Perspectives

THE SCRAP EXPORTS SHOOT-OUT

Get a grip, processors insist, there is no scrap crisis

For scrap processors, claims by steel mills about “a crisis situation with respect to steel scrap” amount to a recycling of memories from 2004 and, for old-timers, from 1979 and 1973.

THE SCRAP EXPORTS SHOOT-OUT

A long hit list and a legal strategy to bust trade barriers

Roller-coaster pricing of raw materials has drawn attention to how some governments might try to keep resources from leaving their territory. Nucor Corp., with steel scrap as its chief input, wants to make sure that such action is included in Washington’s agenda on trade distortions.

THE SCRAP EXPORTS SHOOT-OUT

Disruptive yes, but export taxes aren’t wholly to blame

Countries that use export taxes to hoard raw materials are disruptive to international trade, and the consequences worsen when a government can adjust them easily, reacting to short-term market conditions, one analyst said.

THE BIG SHRINK

Bracing for a seismic shift to smaller, lighter ‘sippers’

The battle for market share continues to rage in the automotive arena. But smaller vehicles might have a bigger, near-term impact on metal producers than new alternative power trains, industry insiders suggest.

THE BIG SHRINK

Automakers have their pick of routes to the future

When it comes to hybrid cars and trucks, new technologies don’t always mean a drastic change in the metals used to make them, according to auto industry insiders. While some analysts and metal industry partisans see a revolution in the making, the auto industry’s response might be: not so fast.

THE BIG SHRINK

The consumer has spoken . . . curbweight is critical

Remember the old ad slogan, “Where’s the beef?” The question of tomorrow in a more health-conscious environment might well be, “How much fat can you cut?”

HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Sooo many power source prototypes, sooo little time

Soaring fuel costs have left automakers reeling, with the impact on their bottom lines forcing many to slash jobs, close some plants and retool others to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles. The need to economize is driving a revolution of sorts: the rise of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Automakers are pressing the PHEV pedal to the metal

As original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) race to develop plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), there also is a pursuit for new battery technologies that will carry the vehicles further, and faster on a single charge.

HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Huge promise, but a slow-go for the foreseeable future

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) market stands poised to take off, but don’t expect it to be an overnight sensation, according to analysts following developments in the industry.

Regions

UNITED STATES

Election ’08: Who stands where on the issues that count

The policy differences between presidential nominees Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) are sharply drawn in many areas, but nowhere are they starker than in the area of international trade.

CANADA

Searching for ore beneath all that ice, sea and tundra

Not content with just the tip of the iceberg, Canada’s ruling Conservative Party has made a Canadian $100-million ($94-million) commitment to map mineral and energy resources in the rich but largely untapped Arctic region and reassert its sovereignty in the process.

Departments

FULL OF SCRAP

Have surcharges taken the snap out of price elasticity?

Scrap dealers and many of the companies that supply them with steel clips from their stamping presses re-learned an old lesson a month or two back. Simply stated, the ferrous scrap market has a downside as well as an upside, that prices can plunge as well as soar.

FULL OF SCRAP

Two more coalitions sharing one thing in common

With the exception of California, the states enacting mandatory recycling of computer monitors and televisions have chosen to make manufacturers pay the bills. But the details vary substantially—Washington state is not Oregon is not Maine. Several electronics manufacturers have launched nationwide recycling programs for their own branded goods. The result has been a patchwork.

FULL OF SCRAP

Catching up with Joe Rosengarten and his newfound infatuation

Until Wabash Alloys LLC disappeared last year into a larger company, acquired by Aleris International Inc., Beachwood, Ohio, the smelter chain’s purchasing chief was a key player in U.S. aluminum scrap.

METALS FORUM

A sharper edge for steel’s market development sword

To be competitive in today’s global marketplace, the steel industry must have a clear understanding of current market trends and a vision for those issues that will define future market demand.

TRACKING THE IRON ORE TRADE

All about the MB iron ore index

The iron ore index developed by Metal Bulletin (MB), a sister publication of AMM, is an accurate representation of the seaborne merchant market for sinter fines delivered to China.

THE TRADING POST

Is it time to bank on the value of ... thin air?

Richard L. Sandor doesn’t lack ambition. While U.S. financial exchanges are pushing into new areas like steel futures, often in the face of industry resistance, the founder of the world’s first exchange to trade climate products clearly thinks the sky’s the limit.

Magazine Issue: November 2008

Cover Story

‘Mr. Charisma’ takes charge at Alcoa

Just over a year ago, German-born Klaus Kleinfeld joined the big aluminum producer’s executive ranks and things haven’t been the same since. Beneath all the high energy and enthusiasm, however, the former Siemens exec is committed to staying the strategic course.

Alcoa’s not-so-secret weapon against a takeover bid

Rumors have long swirled that Alcoa Inc. could be a takeover target, but the Pittsburgh-based aluminum company might just have a trump card in Pennsylvania’s onerous anti-takeover laws.

Features

For Alcan, there truly is no place like home

After years of scouting the globe for new smelter locations, Rio Tinto Alcan’s Dick Evans has turned his attention to the aluminum maker’s home turf and its captive, cost-competitive hydroelectric power. The net result is a $6-billion-plus plan to up output at three Canadian facilities and longing looks of competitors-cum-predators eyeing ways to make the assets their own.

Passing the buck: the trouble with surcharges

Few subjects stir as much ire among steel consumers as scrap surcharges, the cost pass-along mechanism that has been blamed for a litany of evils, including defanging the one-time tooth-and-nail bargaining between scrap sellers and buyers. Have the mills gone soft? And with scrap prices plummeting, will surcharges linked to prime grades turn the tables on electric-furnace mills?

Just another case of follow-the-leader

Surcharges are distinct from steel base prices, which normally aren’t affected by month-to-month scrap price changes, although a rise in steel demand and ferrous scrap prices could put upward pressure on both.

Mending bridges, CSI recalls the ‘Wright’ stuff

When Vicente Wright officially took over as president and chief executive officer of California Steel Industries Inc. (CSI) on July 1, he could hardly be called a newcomer. Not only had he served as CSI’s chief executive for more than a year in 2003 and 2004, but he played an active role in the set of deals that helped launch the slab converter in 1984 from the rump of the former Kaiser Steel Corp.

Are PPPs the answer to the infrastructure impasse?

The letters stand for public-private partnerships, a new wrinkle in project funding that could pan out big for rod and wire mills waiting for the infrastructure market to finally hit the road.

A flashing yellow light anywhere you turn

Road, rail, on the river or deep water, soaring fuel prices, capacity constraints, and runaway freight rates have made moving metal a costly exercise in frustration.

Columns

ENERGY WATCH

How their energy plans differ . . . why neither will work

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain proved effective in firing up their voting base in the run-up to the November elections.

PARTING SHOTS

The ‘Big Three,’ Capitalism 101 and the bailout brigade

It appears that political momentum is building for a federal government loan to General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC on terms far more favorable than they could realize in the marketplace. The numbers circulating in Washington suggest $400 billion at 4 percent would be just about right to prop up the struggling portion of the U.S. auto industry.

From the Editor

COMMENT

Measuring the fallout as the aluminum bubble bursts

When a bubble bursts, it doesn’t take long for the gas to escape.

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