IRON AND STEEL UPDATE
OCTOBER 2010
MCILVAINE COMPANY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ThyssenKrupp AG Plant Expansion
Nucor Corporation Planned 2.5mt Facility in St James Parish, LA
ArcelorMittal in Georgetown, SC to Reopen
JFE Steel Expands UOE Steel Pipe Output Capacity at Fukuyama
SABIC’s Hadeed to Open Steel Plant in Saudi Arabia
Production Returns to Former Alphasteel in Newport, UK; Renamed Mir Steel
New Port Talbot Steel Plant to Enhance Llanwern Steelworks
The Wempco Group Rolling Mill to Start Operations February 2011
Allegheny Ludlum Closes Steel Melting Operation at PA Plant
Russel Metals Closing Ontario Plant
Stelco’s 2.8 million tons/yr Hamilton, Canada Plant to Close Oct 2010
Gerdau to Close Perth Amboy, NJ Steel Plant; Suspending Sayreville Facility Operations
Arcelormittal's Hennepin, IL Steel Finishing Plant Closure
China Orders Closure of Small Steel Mills
Corus Teeside UK 2010 retirement of 3.2 million tons
Estimated Value: $36.5 million
Location: Tell City, IN. 9856 West State Road 66.
Details: Plans call for the expansion of an existing steel plant for ThyssenKrupp AG. The expansion of the 480,000-square-foot plant will allow for increased production capacity.
Operation Start Date: 12/2012. Late 2012.
Contact Information: Owner
ThyssenKrupp Steel North America, Inc.
9856 West State Road 66
Tell City, IN 47586
PH: 812-547-0705
http://www.thyssenkruppwaupaca.com
Location Description: Thyssenkrupp Waupaca, Inc.
Project News & Notes: As of 10/13/10, company and state officials recently announced this project. The project will receive $1.55 million in tax credits.
Estimated Value: < $5 million
Location: West Columbia, SC. 2401 Edmonds Highway.
Details: Plans call for a 17,155-square-foot addition to the Harsco rail facility. Plans include: metal fabrications, miscellaneous rough carpentry, metal wall panels, modified bitumen roofing, sheet metal flashing and trim, hollow metal doors and frames, painting,
Construction Start Date: 4th Qtr /2010
Contact Information
Bidding General Contractor
MB Kahn Construction Co., Inc.
Jim Hubble, Project Manager
101 Flintlake Road
P.O. Box 1179-29202
Columbia, SC 29223
PH: 803-736-2950
Fax: 803-736-3924
Email: jhubble@mbkahn.com
Location Description: Columbia Office
Architect
LTC Associates Architecture
912 Lady Street
Suite 300
Columbia, SC 29201
PH: 803-254-9082
Fax: 803-262-7200
http://www.ltcarch.com
Owner
Harsco Corporation
350 Poplar Church Road
Camp Hill, PA 17011
PH: 717-763-7064
Fax: 717-763-6424
http://www.harsco.com
Location Description: Corporate Headquarters
Project News & Notes
There are no news or notes for this project.
Estimated Value: > $100 million
Location: Campbell, OH.
Details: Plans call for a state of the art steel mill that will produce cold rolled coils.
Construction Schedule: N/A. Early planning stage
Contact Information
Owner
Sherman International
367 Mansfield Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15220
PH: 412-928-2880
FAX: 412-928-2881
Project News & Notes
September 1, 2010
As of late August 2010, the state of Ohio has granted Campbell $300,000 to conduct an environmental study for the project.
Estimated Value: < $5 million
Location: Girard, OH. In the former Indalex plant.
Details: Plans call for renovation work that will convert the former Indalex plant into office and limited finishing space for V&M Star.
Construction Schedule: N/A. Planning and approval stage
Contact Information
Owner
Jerry Tipton, Purchasing Agent
V&M Star
V&M Star Ohio
2669 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Youngstown, OH 44510
PH: 330-742-6300
Fax: 330-742-6315
https://www.vmstar.com
Project News & Notes
August 4, 2010
As of 8/4/10, the agreement to purchase the property for this project is expected to be approved soon.
Nucor Corporation Planned 2.5mt Facility in St James Parish, LA
Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) announced Sept 15, 2010 that it has selected St. James Parish, Louisiana, for the construction of a planned $750 million iron making facility, subject to receipt of all requisite environmental permits. The new facility will be owned and operated by Nucor Steel Louisiana, LLC, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Nucor.
The 2,500,000 tons-per-year iron making facility will use direct reduction technology to convert natural gas and iron ore pellets into high quality direct reduced iron ("DRI") used by Nucor's steel mills, along with recycled scrap, in producing numerous high quality steel products such as sheet, plate and special bar quality steel. The DRI facility is the first phase of a multi-phase plan that may include an additional DRI facility, coke plant, blast furnace, pellet plant and steel mill.
