Stainlßss Steßl Focus - Gopal Group of Industries

Transcription

Issue No. 03/2010 (425)
ISSN 1478 - 1824
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Nickel forecast 24% higher
than in preceding year p. 62
Cover story:
Gopal Group of Industries
The "stain" less people p. 26
Editorial
It is once again that time of the year when
company results start coming in thick and fast.
On the whole, they do not tell us much more than
we already knew, or anticipated.
As Outokumpu recently succinctly summarised:
“2009 was an exceptional year for the stainless
steel industry in many ways. The global
recession had a significant impact on the
industry, especially in Europe. During the first part
of 2009, demand was extremely weak and
stainless steel markets were characterised by
heavy destocking. Some recovery occurred in
the summer but markets softened again towards
the end of the year. In 2009, China was the only
market in which demand grew and production
significantly increased”.
The outcome of this state of affairs: Outokumpu
group sales in 2009 were down 52% compared
to the previous year, and stainless deliveries
down 28%. The group recorded an operating loss
Rßsults improve but
optimism still lacking
of Euro438m. The stainless steel segment at
ArcelorMittal saw sales drop by 49% in 2009
compared to 2008 , with shipments down 26%.
The segment recorded an operating loss of
US$172m.
The stainless segment at ArcelorMittal which
moved back into the black in quarter three,
reporting an operating income of $51m after a
quarter two loss of $64m, and a quarter one loss
of $169m, again achieved a positive result in the
final quarter of last year, although at $10m, this
was down on the previous quarter.
But whilst things are improving, the mood among
the mills remains somewhat pessimistic.
Outokumpu has commented that there has been
no major improvement in the underlying demand
for stainless steel, and distributors’ cautious
buying behaviour continued over year-end. In
early February, it did note that order intake had
been more encouraging over the past few weeks,
and that it saw potential for some base price
increases. It anticipates, it said, an underlying
operational result in the first quarter at around
the same level or somewhat weaker than in the
final quarter of last year.
The ThyssenKrupp take on the outlook is that
world demand for stainless flat products is
forecast to grow by around 10% this year, bringing
global demand back to just above the level of
2008. “A positive trend can also be observed on
the European market, though overall demand will
still fall short of the level of previous years. In the
NAFTA region, sales volumes are expected to
pick up after a weak 2009. China and the other
Asian countries will also profit from rising
demand, although China in particular will be
unable to maintain the growth pace of recent
years.”
The Editor
Looking at the quarterly developments, we see a
somewhat less bleak picture. Admittedly,
Outokumpu again reported an operating loss in
the final quarter of last year, but at Euro29m, this
was well down on the loss of Euro65m reported
the previous quarter, the Euro94m loss reported
the quarter before that, and the Euro249m loss
recorded in the first quarter of last year. The
stainless division at ThyssenKrupp also again
reported a loss for the final quarter of last year
(quarter one of the company’s fiscal year), but at
Euro59m, this was a marked improvement on
the result achieved in the previous quarter.
Stainlßss Steßl Focus 03/2010
3
Contßnts
Europe
Outokumpu: exceptional year
Heavy losses but strong cash flow
ThyssenKrupp group returns to profit:
Stainless Global orders up 29% in Q1
..6
..10
Further investment in QA at Fine Tubes ..14
Major investment in new furnace:
Success story for ELG Carrs
..15
Covßr Story
New commercial director for Metalysis
..16
New appointments to Centravis board:
Strengthening finance and strategy
..17
The Gopal Group
success story:
The "stain" less people ..26
Bruderer UK beats the recession:
Further expansion of product range
..18
ArcelorMittal sees slow
recovery underway
..19
Ovßrseas
Stainless by-products for construction?
Two birds with one stone
..20
4
Universal: "early-stage recovery
in demand"
..21
ATI: "by far best quarter in 2009"
..22
MK Metalfoils USA commissions
new mill
..24
Indian domestic prices under pressure
..24
Nickßl alloys
Over 20,000 grinding machines
in 80 countries
..32
Wilsons supplies wide range
of aerospace metals
..34
5-Axis Edgetek SAM machine
for aerospace and gas turbine
components
..36
Tube & wire preview
wire 2010 and Tube 2010
on successful course
Robust improvement
programme continues
at UKF Stainless
..38
..40
RSA: new saw development
at Tube 2010
..46
data M opens UK head office
..48
Macro Bars & Wires (India) Pvt Ltd:
Supplying stainless steel wires
since 1978
..48
Combilift forklifts on display:
Safe and space saving 4-way handling
..50
Contßnts
Raw matßrials
Norilsk: drop in 2009 nickel production
..60
Cronimet investment in superalloys:
Metalloy Metalle-Legierungen new
processing machine
..61
Company profile
Tailor-made equipment
from Athader
oryx commodity review
..52
Nickel forecast 24% higher than
in preceding year
..62
Procßssing & Procßssors
Dalnox BrightTM technology
for cold rolled stainless strip
..54
Market pricßs
..65
Alloy surchargßs
..66
Applications & Usßrs
Sandvik duplex and super duplex
solid round bar
..58
Cover Photograph:
Gopal Group
Managing Editor: Richard Clark
Deputy Editor: Alison Lewis
Editorial Staff: Rüdiger Beckmann,
Wolfgang Giesen, André Zwartjes, Hans
G. Diederichs, Alexa Tepaß, Christine
Schmidt, Karl-Heinz Schulz, Marcel Joppa,
Marcel Biesen, Sabrina Fell, Beate Wyglenda
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Stainlßss Steßl Focus Ltd
ISSN 1478-1824
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Europe
Outokumpu: exceptional year
O
utokumpu has reported an exceptional year with
heavy losses but strong
cash flow. The operating
profit was Euro-438m,
compared to Euro-63m in
2008, with an underlying
operational result of some
Euro-340m compared to
Euro305m in 2008.
Outokumpu stated that no
major improvement in the
underlying demand for
stainless steel is yet visi-
Heavy losses
but strong cash flow
ted to be at the same level or slightly higher than
in the fourth quarter of
2009 (277,000 tonnes).
Base prices began to decline during the fourth
quarter 2009 but stabilised around the year end.
the fourth quarter of 2009.
If metal prices remain at
current levels, no major
raw material-related inventory gains or losses are
anticipated. Cash flow is
expected to remain negative in the first quarter with-
Outokumpu key figures
in Euro m
Q4
2008
Sales
General Stainless
Specialty Stainless
Other operations
Intra-group sales
Year
2008
Q4
2009
Year
2009
687
512
62
-295
4,147
2,705
258
-1,636
592
332
62
-259
2,065
1,239
243
-935
966
5,474
728
2,611
Operating profit
General Stainless
Specialty Stainless
Other operations
Intra-group items
-177
-123
25
4
-6
-101
38
6
-12
-10
-9
2
-259
-149
-31
1
The Group
-271
-63
-29
-438
The Group
ble. Distributors’ cautious
buying behaviour continued over the year end. During the past few weeks
order intake has, however,
been more encouraging.
Lead times on standard
grades for mill deliveries
are normal at 6-8 weeks.
Inventory levels at distributors in Europe are estimated to be at normal levels.
Outokumpu’s delivery volumes of stainless steel in
the first quarter are expec-
6
Thus, Outokumpu’s average base prices for all flat
products in the first quarter of 2010 are expected
to be Euro50-100/tonne
lower than the average in
the fourth quarter. Currently Outokumpu sees potential for some base price increases.
The group’s underlying
operational result in the
first quarter is expected to
be at the same level or
somewhat weaker than in
out any major impact on
gearing, which will remain
well below the group’s set
maximum level of 75%.
Ceo Juha Rantanen said:
"Year 2009 was a very difficult one for the stainless
steel industry. Dramatic
drop of end demand, representing an estimated
26% decline in Europe,
had a major negative impact on Outokumpu. We
were successful in reducing our costs, however this
effort was not sufficient
to compensate for the
volume decline. In spite of
external uncertainties, we
stay firm with our plans.
Priorities for 2010 are
clear; restoring profitability, continued safety
improvement, strategy
implementation and delivering of the Excellence Programmes. These longer
term initiatives build the
foundation for our future
results."
Slight recovery
of volumes for stainless
continued in Europe
After a moderate improvement in the global market
conditions for stainless
steel in the third quarter of
2009, apparent consumption of flat products in the
fourth quarter of 2009 is
estimated to have
increased a further 6% in
Europe but decreased by
11% globally. In China the
decline was 25%. Compared to the fourth quarter of
2008, apparent consumption of flat products is estimated to have increased
by 24% globally with an
increase of 8% in Europe
and very strong growth of
46% in China. Compared
to the third quarter of 2009,
fourth quarter production of
stainless steel is estimated to have declined by 7%
in Europe and 10% globally, with production in China down by 15%. Compared to the fourth quarter of
2008, production of stainless is estimated to have
Europe
been flat in Europe but to
have grown by 30% globally, with significant growth
of 63% in China.
Among the alloying elements, global demand for
nickel in the fourth quarter
was 7% lower than in the
previous quarter. Supplies
of nickel in the last quarter of 2009 continued to be
constrained by production
cuts and strikes, and production was 3% lower
than in the third quarter.
Nickel inventories at the
LME, however, were at historically high levels. The
nickel price traded in a
US$15,800-19,500/tonne
range during the quarter
and ended the year at
$18,480/tonne. The average nickel price in the quarter was $17,528/tonne. In
January 2010, the price of
Stainless steel deliveries
in '000 t
Q4
2008
Year
2008
Q4
2009
Year
2009
Cold rolled
White hot strip
Quarto plate
Tubular products
Long products
Semi-finished products
141
51
25
16
11
16
739
330
120
70
55
109
143
69
16
12
10
27
545
263
67
53
40
63
Total
261
1,423
277
1,030
nickel was in the range
$17,700-19,000/tonne.
Compared to the third
quarter, global demand for
ferrochrome in the fourth
quarter was down by 9%
while production was up by
13%. The quarterly con-
tract price for ferrochrome
in the fourth quarter was
US$1.03/lb and has preliminarily been settled at
$1.01/lb for the first quarter of 2010. The price of
molybdenum also fell and
averaged $11.76/lb in the
fourth quarter. The price of
recycled steel was $250/
ton in the fourth quarter.
Operating profit in the
fourth quarter of 2009
Group sales in the fourth
7
Europe
quarter totalled Euro728m
(III/2009: Euro587m). Deliveries of stainless steel
increased by 16% and totalled 277,000 tonnes (III/
2009: 238,000 tonnes).
Capacity utilisation in the
fourth quarter was slightly
above 60%.
The operating loss in the
fourth quarter totalled
Euro29m (III/2009: Euro65m). No major raw material-related inventory gains
or losses are included in
the operating loss. The
operating loss in the third
quarter included some
Euro32m of raw materialrelated inventory gains
and Euro15m of non-recurring write-downs. Underlying operational loss in
the fourth quarter improved
to Euro29m (III/2009: Euro
-82m) mainly as a result
of both higher delivery volumes and better prices.
Outokumpu’s average
base prices for flat products realised in the fourth
quarter increased by
Euro80/tonne but were lower than the base prices
reported for German 304
sheet.
The group’s cost-saving
programmes, initiated in
December 2008, delivered
more than the earlier esti-
8
mated Euro150m. The fixed-cost savings achieved
in
2009
totalled
Euro185m, half of which
are expected to be sustainable. Some Euro20m
of total cost savings are
related to the closure of
Sheffield Special Strip in
the UK.
Sales by General Stainless in the fourth quarter
totalled Euro592m (III/
2009: Euro496m), and deliveries totalled 250,000
tonnes (III/2009: 221,000
tonnes). The operating
loss was Euro12m (III/
2009: Euro-38m) and
includes a total of
Euro12m of net-positive
accounting items recorded
at the year end. The Tornio Works posted a profit
of Euro22m (III/2009:
Euro-44m); the operating
profit includes Euro35m of
positive accounting items
related to the valuation of
raw materials, fuels and
supplies.
Sales by Specialty Stainless in the fourth quarter
totalled Euro332m (III/
2009: Euro258m), and deliveries totalled 87,000
tonnes (III/2009: 75,000
tonnes). The operating
loss was Euro10m (III/
2009: Euro-21m).
Other operations posted
an operating loss of
Euro9m (III/2009: Euro4m) in the fourth quarter.
Very weak markets
with historically low
deliveries in Europe
The global recession resulted in demand for stainless
steel being very weak at
the beginning of the year.
Heavy destocking along
the whole value chain resulted in significant production cuts by producers
especially in Europe with
capacity utilisation at the
historically extremely low
levels of 50-55%. Demand
for stainless steel mainly
from distributors, recovered somewhat in the summer and stabilised towards
the end of the year.
Metal prices were at very
low levels at the beginning
of the year but began to
rise after the spring, mainly as a result of improving
demand in China. Base
prices, which had fallen to
very low levels in historical terms, began to recover after the first quarter.
Compared to 2008, apparent consumption of stainless steel in 2009 is estimated to have decreased
by 29% in Europe and by
8% globally. In China,
however, apparent consumption is estimated to
have increased by 31%.
Group sales for 2009 declined to Euro2,611m, down
by 52% from the previous
year, due to the very low
delivery volumes and lower
transaction prices for
stainless steel. Delivery
volumes declined to
1,030,000 tonnes, down
by 28% from 2008. Sales
by General Stainless were
down by 50% and sales
by Specialty Stainless
were down by 54%.
The European share of
Group sales was 74% in
2009 (2008: 78%). Asia
and the Americas accounted for 14% (2008: 8%)
and 10% (2008: 11%), respectively.
The operating loss in 2009
totalled Euro438m (2008:
Euro-63m). In 2009, net
non-recurring items of
Euro-20m were included in
the operating loss (Euro5m
of restructuring provisions
mainly relating to Sweden
and Euro15m of writedowns from the cancelled
melt shop capacity expansion in Avesta, Sweden).
Raw material-related inventory losses of some
Europe
Euro78m are included in
the operating profit (2008:
some Euro285m). While
extremely low delivery volumes were the primary
reason for the weak result,
a somewhat negative price and product mix and a
reduced contribution from
ferrochrome production
also had negative impacts.
The cost savings achieved
had a mitigating effect.
Loss before tax totalled
Euro474m (2008: Euro134m).
Capital expenditure by the
Group in 2009 totalled
Euro245m. Continuation
of any project in the
Group’s investment programme is subject to a
separate decision based
on an updated feasibility
study. Further decisions
on the postponed investments will be made by the
end of 2010.
Excluding decisions on
any new investment projects, capital expenditure
by the Group in 2010 is
expected to be below
Euro200m. This figure
includes annual capital
expenditure on maintenance and the finalising of
some ongoing investment
projects.
The most important identified strategic and business risks include structural overcapacity and
weak market conditions
affecting stainless steel
production, fierce competition in stainless steel
markets and Euro-centricity of Group operations.
Demand for stainless steel
remained depressed in
Outokumpu’s main served
markets. Increased stainless steel production capacity, especially in China, is creating a situation
of gradually developing glo-
bal overcapacity. Outokumpu has taken actions
to address these strategic
and business risks by
maintaining cost efficiency and delivery reliability
in the Group’s operations,
developing its distribution
channels and aiming to
increase sales to endusers and building stable
relationships with key distributors.
During 2009 Outokumpu
also expanded its operations in China by investing
in a new service centre in
Kunshan in Shanghai. Activities at this new facility
will focus on special products and grades and operations will begin in the
spring of 2010. Outokumpu continues to study
ways of strengthening its
position outside Europe in
future years.
Group expenditure on research and development
in 2009 totalled Euro19m
or 0.7% of sales (2008:
Euro20m and 0.4%). In
2009, the main focus was
on further developing new
low-nickel and nickel-free
stainless steels to reduce
the effects of volatile nickel prices. Much effort has
been put into developing
duplex grades.
9
Europe
ThyssenKrupp group returns to profit
T
hyssenKrupp generated a significant
profit again in the
first quarter of fiscal year
2009/2010. After three
quarters of losses,
earnings before taxes
(EBT) reached Euro313m
- up Euro73m from the prior year figure of
Euro240m. The earnings
figures include positive
non-recurring items of
Euro76m, mainly resulting
from the disposal of the
Industrial Services units of
the Materials Services
business area. Adjusted
EBT at Euro237m was
only slightly down from the
prior year figure of
Euro249m.
