US$1.5 billion) for the whole of 2010, an increase of 144 percent from the R$1 billion (US$600 million) net income the company recorded in 2009.

In Q4 2010 Gerdau shipped 4.5 million metric tons (mt) of steel, and a total of 17.4 million mt in 2010, a 24 percent increase compared to 2009 shipments due to improvement in the world auto industries, as well as the expanding construction and manufacturing industries in Brazil.

Steel tonnage handled by Port of Houston up 58 percent year-over-year in January

Friday, 25 February 2011

Steel shipments handled by the Port of Houston Authority totaled 243,000 net tons last month, compared to 154,000 net tons of steel handled in January 2010-a 58 percent increase. Container revenue rose 8 percent last month as well.

Port of Houston Authority Alec G. Dreyer commented, "While ship arrivals at the container facilities and in the Turning Basin were essentially flat between January of this year and last year, barge traffic was up a stout 30 percent for the first month of the year."

"TEU volumes were up 5 percent in January while unit counts were up 4 percent," concluded Dreyer.

Tags: USA , North America , freight , trading (sourced :steelorbis)

Steel prices rise as demand to increase

Monday, Feb14, 2011

Reports of an expected 10 percent increase in steel demand in the United States this year sent some steel company stocks higher Thursday, the same day AK Steel announced a price increase.

West Chester-based AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) said it is hiking current spot market base prices for all carbon flat-rolled steel products, effective immediately with new orders. The company, the largest in the Dayton region, said base prices for carbon flat-rolled products will increase by $50 per ton.

This week, Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT), the world's largest steelmaker, said it expected a 10 percent increase in the U.S. demand for steel this year, with demand in China and Europe climbing up to 7 percent.

Stock prices got a boost on the news, with Arcelor shares climbing 1.3 percent to $38.09, AK Steel shares increasing 1.2 percent to $15.71, United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) jumping 1 percent to $57.83 and Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) climbing half-a-percent to $47.29 per share in trading on Wall Street Thursday.

President Barack Obama reached out to the business community this past week, and has discussed spending $50 billion to improve infrastructure in the country as one of several new initiatives. Any effort to boost construction likely would help drive further demand for steel.

Despite increased demand that has boosted revenue for some steelmakers, profit has lagged. Last month, AK Steel reported a fourth-quarter and full-year 2010 loss, and Arcelor reported a loss this past week.

For the full year, AK Steel's loss grew to $128.9 million, or $1.17 per share, from a loss of $74.6 million, or 68 cents, in 2009. Sales for 2010 were about $6 billion, up from about $4.1 billion in 2009. The company's steel shipments increased to 5.7 million tons compared to 3.9 million tons for the full year of 2009. (sourced:AFP)