WCA March 2015

From the Americas

Steel imports peaked at the port in 2006, at 201,000 tons. They fell dramatically as the USA economy slid into recession, bottoming out at 61,000 tons in 2011. With the recovery and increased manufacturing activity, steel imports have risen. The most dramatic gains came last year, with tonnage up about 60 per cent from 2013. The Federal Mattawa , which carried steel from Germany, Finland and the United Kingdom, was the last ship bringing overseas cargo to Milwaukee before the St Lawrence Seaway closed for the season later in the month.  Nucor headed into 2015 having made a significant price cut in response to import pressure: $40 per ton on a range of wide-flange steel beams, the company announced in a letter to customers on 11 th December. From Pittsburgh, Platts also reported that competitors Steel Dynamics and Gerdau Long Steel North America promptly matched the Nucor decrease. The lower price became effective immediately at Nucor’s Berkeley mill in South Carolina and at the Nucor-Yamato mill in Arkansas. Most medium sections from the Charlotte, North Carolina-based mini-mill steelmaker now go for $780/ton – down from $820. “The price reduction is in keeping with current offers and the recent arrivals of imports from Korea, Luxembourg, Russia, Germany, Mexico, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, United Kingdom and Japan,” Nucor told its customers. “We will continue to monitor market conditions and respond accordingly.” Heavy sections were excluded from the Nucor price cut, applied only to “a select range of Mill 1 wide flange beams and structural channels.” Gerdau’s lower prices are for “select beam products and structural channels.”  Another Platts item on steel prices preceded the Nucor item by about a week. From Singapore, Keith Tan reported that spot premiums for seaborne iron ore lump reached their highest in 11 months on 3 rd December, lifted by tight supply and a seasonal pickup in demand. In the opinion of a trader the lump market is in steep backwardation, with material stocked at Chinese ports being sold at about $6 higher per dry metric ton (dmt) compared with seaborne cargoes loading in December. The trader told Mr Tan that, while producers like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton customarily sell lump prior to loading, traders who hold seaborne cargoes and had operations at Chinese ports were more likely to wait until they were discharged, selling them at higher prices as port stocks. A steelmaker source in eastern China told Platts that stocks of imported lump were low at Chinese ports, owing to steady demand from mills.

Steel With women already holding 20 per cent of its salaried jobs, ArcelorMittal in Indiana is trying hard to recruit many more The traditionally male-dominated steel industry in the United States may be changing. As reported by Joseph S Pete in the Northwest Indiana Times , a major catalyst for the change is ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker. It is also the biggest in Northwest Indiana, where one in five in its salaried and managerial ranks and one in ten of its hourly workers is a woman. (“Women of Steel: More Women Finding Home in Steel Industry,” 2 nd December) Mr Pete noted that the American unit of Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal has been actively recruiting more female engineers as well as grooming its own female employees for advancement. The company sends its female engineers out to give talks at the engineering schools of Ohio State University and Purdue University, also in Ohio; Penn State University; the Colorado Schools of Mines; and others. But the outreach to women is not confined to academic circles, or indeed to the steel industry. ArcelorMittal also dispatches representatives to middle schools and high schools to try to get more students – girls and boys both – to engage with science, technology and maths, and to consider careers in steel. They also talk to established female engineers in the Society of Women Engineers to talk up the industry and the opportunities it offers. Mr Pete noted that, at ArcelorMittal, women serve in management, hold top positions in sales and marketing, and lead global teams – automotive among them. And the company has developed a pilot programme, Women Emerging in Leadership, which offers guidance for careers in management. According to Mary Lynn Gargas-South, the human resources director for ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon USA, who works out of the corporate office in Burns Harbor, Indiana, there are no limits or barriers to how high up the ranks women can rise. Ms Gargas-South is living proof of her assertion, having worked in a variety of areas at ArcelorMittal including power and utilities, operations, finishing, and product and process improvement. Before ascending to her present distinctly white-collar position, she was a hands-on engineer who wore an oxygen tank and checked for leaks in steam valves. Elsewhere in steel . . .  Steel shipments into the Port of Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, rebounded strongly in 2014, with tonnage hitting its second-highest level since 1970. As reported by Rick Romell of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on 15 th December, a cargo of coil and structural and plate steel unloaded off the ship Federal Mattawa in December brought the port’s steel imports for the year to 179,000 tons.

Dorothy Fabian Features Editor

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2015