Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The end of Stelco, the end of an era
And then there were none.
U. S. Steel Canada Inc., formerly Stelco Inc., today announced the completion of the arrangement involving the acquisition by a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation of all of Stelco Inc.'s outstanding common shares.
U. S. Steel Canada Inc., formerly Stelco Inc., today announced the completion of the arrangement involving the acquisition by a subsidiary of United States Steel Corporation of all of Stelco Inc.'s outstanding common shares.
Labels: stelco
Saturday, October 20, 2007
U.S. Border Fence Made with Imported Steel
This is more symbolic in some ways than substantive, but not entirely. I know someone who knows someone, etc, who is a fencemaker. He bought fence from China (you buy it in rolls, like fabric) twice, and both times, the quality was poor and he had to replace it after installation. So he won't buy there again. I don't know what the quality issues were, but if it makes a lousy fence, even if it's a good price, what's the point?
NPR
The comedian Carlos Mencia jokes about that giant fence to keep out immigrants. He says we might need immigrant labor to build it. Now lawmakers are upset that the fence includes immigrant steel. Some of the fence on the Mexican border is being built with steel from China.
NPR
The comedian Carlos Mencia jokes about that giant fence to keep out immigrants. He says we might need immigrant labor to build it. Now lawmakers are upset that the fence includes immigrant steel. Some of the fence on the Mexican border is being built with steel from China.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Copper heads for 4th weekly advance
Bloomberg.com: Latin America
Copper headed for a fourth weekly advance in London as a strike by Peruvian workers cut production and on speculation a report will indicate economic growth in the U.S., the second-largest user of the metal. Lead gained to a record. A three-day strike by workers at a smelter and two mines owned by Southern Copper Corp. in Peru reduced output by 10 percent, Chief Executive Officer Oscar Gonzalez Rocha said yesterday.
The Motley Fool had this humorous comment. The effect for metal stampers, if they're correct, is more price increases in copper.
So here's the latest metal muddle. Workers at three of Southern Copper's (NYSE: PCU) Mexican mines have been on strike since the end of July. Wednesday, their Peruvian brethren struck for the third time this year. This isn't a knock on Southern Copper specifically. Dozens of Peruvian mining unions have agreed to a national strike beginning Nov. 5. Thus, these miner grievances are anything but minor.
Production outages, of course, support the price of copper as stockpiles fall. So it's a great time to own a copper producer, so long as its operations aren't being disrupted.
Copper headed for a fourth weekly advance in London as a strike by Peruvian workers cut production and on speculation a report will indicate economic growth in the U.S., the second-largest user of the metal. Lead gained to a record. A three-day strike by workers at a smelter and two mines owned by Southern Copper Corp. in Peru reduced output by 10 percent, Chief Executive Officer Oscar Gonzalez Rocha said yesterday.
The Motley Fool had this humorous comment. The effect for metal stampers, if they're correct, is more price increases in copper.
So here's the latest metal muddle. Workers at three of Southern Copper's (NYSE: PCU) Mexican mines have been on strike since the end of July. Wednesday, their Peruvian brethren struck for the third time this year. This isn't a knock on Southern Copper specifically. Dozens of Peruvian mining unions have agreed to a national strike beginning Nov. 5. Thus, these miner grievances are anything but minor.
Production outages, of course, support the price of copper as stockpiles fall. So it's a great time to own a copper producer, so long as its operations aren't being disrupted.
Labels: Copper
Shares of North American steel producers dipped Thursday
What is bad news for steel producers may be better news for metal stampers ...
Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Shares of North American steel producers dipped Thursday, after a Morgan Stanley analyst said supplies and capacity are growing just as demand is likely to slow down.
Capacity on the rise may mean a reduction in steel prices.
Just a few days ago, MEPS said something similar, although with slightly different timeframes.
The import threat is receding and volumes are expected to drop significantly - providing opportunities for the domestic mills to capture a much greater share of the slightly weakening consumption. Inventories at the service centres and OEM's will need to be replenished in the final quarter of this year and beyond. The mills' order intake should improve over the coming months leading to extended delivery lead times. This, in turn, should tighten the supply side and allow the domestic mills to push for higher prices from customers. Of course, with the prospect of rising input costs (including iron ore, coke freight and scrap), the mills will have sound cause to lift selling values for the early part of 2008.
