wiredinUSA February 2020

Winding wire plans

Rebar stocks show no surprise

Image: LS Group

South Korea’s LS Group is planning further investment in its winding wire manufacturing plant in Serbia to increase its business footprint in eastern Europe. LS’s chairman, Koo Ja-yeol met with Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic, during her visit to Seoul, to discuss ways to expand business cooperation and investment in the country. LS Cable and System’s power cable manufacturing subsidiary, Superior Essex Co, operates a winding wire factory in Zrenjanin, Serbia, producing an annual 12,000 tons of copper wire. “LS will additionally invest in the copper wire plant to double the capacity and make it the largest copper factory in eastern Europe,” said Koo.

As anticipated, China’s inventory of construction steel rebar rose for a fifth consecutive week at the start of January, as depressed demand built up rebar stocks at warehouses and steel mills. Social inventories of rebar also increased as a result of clearing the cargo backlog at ports and construction sites before closing for the Chinese New Year. A current gap in profit margins made steelmakers more likely to produce hot- rolled coil at the expense of rebar, while narrower margins have pushed some electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmakers into suspension or to carry out extensive maintenance. Industry data showed rebar inventories at Chinese steelmakers stood at 2.17 million metric tonnes on 2 nd January 2020, four weeks before the Chinese New Year holiday; this was up 2.8% from 26 th December 2019. Overall inventories of rebar, including stocks across steelmakers and social warehouses, increased 8.7% at 5.6 million metric tonnes as of 2 nd January. On a yearly basis this showed overall inventories had increased by 2.2%.

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wiredInUSA - February 2020