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ET reported that TATA Steel is planning to form an international company for consolidating its raw material assets that are spread across the world and which could eventually be used to raise funds for future acquisitions.

Mr Koushik Chatterjee group CFO of TATA Steel said that “We will reorganize our group structure to unlock shareholder value over the next 6 to 12 months for growth in raw material assets and new market strategies. We are looking at an overseas group structure below TATA Steel to create the appetite for acquisitions. Since it would require capital, we are looking at various options.”

Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel said that “Ownership of raw materials and a continuous improvement in production has been the key to TATA Steel’s profitability. In fact we have believed in owning raw materials for the past 100 years.”

In addition to mining assets in India TATA Steel also owns raw material assets such as coal and limestone mines through joint ventures or completely, with the assets spread across countries such as Australia, Oman and Mozambique. brought to you from steelguru.com

Novolipetsk Steel has won the 2007 Best Russian Exporter contest in the category of Ferrous Metals – Best Exporter in the Industry”. The award ceremony was held on  20 June, 2008 in Moscow. 

The contest was held by the Ministry of Industry and  Trade of the Russian Federation as part of the State Support Program of the Russian Federation Export Development. The winners were named based on consolidated export figures reported by the companies.   

In 2007 NLMK Group supplied its products to more than 80 countries across the world. Higher added value products supply increased by 5% compared to 2006, and their share of the sales structure amounted to 21%. These changes are in line with NLMK Group’s long-term strategy of targeting downstream product supplies. In particular, electrical steel sales volumes increased achieving 10% of the total volume in 2007. Strong demand in foreign markets fostered hot-rolled steel supplies, increasing their share to 19%. NLMK Group’s total export sales revenue amounted to USD 4,815 billion

ET reported that Maharashtra Seamless Limited is in the race to acquire an Indonesia based iron ore mining firm for around INR 300 crore. It is learnt that the Indonesian firm has iron ore reserves of close to 20 million tonne. If the deal goes through, Maharashtra Seamless would also establish a 1 million tonne steel plant close to the iron ore deposits in Indonesia with investments of up to INR 1,200 crore.

Company sources said that it would resort to internal accruals to fund the proposed steel project as well as the acquisition. As part of the backward integration initiatives, it had planned to set up its first steel plant in Orissa. However, if the deal with the mining firm goes through, the plant would instead come up in Indonesia considering the proximity to iron ore reserves.

According to the industry sources, the acquisition of the Indonesian iron ore mining company would help MSL meet iron ore requirements for its proposed steel plant. The steel plant, in turn, would serve as a raw material source for company’s seamless pipes and tubes business.

Maharashtra Seamless plans to add another 150,000 tonne by de bottlenecking the existing capacity of 3.5 million tonnes, located at Raigad in Maharashtra, with an additional investment of close to INR 100 crore. Presently, MSL supplies wide range of pipes and tubes to various domestic industries, primarily oil and gas, for exploration activities. brought to you from steelguru.com

ArcelorMittal the largest Steel producer in the world announced on Friday that they would launch a flat carbon steel JV partnership with Hunan Valin Group and Hunan Valin Steel.   Hunan Valin Steel will own 34 percent in the new joint venture while ArcelorMittal and Hunan Valin Group will each have a 33 percent stake.   This new joint venture will have an annual production capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of flat carbon steel, that will be used mostly for automotive applications.  Products will include cold rolled steel, galvannealed steel and pure zinc galvanized steel.

