Metals Chips
By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 10/16/2008 2:00:00 AM
More than 80 managers and workers at Atlas Steel Products have bought the Twinsburg, Ohio-based service center that specializes in heat- and corrosion-resistant steels through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. The firm was sold by the family of the late Lawrence J. "Bo" Burr, who died in April. John Adams, Atlas Steel's former chief financial officer, is president and chief executive officer.
Electric-arc furnace steelmaker Beta Steel of Portage, Ind., has been purchased by Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) of Moscow. Russia's fourth-largest steel producer now will have the opportunity to vertically integrate Beta Steel's hot-rolled coil production capacity with the Portage-based Atlas Tube division of John Maneely which NLMK bought earlier this summer.
AZCO Steel is opening a structural, plate, sheet and bar products distribution center in Pomona, Calif., under the supervision of David Maslin, director of sales and marketing for the South Plainfield, N.J. subsidiary of Bushwick Metals.
Harris Steel Group of Toronto has bought Auburn, Ind.-based Ambassador Steel for $185 million and payment of $136 million in bank debt. Ambassador is a fabricator and distributor of concrete reinforcing steel bar products. Harris is a subsidiary of Nucor.
Severstal is buying PBS Coals of Friedens, Pa., for $1.3 billion, in the Russian steelmaker's effort to vertically integrate its U.S. steelmaking operations. PBS mines, processes and sells metallurgical and thermal coal at six underground and six surface mining operations in Pennsylvania. The PBS deal will allow Severstal to source 40%–50% of its U.S. metallurgical coal needs from its own facilities,
Vanchem Vanadium Products, a new subsidiary of Swiss steel production, distribution and trading firm Duferco, now is the owner operator of Highveld Steel & Vanadium's Vanchem operations in South Africa and a 50% stake in South Africa Japan Vanadium. The selloff of these vanadium assets to Duferco was mandated by the European Commission after the 2007 merger between Highveld and Russian steel company Evraz.
Kennametal, Latrobe, Pa., a supplier of tooling, components and materials, is buying the assets of Tricon Metals & Services Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based supplier of proprietary abrasion-resistant plate materials, alloy shafting and specialty steels. Tricon has become part of Kennametal's Advanced Materials Solutions Group.
Samuel Manu-Tech has sold its steel pickling operation in Nanticoke, Ontario, Canada, for $35 million to U.S. Steel Canada, which is based in Hamilton, Ontario. CEO Mark Samuel says Samuel Manu-Tech "remains committed to servicing the southern Ontario marketplace through its pickling and slitting operations in Stoney Creek."
Gerdau Ameristeel has started construction work on expanding capacity at its Jacksonville, Fla., mill. Rebar capacity will be increased by 400,000 tons/year to reach 1 million and have rolling capacity closer to matching steelmaking capacity.
Luxembourg-based steelmaker Tenaris is investing $1.6 billion in a new small-diameter seamless pipe mill in Veracruz, Mexico. The new North American facility is expected to begin operations by 2011 to produce 450,000 million tons/year of seamless pipe.
Rio Tinto of Australia is spending $102 million to expand the magnetite plant at Labrador City, Newfoundland, of Iron Ore Co. of Canada to an annual capacity of 22.8 million metric tons and another $421 million to boost annual iron concentrate production to 26 million metric tons by 2011. Another $120 million is being provided by the Montreal-based iron ore company.
Severstal Resources, the mining division of steelmaker Severstal, has spent $1.3 billion to acquire PBS Coals of Somerset County, Pa., which mines metallurgical and thermal coal in the Northern Appalachian Coal Fields.
Steel service center firm, Denman & Davis, has installed a new band saw at its Clifton, N.J., plant that is dedicated to cutting heavier structural steel, plate and other heavy steel materials.
Kobe Steel of Japan and VoestAlpine Krems of Austria will cooperate in the production of lighter, higher-strength steel for cars to improve fuel efficiency and cut carbon dioxide emissions. The two partners will combine the Japanese firm's ultra-high-strength steel sheets and the Austrian company's roll-forming technology to make the lighter, ultra-high-strength steel available for cars in 2011.
Timken is spending $14 million to expand production of heat-treated steel bar and tube tonnage at its steel plant in Canton, Ohio. The new 34,000-square-foot plant is to begin operation in December and reach its 45,000-ton-per-year capacity by mid-2009.
Gerdau Macsteel, Jackson, Mich., has slated a $9.4 million investment to boost annual bar and tube capacity by 18,000 tons and expand heat-treating operations at its Huntington, Ind. plant.
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