WCA September 2016

From the Americas

 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp (NSSMC) announced on 21 st June that is planning to build a $50 million plant in Shelbyville, Indiana, to process cold heading steel wire for the automotive industry. Japan’s largest steel producer said it has set up a subsidiary – Nippon Steel & Sumikin Cold Heading Wire Indiana Inc – to operate the facility, expected to produce 39,000 tons of steel wire per year. Commissioning is set for spring 2018. According to Indiana Star reporter James Briggs, the state of Indiana has offered the Japanese company $475,000 in tax credits and $140,000 in training grants if it follows through with hiring plans that extend to 2021. The town of Shelbyville is considering additional incentives. NSSMC, formed by the merger of Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal in 2012, also operates Indiana Precision Forge in Shelbyville, Seymour Tubing Inc in Seymour, and IN/Tek and IN/Kote in New Carlisle.  In an attention-getting Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) initiative, Japan’s JFE Steel, the fifth-largest steelmaker in the world, will standardise its core platform across all factories, using the Internet of Things (IoT) to connect factories for better management. Parent company JFE Holdings said it plans to spend $652 million to bring IoT to its factories by 2022. The single database is expected to shorten production times, reduce order delivery times, and detect signs of equipment failure earlier.

Steel  People’s Daily , which disseminates information on the policies and viewpoints of the Chinese government, this spring carried a small item that may merit more attention than it received. Zhang Shengsheng, identified as the general manger of an investment company, was quoted on 17 th May as saying that China plans to transfer ten million tons of steel capacity to Brazil in a move that will help, not only to cut steel overcapacity in China, but also to avoid “the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy trade investigation that has been launched by Western countries against China.” Several large Chinese companies – including Ansteel, Masteel, Baosteel, and Wuhan Iron and Steel – were reported “to have all expressed interest” in the Brazilian initiative. For its part, Brazil was said to be looking forward to hosting the project, which would boost local employment and increase tax revenue, and to have agreed to donate almost eight square miles of land to it. While no details were given, according to Xu Zhongbo, vice-president of the preparatory committee for the project, the transplanted Chinese output will meet Brazilian demand first, then the needs of other South American and North American customers.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2016