Drop in CIS semi-finish and flat steel prices
Amid the fall in global flat steel prices, HRC offers from CIS countries also plunged by USD 5-10/MT this week. The CIS-origin HRC offers are currently being heard at USD 580-595/MT, FoB Black Sea against USD 590-600/MT last week. CIS origin billet is currently being offered at USD 535-540/MT, CFR Egypt, down by USD 5-10/MT.
The sellers in CIS region are currently in a wait and watch mode and are waiting for demand to pick up in order to further raise their steel product prices.
Will Russia’s NLMK close its U.S. business due to tariffs?
According to the market reports, Russian steelmaker NLMK has told the U.S. Department of Commerce that it could be forced to shut down its U.S. business due to the impact of new U.S. tariffs announced on steel and aluminum by Trump government in March 2018.
NLMK has written a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce mentioning that “Without an exclusion for semi-finished steel slabs from tariffs, these trade restrictions will have the perverse effect of killing U.S. steelmaking jobs and potentially putting our company out of business.”
NLMK which is headquartered in Russia has its production facilities in Indiana and Pennsylvania, U.S. While in Indiana unit, NLMK operates an electric arc furnace, a ladle metallurgy furnace, a continuous slab caster which converts slabs into coils in its hot strip mill, NLMK Pennsylvania operates as a conversion mill that turns slabs into hot-rolled and cold-rolled coils. These NLMK units in U.S. majorly procure its slabs requirement from their parent company in Russia and with the imposition of U.S. tariffs on steel imports, it would add to their raw material costs and make it difficult for them to operate profitably.
Accident in Ukraine’s AMKR’s blast furnace suspends its restart activity
As per the market reports, Ukraine’s steel major AMKR’s (Arcelor Mittal Kryvyi Rih) blast furnace no.9 which was out of operation since Feb’18 was scheduled to start this week. However, during its commissioning a liquid pig iron emission took place accompanied by a loud sound, resulting which blast furnace has to be stopped immediately.
However, as the blast furnace was already out of operation the availability of material is not likely to get impacted. The further date of recommissioning of blast furnace has not been mentioned by the company yet.
AMKR also plans to work on the expansion of its billet-making capacity. The producer plans to install two continuous-casting billet machines with a total capacity of 2.80 MnT per year by the end of 2018.
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