ArcelorMittal in Georgetown, SC to Reopen
The ArcelorMittal steel mill in Georgetown, South Carolina is undergoing preparations to re-open after closing in July 2009. The mill is expected to be back to full production in early 2011. The nearly 40-year-old mill has two electric furnaces that can produce in a year 1 million tons of liquid steel and 750,000 tons of wire rod.
Friday, 15 Oct 2010 LMB reported that JFE Steel expands annual output capacity of UOE large diameter steel pipe at Fukuyama area of West Japan works for around JPY 6 billion.
As per report, JFE Steel increases the capacity from current 400,000 tonnes at the products mix to 600,000 tonnes by mid 2011 while the line starts production of X100 grade pipe of American Petroleum Institute and expands the products range for thicker products.
Despite the implementation of the central government's policy on the elimination of backward production capacities, the overall capacity of China's iron and steel industry may not fall as many people have anticipated. A private steel enterprise in the city of Wuan in Hebei Province, China removed two 450 m3 blast furnaces in February of this year, but then established a new blast furnace of 1,250 m3 capacity, thereby exceeding the previous annual capacity.
Hadeed, the manufacturing affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), said it will become self-sufficient in feedstock, intermediate and finished products with the opening of the new steel plant at Jubail in the second half of 2012. Hadeed signed a deal with Italian foundry equipment maker Danieli for the construction of a steel plant in Saudi Arabia.
The plant would have a production capacity for steel billets of 1 million tons per year, according to a company statement. Abdulaziz Suleiman Al-Humaid, SABIC Vice President (Metals) and Hadeed Chairman, said the steel billets produced at Hadeed will meet the requirements of its galvanizing lines including the new line that is to be built.
27 July 2010 Steel production at the former Alphasteel plant in Newport has resumed. Mir Steel UK said 80 employees began a partial re-start recently and the firm had plans to take staff numbers to 140, dependent on demand and orders.
The hot strip mill at the plant has capacity for a million tonnes a year.
In May, the new Russian owners, who renamed the new company Mir Steel UK, advertised in The Argus newspaper that it wanted to create up to 100 new jobs in the site by the end of the year.
18 Aug 2010 Corus said that the future of the Llanwern steelworks may be more secure after it announced a plan to invest GBP 185 million in its Port Talbot operations.
Corus said that it is to rebuild the town's No 4 blast furnace and equip it with new technology to boost its environmental performance, reliability and safety.
It is hoped the work will allow Port Talbot to increase its capacity by 400,000 tonnes within its two blast furnaces. Work will begin in July 2012.
A spokesman for Corus said the deal will help secure the long term future of steel rolling at Llanwern in Newport. He added that "If Port Talbot has a long term future in making steel obviously Llanwern will have something to roll."
(Sourced from www.southwalesargus.co.uk)
The Wempco Group will commence operations February 2011 of a steel rolling mill located in the Wempco steel complex in Ogun state, Nigeria worth $1.5 billion and capable of producing 800,000 metric tonnes of steel annually. The production capacity of the steel mill represents 65 per cent of the 1.2 million of steel is consumed annually in Nigeria.
“The mill is 60 to 70 per cent completed. All the equipment has arrived and what remains is installation”, said Phillip Tung, Chief Engineer, Wempco.
A test run would be conducted in March while full operations would commence in April. The mill will for now produce cold He and for now will depend on imported steel billets for raw materials until it can work out how to transport iron ore from Itakpe in Kogi State.
Contact Information: Allegheny Ludlum
Division President: Terry Dunlap
Phone: 724-224-1000
FAX: 724-226-5644
Plant Information: Plant Activity: Steel
Plant Closing Date: 8/1/2010
Plant Location: Federal & North Canal Streets
Breckenridge, PA 15014
Plant News: Allegheny Ludlum closes steel melting operation at PA plant
Allegheny Ludlum's 8-7 Department — better known as the Natrona Pennsylvania melt shop said activities related to melting steel at the facility have ceased. Most of the grain or electrical steel is now melted in Brackenridge with the final Natrona melting taking place in July 2010. The melt shop is located along Federal and North Canal Streets. The plant operated since the 1960s. Allegheny Ludlum said no decision has been made regarding the future of the Natrona property, which also was involved in processing scrap metal and slag. At Natrona, steel scrap was melted in three 70-ton induction furnaces. The steel was fed into one of two basic oxygen furnaces, which melted silicon electrical steels as well as stainless steels for finishing at other facilities.
