Heat Treat Industry News
August 31, 2009
U.S. Steel Restarts Hamilton, Ontario Blast Furnace (Update2)
Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Steel Corp., the largest U.S.- based steelmaker by sales, is restarting one of two Canadian blast furnaces to meet an increase in demand.
“We are restarting primary steel operations in Hamilton,” Trevor Harris, a U.S. Steel spokesman, said in a telephone interview. “We manage our operations in accordance with customer demand.”
About 800 workers returned to work since mid-July at the Hamilton, Ontario, facility, which can produce about 2 million tons of steel annually, Harris said.
Steel prices rose in July for the first time in a year after distributors began rebuilding inventories. The use of stockpiles pulled the hot-rolled sheet spot-market price from a record $1,068 a ton in July 2008 to $380 in June, the lowest since January 2004.
U.S. Steel Corp.’s orders for flat-rolled steel have improved since bottoming in April and May, and mill operating rates may exceed 50 percent in the current quarter, up from 32 percent in the prior period, Chief Executive Officer John Surma said on a July 28 call with analysts.
The Hamilton plant and U.S. Steel’s Nanticoke, Ontario, plant, which can produce about 2.4 million tons a year, were shut in March because of a drop in demand.
Canada’s Industry Minister Tony Clement said on July 17 that the government would file an application with a federal court to determine whether U.S. Steel broke its investment commitments when the company idled the plants.
Harris declined to comment on whether the company expects the Hamilton restart to resolve the dispute because “it’s a matter before the courts.”
U.S. Steel rose $1.16, or 2.7 percent, to $44.60 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have increased 20 percent this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Delaney in Toronto at robdelaney@bloomberg.net.
By Rob Delaney - Last Updated: August 28, 2009 16:19 EDT
SOURCE: Bloomberg.com
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