With the prospect of a slow down in the US economy after recent financial problems we are not confident that real demand for steel will expand in the second half of next year. The recent fall in interest rates may help but confidence in the housing market may not return for some time. This impacts on sales of consumer goods and residential construction projects - affecting all the flat products. Third quarter 2008 steel price agreements could be the high point of the year for most product categories.
We continue to predict a further modest reduction in the average long products price in North America up to the turn of the year. Difficulties in both the residential and commercial construction sectors are likely to restrict real demand and opportunities for the mills to push for price increases. However, no major collapse in selling values is anticipated because input costs to the mills will, almost certainly, increase and the import threat is likely to diminish.
From: MEPS 02.10.2007 forecast
Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Shares of North American steel producers dipped Thursday, after a Morgan Stanley analyst said supplies and capacity are growing just as demand is likely to slow down.
Capacity on the rise may mean a reduction in steel prices.
Just a few days ago, MEPS said something similar, although with slightly different timeframes.
The import threat is receding and volumes are expected to drop significantly - providing opportunities for the domestic mills to capture a much greater share of the slightly weakening consumption. Inventories at the service centres and OEM's will need to be replenished in the final quarter of this year and beyond. The mills' order intake should improve over the coming months leading to extended delivery lead times. This, in turn, should tighten the supply side and allow the domestic mills to push for higher prices from customers. Of course, with the prospect of rising input costs (including iron ore, coke freight and scrap), the mills will have sound cause to lift selling values for the early part of 2008.
With the prospect of a slow down in the US economy after recent financial problems we are not confident that real demand for steel will expand in the second half of next year. The recent fall in interest rates may help but confidence in the housing market may not return for some time. This impacts on sales of consumer goods and residential construction projects - affecting all the flat products. Third quarter 2008 steel price agreements could be the high point of the year for most product categories.
We continue to predict a further modest reduction in the average long products price in North America up to the turn of the year. Difficulties in both the residential and commercial construction sectors are likely to restrict real demand and opportunities for the mills to push for price increases. However, no major collapse in selling values is anticipated because input costs to the mills will, almost certainly, increase and the import threat is likely to diminish.
From: MEPS 02.10.2007 forecast
Labels: steel
Scientists create transparent, thin plastic strong like steel
It's missing some properties that would be needed to make it a steel-killer, but it's an interesting development none-the-less.
Yahoo! News
Scientists have developed a transparent new plastic as strong as steel and as thin as a sheet of paper, according to a study released Thursday by Science magazine.
Made out of clay and a non-toxic glue similar to that used in school classrooms, the composite plastic is biodegradable and requires very little energy to produce, lead researcher Nicholas Kotov said.
It takes a few hours to build up the 300 layers needed to make a thin sheet of the plastic as the robot's arm dips in an out of vials of glue and a dispersion of clay nanosheets.
The resulting sheet is a meter square, so it's not exactly fast to make, but the technology could probably scale and be replicated for faster production.
Yahoo! News
Scientists have developed a transparent new plastic as strong as steel and as thin as a sheet of paper, according to a study released Thursday by Science magazine.
Made out of clay and a non-toxic glue similar to that used in school classrooms, the composite plastic is biodegradable and requires very little energy to produce, lead researcher Nicholas Kotov said.
It takes a few hours to build up the 300 layers needed to make a thin sheet of the plastic as the robot's arm dips in an out of vials of glue and a dispersion of clay nanosheets.
The resulting sheet is a meter square, so it's not exactly fast to make, but the technology could probably scale and be replicated for faster production.
Labels: steel
Monday, October 01, 2007
ArcelorMittal, ThyssenKrupp Steel Closing E-Commerce Site
This seems odd. The concept is obsolete, so they're going to making their own web sites that do the same thing ... what am I missing?
Metal Producing & Processing
ArcelorMittal and ThyssenKrupp Steel have decided to close Steel 24-7, the e-commerce platform they own and had been administrating jointly.
Reports indicate that Steel 24-7 has more than 700 registered customers in 37 countries, though most of the buyers are understood to be European operations. More than 1 million transactions are said to have been processed during the site's years of operation.
Metal Producing & Processing
ArcelorMittal and ThyssenKrupp Steel have decided to close Steel 24-7, the e-commerce platform they own and had been administrating jointly.
Reports indicate that Steel 24-7 has more than 700 registered customers in 37 countries, though most of the buyers are understood to be European operations. More than 1 million transactions are said to have been processed during the site's years of operation.
Labels: steel