The earnings improvement
was particularly marked in
comparison with the fourth
quarter of the prior year,
earnings before taxes,
which were significantly
impacted by restructuring
costs and impairment
charges in the prior year,
improved by around
Euro1.7 billion and adjusted EBT by around
Euro770m. The reasons
behind the improvement in
the first quarter were higher demand, better prices
in some areas, higher productivity and continuing
strict cost and capital
spending controls.
Executive board chairman
Dr. Ekkehard Schulz said:
“The majority of the business areas generated a
profit in the first quarter.
This strengthens our confidence that we will reach
our earnings goal in the
current fiscal year - also
thanks to the rigorous implementation of our costreduction and restructuring
programmes. However, as
we regard the emerging
economic recovery as still
10
Stainless Global orders
up 29% in Q1
fragile, we remain cautious. We therefore continue to forecast adjusted
earnings before taxes in
the low three-digit million
euro range.”
Order intake and sales
were still down year-onyear but orders improved
noticeably quarter-onquarter with a rise of
around Euro1.8 billion to
Euro9.3 billion.
The Group anticipates that
sales will stabilise in fiscal 2009/2010. Earnings
are expected to improve
significantly and return to
profit, thanks in large part
to the cost-cutting programmes introduced.
Schulz said: “Our aim is
to return the Group to its
profitable growth course
and create more value consistently as soon as the
economic situation allows.
Our medium-term goal is
to achieve sales of
Euro50–60 billion, corresponding to earnings before taxes of over Euro4
billion. We have shown in
the past that we can reach these levels of sales
and earnings.”
Economic slide halted
Following the deepest recession of the post-war
period the global economic environment stabilised
in the latter part of 2009.
World trade, in decline at
the beginning of the year,
increased again. Leading
indicators such as the Ifo
expectations index and
the purchasing manager
index showed some marked signs of recovery in
the second half of 2009.
According to current assessments world GDP
shrank overall by 1.4% in
2009.
The economy in the euro
zone grew again slightly in
the second half of 2009,
thanks to expansive government spending policies and higher exports.
Overall, however, economic output in 2009 was
around 4% lower than a
year earlier. The decline in
Germany was even larger,
mainly due to the deep
slump at the beginning of
the year. The German economy grew slightly in the
further course of the year
but the recovery in investment and exports was very
tentative.
The US economy began to
grow again in the third and
fourth quarters of 2009, lifted by higher private and
public spending due to the
government stimulus programme. Despite the
increase in activity in the
second half of the year, US
economic output in 2009
was 2.5% lower than a
year earlier. The slump in
economic output in Japan
was even more pronounced, but there too the
worst of the recession
seems to be over.
The Asian emerging economies came through the
slump in world trade relatively well, profiting from
continuing dynamic growth
in China, whose domestic
economy was lifted by
massive stimulus programmes. India, too,
remained on growth track
thanks to strong domestic
demand. The Brazilian
economy remained relatively stable. Russia’s economic output declined
sharply but improved
slightly towards the end of
the year.
World demand for stainless steel flat products fell
year-on-year by an estimated 8% in 2009. The
European producers recorded increased orders and
deliveries in the spring due
to restocking, but demand
stagnated again from the
summer. Imports, especially from Asia, increased
again significantly in the
fourth quarter of 2009. In
North America, too, low
stock levels at distributors
and service centres led to
an increase in demand
from early summer but
this came to an end in the
final quarter of 2009. In
China, distributors’ stock
levels were at an all-time
high in October 2009 but
subsequently declined significantly due to production cuts by Chinese producers.
Base prices in Europe
were raised from the
spring but have been in
decline again since the
start of the fourth quarter
of 2009. In addition, the
lower nickel price led to a
decrease in the alloy
surcharge for austenitic
materials. In North America, base prices rose in the
summer months and were
Europe
Stainless Global in figures
in Euro m
Q1
ended Dec 31
2008
Order intake
Sales
Earnings before taxes (EBT)
967
1,173
(243)
steady from the beginning
of the reporting quarter.
Prices in China almost
reached European levels
in early summer but slumped in the further course
of the year, only stabilising towards the end of the
year.
In the area of nickel and
titanium alloys, demand
was weak in all customer
groups. Price levels worldwide remained depressed.
Net sales in the first quarter 2009/2010 were
Euro2,171m or 19% lower
than in the corresponding
prior year quarter. The cost
of sales decreased by
Euro1,857m or 19% and
therefore proportionately to
sales. A major factor in this
was a significant reduction
in inventory write-downs,
which reinforced the effect
of the sales-related decline in other costs of
sales. Gross profit
decreased by Euro314m
or 18%, resulting in a
slight increase in gross
margin from 15.5% to
15.8%.
Stainless Global
As a world-leading producer of stainless steels, the
Stainless Global business
area specialises in premium-quality stainless steel
flat products and high-per-
Q1
ended Dec 31
2009
943
1,210
(59)
formance materials such
as nickel alloys and titanium.
The volume of orders received in the first quarter
2009/2010 showed a 29%
improvement year-on-year.
Strong growth was achieved in stainless cold rolled (+38%) and hot rolled
(+74%), while orders for
high-performance nickel
alloys and titanium slipped
22% and 85%, respectively. In terms of value, order
intake at Stainless Global
remained virtually unchanged at Euro0.9 billion, due
mainly to lower alloy
surcharges and reduced
sales of high-performance
materials compared with
the prior year quarter.
Overall deliveries were up
25% in the reporting period to 510,000 tonnes. Reflecting the trend in order
influx, shipments of cold
and hot rolled stainless
steel increased, while deliveries of titanium and
nickel alloys declined.
Overall sales climbed 3%
to Euro1.2 billion.
First quarter earnings at
Stainless
Global
increased by Euro184m
year-on-year but remained
negative to the tune of
Euro59m. However, all
operating units reported
substantially reduced losses, thanks mainly to significantly lower inventory
write-downs, targeted cost
reductions, and a generally improved market situation permitting base price
hikes and increased utilisation of production capacities. However, the market upturn lost momentum
towards the end of the reporting period for seasonal
reasons and because of
renewed restraint brought
on by the nickel price
trend. In response to the
continued loss making situation, the operating units
implemented the global
restructuring measures
resolved at the end of
2008/2009. They also
achieved further cost reductions - mainly in the
production and administrative areas.
Rising demand for stainless flat products led to
significantly improved order volumes and higher
shipments at both ThyssenKrupp Nirosta and
ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni. Sales at ThyssenKrupp Nirosta rose
slightly but could not
match the growth in shipments due to reduced alloy surcharges and changes in the product mix.
After a high loss in the prior year quarter, Nirosta
returned only a small loss
this time.
The earnings situation at
ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni, too, showed a
strong improvement. Both
operating units benefited
INOXTEC s.r.o.
Sternberk, Czech Republic
PRODUCTION AND SALE OF WELDED
STAINLESS STEEL ELBOWS
Sale:
LEDINOX TECHNOLOGY, S.L.
Production and sale:
INOXTEC s.r.o.
Mr Antonio Alonso Joan Miró, 90
08320 EL MASNOU, Barcelona, Spain
tel.: +34/93 555 58 14 fax: +34/93 540 46 94
Mobile: +34/60 932 56 81
Email: antonio.alonso@inoxtec.es
www.INOXTEC.eu
Nádražní 2410/23
785 01 Sternberk, Czech Republic
tel.: +420/585 000 066 fax: +420/585 000 068
Email: inoxtec@inoxtec.cz
www.INOXTEC.cz
11
Europe
from higher base prices,
increased cold rolled volumes and accelerated implementation of the restructuring measures.
Continued stable growth in
the forging operations additionally
bolstered
earnings at ThyssenKrupp
Acciai Speciali Terni.
ThyssenKrupp Mexinox
and Shanghai Krupp Stainless recorded higher order
and shipment volumes and
significantly improved
earnings. However, sales
at ThyssenKrupp Mexinox
were down due to lower
base prices and alloy
surcharges. Shanghai
Krupp Stainless reported
rising sales. Hire rolling
orders from the Chinese
market led to increased
utilisation of the cold rolling
capacities and - in conjunction with higher shipments and improved prices
-contributed to the growth
in earnings.
As a result of the worldwide recovery in demand,
ThyssenKrupp Stainless
International achieved
growth in both order intake and sales.
Business at ThyssenKrupp VDM was impacted
by the continued difficult
situation especially in the
aerospace industry. For
both nickel alloys and titanium mill products, orders and sales were down
from the prior year. Despite the introduction of restructuring measures and
the virtual absence of inventory write-downs,
earnings remained negative.
The start-up phase for the
the modern, integrated
stainless steel mill being
built in Alabama, USA in
close cooperation with
Steel Americas is being
12
extended. Production will
begin in October 2010, initially with an annual cold
rolling capacity of around
100,000 tonnes. Planning
for the start-up of the other
facilities is flexible and the
ramp-up can be accelerated whenever necessary.
The same applies to the
start-up of the melt shop,
which was planned for early 2012 and can now be
delayed by up to 24 months. The site will initially be
supplied with starting material from the European
mills.
The scope of the overall
project remains unchanged, because the group
continues to believe in the
need for an optimised
stainless steel production
location on the North American market.
Global economy
to recover only slowly
in 2010
Global GDP is expected to
grow by only around 3%
in 2010. A sustained global economic upturn is not
yet in sight. As the numerous government stimulus programmes come
to an end, the risk of an
economic
setback
remains. On the financial
markets, too, there are latent risks of a correction
due to the continuing need
for write-downs at the
banks.
The US economy will grow
only moderately in 2010.
Initially, private consumption will be unable to resume its role as the main
driver of growth. The export-dependent Japanese
economy is also not expected to see any major
improvement in the coming
months.
Most of the major emerging economies are likely
to achieve strong growth
in 2010. Boosted by monetary and fiscal policies,
China will once again significantly expand its gross
domestic product. The Indian economy will grow
slightly faster than in 2009.
The euro zone is unlikely
to experience a self-sustaining recovery in 2010.
The German economy will
grow only slightly. A temporary economic slowdown is likely in the course of 2010. The end of government stimulus measures such as the eco premium programme, rising
unemployment and higher
inflation will have a negative impact on private consumption. Exports will
increase moderately as
the global situation gradually stabilises. Thyssen
Krupp therefore expects
only slight growth of
around 1.5% in 2010.
The company says that
world demand for stainless flat products is forecast to grow by around
10% this year, bringing global demand back to just
above the level of 2008. A
positive trend can also be
observed on the European
market, though overall demand will still fall short of
the level of previous years.
In the NAFTA region, sales volumes are expected
to pick up after a weak
2009. China and the other
Asian countries will also
profit from rising demand,
although China in particular will be unable to maintain the growth pace of recent years.
Outlook
With a view to the 2009/
2010 fiscal year ThyssenKrupp regards the currently emerging economic recovery as still fragile. It
anticipates that sales will
stabilise in fiscal 2009/
2010. Earnings are expected to improve significantly and return to profit,
thanks in large part to the
cost-cutting programmes
introduced. Expectations
for the Stainless Global
business area are stabilisation of volumes with improved base prices.
Europe
Further investment in QA at Fine Tubes
D
r. Fletcher joins
the management
team equipped
with a strong record in
Quality Assurance and
extensive experience of
leading continuous improvement activities gained in
organisations such as
Corin Medical, Honda and
Cosworth Technology. His
main areas of responsibility at Fine Tubes are the
Quality Assurance depart-
Enhancing
commitment
to customer needs
Fine Tubes in Plymouth recently appointed Dr. Richard Fletcher as Quality Director. With that, the leading UK manufacturer of stainless steel, nickel and titanium
tubing has taken another step to ensure that the high quality of its products complies with the increasingly demanding specifications of its niche markets.
tions. I am particularly
keen to further enhance
Fine Tubes’ commitment
to customer needs by working with the other members
of the management team
to integrate a solid quality
management system.”
The appointment of Dr.
Fletcher, the company
says, “will also give Andy
Houghton, as technical
director, an increased focus on the development of
the technical aspects of
our operations and product
development”.
Dr. Richard Fletcher,
Quality Director at
Fine Tubes Ltd
ment and the laboratory.
Underpinning his appointment, Dr. Fletcher holds a
BEng (Hons) degree in
Metallurgy and Materials
Science and a PhD research degree working on
the development of nuclear
fuels.
His practical experience in
production engineering
includes detailed knowledge of lean manufacturing principles, process
validation systems and
quality tools such as SPC
and Six Sigma.
Throughout his career his
14
strong focus has been on
improving quality as well
as reducing waste and
quality failure costs through
reducing process variability. Dr. Fletcher will drive
Fine Tubes’ mission to
produce the optimum tube
in terms of mechanical
and chemical properties
as well as cost performance.
Dr Fletcher states: “I am
looking forward to the
technical challenges offered from the broad range
of markets where Fine Tubes’ products find applica-
Fine Tubes in Plymouth
has a fully integrated facility for the manufacture
and the research and development of high quality
precision tubes in seamless, welded, welded and
drawn forms. The standards and specifications
for these tubes and coils
are extremely high and are
aimed at applications in
the most hostile operating
environments. Fine Tubes
products serve a wide range of markets such as the
aerospace, medical, oil
and gas, nuclear, power
and chemical process industries. Applications for
its tubing frequently demand an innovative approach from materials selection, production route
engineering through to full
global distribution and
technical support.
Europe
Major investment in new furnace
Success story
for ELG Carrs
B
ased in Sheffield,
the home of stainless steel, ELG
Carrs Stainless Steels, a
specialised stainless steel
long product and forgings
mill manufacturer, has
Developing new
markets at home
and abroad
been able to announce a
success story despite the
gloomy economic industrial cloud that has engulfed heavy industry worldwide.
A recent major investment
in a new 5-tonne high frequency furnace complete
with new switchgear, to
melt in tandem with the
existing 5-tonne furnace,
has created a greater melting
capacity
and
increased flexibility. This
has been successfully
employed to increase the
company’s customer base
from predominantly the UK
and Europe, to a number
of further locations in Asia,
and Central and South
America.
During this very difficult
economic period, ELG
Carrs has been able to
continue to increase its
output by developing new
markets both at home and
abroad, and continues to
strengthen its experienced
staff at a time when other
companies in the industry
have been shedding jobs.
During 2009, ELG Carrs
Stainless Steels entered
into long term forging
agreements with Firth Rixson Metals to supply oil
and gas, nuclear and aerospace tooling to associated industries around
the world. Grades supplied
include stainless steel,
duplex, super duplex and
heat resisting steels.
within the ELG Carrs profile is a stock range of
square and rectangular
bars and forging billets produced in Sheffield in Alloy
36, enabling very short
lead times on tooling
blocks for the aerospace
tooling industry throughout the world.
The stock range includes
sizes from 250mm section
up to 980mm section in
Alloy 36, P1090 and
P1051.
The latest development
Stainless Steel
Flat bar Square bar Hexagons
Europe
Commercialisation of FFC process
C
hris Stokes, a former director of
London & Scandinavian Metallurgical Co
Ltd, joins Metalysis as
commercial director as
the company embarks on
commercialisation of the
FFC Process.
Metalysis owns the global
Intellectual Property and
commercial exploitation
rights to the FFC Process.
When compared to conventional technologies,
this process opens up a
cheaper, less capital intensive and more environmentally favourable production
route to high value metals
and alloys.
“Chris brings a wealth of
commercial, sales and
business development experience to Metalysis. His
expertise, networks and
understanding of metals
New commercial
director for Metalysis
technologies, processes
and markets will be especially valuable. He will
play a vital role through the
company’s commercialisation and market entry”,
said Mark Bertolini, chief
executive of Metalysis.
Stokes’ appointment follows the successful conclusion of a £3.4m funding
round in January 2010, in
which all of the company’s
venture capital partners
have invested further funds.
This funding will be used
to scale-up manufacturing
processes.
Metalysis, based in Rotherham, UK, is focused
upon exploiting its disruptive FFC Process technology to produce titanium,
tantalum, and related high
value alloys. These are
used increasingly by major worldwide industries
such as aerospace, marine, medical, chemical,
automotive and electronics. The business is already supplying low volumes of metallurgical grade powders to suppliers
and expects to commission its semi-continuous
pilot plant later this year.
During the last five years
Metalysis has raised
£24m in venture capital
and a further £4m in
grants. From a workforce
of three in 2005, the business now employs over 50
people in science and engineering, scale-up and
commercial development
operations.