Contact Information: Russel Metals
Regional General Manager: Joe Mangialardi
Phone: 905-384-9700
FAX: 905-384-2120
Plant Information: Plant Activity: Steel processing
Plant Closing Date: 10/1/2010
Plant Location: 200 Sourth Street North
Port Robinson, ON L0S 1K0
Plant News: Russel Metals closing Ontario plant
Russel Metals plans to consolidate its Ontario operations, closing a plant in the Niagara region and shrinking its work force by 40 people. Russel Metals will combine its structural steel operations at its existing plant in Cambridge. The resulting closing of its Port Robinson, Ontario plant will affect 80 employees, but the steel company plans to hire 40 employees in a $6-million expansion of the Cambridge plant.
Just three years after acquiring Hamilton’s Stelco steel mill, U.S. Steel has announced that it is temporarily shutting down the blast furnace indefinitely.
No layoffs are reportedly pending, although staff ranks have been cut by 800 (about half) following the 2007 takeover. With no blast furnace, no steel will be moving through Hamilton harbour.
June 09, 2009 -The Star-Ledger-MIDDLESEX COUNTY -- The Flordia-based steel company that operates two steel plants in the county has announced they will be suspending its Sayreville steel mill and will close its Perth Amboy facility due to a decrease in demand for products, according to a report by NJBIZ.com.
A spokesman for Gerdau Ameristeel Corp said the moves are expected to take place in the coming months, the report said. The report said the company would not reveal its employment numbers, but said the New Jersey plants served the Northeast.
15 Jul 2009 -The Times - ArcelorMittal said in December it planned to shut down operations at the Hennepin, IL steel sheet finishing facility. The closure affects about 285 union employees.
United Steelworkers District 7 Director Jim Robinson said the union has been engaged in an ongoing dispute with the company over the decision. USW Local 7367 represents union employees at the plant.
When operational, the Hennepin plant finishes the steel from the company's Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor plants into cold-rolled and hot-dipped galvanized sheet.
In May the Chinese government published a list of 2,087 steel mills, cement works and other energy-intensive factories that it plans to force to close by the end of September as it attempts to make good on Premier Wen Jiabao's recent pledge to use an "iron hand" to tackle inefficient factories.
In addition to reducing China's carbon footprint, the factory closings are consistent with the government's broader strategy to modernise production techniques, boost international competitiveness and transform an industry from "being big to being strong", the ministry said.
Previous attempts by Beijing to close aging factories have been thwarted by provincial and municipal officials. They have sought to protect older steel mills and other heavy industrial operations employing thousands, some of which have provided workers with housing.
April 7, 2010 - The Chinese government has ordered the closure by the end of 2011 of steel mills with blast furnace capacities of less than 400 cubic meters. China’s 2009 steel production capacity was listed as 700 million tons, and the country’s mills produced less than 568 million tons in that year. Closing the mills is intended to improve both steel pricing and margins.
China buys iron ore from BHP Billiton (BHP), Rio Tinto (RTP), and Vale (VALE), all of which have recently shifted their pricing scheme to a quarterly contract and away from the annual benchmarking system that has been in effect for 40 years. The move has virtually doubled the price of iron ore, and China has so far resisted signing contracts at the new price.
Chinese iron ore miner Angang has indicated that it plans to double production in the next 10 years at a cost of about $2.15 billion. Angang now produces about 45 million tons of iron ore annually. To put those amounts in perspective, in the month of February, China imported nearly 50 million tons of iron ore.
Handan Iron & Steel Group, a unit of Hebei Steel, should close three steel converters, which have combined annual capacity of 900,000 tons, the ministry said. Chengde Xinxin Vanadium and Titanium Co. and Xuanhua Iron & Steel Co., two other units of Hebei Steel, should shut furnaces with a combined capacity of 700,000 tons, it said.
Wuhan Iron & Steel Group's Kunming Iron & Steel Co., Baosteel Group Corp.'s Guangdong Shaoguan Iron & Steel Group, Chongqing Iron & Steel (Group) Co. and Xinyu Iron & Steel Co. were also among the steelmakers in the ministry's list.
Dec 2009 - Steelmaker Corus has confirmed it will curtail production at its Teesside Cast Products factory, putting 1,700 people out of work. The 150-year-old Redcar plant is due to be mothballed at the end of January, 2010 due to a deal that had fallen through, signed by an international consortium led by Italian steel specialists Marcegaglia in 2004.
Corus said it was partially mothballing the plant, shutting its blast furnace, its steel melt shop - which makes slab - and one of the two coke ovens. It will be keeping open the wharf facility that handles imports and shipping, the other coke oven and some of the power generation capacity.
The company said operating a merchant slab plant with output of three million tonnes a year was "not sustainable" without a long-term partner.