In a death grip? Cap and trade could add $1 billion to the steel industry’s costs—the equivalent of $10 to $12 per ton of steel—and draw more imports into the U.S., a new study found.
The Waxman-Markey climate-change bill could add as much as $1 billion to production costs for U.S. steelmakers by 2030, according to a report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., equivalent to an increase of $10 to $12 per ton.
Further indications are emerging that price hikes for flat-rolled products are sticking, with ArcelorMittal USA Inc. raising its September prices and mills on the West Coast slating increases of at least $40 per ton.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) may ease the impact of the “Buy American” iron and steel provisions in the $787-billion economic stimulus package by crafting regulations that would soften some aspects of the measure and possibly grant some outright exemptions as well.
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) anticipates a “difficult period” ahead for structural products and doesn’t expect a real recovery until 2011, but the company believes its structurals business can operate in the black barring a further price meltdown.
Brazilian pig iron producers from the Carajás region have closed an export deal to the United States at $20 per tonne higher than the previous transaction price, industry sources said.
| Aluminum | -2.11% |
| Silver | -1.79% |
| Palladium | -0.79% |
| Copper - LME:AM | -0.64% |
| Tin - LME:AM | -0.35% |
| Gold | +0.48% |
| Lead | +0.94% |
| Steel Billet- LME:AM | +2.05% |
| Al Alloy - LME:AM | +2.09% |
| Nickel | +2.45% |
With capability utilization below 50 percent, major end markets in full retreat and the cost ramifications of proposed cap-and-trade legislation looming large, steel’s survival skills are being tested as never before. What will the North American steel industry look like in the next few years for those fit, fearless and flexible enough to survive?
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