Metalysis holds 26 patent
families, filed in 88 countries.
New appointments to Centravis board
For finance
and strategy
I
lya Shyrokobrod and
Sergey Shybaev have
been appointed as new
members of the board of
directors of the holding
company Centravis Limited (Cyprus).
The move follows a decision taken at the shareholders meeting with the
participation of the new
shareholder - the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD). The European
Bank for Reconstruction
and Development became
a shareholder of Centravis
Ltd on October 26, 2009.
Together with Ilya Shyrokobrod and Sergey Shy-
baev, the members of the
board of directors are now:
the chairman of the board
Yuriy Atanasov (Ukraine),
Vasiliy Atanasov, Sergey
Atanasov (Ukraine) and
non-executive directors
Sergey Sokolov (Russian
Federation) and Petros Livanios (Cyprus).
The company commented
that the reinforcement of
the board of directors with
two professionals with
wide experience in the areas of finance and strategy will allow Centravis Ltd
to respond even more efficiently to the difficulties
arising as a result of the current world economic crisis.
17
Europe
Bruderer UK beats the recession
B
ruderer UK reports
a higher than expected level of
business during the recession. Best known for its
range of high-speed mechanical presses, the
company kept its trading
figures in the black throughout 2009. It was thanks in
part to the firm’s policy
over recent years of diversifying into the supply of
other metal stamping-rela-
ted equipment, plus rebuild and refurbishment to
factory standards of preowned machines.
Adrian Haller, managing
director of Bruderer UK,
commented: “Considering
the difficult trading conditions, we are very pleased
to have made a profit in
2009. Regarding this year,
if the enquiries we already
have for 2010 materialise,
our turnover will exceed
our expectations against a
backdrop of a shrinking
manufacturing base in the
UK and an endemic short
term outlook on finance.
“Our success is a result
of selling a wide variety of
ancillary equipment for
automating all press lines,
not just our own. Half of
our turnover last year
18
Further expansion
of product range
came from this side of the
business, helped in part
by keen pricing”.
Haller went on to say: “In
my opinion, the UK cannot
continue to rely on the fi-
nance sector as the major contributor to our GDP.
We need to rebuild our
manufacturing base right
now, before we lose any
more skilled craftsman.
With Sterling so low
against other currencies,
we could be highly competitive with our pricing for
exports. Great Britain was
until the late 70s one of the
world’s largest exporters
of manufactured products
and that is where we need
to get back to.”
Bruderer to sell press
brakes, shears and
plasma cutters
New this year will be a further expansion of the
company’s product range
with the impending announcement in the run-up
to MACH 2010 of three
additional agency lines.
One will introduce press
brakes, guillotine shears
and plasma profiling machines, a second will cover the supply of press
brake tooling and a third
will add laser and inkjet
marking systems.
The breadth of equipment
sold by Bruderer is already considerable, encompassing servo roll feeds
and coil handling equipment manufactured by PA
Industries in the USA, and
die and mould tooling from
Fibro, Germany. The Italian-built Millutensil range
of die splitters and spotting presses, roll feeders,
decoilers/recoilers,
straighteners and strip end
welding machines are also
offered.
Other well-established
sole agency lines include
quick die change and
clamping systems, press
tool safety monitoring and
control, sensor technology, press force monitoring,
in-line washing and lubrication, and machine vision systems for 100%
real-time inspection of
stamped parts.
Haller is keen to stress
that Bruderer UK is a onestop-shop where customers can source an entire
press line, from tooling
design and production
through supply of presses
and automation to commissioning and pass-off.
The company guarantees
that its turnkey lines, simple or complex, will hit the
shop floor running and be
maintained at peak operating condition by its engineers for the lifetime of the
equipment.
The company also offers
on-site operator training,
machine movement within
factories and other project
engineering services. In
addition, hydraulic press
sales, repair and rebuilding
facilities are available.
New website
Bruderer UK has introduced a new web site for
2010 (www.bruderer.co.uk)
to showcase the extensive range of equipment and
services it now offers. The
extent of the back-up provided to help pressworking
manufacturers in the UK to
stay ahead of the competition in an increasingly
globalised marketplace
also features.
Europe
ArcelorMittal sees slow recovery underway
Stainless Steel
segment sales up 18%
I
n a very difficult environment, ArcelorMittal has
succeeded in reducing
its cost base substantially and significantly
strengthening the balance
sheet. ”We therefore start
the year in a good position to benefit from the progressive, albeit slow, recovery that is underway. Although 2010 will continue
to be challenging, we are
now increasing capital expenditure to take advantage of selected growth
opportunities as demand
improves”, said Lakshmi
N. Mittal, chairman and
ceo of Arcelor Mittal.
ArcelorMittal’s net income
for the twelve months
ended December 31, 2009
was $0.1 billion, compared
to net income for the year
2008 of $9.4 billion. Sales
and operating loss were
$65.1 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively, compared
with $124.9 billion and
$12.2 billion, respectively,
in 2008. Sales were lower
due to lower average steel
selling prices (-27%) and
lower steel shipment volumes (-30%) due to a sharp
drop in global steel demand following the global
economic crisis.
Total steel shipments in
2009 decreased to 71.1m
tonnes compared with
101.7m tonnes in 2008.
Q4 demand
improvement
ArcelorMittal recorded net
income for the three mon-
ths ended December 31,
2009 of $1.1 billion, compared with a net income of
$0.9 billion for the three
months ended September
30, 2009, and a net loss
of $2.6 billion, for the three
months ended December
31, 2008.
Sales for the three months ended December 31,
2009 were $18.6 billion,
higher compared to $16.2
billion for the three months ended September 30,
2009 and down from $22.1
billion for the three months ended December 31,
2008. Sales were higher
during the fourth quarter of
2009, compared to the
third quarter of 2009, primarily due to higher volumes (+10%) and average
steel selling prices (+6%).
Despite the improvement
in demand during the
fourth quarter of 2009, sales remain substantially
lower year-on-year due to
the global economic crisis.
Operating
income
increased to $0.7 billion
for the three months ended
December 31, 2009, compared with $0.3 billion for
the three months ended
September 30, 2009 and
an operating loss for the
three months ended December 31, 2008 of $3.5
billion.
Total steel shipments for
December 31, 2009 were
20.0m tonnes compared
with 18.2m tonnes for the
three months ended September 30, 2009 and
17.1m tonnes for the three
months ended December
31, 2008. This increase
results from improved demand across all segments
in the fourth quarter of
2009 compared with the
third quarter 2009.
approximately $1.8-$2.2
billion. Shipments are expected to be higher during
the first quarter of 2010
compared to the fourth
quarter of 2009, but this
increase is expected to be
offset by slightly lower
average selling prices and
increased costs. The company also expects net
debt to increase in the first
quarter of 2010.
Stainless Steel segment: production
down, sales up
Stainless Steel segment
crude steel production
reached 452,000 tonnes
for the three months ended
December 31, 2009, a decrease of 2% from
460,000 tonnes for the
three months ended September 30, 2009.
Sales in the Stainless
Steel segment were $1.3
billion for the three months ended December 31,
2009, an increase of 18%
compared to $1.1 billion for
September 30, 2009. Sales improved primarily due
to higher steel shipments
(+17%) partially offset by
lower average steel selling
prices (-2%). Operating
performance declined during the fourth quarter of
2009, compared to the
third quarter of 2009 due
to higher input costs, as
EBITDA declined by $104/
tonne (-28%) to $272/tonne.
First quarter
2010 outlook
The first quarter of 2010
EBITDA is expected to be
19
Ovßrseas
Stainless by-products for construction?
I
t is well known that
stainless steel production in China has been
increasing at a dramatic
rate. There has been, and
continues to be, much debate about the impact of
this on the rest of the
world. One aspect that
seems to have been almost totally ignored, at
least as far as we are aware,
is what to do with all the
slag produced.
The annual stainless steel
slag output in China has
now topped 3m tonnes.
How to process this “waste product” has therefore
become an important issue. Wang Ruyi, Chen
Ronghuan and Shi Lei, of
the Environment & Resources Division, Research Institute, Baoshan
Iron & Steel Co Ltd, may
just have come up with a
suitable solution. In a recent paper published in
Baosteel Technical Research (Volume 3, Number
4, December 2009), the
quarterly journal published
by China’s Baosteel
Group Corp, these authors
argue that it can be utilised effectively as a composite cement admixture.
The chemical and mineral
compositions of stainless
steel slag are, the paper
states, similar to those of
Portland cement and blast
XX
Two birds
with one stone
furnace slag, which are
conventionally used as the
raw material for cement.
Therefore, it is believed,
the authors state, that
stainless steel slag can
also be used as a raw
material for cement.
Since stainless steel slag
contains chromium oxide
and other heavy metals, its
effect on the environment
has to be clarified if it is to
be used as a resource.
The authors focused primarily on stainless steel
electric arc furnace slag,
since this is the main
source of stainless steel
slag and also has the highest chromium content.
By testing the chemical
and mineral compositions,
the radioactivity, the cementitious activity, the
heavy metal leaching toxicology and the performance of the composite
cement, the feasibility of
the use of stainless steel
EAF slag as a composite
cement admixture and the
risk of heavy metals leaching out were analysed in
order to provide grounds for
using stainless steel slag
as a safe resource.
The results of the study
show, the authors say,
that stainless steel EAF
slag has a small particle
size, is easily ground and
has cementitious actitivy.
Stainless steel EAF slag,
when used as a composite cement admixture, can
be added with a maximum
percentage of 32%. The
other main quality indices
of composite cement,
such as the setting time
and stability, also satisfy
standard requirements.
The results also show that
most of the heavy metals
in stainless steel EAF
slag exist in a stable state.
The concentration of heavy metals that leach out
from stainless steel EAF
slag and the composite
cement products is far
lower than the standard
limit of hazardous wastes.
The main heavy metal,
chromium, exists as less
hazardous trivalent chromium. Therefore, the risk
of heavy metals leaching
out from stainless steel
EAF slag is low. The internal exposure index and
the external exposure index of stainless steel slag
are both lower than 1.0,
satisfying the standard requirements of the state for
the radionuclides of building materials.
Stainless steel EAF slag
can, therefore, the authors
conclude, be safely used
as an admixture to produce composite cement.
Ovßrseas
Universal: “early-stage recovery in demand”
Cautious
optimism for 2010
U
niversal Stainless
& Alloy Products,
Inc has reported
that sales for the fourth
quarter of 2009 were
$26.7m compared with
$57.1m in the fourth quarter of 2008 and $25.3m in
the third quarter of 2009.
Net income for the fourth
quarter was $956,000,
compared with $1.2m in
the fourth quarter of 2008
and $312,000 in the third
quarter of 2009. Import
duties received in the 2009
and 2008 fourth quarters
were $551,000 and
$599,000, respectively,
both amounts equivalent
to $0.06 per diluted share.
Cash flow from operations
for the fourth quarter of
2009 totalled $2.5m compared with $5.8m in the
fourth quarter of 2008 and
$10.0m in the third quarter of 2009. Cash flow decreased in the quarter due
to the slowing rate of reduction in managed working capital because of
improving shipment volume and order entry. In addition, capital expenditures were $2.1m including $1.8m for a melt shop
upgrade project, which
remains on budget.
For the full year 2009, sales were $124.9m and the
company incurred a net
loss of $3.0m. The net
loss included a negative
tax adjustment in the second quarter of $742,000,
and unusual charges related to economic conditions in the first quarter of
$3.6m. Before the tax adjustment and unusual
charges, the company’s
net income for 2009 was
$1.4m. In 2008, the company had record sales of
$235.1m and net income
was $14.0m.
President and ceo Dennis
Oates commented: "The
fourth quarter of 2009 was
marked by early-stage recovery in demand. Our order entry improved each
month in the quarter, and
resulted in the first sequential increase in our
backlog since the third
quarter of 2008. In total,
our year-end backlog was
$36m, an increase of 8%
from September 30.
"The sequential growth in
fourth quarter 2009 sales
and tons shipped resulted
from a 50% increase in our
shipments to service
centres, consistent with
indications that service
centres have generally finished inventory destocking. Sales of tool steel
plate tripled and aerospace sales improved
modestly.
"Our profitability improved
over the third quarter of
2009 due to higher shipment volumes, cost savings being realised from
recent capital projects and
process improvements,
and improved cycle times.
"There is widespread belief among our customers
that 2010 will be better
than 2009, but the level of
caution accompanying
their optimism is high. Therefore, we currently expect
further recovery in market
demand to be gradual."
For the fourth quarter of
2009, the Universal Stainless & Alloy Products segment had sales of $23.1m
and operating income of
$509,000, yielding an operating margin of 2.2% of
sales. This compares with
sales of $53.1m and operating income of $1.9m, or
3.5% of sales, in the fourth
quarter of 2008. In the third
quarter of 2009, sales
were $21.7m and operating income was $60,000,
or 0.3% of sales.
Segment sales declined
57% from the fourth quarter of 2008 primarily due
to a 48% decrease in tons
shipped. Shipments to rerollers, forgers and service
centres declined substantially from the 2008 fourth
quarter offsetting a strong
increase in shipments to
OEMs. Segment sales
increased 7% from the
third quarter of 2009 on
11% more tons shipped,
reflecting higher shipments to service centres,
especially of tool steel plate, and to forgers.
The Dunkirk Specialty
Steel segment recorded
sales of $8.5m and operating income of $227,000 for
the fourth quarter of 2009,
yielding an operating margin of 2.7% of sales. This
compares with sales in the
fourth quarter of 2008 of
$11.4m and an operating
loss of $1.3m, which included a $248,000 charge for
the relocation of the round
bar finishing line to Dunkirk from Bridgeville and a
$385,000 increase to the
segment’s LCM reserve. In
the third quarter of 2009,
sales were $8.5m and operating income was
$397,000, or 4.7% of sales.
Dunkirk’s sales declined
25% from the fourth quarter of 2008 on 3% fewer
tons shipped due to product mix and lower
surcharges. Dunkirk’s sales were level with the third
quarter of 2009 on a 3%
increase in tons shipped.
Meanwhile, Universal has
announced a base price
increase of 5% on all
stainless wire rod manufactured at its Dunkirk
facility. The increase will
be effective with all new
orders from March 1,
2010. Current material and
energy surcharges will
remain in effect.
Finally, the board of directors, in anticipation of the
impending retirement from
the board of its current
chairman, Clarence M.
(”Mac“)
McAninch,
intends to elect Dennis M.
Oates, the company’s
president and ceo, to the
additional position of
chairman. McAninch will
retire at the shareholders’
meeting in May.
21
Ovßrseas
Signs of stabilisation and cyclical recovery
A
llegheny Technologies Inc reported
net income for the
fourth quarter 2009 of
$37.8m, on sales of
$815.7m. In the fourth
quarter 2008, ATI reported
net income of $110.9m, on
sales of $1.11 billion.
For the full year 2009, net
income was $31.7m, on
sales of $3.05 billion. Results for 2009 included
non-recurring after-tax
charges of $17.0m, related
to second quarter 2009
actions to retire debt and
the tax consequences of
a $350m voluntary pension contribution. Excluding
special charges, results
for the full year 2009 were
net income of $48.7m. For
the full year 2008, net income was $565.9m, on
sales of $5.31 billion.
"The fourth quarter was by
far our best quarter in 2009
as we began to see signs
of stabilisation and cyclical recovery in many of our
markets", said L. Patrick
Hassey, chairman, president and ceo. "ATI’s fourth
quarter performance benefited from better volume,
pricing and mix for certain
products, lower raw materials costs, and improvements to our cost structure.
"ATI was profitable in 2009
in spite of the most challenging global recession in
nearly 75 years. Our balance sheet is strong.
Cash on hand at the end
of the year was nearly
$709m, and net debt to
total capitalisation was
15.3%. We achieved nearly $173m in gross cost
reductions in 2009, exceeding our goal of $150m. Our
22
ATI: “by far
best quarter in 2009”
US defined benefit pension plan is essentially fully
funded.
"Comparing the fourth
quarter 2009 to the third
quarter 2009, ATI earnings
improved to $0.36 per
share from $0.01 per
share. ATI sales increased
17%. High Performance
Metals segment shipments of nickel-based and
specialty alloys increased
21%, and shipments of
exotic alloys increased
34%. ATI’s total titanium
mill products shipments
decreased 2.5%. Flat Rolled Products segment
high-value product shipments increased 9%, while
standard-grade product
shipments were essentially flat. Our Engineered Products segment returned to
profitability in the fourth
quarter 2009.