A report by the American Iron and Steel Institute was released today showing that there was a 18% decline in may, 2008 steel imports over april, 2008.  The U.S. importred a total of 2,451,000 (NT) of steel in may 2008, including 1,998,000 (NT) of finished steel.  For the first 5 months of 2008 total and finished steel imports are down by 11% and 14%, respectively vs the same period in 2007.  However, in the most recent 3 months March-May 2008 is up 10% vs the monthly average in the previous 3 months (Dec. 2007 – Feb. 2008)

Total and finished steel imports on an annualized basis this year are down 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively, vs. 2007. On an annualized basis, total imports of steel in 2008 would be 31.6 million NT. Key products with large increases in May compared to the month before include: Sheet & Strip Galvanized Hot Dipped (up 89%), Oil Country Goods (up 21%), Heavy Structural Shapes (up 15%) and Cold Rolled Sheets (up 10%). For the first five months of 2008, products showing significant increases vs. the same period in 2007 included Oil Country Goods (up 17%) and Line Pipe (up 16%).

Its 2008 and oil prices are at there highest in history, the world is finally realizing after years of prices rising that oil is limited and that we need to figure out an alternative to oil. Well the government has been tooting corn and soy beans as alternative crops to make bio diesel. Mean while that is not cost effective all it is doing is rising the price of food around the world.  personally in the research I have done the government needs to forget corn and soy beans as a bio fuel alternative and spend all there efforts on Algae. Ok now that I said that lets get back to the point every where you look these days things are looking bad that is for the average Joe. 

      Steel is no different in fact it has probably risen more in price then most everything else in the last 6 months Certain steel products have more then doubled, that means worse news for the bank account and higher prices for things like Autos.  Normally I wouldn’t be so opinionated but it is something that needs to be said, so I will put in my 2 cents again and say maybe the US should pull out of a war they should never have gotten into in the first place and start spending all that lost wasted money on renewable energies. With all that has been spent on the war to date the US could have been created enough renewable energies that the US would literally need no more oil imports. This alone would bring prices down in the US and would have kept the US in a boom economy for many years to come.  Imagine lower cost at the pumps, lower electricity cost and all the money staying in the country and not being spent over sea’s would be enough to lower cost world wide for gas, steel, food , transportation and much more.  Just my 2 cents don’t listen to me I am just writing.

The Luxembourg steelmaker ArcelorMittal said Monday it will buy Bayou Steel Corp.

One of ArcelorMittal Steel mill’s below

      Bayou Steel Corp. operates a minimill on the Mississippi River in LaPlace, and has a rolling mill in Harriman, Tenn.  They also run an automobile shredder at the LaPlace plant, barge wrecking and scrap yards in LaPlace, and a plant in Harvey. they employ 630 people and in 2007 generated revenue of $331 million on 510,000 tons of finished product.
  

      ArcelorMittal North America CEO Jos Jacque, said  “We are excited by the opportunity that this acquisition represents as it further strengthens … our product portfolio, customer base and distribution network in North America.”  For those that don’t know already ArcelorMittal is the worlds largest steel company and has been expanding over the last couple years and seems like they have no plans to slow down in the near future.  ArcelorMittal says it will invest 25 billion in the India steel market and is interested in expanding there operations in china as well.  On another note as long as the dollar is weak we will probably see more buyouts from foreign steel companies, because exports from the nation’s mills are more competitive.

      Bayou Steel went through bankruptcy several years ago and emerged from it in 2004. In 2006, after several months of seeking takeover bids, Bayou Steel agreed to be acquired by Black Diamond Capital Management LLC.

The purchase by ArcelorMittal is subject to regulatory approval.

At the rate of growth in steel production around the world mainly in china and india we could see 2,000,000 MMT of steel produced in 2008.  The Steel industry is huge and plays a crucial role in the infrastructure and overall economic development of a country, the Steel industry is often considered to be an indicator of economic progress.

       The Boom in China and India’s economy has caused a mass increase in steel demand over the last few years and prices have risen along with the rise in the booming steel market.  The steel industry is vital to national security and economic competitiveness.  Railroads, automobiles, skyscrapers, bridges, appliances and more are all built and produced with Steel.

       With the increase in demand and the rising prices of fuel and electricity we can only expect the cost of steel to keep going up even with slower economies around the world since steels growth is higher in 3rd world countries it is not as affected to  a slow down in a few economies there is still plenty of demand in emerging economies.

