Chronicle of the apocalypse in the global steel market

Over the past two to three weeks, the news of the global steel market most of all resembles the chronicle of the apocalypse of the global steel industry

Here's a look:

Essar Steel Algoma, a Canadian flat products manufacturer, has filed for lender protection for the second time in 18 months.

Scrap prices have continued to fall this month, dashing any hopes that the steel industry will be able to pay the normal price for raw materials at all. Scrap prices have declined by about 40 percent since June and about half of their value at the beginning of the year.

In the UK, the downturn in the steel industry has reached crisis levels as a result of the closure of the largest iron and steel plant, Redcar in Teesside, announcements from Tata Steel that it will close its plants in Scotland and Scunthorpe, and announcements that Caparo will close all of its UK plants, including production of steel strip and pipes. All the factories of the company have been given temporary administrations, and the head of the company, Angad Paul, jumped out of the window of his apartment on the eighth floor in central London.

All steel mills in the Western Hemisphere have banded together to disprove the assumption that China has a market economy and to warn against granting China WTO membership late next year, because then it will become more difficult for other WTO members to announce anti-dumping measures against Chinese imports.

US steel capacity utilization has fallen below 70 percent and has remained at this critically low level for the past 6 weeks. This testifies to the imminent shutdown of a number of metallurgical enterprises in this country.

A study in North America found that granting China the status of a market economy next year would result in the loss of jobs from 400,000 to 600,000 steel workers in the United States and up to 60,000 in Canada.

Prices for US hot rolled coils have fallen to their lowest level since May 2009 - up 40 percent from the APRG - and are at risk of another fall to their January 2004 levels.

The largest US steel companies US Steel and ArcelorMittal, which were supposed to renegotiate labor agreements with their workers before September 1, still cannot come to an agreement with trade unions, which is generally unprecedented in American labor relations.

US Steel demanded that its suppliers reduce the prices of all goods by at least 15 percent, and the European branch of Tata Steel, in an ultimatum, demanded 30 percent discounts from its suppliers and contractors, or, as both companies said, they would have to buy goods and services. in other organizations.

The largest metallurgical company in the world ArcelorMittal has already lost