"We invested $454m in
capital expenditures and
asset acquisitions in 2009.
Our new titanium and superalloy forging facility in
Bakers, NC was completed on time and under budget. Our new premiumtitanium sponge facility in
Rowley, UT began operating at the end of 2009. We
completed the expansion
of our STAL Precision Rolled Strip(R) joint venture in
China. We added advanced powder metals to our
wide array of high-end products by creating ATI Powder Metals after our October acquisition of powder
metals assets. ATI Powder
Metals expands our
breadth of products for the
next-generation jet engines and high-end oil and
gas applications.
"Since 2004, we have selffunded approximately $1.8
billion in capital investments and acquisitions to
enable sustained future
profitable growth by expanding and enhancing
our global specialty metals
manufacturing capabilities.
"In 2009, we continued to
grow and improve our position with key customers,
and expanded our market,
product, and global diversification. We signed several important long term
agreements in the aerospace, oil and gas, electrical energy, and medical
markets. Direct international sales reached 31% in
2009. Today, ATI is more
globally focused than at
any other time in our history.
”Looking ahead, we expect
to see gradual and steady
improvement in most of
our global markets in 2010.
We plan to continue to
improve our cost structure
through a 2010 target of at
least $100m of new gross
cost reductions. Further,
we expect to recover and
profitably grow faster than
our core global markets as
a result of our new and
extended LTAs and innovative new products that
improve our market position, and our leading
manufacturing capabilities."
Sales for the fourth quarter 2009 decreased to
$815.7m, 26.7% lower
than the fourth quarter
2008. Compared to the
fourth quarter 2008, sales
decreased 30% in the High
Performance Metals segment, 22% in the Flat Rolled Products segment,
and 35% in the Engineered Products segment.
Sales for the full year 2009
were $3.05 billion, 42%
lower than 2008 as a result of significantly lower
raw material surcharges
and indices, and lower
base selling prices and
shipments for most products.
Direct international sales
represented 31% of total
sales, compared to 28%
for 2008. Compared to the
full year 2008, sales decreased 33% in the High
Performance Metals segment, and 48% in both the
Flat Rolled Products and
the Engineered Products
segments.
Fourth quarter 2009 segment operating profit was
$118.4m, or 14.5% of sales, compared to $178.1m,
or 16% of sales, for the
comparable 2008 period.
Results for the fourth quarter 2009 were adversely
affected by lower shipments of most high-value
products and by idle facility, workforce reduction,
and start-up costs of
$15m. These negative impacts were partially offset
Ovßrseas
by a LIFO inventory valuation reserve benefit of
$43.8m. The fourth quarter 2009 LIFO inventory
valuation reserve benefit
was $24.1m higher than
forecast at the end of the
third quarter 2009 primarily due to lower raw material costs. The fourth quarter 2008 included a LIFO
inventory valuation reserve
benefit of $132.7m.
Full year 2009 segment
operating profit was
$282.2m, or 9.2% of sales, compared to $944.9m,
or 17.8% of sales, for
2008. Results for 2009
were adversely affected by
lower shipments and lower
base selling prices, compared to 2008 for most products, and by idle facility,
workforce reduction, and
start-up costs of $56.2m.
Results for 2009 were also
adversely affected by approximately $70m of outof-phase raw material
surcharges and indices in
the first half 2009 due to
the rapid decrease in the
cost of most raw materials during the fourth quarter 2008. This was offset
by a LIFO inventory valuation reserve benefit of
$102.8m. The full year
2008 included a LIFO inventory valuation reserve
benefit of $169.0m.
High Performance
Metals
Demand for ATI’s nickelbased alloys from the aerospace market began to
improve and titanium and
titanium alloy demand began to stabilise as jet engine supply chain inventories adjusted to aircraft
production schedules and
aftermarket demand. Ship-
ments of nickel-based alloys and specialty alloys,
and
exotic
alloys
increased 21% and 34%,
respectively, while shipments of titanium alloys
declined 5%, compared to
the third quarter 2009.
Shipments of exotic alloys
improved as a result of projects for the chemical process industry and growing
demand from the nuclear
energy market.
In the fourth quarter 2009
sales were $312.4m, 30%
lower than the fourth quarter 2008. Shipments decreased 29% for both titanium and titanium alloys
and nickel-based and specialty alloys primarily due
to lower demand from the
commercial aerospace
market. Shipments of exotic alloys improved 9% primarily due to growing demand from the nuclear
energy market and the
timing of projects for the
chemical process industry.
Average selling prices declined 21% for titanium
and titanium alloys and
11% for nickel-based and
specialty alloys. These
average selling price decreases were primarily
due to lower raw material
indices as a result of
lower raw material costs
and a more competitive
pricing environment. Average selling prices for exotic alloys increased 8%
due to increased demand
for certain products and a
favourable product mix.
Segment operating profit
decreased to $88.1m, or
28.2% of sales, compared
to $117.2m, or 26.1% of
sales, for the fourth quarter 2008. The decrease in
operating profit primarily
resulted from reduced
shipments and lower base
selling prices for both titanium and titanium alloys
and nickel-based and specialty alloys due to reduced demand and competitive pricing pressures. In
addition, fourth quarter
2009 operating profit was
adversely affected by approximately $8.6m for idle
facility, workforce reduction, and start-up costs.
These adverse impacts
were partially offset by higher shipments of exotic
alloys and the benefits of
gross cost reductions. A
LIFO inventory valuation
reserve benefit of $23.5m
was recognised in the
fourth quarter 2009. In the
fourth quarter 2008, a
benefit of $40.5m was recognised.
improved 1% compared to
the third quarter 2009. In
addition, average prices for
standard stainless products increased 22% compared to the third quarter
2009 primarily due to higher base selling prices and
raw material surcharges.
In the fourth quarter 2009
sales were $438.5m, 22%
lower than the fourth quarter 2008, due primarily to
lower shipments of highvalue products, and reduced raw material surcharges. Shipments of standard stainless products
(sheet
and
plate)
increased 24% while total
high-value products shipments decreased 14%.
Average transaction prices for all products, which
include surcharges, were
25% lower due primarily to
significantly reduced raw
material surcharges.
Results benefited from
$23.2m of gross cost reductions in the fourth quarter 2009, bringing the full
year gross cost reductions
in this segment to
$81.5m.
Segment operating profit
decreased to $30m, or
6.8% of sales, compared
to $62.8m, or 11.1% of
sales, for the fourth quarter 2008. Operating profit
in the fourth quarter 2009
was negatively impacted
by approximately $5.2m
of costs associated with
idle facilities and workforce reductions. A LIFO
inventory valuation reserve
benefit of $15.3m was recognised in the fourth
quarter 2009. The fourth
quarter 2008 included a
reserve benefit of $81.1m.
Results benefited from
$23.4m in gross cost reductions in the fourth quarter 2009, bringing the full
year 2009 gross cost reductions in this segment
to $76.9m.
Flat Rolled Products
Demand increased for certain high-value products,
such as Precision Rolled
Strip (R) products, grainoriented electrical steel,
and nickel-based alloys,
compared to the third quarter 2009. Fourth quarter
Flat Rolled Products segment titanium shipments,
including Uniti joint venture
conversion products, were
approximately 1.6m lbs, an
increase of over 7% compared to the third quarter
2009. Demand for most
standard stainless products remained low, yet
23
Ovßrseas
Tenova I2S cluster mill
T
enova I2S has announced the commissioning of its
new ZR33-22in mill at MK
Metalfoils USA in Duncan,
South Carolina. MK Metalfoils is a division of MK
Metallfolien GmbH of Hagen, Germany. Both divisions of the company run
stainless steels and special materials (nickel and
nickel alloys, catalyst
foils, titanium) in thicknesses down to 0.020mm.
For stainless and
special materials
The new Tenova I2S mill is
equipped with AC drives,
solid block winders, windon/off stations, dynamic
crown adjustment, Tenova
24
MK Metalfoils USA
commissions new mill
I2S gamma thickness gauges, and the latest automation and control systems that allow the mill to
produce thin strip foils at
operating speeds of 500
MPM.
Like its Tenova I2S built
sister mill in Germany, the
new I2S ZR33-22in mill
has remote diagnostic capabilities, via the internet.
The South Carolina plant
has an Ethernet plant wide
network, and downloads
the pass schedule information directly to the mill.
The Tenova I2S control
system automatically sets
all of the operating parameters for the desired
material, stepping down
through the schedule as
each pass is completed
until the final desired thickness is reached. This ensures both the precision
thickness of the material,
and its metallurgical
properties. Tenova I2S
has extensive experience
in cold rolling mills. It
designs and supplies
advanced technologies,
products and services for
the metal and mining
industries. The company
operates close to its
customers through a net-
work of 33 companies
based on the five continents.
Covßr story
The Gopal Group success story
The “stain” less people
“Reflecting success, they are surging ahead in the steel world. With a steel hard foundation, they fulfil the aspirations of millions.” Over the years, the Gopal Group has established a global presence that is “not only stainless but also enriched with elegance
and brilliance”. The year 1978 - A fledgling sheet rolling mill. Annual capacity 1,000
tonnes. Fast forward to 2010 - a multi-location, multi-product behemoth. Production
capacity - a staggering 120,000 tonnes per year.
A
success story”, the company
says, “that reflects a saga of hard
work, perseverance and integrity
scripted by a dedicated and dynamic workforce under the able leadership and guidance of the Chairman Surender Pal Gupta,
with the able support of Gopal Gupta,
Vinod Gupta, Sanjay Garg and Rajan
Garg”.
“Our exceptional
investment in
technology has enabled
us to compete
alongside the most
advanced European
and American
companies.”
Chairman
S. P. Gupta.
This family-owned enterprise, backed by
experienced and talented professionals,
comprises a host of companies. Today,
the Gopal Group is one of the leading
manufacturers and exporters of long
steel products including austenitic, ferritic and martensitic, as well as duplex,
super duplex and utensil grade stainless
steels.
The group’s products have captured markets
across the globe from America and Europe
to the Middle East and Asia, and all the way
down to Australia. The Gopal Group, the company says, “owes its pre-eminent position
At a Glance
Established in 1978
Manufacturing Facilities : 5 locations
Exporting to around 30 countries worldwide
Annual Production Capacity : 120,000 MT
One of the Largest Manufacturers of
Stainless Steel Long Products in India
Group Companies
Laxcon Steels Limited, Ahmedabad
Ocean Steels Private Limited, Ahmedabad
Parvati Limited, Delhi
Allied Holdings Private Limited, Delhi
Vinayaka Alloys Private Limited, Chennai
in India and abroad to its brilliant strategy,
ultra modern facilities, exceptional talent
pool and to its firm belief in making substantial investments in high tech, state-ofthe-art equipment at its manufacturing
plants”.
“Our exceptional investment in technology
has enabled us to compete alongside the
most advanced European and American
companies”, says Chairman, S. P. Gupta.
Manufacturing facilities
at multiple locations
Headquartered in New Delhi, the national
capital of India, the Gopal Group of Industries has five well-equipped manufacturing
26
Covßr story
20" 5-stand rolling mill
facilities dedicated to producing optimum
quality products at Ahmedabad, Delhi and
Chennai in India.
While one unit at Ahmedabad produces alloy, stainless, special and carbon steels,
the other unit in the same city hosts the
company’s bright bar processing unit. Delhi
is the location for its
stainless steel melting
unit as well as its alloy
steel melting unit. Yet
another unit for steel
melting is in the southern metropolis of Chennai. The operations have
been streamlined in
such a manner that all
the units working in tandem create a cohesive
and seamless operation
“with the common objective of taking the Group
to greater heights”.
World class facilities
Managing Director, Gopal Gupta is justifiably
proud of the world class
facilities at all the
company’s units. “We
are one of the most
technologically advanced steel manufacturing companies in India. At Gopal Group,
you will only find the best in terms of infrastructure”, he says.
The Group employs a wide range of modern
steel manufacturing techniques and accurate melting statistics along with stringent
monitoring processes in order to
achieve matchless
quality. The state-of
the-art machinery
provides the Group
with both the capacity and the flexibility to produce all graTesting facilities
at Gopal Group
des from unalloyed constructional steels to
the highest value-added steels.
Cutting edge equipment such as spectrometers, ultrasonic testers, hardness testers, gas
analyzer, wet labs for chemical testing, physical testing and radioactivity testing machines, enable the company’s professionals to
strictly monitor each outcome, to ensure that
products meet the company’s high standards
that even exceed customers’ expectations.
27
Covßr story
Exhaustive range of grades
The Gopal Group produces a wide range of
grades that cater to the entire spectrum of
industrial and domestic use. “With the development of new technologies we have
strived hard to make the most of the versatility of steel”, says Gopal Gupta.
“We will continue to improve the technologies and quality of our products and services, and to look for ways to introduce a
wider range of products to meet our customers’ needs”, adds Vinod Gupta.
"We will continue to
improve the technologies and quality of our
products and services,
and to look for ways
to introduce a wide
range of products to
meet our
customers'
needs."
Vinod Gupta
Commercial Director
Bright bar
processing unit
28
"With the development
of new technologies we
have strived hard to
make the most of the
versatility of steel."
Gopal Gupta
Managing Director
Covßr story
Laxcon - shaping the future
Laxcon Steels Limited is the flagship company of the Gopal Group of Industries. The
company, based in Ahmedabad, specializes
in the production of stainless, alloy, carbon
and special steel billets; forging quality ingots; rolled and forged long products; and
flat rolled products. Laxcon Steels Limited
has developed forging quality ingots up to
14.5 tonnes. The company also prides
itself on the production of round billets in
sizes 150 and 250mm.
Bright bars are available in a variety of thicknesses that suit various end applications.
The extensive size range and perfect finish
makes the company a preferred supplier
worldwide. Laxcon is one of the largest producers of cold finished bars in India.
The plant has the latest equipment at its
disposal including 20-tonne capacity induction furnaces; a 25-tonne AOD converter, a
double strand 9/16 metre continuous billet
caster, two rolling mills (12in and 20in), and
a 7 MW captive power plant. In keeping with
its policy of constant and continuous expansion and upgrading, the company is in
the process of installing a VD/VOD, EMS
and ladle refining furnace, which will be
operational by the end of 2010.
It has a sophisticated laboratory with several spectrometers and boasts a well-equipped physical testing laboratory. It uses hand-
held spectrometers, mechanical, metallographic and ultrasonic testing facilities for
quality control to ensure world-class products that “accord the fullest satisfaction to
its discerning and loyal customers in India
and abroad”.
Laxcon is a member of many prestigious
organizations and associations including
ISRI, BIR (Gold Member), AIIFA, ITA, D&B,
and AIST. The company has also been offered the certificate of excellence by Container Corporation of India Ltd for achieving the
third largest volumes as importer in terms
of TEUs at ICD-Ahmedabad. Laxcon is an
Indian Government recognized export house.
Laxcon Steels Ltd was incorporated on May
12, 1999 by NRI promoters who operated
the company until February 2002. Under the
leadership of Gopal Gupta, the Gopal Group
of Industries took over control and management in 2002, thereafter taking it from
strength to strength.
“From a production of just 750 tonnes annually and a turnover of a mere US$1million,
in 2002-03, the company has leapfrogged
to production of over 25,000 tonnes per annum and an annual turnover of US$50 million in 2008-09, registering tremendous
growth since its acquisition. Laxcon’s growth
rests on its ability to deliver a varied range
of high quality products and to ensure this,
the company uses only the best in terms of
quality control equipment.”
Billet, bloom, round
twin-strand 9/16 continuous caster with EMS
29
Covßr story
Masters of the game
The term ‘Stain’ less people for the Gopal
Group goes beyond the literal meaning. “It
epitomises a workforce that is committed
to performance and perfection; professionalism and probity.” S. P. Gupta, the Chair-
“For us the greatest priority is customer satisfaction.
We always ensure that we do everything within our
purview to improve service and guarantee a high-quality
product. We are focused on establishing long-term
relationships with our customers. We feel we owe
our success to this approach.”
Vinod Gupta - Commercial Director
man of the company is a self-made industrialist. He has been conferred a number of
prestigious awards like ‘Dhatu Nayak’ and
‘Udyog Ratan’ for the level of excellence that
he has achieved.