       The steel industry is one of the greener industry’s with a recycling rate of 65-70% it is the most recycled material on the planet.  did you know that to make the framing for a 3000 square-foot home you would need about 9 recycled cars for the same with wood you would need to chop down approximately 60-75 trees.  As prices of steel rise I suspect recycling levels will rise as well.

With the introduction of the Bessemer process in 1858 the modern steel making era began. The Bessemer process allowed for large quantities of steel to be produced cheaply, effectively replacing wrought iron with steel, however this was just the first of many production methods used in modern steel making most were just improvements on the Bessemer process one of these was the Gilchrist-Thomas process created by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and cousin Percy Gilchrist devised in 1876-77 this process was widely used in Europe there after.

        The Gilchrist-Thomas process of manufacturing in Bessemer converters a kind of low-phosphorus steel known as Thomas steel. In the Thomas – Gilchrist process the lining used in the converter is basic rather than acidic, and it captures the acidic phosphorus oxides formed upon blowing air through molten iron. the Gilchrist-Thomas process was an improvement on the Bessemer process.

       Another improvement on the Bessemer process was the Siemens-Martin process, In 1865, the french engineer Pierre-Emile Martin took out a licence from Carl Wilhelm Siemens and first applied his furnace for making steel. Their process was known as the Siemens-Martin process, and the furnace as an “open-hearth” furnace. The most appealing characteristic of the Siemens regenerative furnace is the rapid production of large quantities of basic steel, used for example to construct high-rise buildings. The usual size of furnaces is 50 to 100 tons, but for some special processes they may have a capacity of 250 or even 500 tons. The Siemens-Martin process complemented rather than replaced the Bessemer process. It is slower and thus easier to control.

Both the Gilchrist-Thomas process and Siemens-Martin process complemented, rather than replaced the original Bessemer process

Siemens-Martin Oven below

        The Bessemer process was rendered obsolete by the Linz-Donawitz process of basic oxygen steel making developed in the 1950’s,  by 1968 most all commercial steel producers stopped using the Bessemer process and replaced it with the Linz-Donawitz process which offered better control of final chemistry. The Bessemer process was so fast (10-20 minutes for a heat) that it allowed little time for chemical analysis or adjustment of the alloying elements in the steel. Bessemer converters did not remove phosphorus efficiently from the molten steel; as low-phosphorus ores became more expensive, conversion costs increased. The process only permitted a limited amount of scrap steel to be charged, further increasing costs, especially when scrap was inexpensive. Certain grades of steel were sensitive to the nitrogen which was part of the air blast passing through the steel.

Linz Donawitz Oven below

Early modern steel included Blister Steel manufactured by the cementation process which was first made around the 16th century in Italy and soon after in England were it was produced in Coalbrookdale by Basil Brooke around 1610.  Wrought iron bars was the raw material used in the process, and was still used up till the 19th century.

Another early modern steel was Crucible Steel which was melted in a crucible rather then being forged.  This resulted in a more uniform structure with better composition throughout.  Earlier furnaces could not reach high enough temperatures to melt steel.  Modern crucible steel resulted from the invention of Benjamin Huntsman in the 1740’s. Blister Steel (same as above) was melted in a crucible in side a furnace, & cast into ingots normally.

Early modern steel era ended and Modern steel making era began with the Bessemer Process named after it’s inventor Henry Bessemer who took out a patent on the process in 1855. although this process had already been used centuries before in china and other countries it was not used on an industrial scale before.  The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly. The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for mass production of steel from molten pig iron.  The key to the process is the removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation by air being blown through the molten iron.

the Bessemer Process which revolutionized steel manufacture by cutting cost and increasing production speed and decreasing labor requirements.  this brought the price of steel down to a similar priced wrought iron, which for the first time in history made steel an affordable material for building bridges or to be used in the frame work for buildings, most manufactures switched from wrought iron to steel after this. 

below is a picture of a Bessemer converter