“The Group boasts a pool of qualified professionals, motivated managers and skilled
technicians - all driven by its vision and values that seek to foster individual talent,
whilst at the same time retaining the spirit
of teamwork. Gopal Gupta, the Managing
Director, is a dynamic leader having presi-
30
ded over the All India Induction Furnaces Association (AIIFA) consecutively for six years
from 2002 to 2008.
Commitment to quality
The granting of ISO 9001:2008 certification,
as well as other certifications such as AD
2000 Merkblatt, IBR, PED for production and
processes, bears testimony to the
company’s deep commitment to quality. The
company, it says, owes its dominant position to its meticulous quality control. Stringent monitoring processes are adhered to
in every sphere of production. “Maintaining
the highest standards of quality is what has
contributed largely to our position as the preferred supplier by customers, stockists and
distributors”, says Sanjay Garg.
“Maintaining the highest standards
of quality is what has contributed
largely to our position as the
preferred supplier by customers,
stockists and distributors. ”
Sanjay Garg - Director
Covßr story
Responsibility towards the environment
The Gopal Group is acutely conscious of
its responsibility towards future generations
and has always taken pro-active measures
to ensure optimal utilization of natural resources, with minimum harm to the environment, thereby preserving the ecological
balance.
in Germany, 16kg in Japan and 6kg in China. The world average per capita consumption is 9.4kg.
A global player
With India on the fast track of growth in all
sectors, there is tremendous potential for
an increase in both production and consumption of stainless steel in the country.
As a key player, the Gopal Group will continue to play an important role in the growth
of the steel industry.
“The company has acquired an enviable reputation in international markets with its
adherence to quality, reliability and professional dealing”. Gopal Group products are
exported to clients worldwide. “Through its
renowned brands such as ‘Laxcon’ and ‘Gopal’, the Group spans all the continents with
its wide range of products, braving and over-
“Over the years, the Group has been leaping forward with rapid strides. The leadership has been infusing a great sense of
work culture among the team members. The
finest steel goes through the hottest fire. Similarly, the Gopal Group too has faced the
acid test, emerging stronger and brighter;
reinforcing its preeminence the world over.”
“We believe in sustainable development through a judicious use of
resources and by ensuring pollution
is kept at the lowest possible levels."
Rajan Garg - Director
coming stiff competition from global players.
“We have achieved this through our proven
ability to convert challenges into opportunities”, says Gopal Gupta. “Our goal is to
further strengthen our position in the international arena by rededicating ourselves to
our mantra of ensuring customer satisfaction”, adds Vinod Gupta.
The road ahead
“The promoters of the Gopal Group of Industries”, the company says, “with Surender Pal
Gupta at the helm, are visionaries, generating new ideas and sighting opportunities
each day. Their entrepreneurial spirit has
brought the group to the forefront of the steel
industry”.
Exhibiting expertise
The Gopal Group regularly takes part in various exhibitions, the world over. “Trade
Shows and Exhibitions have been gaining
a lot of prominence owing to a greater than
before need for face-to-face marketing. They
are exceedingly lucrative sales and marketing platforms, with closely focused profiles
and cautiously targeted audiences”, affirms
Vinod Gupta. From Tube and wire held in
Düsseldorf, Germany, Stainless Steel
World, Maastricht in the Netherlands, to the
most recent Indinox Stainless Steel Fair
held in Ahmedabad in January 2010, Laxcon greatly believes in being a part of different exhibitions and events.
“All the leading manufacturers participate
in such exhibitions, displaying their range
of products. Hence, an exhibition can prove an ideal platform for a constant exchange
with fellow manufacturers and businessmen
belonging to our industry”, says Vinod Gupta.
With an annual production of two million
tonnes, India is ranked 10th in stainless steel
production in the world. According to the
Indian Stainless Steel Development Organisation (ISDO), the per capita consumption
of stainless steel in India is 1.2kg, the lowest in the world. On the other hand, the
world’s highest consumption per capita is
30kg in Italy, 24.6kg in South Korea, 21kg
31
Nickßl alloys
NCMT becomes agent for Okamoto
J
apanese grinding
machine manufacturer, Okamoto Machine Tool Works, which
also produces slicing, lapping and polishing machines, has appointed NCMT
to act as its sole sales and
service agent in the UK
with effect from the start
of 2010.
20,000 machines
in 80 countries
Manufactured in three factories in Japan, Singapore
Over 20,000
grinding machines
in 80 countries
and Thailand, the product
range is large and covers
diverse applications in the
processing of metal,
glass, ceramic and semiconductors. Users are to
be found in the automotive, aerospace, information
technology and optical
sectors in particular, as
well as in the many subcontractors supplying
them. There are over
20,000 machines installed
in 80 countries.
Managing director of
NCMT, Dave Burley, says
that their intention is to
concentrate on promoting
high-end machines, especially those for applications requiring some degree
of automation. The idea is
to mirror NCMT’s existing
activities in the UK, which
centre on the supply of
turnkey, high-added-value
installations on behalf of
two other Japanese machine tool manufacturers,
Makino and Okuma.
Grinding equipment sales
32
already account for a
large part of NCMT’s
turnover. The company
has for many years configured Makino machines
specifically for VIPER
grinding of nickel alloys,
and has marketed
Okuma’s extensive range
of grinders since 1976.
Complementary
range of grinders
Burley explained: “Okuma
produces internal and external cylindrical grinding
machines, so the addition
of Okamoto’s surface and
gear grinders considerably strengthens this area of
our business. In early 2010
we will install representative Okamoto machines in
our Middlemarch showroom, near Coventry,
which will be available for
demonstrations, applications engineering and training.”
Nickßl alloys
Investment in automatic bandsawing machines
L
eading supplier of
metals to the aerospace industry in
the UK, Wilsons, based in
Huntingdon, has invested
in three high-speed, automatic bandsawing machines from Kasto in the
past five years.
Wilsons supplies
wide range
of aerospace metals
eight and a half hours a
day, five days a week, ever
since it was installed. To
maximise productivity, we
program maximum band
speed and infeed for every
material it cuts, yet I
struggle to think of a single breakdown in five
years. Even Kasto’s engi-
The Kastotec AC4
bandsaw in operation
The latest saw to be installed is a dedicated aluminium-cutting machine, called Kastotec AM4. According to Wilsons’ director
and general manager,
James Digby, it is 10
times faster at cutting aluminium alloys than two
early Kasto bandsaws installed in the 1980s, which
are still in daily use.
Founded in 1947, Wilsons
currently stocks over
10,000 tons of plate,
sheet, bar, tube, pipe, fittings and flanges totalling
over 3,000 line items for
JIT, Kanban, direct line
feed and other forms of
supply to customers. In
addition to dealing directly with primes such as Airbus and Bombardier, the
stockist also services the
first, second and third tier
supply chain.
Demand is not only for aluminium, which accounts
for a majority of turnover,
34
but also for other aerospace metals including
nickel and titanium alloys,
and more recently a range
of ferrous materials.
Additional high technology
companies that take advantage of the stockist’s
service include most of the
UK-based Formula 1
teams.
By 2005, Wilsons had
increased its supply of aluminium bar to the UK aerospace industry to the
point where its market
share had reached nearly
40%. The same year, it
decided to branch out into
stocking
aerospace
steels. Additional sawing
capacity was clearly needed and after a brief foray
into circular sawing, the
company opted to buy a
430mm capacity Kastotec
AC4 bandsaw.
Grant Clay, operations
manager, said: "The AC4
has been running flat out,
neers are surprised at how
hard we are able to work
the machine, which is easily three times faster at
cutting all materials than
the older bandsaws in our
warehouse."
With the advent of steel
supply at Huntingdon, the
rigid, powerful AC4 was
naturally deployed onto
that work, which curtailed
its availability to cut aluminium. So the decision
was taken in 2006 to buy
a second, slightly larger
capacity (530mm bar diameter) Kastotec bandsaw,
an AC5. This is similarly
run at maximum speeds
and feeds, predominantly
on steel. Even when cutting case-hardened varieties, high productivity rates are achieved.
Digby said: "Our main reason for choosing the Kastos, apart from their superior speed, was the clean
cut that they achieve. On
other machines we looked
at, fine swarf was produced which, when mixed
with coolant, resulted in a
dirty cutting environment.
The cut on the Kasto saws
is cleaner, as it uses minimum volume coolant
and the chips are much
thicker, more like those
produced when milling."
Other features of Kasto
saws that Wilsons’ engineers appreciate are the
integral control panel instead of a bolt-on type, and
the ease of programming.
Additionally, the company
had always been impressed with Kasto’s after sales service.
The Kastotec AM4 aluminium machine was installed
in Huntingdon at the end
of 2009 in response to
increased order levels for
aluminium alloys, the result of a growing aerospace
market in the UK, despite
the recession, and Wilsons having increased its
market share.
Clay explained: "This machine is finely tuned to
cutting aluminium and nothing else, and achieves
extraordinarily fast cutting
rates, three to four times
higher than even the AC4."
A typical order placed on
Wilsons is 10- to 20-off,
but may be as high as 500off, while ones and twos
are regularly processed on
most days.
With the machines being
so fast and batch sizes
often low, speedy changeover is paramount to avoid
loss of production. Digby
advises that, on all of the
Kasto machines, a new
job can be programmed in
a matter of minutes, even
if new data has to be
entered at the control. If
the program is already in
memory, changeover is
faster still.
"Even when a new material type, size and cross
section plus cut-piece
length and quantity have to
be keyed in, the program
is always ready before
another operator can load
the material onto the input
conveyor", he said. "In fact,
ghost shift often extends
right through the night.
This is because Clay adopts the policy of backing
off feeds and speeds by 30
to 50% to guard against
blade breakage. A calculation is made as to how
fast each machine needs
to run so that the requisite
number of parts, for example 200-off pieces of
180mm diameter steel,
are in the basket before
the next morning shift
starts.
It is interesting that the
Kastotec machines at Wilsons are of robust specification to allow the option
of using carbide blades,
yet the stockholder chooses to use bimetal blades
for all its cutting requirements, except on titanium.
The reason is that bimetal
is nearly as fast as carbide
when cutting all other
materials and results in
lower cost per cut, due to
the higher consumable
cost of bands with tungsten carbide teeth.
Maintaining efficient customer service in terms of
quality and delivery is essential in stockholding,
especially in the aerospace and F1 sectors.
With its substantial invest-
Steel bar being cut on
the Kastotec AC5
it takes longer to complete the paperwork for a job
than it does to program it."
The beauty of having automatic bandsaws as reliable as the Kastos is that
they can run without operator attendance from the
end of the day shift. A
ment in sawing machines
over the past five years and
the confidence to buy the
latest bandsaw in a
difficult business climate,
Wilsons believes that it is
very well positioned to take
advantage of the upturn
when it comes.
35
Nickßl alloys
PTG wins order from US manufacturer
P
recision Technologies Group (PTG)
has won an order
from Therm Inc, a leading
US aerospace contractor,
for one of its Edgetek 5axis super abrasive machines (SAM). The high
speed Edgetek CBN machine has been purchased
to improve cycle times
and increase machinery
efficiency in the production
of custom-machined critical components for aerospace - commercial and
military - and industrial gas
turbines. This includes turbine components made
from exotic alloys, which
are extremely hard to machine.
“The Edgetek is the ideal
machine to improve productivity and reduce costs
across small batch custom-machined components”, said Steve Benn,
PTG regional sales manager for machines. “The inherent flexibility of the Edgetek SAM machines allows them to reduce multioperation processes,
even if the material is difficult-to-machine nickel-based alloys used in aerospace applications, or the
powdered metals used for
timing gears and sprockets in car engines.”
The customer, Therm Inc,
located in Ithaca, New
36
5-Axis Edgetek SAM
machine for aerospace and
gas turbine components
York is a supplier of turbine components to all the
major OEM’s, specialising
in LP and HP blades and
vanes for aerospace and
industrial gas turbine applications.
“Key to our success in
winning this order was our
ability to demonstrate an
excellent track record for
Edgetek machines of
achieving vastly improved
performance in aerospace
manufacturing applications”, said Benn. “We were
able to demonstrate how
a US-based aerospace
subcontractor had used
an Edgetek 5-axis superabrasive machining system (SAM) to slash the
cycle time for ‘shroud segment’ production from 150
minutes to just 17 minutes.
“The shroud segment is
manufactured from extremely hard Hastelloy X and
had previously been machined using a vertical
turning centre. This required time-consuming set-up
and involved a configuration which imposed excessive levels of tool wear because of its interrupted
cut.
“Using a 5-axis Edgetek
machine has dramatically
reduced the overall cycle
time for each component,
because of its combination of high metal removal
rates and simplified setup. Tooling costs have
also been reduced by over
30% thanks to the elimination of the interrupted
cut made necessary by the
VTL’s set-up limitations.
“In addition to reduced cycle times, we were also
able to show Therm Incorporated how, by using an
Edgetek, it could reduce
the number of machines
required - and hence setup times - for machined
blade and vane products.
We were able to cite an
example in the aerospace
sector, where a single 5axis Edgetek machine is
replacing seven conventional milling and grinding
machines, providing a reduction in the machine
set-up time for a complex
part from 8 hours to less
than 10 minutes.”
Another important advantage of the Edgetek machines is their use of plated cubic boron nitride
coated grinding wheels to
achieve remarkable metal
removal rates on a wide
range of ultra hard and
exotic materials and carbon-rich metals, unsuitable for high-speed machining with diamond coated
grinding wheels.
“Smaller batches and
more set-ups, mean that
many companies no longer have the luxury to
amortise the cost of bonded CBN wheels over extended production runs”,
said Benn. “Plated technology fills the need for high
metal removal rates with
short set-up times and eliminates the need for dressing.
“Plated wheels also offer
the highest levels of consistency: they grind virtually the same profile,
from the first cut to the last,
across hundreds or thousands of workpieces. As
a result, the times associated with set-ups, wheel
changing, and wheel dressing are significantly reduced or eliminated. Also
greatly reduced is the
average wheel cost. This
is because the wheels can
be stripped of worn CBN
and re-plated several
times.”
Precision Technologies
Group (PTG) includes the
well-known brands Jones
& Shipman, Holroyd,
Binns & Berry, Crawford
Swift and Precision Components.
The group is firmly at the
forefront of high precision
machine tool design, build
and supply. Its range includes surface, cylindrical,
creepfeed, rotor, thread
and gear grinding machines, superabrasive machining systems, rotor milling
machines and lathes, all
of which are producing ultra precision components
in a diverse range of industries including aerospace, medical, mould
tool and die, power generation, oil, gas, steel and
high-end automotive.
Tube & wire preview
Industry looks optimistically to the future
A
t wire - the international trade fair for
wire and cable, and
Tube - the international
tube trade fair, the latest
trends and technologies for
the industrial fields of wire
manufacture and processing, and tube manufacture
and finishing will be presented. Manufacturers, vendors
and suppliers from around
the world will showcase their
product ranges in Halls 9 to
12, 15 to 17 and 1 to 7.0 at
the Düsseldorf Exhibition
Centre for the 12th time in
April (12-16).
For five days the exhibition halls on the Rhine will
be the meeting place for
top international decisionmakers who will find a
complete overview of
wire 2010
and Tube 2010
on successful course
available know-how in the
wire, cable and tube industries. More than 70,000
visitors from around the globe are expected.
metres more have been
sold than the total for Tube
2008, which was at the
time a record at 41,400 sq
metres.
Tube
Current processes and applications, from pipe and
tube manufacture to processing and finishing, will
be shown at Tube. The offerings include raw materials, pipes and tubes and
accessories, machines for
pipe and tube production,
second-hand machines,
tools for process engineering and auxiliary products,
as well as measurement
and control technology.
Test engineering and specialty areas such as warehouse automation and control and monitoring systems will also be featured.
With 1,037 exhibitors from
47 countries on a net area
of 43,089 sq metres, Tube
is sold out in terms of space.
It covers the entire area
in Halls 1 to 7.0. This means
that almost 2,000 sq
STAINLESS STEEL
TUBES AND FITTINGS
An established and successful distributor of
pipes, fittings and flanges, predominantly for use
in the oil & gas industry, is opening a new company which will carry stocks of stainless steel
pipes and fittings for use in the brewery, pharmaceutical, hygiene, chemical, and food industries.
Applicants MUST be ambitious, enthusiastic, energetic, and self motivating. An in-depth knowledge of potential clients and supply base is essential, and applicants must have several years
experience and technical knowledge in this field.
100% support will be available from the parent
company. Finance not required. Excellent package, including profit sharing. Probable location
Northern UK.
One large exhibition area
is dedicated to pipe and
tube trading. Pipelines and
the OCTG technology field
are appearing for the second time after a successful
debut in 2008. Conversely,
the special show around
sections and section engineering will be celebrating its debut. Machines
and equipment for the
manufacture of sections,
as well as their end products, will be presented in
various materials and forms.
To apply, please forward CV, with photograph, to:
wire
SALES DEVELOPMENT
MANAGER
is required to assist in establishing and operating the company.
execapply@google.com
38
The wire companies will be
exhibiting on 51,434 sq
metres in halls 9 to 12 and
15 to 17. A total of 53,600
sq metres were occupied
in 2008 - this represents a
decrease of almost 2,200
sq metres due to several
exhibitors’ stand size reduction. Nonetheless, the
exhibitor registration numbers have already exceeded the final result from
2008 (1,130) - by midJanuary 1,135 companies
had already registered.
Companies from Egypt,
Estonia, Colombia and the
United Arab Emirates are
attending for the first time
to present their products
and services at the event.
Exhibiting companies will
be travelling to Düsseldorf
from a total of 49 countries.
wire shows machines and
equipment for the manufacture and finishing of
wire, tools and accessories for process engineering, as well as materials
and special wires. New
products and technologies
for cable, measurement
and control technology
and test engineering will
also be presented. Specialty areas such as logistics, conveying systems
and packaging are also
included.
Tube & wire preview
"We have invested
heavily in processing
equipment which
means that we are
now much more
than a stockholder."
Targeting world class status
Robust improvement
programme continues
at UKF Stainless
L
ast year was tough
for
businesses
everywhere, and
UKF managing director
Phil Morris openly admits
that UKF Stainless and its
associated company JPC
Perforators were not unaffected. In fact, he told
Stainless Steel Focus recently, “we suffered from
additional pressures since
both companies are heavily reliant on the automotive industry. The competition is huge, and falling
currency rates made it
40
For the past five years, UKF Stainless Ltd has been rigorously working on a robust
continuous improvement programme. This programme has led to wide ranging
changes at the company, which is one of the UK’s major suppliers of stainless steel
and, in particular, of stainless steel tube. Based in the Midlands, with close access
to the UK motorway network, UKF can guarantee fast distribution nationwide, with
the company’s own specially designed HGV fleet making a significant contribution
to meeting JIT delivery requirements.
increasingly difficult to be
competitive. We saw numerous customers fail,
leading inevitably to bad
debt issues and loss of
business.
“But despite all this”, Morris said, “our results for the
financial year ended September 30, 2009 were positive, and the strength of
our balance sheet has
continued to increase”. He
concedes that the results
were not as impressive as
Tube & wire preview
own a purpose-built manufacturing site that houses
four fully automatic saws,
a polishing line, four perforating machines, and our
own tool shop. More recently, we acquired a Unison
mandrel bending machine,
a Langley press bender, two
Avamatic sizing machines,
and a welding cell.”
This latest investment
means that the company
is able to supply manipulated components that the
customer can buy fit for
purpose on a just-in-time
basis. “It enables us”,
Morris says, “to supply finished parts rather than
standard six metre lengths
of tube.
in previous years. “But we
feel that we must be one
of the few companies in
the industry who have
managed to do better than
break-even in 2009”, he
said.
There are a number of reasons for this somewhat
enviable result, as Morris
explains. “For the past five
years, since 2005, we
have been rigorously working on a robust continuous improvement programme in search of business excellence. Many
changes have been implemented at the company.
As a result, although 2009
was an extremely difficult
year, we made our way
through it since we were
“We see added value as a
huge potential area for
growth”, Morris says, “and
so whilst we will continue
to look for users of stainless steel tube, and will
continue to trade as a
standard stainless steel
stockholder, we are also
eager to take on business
for the supply of manipulated tube whatever the
end application”.
Cutting, polishing
and perforating
The cutting shop at UKF
has
handsaw
and
bandsaw cutting, as well
as a bank of state-of-theart fully automatic and
semi-automatic saws. The
much more focused and
prepared for the challenges thrown at us.
“We continue”, he said, “to
benchmark ourselves
against our competitors,
and we are striving to
achieve world class status. Whilst this may appear rather over the top, we
are very serious about it,
and no stone will be left
unturned in our quest for
business excellence”.
Diversification
a key factor
“Diversification has been a
key factor in our survival”,
Morris says, “and in conjunction with our associate company JPC, we now
41
Tube & wire preview
riety of materials including
stainless steel (ferritic and
austenitic), titanium, mild
steel and aluminized zinc
coated steel from 32mm
to 80mm od in lengths up
to 1,000mm.
The perforating process
used perforates pre-formed tubes as opposed to
the traditional method of
perforating and rolling flat
product. This method
makes customisation of
parts easy, and allows the
company to offer almost
any combination of pattern
both quickly and, in most
cases, without the additional cost of expensive tooling.
In addition to the standard
round holes ranging from
3.00mm to 20.00mm, the
company can also supply
tubes perforated with slots
automatic machines have
in-line deburring and washing facilities with stand
alone deburring and washing machines also available.
All the machines have the
ability to hold exceedingly
tight tolerances (+/0.15mm) on diameters
ranging from 6mm up to
153mm with cut lengths
on the automatic saws up
to 3,000mm. Fast changeovers allow the flexibility to meet customers’ requirements for a just-intime service and cost-effectiveness for both small
and large volumes.
The company’s in-house
42
polishing facilities allow it
to react quickly to requirements for polished tube.
Its purpose-built multihead polishing machine
enables the supply of the
complete range of finishes
from a dull 180 grit, to a
super mirror 600 grit.
The polishing service can
accommodate any length
of tube, from small specialist components to full six
metre lengths. Any diameter of tube can be polished
from 12mm up to 127mm.
Polishing of round bar is
also available.
Perforated tubes and interrupted perforated tubes
are manufactured in a va-
in varying lengths and
widths.
Extensive stocks
of exhaust,
and other tubing
UKF Stainless is one of the
UK’s leading suppliers
and stockholders of plain
welded stainless steel exhaust tube. Material is
supplied in standard
lengths, as well as precision cut to customer requirements. Standard grades
are 304 (1.4301) and 409
(1.4512), but other grades,
such as 439 (1.4510) and
441 (1.4509) are available
on request.
Product is generally stocked in the as-welded
condition, but the company also holds a complete
range of polished material, and for more difficult
Tube & wire preview
tube manipulation, a range
of fully annealed material
is also available from
stock. Very extensive
stocks of perforated exhaust tubing are held, and
the company says that
it is probably one of the
The company is also a
major supplier of polished
ornamental tube which is
increasingly replacing
more traditional products
for architectural applications. It is widely used for
interior and exterior deco-
where the company is very
active, specialising in
stocking thin-walled stainless steel tubing to EN
10312:2002 (formerly
BS4127). The tube is produced for sanitary applications and can be supplied
in grade 304 (1.4301) and
316 (1.4401). This tubing
is longitudinally welded,
and can be supplied polished or unpolished.
UKF Stainless also offers a
comprehensive range of
super mirror marine polished stainless steel tube
in grade 316 (1.4401). The
size range covers tubes
from 1/2in (12.70mm) to 2½
in (63.50mm) with a 16
gauge (1.6mm) wall thickness.
In the area of hygienic
tubes, material in the size
range 3/4in (19.05mm) to
4in (101.60mm) are the
standard products held in
stock by UKF Stainless.
Most of this material is
held in grade 304 (1.4301),
although 316 is available
on request.
largest stockholders of
this kind of tube in
Europe.
ration, furniture, kitchenware, sculpture and in
many other areas.
Stainless perforated tubes
from UKF Stainless are
also used in many other
applications and industries, including filtration
systems, aerospace, aviation, pulp and paper, and
oil, gas and petrochemical, as well as architectural applications.
The company holds a
wide range of 304 (1.4301)
grade material in stock
from 12.7 to 127mm od,
as well as a smaller range
of grade 316 (1.4401)
tubes for particular contracts.
Water tube is another area
Hygienic tubes are used in
environments where cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Applications
include food and drink processing, dairies, breweries, medical and pharmaceutical. Tubes are usually supplied in the annealed and bead rolled condition removing the chances
of contamination, and in
either unpolished or dull
polished finishes.
The “domestic section”,
meanwhile, at UKF specialises in the production
of pre-cut polished components for a diverse range
of applications, includ-
ing vacuum wands, riser
rails for shower manufacturers, door handles for
domestic and industrial
cookers, grab poles, brush
handles, towel rails, curtain poles and table legs.
A regular supply route has
been created for components in both the catering
and hospital equipment
sectors.
A comprehensive range
of stainless steel pipe
UKF Stainless also offers
a range of welded stainless steel pipe considered
to be one of the most comprehensive in the UK. Material is available from 1/
2in NB x SCH 5 to 6in NB
x SCH 40 in both 304
(1.4301) and 316 (1.4401)
grades.
Manufactured to ASTM
A312 specification, the
company’s pipes are typically used in industries
such as chemical and petrochemical, oil and gas,
power generation, pulp
and paper, and mechanical. Seamless pipe from 3/
8in NB is also available
but on request only.
Also flat and
long products
The emphasis at UKF may
be very much on tube, but
a wide range of other
stainless steel products is
also held in stock. Square
sections are stocked in
the size range 12.7mm sq
up to 100mm sq in grade
304 (1.4301), with larger
sizes available from mill
sources on request. This
material is used in a variety of industries from building and construction to
catering equipment. Grade
43
Tube & wire preview
angles, channels, I beams, T sections, wire
wool, welded mesh, perforated sheet, hollow bar
and threaded bar.
And the outlook?
From his vantage point at
the helm of UKF Stainless
and JPC Perforators, Phil
Morris clearly has no illusions about the prospects
for 2010. “It is going to be
just as difficult as 2009,
but we will come through
it, and we will be stronger
as a result. We have been
pushing hard for continuous improvement, and
for a change in culture. We
have invested heavily in
processing equipment,
which means that we are
now much more than a
stockholder and this has
opened up a huge potential area of growth for us.
This all stands us in good
stead for the future.”
430 (1.4016) and grade
316 (1.4401) can be
obtained for specific contracts.
Rectangular sections are
held in the size range 20
x 10 x 1.0mm up to 400
x 200 x 12.50mm in grade
304, with grade 430
and 316 available on request, but not widely
stocked.
44
Most diameters of stainless
steel round bar can be supplied in grade 303 (1.4305),
304 (1.4301) and 316
(1.4401), with flat bar also
part of the stock range.
Sheet is available in the
thickness range 0.5mm to
6.0mm in a variety of finishes. Standard 2B, hot rolled, DP1/PC1 and BA/
PC1 are the most com-
mon finishes, but others
can be supplied on request.
By using outside contractors, the company can offer sheet and plate cut to
size (plasma or laser cut,
sheared, or sawn).
Other products available
on quick lead times include hexagons and square
bars, equal and unequal
And the process continues. The company was recently awarded a sizeable
grant from MAS (The Manufacturing Advisory Service) which will allow it to
continue with its project,
but with funding and input
from external consultants.
“In 2010”, Morris says, “no
stone will be left unturned
in our quest to achieve a
‘world class culture’ and to
take both companies forward”.
UKF Stainless will be exhibiting at Tube 2010 in
Hall 3, Stand D19.
Tube & wire preview
RSA: new saw development at Tube 2010
W
ith a new product development, RSA will
present at Tube a simple
but effective way to drastically reduce piece costs
Reduce piece costs
in tube processing
with the workpiece. Variable cutting speeds and the
use of solid-carbide blades
mean high cutting performance and long working life
of the tools as well as the
observation of tightest
tolerance limits.
When sawing several tubes at the same time, the
careful treatment of the
workpiece surfaces represents a further technical
challenge. RSA has developed structural solutions that guarantee the
required surface quality of
vehicle components that
may be chromium-plated
afterwards - eg tubes for
headrests.
in tube processing. The
new sawing centre RASACUT MXS achieves in
triple cut - depending on
workpiece dimensions an output of up to 11,000
pieces per hour. It is designed for tube diameters
of 8 up to 20mm for triple
cut and of 6 up to 45mm
in a single cut.
Characteristic of RSA sawing centres is the modular
configuration. Depending
on the actual requirements of the customer,
the sawing centre can be
configured or expanded
later by modules for deburring, fixed length measuring as well as for cleaning
and stacking, whereby these
modules do not reduce the
high sawing performance.
For this reason the output
data are not theoretical
46
values, but correspond to
the real production output
in the everyday working
process.
Optimum interaction
of machine and tool
The consistent reduction
of ancillary times and the
optimum combination of
machine and tool technology are the basis for
increased productivity. In
addition RSA manufactures in its own saw blade
production tooth geometries that perfectly match
RSA will be exhibiting
at Tube 2010
in Hall 6, Stand C42.
Tube & wire preview
Supporting the rollforming industry
I
n January 2010 data
M (UK) Sheet Metal
Solutions Ltd officially
opened its head office in
Wolverhampton. An affiliated company of Germany’s
Pioneering tool
Copra FEA
data M Sheet Metal Solutions GmbH, based in Valley, near Munich, data M
data M opens
UK head office
supports companies within
the UK rollforming industry
in the development of their
products, processes, tooling and choice of software
solutions.
Being the first people organisations call when they
require a design, software
Macro Bars & Wires (India) Pvt Ltd
Supplying
stainless steel
wires since 1978
M
acro Bars &
Wires (India)Pvt
Ltd is a manufacturer and exporter of stainless steel wires to over 50
countries. ISO 9001:2000
and ISO 14001:2004 registered and Highest Export
Award winners from the
Government of India, the
or training solution, data M
with its global reputation
will play a key part in the
UK when helping companies in developing a “Right
First Time” tooling solution with the aid of its pioneering rollforming analysis tool Copra FEA.
“We support UK rollforming businesses with our
services, software and
knowledge, thus helping
them to control, maintain
and reduce product development costs accordingly”, states Carl Stephenson, managing director of
the company, and he continues: “We will be using
the data M network of companies and employees to
develop our software, tooling and training solutions.
Our presence will help
sustain the remaining UK
rollforming industry for the
future, and where possible
help re-establish some
sustainable growth again.”
Stephenson is an acknowledged expert in tooling
design, and product development as well as manufacture and testing project planning.
Zibo Wel-Fit Metal
Products Co Ltd
Product Range
company is known for its
superior quality and timely delivery.
Macro Bars & Wires offers
wire from 0.10–24mm dia
in AISI 200, 300, 400, and
Duplex grades, in all finishes and packaging as per
customer requirements.
With state-of-the-art machinery from specialized
companies around the
world, it can ensure top
quality at competitive prices.
Elbows - LR SR 45 90
Return Bends - LR SR 180
Tees - Straight & Reducing
Reducers - Con & Eccentric
Stub Ends - MSS TYPE-A& B
Stub Ends - ASME Long
End Caps
Sch5S - XXS
½” ~48”, ¾”X½” ~ 48”X24”
Specifications
ASME B16.9
ASTM A403 304 304L 316 316L
ASTM A234 WPB WP11 WP91
ASTM A420 WPL6
ASTM A815 S32205 S32750
JIS B2311 2312 2313
DIN 2605 2615 2616 2617
EN 10253-1
CRN
Inspections
RT UT MT PT IGC PMI
Hardness, Tensile
Bending, Flattening, Flaring
Impact, Hydrostatic Test
Spectro-analysis
Please visit us at WWW.WEL-FIT.COM
Macro Bars & Wires
(India) Pvt Ltd will be
exhibiting at wire 2010
in Hall 17, Stand A19.
48
Sales Tel: +86 532 83876693
Sales Tel: +86 532 83886584
Sales Fax: +86 532 83885554
No 18, Lushan Road, Linzi,
Zibo, P.R.China Zip 255418
e-mail: info@wel-fit.com
Tube & wire preview
Combilift forklifts on display
C
ombilifts work as
counterbalance,
sideloader, and
narrow-aisle forklifts. Their
versatility to operate both
inside and out on semi
rough terrain, and in harsh weather conditions enables users to not only
maximise available storage space but to also improve productivity in and
around the warehouse.
50
Safe and space saving
4-way handling
Combilift Ltd will be exhibiting two models from its wide range of 4-way forklifts,
designed for the safe and space saving handling of long and bulky loads, in Hall 4,
Stand G19 at Tube 2010. The new Combi-CB, the smallest Combilift to date, will
share the stand with the larger C5000XL model.
Sideways travel with loads
resting on the platform
enables the trucks to work
in aisle widths of just two
metres, and avoids the
need for hazardous high
level transportation, significantly improving safety
procedures.
With fully synchronised 4way steering guaranteeing
excellent manoeuvrability
and flexibility of use, the
Combilift can be deployed
from the initial stages of
offloading raw materials,
during the manufacturing
process, through to the
handling, storage and despatch of finished product.
Capacities range from 2.5
tonnes to 14 tonnes, with
a choice of diesel, LPG
and electric power options.
The wide variety of lift ca-
pacities, mast heights,
platform dimensions and
range of attachments
available means that in
practice every Combilift is
purpose-built to provide a
truly customised handling
solution.
Combilift Ltd will be
exhibiting at Tube 2010
in Hall 4, Stand G19
Company profile
Coil processing machinery for service centres
E
stablished in 1992,
Spain’s Athader
specialises in the
design, manufacture and
assembly of equipment
used in the steel indus-
Tailor-made equipment
from Athader
The company’s manufacturing process is based
on a “total quality” policy, which is assured by
its ISO 9001:2000 certification. Its Technical Assistance Services, with
specialised technicians,
are available to provide
technical advice and
tele-assistance, and offer
immediate solutions to any
problems that may arise.
try, focusing its activity
on coil processing machines, including slitting
lines, levelling and cut-tolength lines, packaging
and strapping lines. The
company is based in San
extent of its know-how to
design equipment and facilities which are tailored
to its clients’ specific requirements, using the
most advanced design
tools to ensure the best
General capabilities
Materials:
Carbon steel, stainless
steel, aluminium,
alloys, and coated
Coil weight max:
40 tonnes
Thickness min/max:
0.1mm-25mm
Coil width max:
2,600mm
Processing speed max:
400 metres/min
Formats production max: 180 pieces/min
Sebastian, and has a
highly qualified staff of
professionals who have
more than 30 years’ experience in their area of
expertise.
Athader applies the full
52
solution to increase productivity and optimise the
installation.
The company has reliable
and high precision production facilities at its dispo-
sal, which are checked
and tested on the most
advanced equipment.
Athader can supply turnkey installations, and offers the following services:
Design of machinery
Hydraulic and electrical engineering
Automation engineering
Assembly and start-up
Operator training
After sales service
Athader’s manufacturing
programme includes:
Slitting lines
Levelling and cut-tolength lines
Combined cutting
lines
Packaging and
strapping lines
Coil processing
special lines
Machinery for steel
plants
Modification and
modernisation of
equipment
All installations have common design characteris-
The coil processing
specialists
Slitting lines
Levelling and Cut-To-Length lines
Combined Cutting lines
Packaging and Strapping lines
Coil processing special lines
Athader
Zuatzu Parque Empresarial Edificio Ulia, 12
20018 San Sebastian Gipuzkoa, Spain
Tel: + 34 943 219 199 - Fax: + 34 943 219 181
comercial@athader.com - www.athader.com
Company profile
tics and capabilities, tailored to the type of line,
materials and requirements.
CTL line 1,500 x 4/20T-8M
ThyssenKrupp,
Argentina
Speaking recently to
Stainless Steel Focus,
Harkaitz Luengo Lasa,
technical sales manager
at Athader, said that all
companies are suffering
the consequences of the
market downturn, and are
having to contend with
Cut-to-length and levelling line 2,000 x12. Argentina. In production since September 2009
Cut-to-length and levelling line 2,000x12. Stainless.
Germany. In production since August 2009
Slitting line 1,500x4. Stainless.
In production since November 2009
Grinding line 1,500x4. Stainless. Argentina.
Slitting line 2,000x8. Portugal.
In production since October 2009
Strapping and packing line 2,000x8. Portugal.
Slitting line 1,650x5. Argentina. Assembly forecast
March 2010
Cut-to-length and levelling line 1,500x3. Germany.
Assembly forecast August 2010
Cut-to-length and levelling line 2,500x19. Mexico.
Assembly forecast June 2010
Cut-to-length and levelling line 1,500x3. Poland.
Assembly forecast September 2010
some very difficult situations. “In our case, we have
been successful so far, and
have an order book which
will enable us to maintain
production in 2010.”
ly, Portugal, Belgium, the
UK, Slovakia, Morocco,
India, USA, Costa Rica,
Chile, Argentina, and Mexico.
Just some of the projects
undertaken in 2009, and
projects planned for 2010,
by Athader, are shown in
the table (left).
Athader is a company orientated towards the world
market. It exports almost
80% of its sales to more
than 30 countries all over
the globe, including: Germany, Poland, France, ItaSL - 1,500 x 3/25T-8C
Slitting line plus
packaging line
53
New annealing and pickling line process
T
oday, cold rolled
stainless steel strip
is generally supplied in two surface finishes
(according to EN10088/2):
2D/2B cold rolled,
annealed, pickled
and skin passed (2B),
2R cold rolled,
bright annealed (BA)
and skin passed.
The 2D/B surface finish is
generally produced on horizontal high capacity con-
DaInox Bright™
technology for cold
rolled stainless strip
Towards the end of last year, Italy’s Danieli organised an open day at its headquarters in Buttrio to present its new Dalnox BrightTM technology for cold rolled stainless steel strip. In addition to technical presentations and discussions, the event
included a visit to the pilot plant in operation at the Danieli research centre. The
article below describes the new process which the company terms a technological milestone in cold rolled stainless steel strip processing.
and consequently pickling
processes are not required.
The vertical furnace orientation reduces the possibility of increasing productivity, presently limited to
a maximum of approximately 20-25 tph.
Due to their mirror properties and good appearance,
2R surface finish products
are generally preferred to
2D/B for the so-called “on
sight applications”.
By combining the main
positive features of both
the existing methods, a
very innovative process
technology has been developed for annealing and
pickling of cold rolled stainless steel strip.
DaInox Bright™ process and technology
tinuous annealing and
pickling lines (A&P lines),
with a productivity of up to
150 tph, in which the strip
is annealed in an oxidising
atmosphere (combustion
gas mixture).
The oxide layer produced
during annealing has to be
removed and then passiv-
54
ity has to be restored. This
is generally achieved by
means of an electrolytic
descaling process followed by a chemical pickling treatment, usually
using mixed acid (HNO3HF) or, alternatively, ecological baths. A large
amount of polluting substances such as NOX
emissions, nitrates in the
disposal water and sludge
requiring special treatment
processes are produced.
2R surface finish is obtained on bright annealing
vertical plants in which the
strip is annealed in a H2/
N2 gas mixture with a controlled dew-point, able to
prevent surface oxidation
The globalization of the
steel market is driving
steelmakers to research
new processes and technologies which are able to
reduce production costs
and increase competitiveness, as well as improving quality, whilst at the
same time reducing the
environmental impact of
production processes.
In pursuing these targets,
Danieli and Centro Sviluppo Materiali (CSM) have
developed a very innovative process technology,
trade named DaInox
Bright™, which is able to
obtain stainless steel strip
with an enhanced surface
quality, close to 2R, with
plants having the same
production capacity and
cost of conventional A&P
lines. A further benefit anticipated is a decrease in
the environmental impact
of chemical pickling processes.
The key feature of DaInox
Bright™ is a dramatic reduction in oxidation during
annealing, compared with
conventional A&P lines.
As a consequence, chemical pickling treatment is
eliminated or reduced,
which in turn results in an
enhanced surface quality,
a saving in pickling treatment and a reduction in the
volume of waste solution
to be neutralized.
The control of the oxide film
formation is achieved by
using specific strip thermal cycles and through a
close control of the oxidising capability of annealing
atmospheres at each processing step (heating and
cooling), with particular
attention to higher temperature ones.
The fundamental steps of
the DaInox Bright™ process technology are:
a first rapid heating
stage in a controlled oxidising atmosphere in which
oxide nucleation
and thin oxide film
formation occur,
a second annealing
stage, to complete
the metallurgical
transformation (to
reach the required
mechanical properties, grain size, carbide solubilisation,
etc), in a non-oxidising atmosphere
(N2) in order to limit
oxide layer growth,
a cooling stage, at
cooling rates able
to avoid carbides
precipitation, in a
non-oxidising atmosphere,
electrolytic descaling stage,
light chemical pickling stage with reduced environmental impact and surface passivation.
DaInox Bright™ - research and development
the case of AISI 304 stainless steel strip, are described in Fig. 1. In the initial heating stage (up to
850-950°C) of DaInox
Bright™ annealing, oxidation is reduced by the formation of a protective thin
oxide layer in a controlled
atmosphere due to higher
heating rates than conventional ones.
During annealing at the
higher temperature range,
where major oxidation occurs, the presence of a
non-oxidising atmosphere
guarantees limited oxide
build-up. During cooling,
the presence of non-oxidising conditions prevents
further oxide growth. Fig.
2 shows the mean oxide
film thickness present on
AISI 304 annealed strip
produced with conventional
and DaInox Bright™ processes.
DaInox Bright™
pickling process
On conventional cold rolled A&Plines the pickling
section is generally subdivided into two different
parts. An electrolytic section (generally neutral
Na2SO4 bath) which dissolves the oxide layer, and
a chemical section (mixed
acid baths made of HNO3/
HF or ecological baths)
which removes residual
scale by dissolving the reactive layer underneath
and restores passivity.
Due to the reduced oxidation, the thin oxide layer
can be easily removed by
Starting from the existing
know-how in the field of
continuous annealing and
pickling processes and
plants for stainless steel
strip, DaInox Bright™ was
initially developed at CSM
lab-scale facilities. Later
on, the experimental validation of the new process
was performed on the continuous annealing pilot
plant purposely designed
and installed at Danieli’s
R&D department.
Surface characterization
and pickling tests of annealed samples were performed at CSM laboratories. DaInox Bright™ is a
patented process technology and a Danieli trademark.
DaInox Bright™
annealing process
The oxidation phenomena
occurring in conventional
and in DaInox Bright™
annealing processes, in
55
obtained with DaInox
Bright™ after electrolytic
descaling compared with
those of standard 2B and
2R surfaces.
The short strokes added
on top of the gloss bars
indicate the increase in
gloss normally obtained
after skin-pass. The final
light chemical treatment
(low temperature, low HF
content, shorter treatment
time) ensures complete
pickling even in A&P line
non-standard working conditions (eg furnace transition due to both productivity and material changes,
line slow-down). Due to the
dramatic reduction in oxidation, which in turn strongly decreases the steel
surface reactivity, the final
light chemical pickling is
characterized by reduced
specific mass loss and
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
a simple electrolytic descaling treatment in a conventional electrolytic section properly set up. After
electrolytic treatment, the
strip surface appears free
56
from oxide with an appearance (in terms of mirror
properties) close to 2R.
The bar diagram in Fig. 3
shows the gloss measurements (60°) of samples
pickling times, compared
to conventional processes. Fig. 4 shows the specific percentage mass
loss in mixed acids chemical pickling (HNO3 HF) compared to that observed on standard annealed products (2D).
DaInox Bright™
pilot plant
The annealing pilot line,
installed at Danieli’s R&D
department is able to continuously treat 0.4-2mm
thick and 300mm wide
steel strip at a speed of up
to 10 metres per minute.
It is designed with a modular structure in order to
reproduce different annealing cycles as heating
curves and furnace atmospheres.
It is made with refractory
materials that allow the
reaching, in the heated
zones, of temperatures up
to 1,400°C, and is equipped with process control
instrumentation. The second zone of the furnace,
where the strip reaches
the maximum temperature, is heated in an indirect way by means of electrical resistance or by flame
burners. Many experimental campaigns were
devoted to defining the
best process conditions.
Scaling-up criteria and related industrial technologies were also defined.
Cost evaluation
A cost analysis based on
average Italian energy and
material market prices
was performed, taking into
account only the following
operating charges:
energy (fuel gas)
and process gas
consumption in the
annealing section,
electrical energy
and chemicals consumption in both
electrolytic and
chemical pickling
sections,
neutralisation and
disposal of waste
solutions
and
fumes,
human resources
directly involved in
plant operations,
metal loss (yield)
due to annealing
and pickling treatment.
The specific management
cost of a DaInox Bright™
A&P line, for the above
mentioned operating
costs, is roughly 35-40%
lower than for a conventional A&P line (for AISI 304).
only about 20% of total
energy transferred to the
strip in the annealing process is supplied by indirect heating systems
such as electrical resistance or radiant tubes.
Field of application
The main advantages
All stainless steel grades
(austenitic, ferritic, duplex, etc) can be produced
using the DaInox Bright™
process technology. In a
plant based on the DaInox
Bright™ process, it is possible to obtain both surface
qualities “close to BA” and
to standard 2B-2D.
Fig. 5 compares the schematic process layout of a
conventional A&P line with
a DaInox Bright™ line.
As shown in the diagram,
In brief, the main advantages of DaInox Bright™
process technology are:
the same productivity as conventional
A&P lines,
high flexibility in
terms of surface appearance of the product - 2D or close
to 2R finish,
reduced or eliminated chemical pickling with consequent savings on
equipment and
management costs,
reduced environmental impact and
savings on emissions and waste
neutralization treatment costs,
enhanced surface
quality.
DaInox Bright™ is suitable for both new and existing plants. In existing
plants, by replacing the
furnace, the potential benefits are:
Fig. 5
increased productivity,
enhanced surface
quality, close to 2R,
drastic lowering of
pickling management costs,
drastic lowering of
waste treatment
volume.
New plants benefit from all
of the advantages described in this article.
57
Applications & Usßrs
Now available ex-stock
S
andvik duplex and
super duplex stainless steels in solid
round bar form are now
available ex-stock in an
extensive size range from
the company’s UK warehouse.
The popular material grades available include
Sandvik SAF 2507™
(UNS 32750) a super duplex stainless steel in diameters from 20mm up to
250mm, and duplex grade
Sanmac™ SAF 2205
(UNS S31803/S32205) offered in sizes from 20mm
up to 450mm. Sandvik
round bar for machining is
58
Sandvik duplex and super
duplex solid round bar
peel turned, polished or
rough machined, depending on size, and is delivered in random lengths or
cut to fixed lengths.
Both grades are approved
and tested in accordance
to NORSOK, up to
260mm diameter, for use
in oil and gas applications
and material is delivered
complete with test certificates.
Where other bar diameters
or Sandvik material grades
are required a complete
range is available direct
from Sweden on a 7–10
day delivery.
Super duplex materials
such as Sandvik SAF
2507 offer the ideal solution for component manufacture for use in extremely corrosive conditions and
those exposed to high
stress in chloride containing environments like
seawater. Combining high
strength with high corrosion resistance duplex
and super duplex steels
have more than twice the
strength and lower thermal
expansion than austenitic
steels making them ideal
for applications in the oil
and gas industry, seawater services, refineries
and petrochemical plant.
Sanmac SAF 2205 affords
excellent machining properties which lower machining costs and significantly increase productivity.
This is achieved without
compromising
the
material’s corrosive resistance and high mechanical strength.
Whether the requirement
is for milling, turning, tapping, thread cutting, drilling, sawing, etc, Sandvik
can offer the most suitable stainless steel bar for
machining requirements
and component manufacture.
So that the material is supplied in the most suitable
form Sandvik operates a
dedicated cut-to-length
service and can supply its
stainless steel solid bar in
the most appropriate
lengths to best accommodate customers’ requirements.
Being able to supply product from stock in the form
and length required by the
customer is an important
part of the Sandvik service
and the extensive stock
programme for duplex and
super duplex in popular
sizes ensures that material is available for immediate off-the-shelf delivery.
Raw Matßrials
Production stable at Russian operations
O
JSC MMC Norilsk
Nickel has announced that
overall saleable nickel production for 2009 decreased to 282,900
tonnes, compared to
300,600 tonnes in 2008.
Russian operations demonstrated stable levels
of nickel production at
232,800 tonnes.
The Group’s overall decline in nickel production
is primarily explained by
refining capacity underutilisation at the Harjavalta
plant due to disruptions in
deliveries of raw materials
by Talvivaara Mining Company Plc.
The Polar Division and
Kola MMC produced
Norilsk: drop in 2009
nickel production
63,500 tonnes of nickel in
the fourth quarter of 2009,
beating the approved production plan.
In the fourth quarter of
2009, the Harjavalta refinery in Finland produced
9,900 tonnes of nickel,
including 8,500 tonnes of
own saleable nickel and
1,400 tonnes of tolled nickel. In the reporting period
Tati Nickel shipped to the
Harjavalta plant for further
processing 2,200 tonnes
of nickel in concentrate,
1,600 tonnes of copper in
nickel concentrate, 13,000
troy ounces of palladium
in nickel concentrate and
2,000 troy ounces of platinum in nickel concentrate.
Full year output at the
Harjavalta refinery totalled
40,800 tonnes of nickel,
including 28,500 tonnes of
own saleable nickel and
12,300 tonnes of tolled nickel. Reduced production
results at the Harjavalta
plant in 2009 compared to
2008 are mostly due to the
raw material delivery disruptions mentioned above.
Moreover, the Group was
substituting nickel concentrate, previously shipped from the Group’s Australian operations, by the
nickel concentrate of Tati
Nickel.
2009, the overall combined
production of nickel in concentrate by Tati Nickel and
Nkomati totalled 5,700
tonnes,
including
amounts of concentrate
shipped for further processing to other members of
the Group. Full year production reached 22,600
tonnes of nickel in concentrate, including intragroup
shipments.
2009 no mining and metallurgical works were performed at the Australian
operations of the Group.
Full year results of the
Australian operations, before they were placed on
60
care and maintenance,
totalled 1,200 tonnes of
nickel in concentrate.
In 2010, the Group is forecasting production of
some 234,000 tonnes of
nickel at its Russian operations and 65,000-75,000
tonnes of nickel at the
Norilsk Nickel International operations.
The stated production volumes and the production
outlook for 2010 do not
include the production figures of the Stillwater Mining Company, a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel.
Raw Matßrials
Cronimet investment in superalloys
Metalloy MetalleLegierungen new
processing machine
A
fter a year and a
half of planning,
development and
construction, the new processing machine for
turnings started running at
Metalloy at the end of
2009.
Processing for a wide
range of sectors
With this additional investment in the superalloys
segment Cronimet under-
lines its long-term commitment to invest and expand
in this important future
market.
The new machine is constructed to homogeneously process especially the
complicated superalloys
from the areas of aviation,
automotive,
energy
production and investment
construction for direct application in vacuum metallurgy.
Also because of its environmental efficiency, the
processing machine in
Norderstedt ranks among
the most modern and most
innovative equipment
worldwide and therefore
enables Metalloy to fulfil
and guarantee the increasing demands of its customers worldwide.
positioned group of companies in the trading, production and recycling of
alloying raw materials for
the stainless steel industry.
The company, founded in
1980, is now present at 50
locations worldwide with
over 4,000 employees. As
a family business, Cronimet has grown organically in this key supply industry. The systematic development of future markets is based on the combination of traditional
entrepreneurship with
modern management.
The Cronimet Group, based in Karlsruhe, is an internationally successful
Hermann Börsting GmbH & Co. KG
Hermann Börsting GmbH & Co. KG has been demonstrating its professionalism for 60
years through the quality of its work, and its adherence to delivery times. Our employees
in Neukirchen-Vluyn and Iserlohn are ready and willing to be at your side as competent
partners with ideas and suggestions when dealing with and carrying out your orders.
Our programme:
Grinding, brushing, polishing, mirror finish polishing, and mirror finish polishing for maritime
applications of stainless steel (all grades), brass, aluminium, copper and steel on request
Tubes: Inside and outside, all diameters and shapes, as well as tube fittings,
pipelines, and ends of all types and sizes
Sheets: Thick sheet and plate in all sizes and thicknesses, thin sheet in all sizes
including large format
Profiles: All standard sections (T, U, L, Z, and double T profiles) inside and
outside. Flats, square, oval and flat oval tubes, fully or only partly processedt
Special parts: Welded constructions and castings, as well as works of art
Containers: Inside and outside, also as preparation for electropolishing
and as assemblies
Hermann Börsting GmbH & Co. KG
An der Fliehburg 1 - D-58642 Iserlohn
Tel: +49 (0)2374/3367 - Fax: +49 (0)2374/3740
info@boersting.de - www.boersting.de
Plant Neukirchen-Vluyn
Am Hoschenhof - D-47506 Neukirchen-Vluyn
61
commodity review
Fiscal discussions in Germany anachronistic
A
t the start of the
new year, analysts
in research departments traditionally put forward their prognosis for the
year’s developments. The
most comprehensive evaluation in the field of industrial metals is the survey
taken by Reuters, having
been carried out now for
quite a number of years.
This year’s publication
was released on 26th January 2010, and the survey had asked for the expectations in price movements for the LME metals
aluminium, copper, lead,
nickel, tin and zinc for the
years 2010 and 2011. 57
participants in the survey
were asked for their forecast for the average cash
price. For 2010, 48 houses
gave a prediction for nickel, whereas for 2011 only
41 addresses took part.
All in all the survey
showed, that in spite of
expected pressure on the
economy in the second
half year due to fiscal policies, the sentiment is for
rising metal prices, especially in comparison to last
year. This is seen in the
scenario of a slowly recov-
in US$/lb
in US$/t
8.39
18,500
8.65
8.07
19,060
17,800
Ni average January:
High
Low
Nickel forecast
24% higher than
in preceding year
20.01.:
13.01.:
February (3 months´ nickel):
62
25.02.:
9.23
20,350
24.02.:
9.14
20,150
23.02.:
9.28
20,460
22.02.:
9.37
20,650
19.02.:
9.21
20,310
18.02.:
9.22
20,325
17.02.
9.17
20,225
16.02.:
8.94
19,710
15.02.:
8.65
19,070
12.02.:
8.39
18,500
11.02.:
8.17
18,005
10.02.:
8.13
17,925
London Metal Exchange
nickel price development
1 0 ,0 0
i
n
U
S
$
/
lb
9 ,2 0
3Months
8 ,4 0
7 ,6 0
Cash
6 ,8 0
6 ,0 0
0 2 .1 1 .
3 0 .1 1 .
ering economy and a
strong demand coming out
of China.
It is expected that nickel
shall have an increase of
around 24% over prices
from 2009. Whether these
indications have already
taken into account the
3 0 .1 2 .
2 8 .0 1 .
speedy increase of metal
prices at the start of the
year is unclear. However,
what is already clear is
that these forecast values
of most of the metals are
actually at the present levels or indeed even below
them. The 3 months nickel quotation at this mo-
oryx commodity review is a service of KMR
group. KMR group is the third largest stainless
steel scrap dealer in the world active in the trade and processing of raw materials for the stainless steel industry. The biggest global stainless
steel producers are amongst the customers of
the group having its activities in Germany and
the Netherlands. KMR group with its brand Oryx
Stainless provides to its business partners value
added like optimisation of scrap revenues, research on all stainless steel relevant commodities as well as consulting for the hedging of
metal and currency price risks.
2 5 .0 2 .
commodity review
ment in time is around
USD
18,500.00/mt.
Should the expected recovery be further confirmed
by hard and actual real
economic data, then the
forecasts would actually
tend to be a little too much
on the lower side. It can
be seen nonetheless, that
looking at the range of rates, analysts are still not
in agreement about further
developments. On the one
hand we have the economic sceptic, who is
reckoning with a renewed
negative correction in the
markets (a double dip)
and therefore looks to a
further fall in metal prices.
On the other hand, at the
high end of expectations
we have the optimist, who
expects a continuance of
London Metal Exchange
nickel inventories
175
160
i
n
.
0
0
0
t
145
130
115
100
08.10.
12.11.
the recovery, coupled with
a renewed risk taking in-
17.12.
vestor interest, and so predicts much higher commodity prices than seen
last year.
In specific terms, taking
the average price, the consensus of opinion for nickel for the year 2010 is
around USD 18,290.00/
mt, whereby the highest
value in the survey was at
USD 22,000.00/mt, and
the lowest at USD
14,740.00/mt. Prices are
a little higher for 2011. At
an average of around USD
19,160.00/mt, the lowest
forecast was at USD
15,000.00/mt, and the
most optimistic price was
USD 26,250.00/mt. Both
the low count of participants giving a forecast for
2011, and the wide range
of estimations show that
21.01.
25.02.
analysts quite rightly have
difficulty in making longterm price predictions. The
moderate increase in prices from 2010 to 2011
does, however, seem quite plausible, but this is
only reckoning with a very
slow recovery back to the
old capacity levels everywhere (except in the emerging markets). The optimistic overtone is that even
amongst the pessimists,
no retreat back to the lows
of 2008 is expected in
nickel prices.
The optimists amid the
analysts base their outlook
in the main on the following
argument: in comparison
to the price moves of other
base metals, nickel has
underperformed in 2009,
and so there is a certain
63
commodity review
amount of catching up to
do. In reality, however, fundamental factors, such as
the slow increase in stainless steel production,
were responsible for this.
In 2009 the market was
also certainly influenced
by increased nickel supplies from mines like Goro,
Ambatovy and Ravensthorpe. An analysis made
by the research company
CRU does, however, show
that since the 1st quarter
of 2009, the total amount
of nickel stocks within the
system - this is not only
the LME stocks but also
the stocks with producers,
consumers and traders has decreased. The impression given by the big
increase in nickel stocks
in the LME warehouses is
therefore somewhat distorted.
A very decisive outcome of
this CRU analysis is that
the nickel stocks of the
consumers have almost
been cut in half since that
1st quarter. This corresponds to a position of the
steel works working on a
policy of hand to mouth,
buying only bare essentials, which presents no too
few price risks on the upside should there be further increases in capacities. A further argument for
rising nickel prices is the
relatively low availability of
nickel in scrap and secondary products. Ferro-nickel, which is also preferred
in the production of stainless steel, is also not supposed to be available in
over-abundance. Nickel
supplies could also be affected by the strikes threatened by Vale Sudbury and
also Xstrata. In the medium term, it is becoming
harder to find nickel rich
ore, so that the ratio of ore
64
to nickel required for refining is increasing. The
experience with the Pressure Acid Leach technique
has also shown that often,
the required output
amounts can only be reached after years - if at all.
In China especially the use
of nickel pig iron (NPI) has
greatly influenced the supply of nickel. It is doubted,
however, that the theoretical maximum production
amounts will increase by
much more. Whilst the
price advantage is a result
of using old written-off capacities, the amounts
which have already been
processed present strong
challenges in the logistics
of transport. This will all
create bottlenecks in any
further increase in the NPI
production.
In a presentation held by
the Commerzbank about
the perspectives of the
money markets, analysts
of the Allianz Global Investors (AGI) presented their
views. In summary this
was the scenario presented: the real estate markets will not be a risk factor in 2010 (with the exception of a possible new
bubble forming in parts of
Asia). However, 2010 will
see a year of bad news
coming out of the banking
sector, notably in connection with obligatory writeoffs and the corresponding
requirement of equity. Fiscal policy will also be an
important issue, since rating agencies will pursue
more and more the need
for recovery programmes
from the governments.
From the medium viewpoint, this can only lead to
tax increases. Discussions at the moment being
held in Germany seem a
little anachronistic in comparison to those countries
which have already implemented measures to
increase tax revenue. With
regard to global economy,
the AGI expect we may be
surprised with figures on
the more positive side.
Quarters 1 and 2 especially should benefit from the
effect of state fiscal/economic programmes. Allianz does not see any evidence for a new collapse
of the economy. All reliable early indicators support this recovery scenario. “Whispered estimates”
are even expecting a
growth in the USA of plus
6% for the 4th quarter of
2009. After the second half
year of 2010 and into
2011, a “new reality” will
move in, marked by belowaverage growth rates in the
industrial countries. Central banks will successively reduce excess liquidity.
The ECB is expected to
make the first key interest
rate increases in the second half of this year (towards the end of the 3rd
quarter). By the end of the
year the key interest rate
is anticipated as being
1.5% in Euro land and 1%
in the USA, although it can
be imagined that the Fed
will be a little earlier than
the ECB with an interest
rate increase. The USdollar is seen more firmly.
The long term purchasing
power parity is now
between 1.20 and 1.25
USD/EUR, but analysts
are assuming that there
will be a little pressure for
revaluation, so that the
level would come up to
between 1.35 and 1.45
USD/EUR. In general it
can be seen on many of
the markets that levels
from before the Lehman
collapse have been reached again. This means
for the German stock market for example, that 2010
will be more of a transitional period, shaped by corrections and sideways
movements.
kmr stainless AG
Market pricßs
Market/Trader Prices for Stainless Steel
Prices quoted are distributor selling prices for larger quantities including surcharges eg 1-tonne parcel.
Extras are payable for smaller quantities. In Germany, for example, the following extras typically apply:
Under 1,000 kg to 500 kg
Under 500 kg to 250 kg
1 0.10
1 0.25
1 1.20
Date
Germany
1 0.55
1 1.70
Under 50 kg/single sheets
1.4301
1.4571
/kg
/kg
04.01.10
1
Date
US$/lb
2.28-2.38
3.45-3.55
RAW MATERIALS
1/kg
£/kg
Nickel (LME)
NB: LME nickel prices are
quoted in dollars.
Euro and £ prices are given
here for guidance only
25.02.10
24.02.10
23.02.10
22.02.10
19.02.10
18.02.10
17.02.10
16.02.10
15.02.10
12.02.10
11.02.10
cash
9.20
9.10
9.27
9.31
9.17
9.18
9.14
8.89
8.62
8.37
8.14
3 mths
9.23
9.14
9.28
9.37
9.21
9.22
9.17
8.94
8.65
8.39
8.17
cash
13.54
13.39
13.64
13.70
13.49
13.51
13.45
13.08
12.68
12.31
11.98
3 mths
13.58
13.45
13.65
13.79
13.55
13.57
13.49
13.15
12.73
12.34
12.02
cash
15.01
14.85
15.12
15.19
14.96
14.98
14.91
14.50
14.06
13.66
13.28
3 mths
15.06
14.91
15.14
15.29
15.03
15.04
14.96
14.59
14.11
13.69
13.33
Ferro-chrome
charge chrome (net price)*
Quarter 1/10
Quarter 4/09
Quarter 3/09
Quarter 2/09
1.01
1.03
0.89
0.69
1.49
1.52
1.31
1.02
1.65
1.68
1.45
1.13
spot market (high carbon)
20.11.09
0.98
1.44
1.60
Feb 2009
10.11
14.88
16.50
Mo Oxide
dealer price
Stainless Steel Scrap
major dealer buying prices
Germany
(sheet cuttings,
18 % Cr, 9 % Ni)
01.02.10
1.25
65
Alloy surchargßs
Development of German
alloy surcharges for selected
product forms and grades
January - March 2010
Welded
tube
Sheet
Bar
Bright bar
Wire rod
in 1/t
January 2010
1.4016
283
325
295
330
280
1.4301
954
1,097
1,180
1,325
1,130
1.4571
1,470
1,691
1,845
2,075
1,765
1.4016
309
355
325
365
310
1.4301
1,132
1,302
1,390
1,565
1,330
1.4571
1,829
2,103
2,230
2,510
2,135
1.4016
331
381
340
385
325
1.4301
1,197
1,377
1,465
1,650
1,405
1.4571
1,991
2,290
2,445
2,750
2,345
February 2010
March 2010
Development of German alloy
surcharges* for stainless flat products
i
n
1
/
kg
Surcharge development*
3 months comparison
6 ,0 0
5 ,0 0
4 ,8 0
4 ,0 0
3 ,6 0
i
n
1
/
kg
2 ,4 0
1 ,2 0
0 ,0 0
Ja n 0 4
3 ,0 0
2 ,0 0
1 ,0 0
0 ,0 0
Ja n 0 5
Ja n 0 6
1.4301
Ja n 0 7
Ja n 0 8
Ja n 0 9
Ja n 1 0
1.4571
Ja n
F e b
M a r
Sheet
1.4016
* including March 2010 surcharges
66
Ja n
F e b
M a r
Bar
1.4301
Ja n
F e b
Wire rod
1.4571
M a r

Stainlßss Steßl Focus - Gopal Group of Industries

Transcription

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