Honoring Women of Steel

Sheffield’s Women Of Steel will be honoured with a classical music concert to launch the new Music In The Round season at the city’s Crucible theatre – boosting their £150,000 statue appeal.

The internationally renowned Ensemble 360 played classics Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat and Schubert’s Octet of 1824, at Sheffield Crucible Studio, on Thursday, October 9.

Click here to watch the VIDEO

The evening raised money towards a city centre statue to honour the women who kept the steel mills going, making munitions, to help win two world wars. Some of the surviving Women Of Steel from World War Two, now in their 90s, were invited to attend the concert.

They were also invited to meet Deborah Chadbourn, Music In The Round executive director, to show her a maquette of the statue.

Deborah said: “We are proud to support this appeal for these inspirational women with an night of popular classical music everyone will enjoy.”

Leveltek celebrates new $8 million BlueScope processing line in Australia

Leveltek President Mike Kelly and his wife Carla just returned from Australia where they attended the grand opening for the new $8 million BlueScope processing line. The Kelly’s were among the 120 guests which included customers, distributors, contraction companies and executives from Bradbury. The line was officially opened (ahead of schedule!) by Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery and BlueScope executives. Mike are Carla were able to tour the new line. “Everything looked fantastic and ran perfectly. All of the feedback was extremely positive. It has been a great project, a great team effort and one that Leveltek is proud to be a part of,” says Mike Kelly. 

 

Below is an article written by Illawarra Mercury

 

A new $8 million hot rolled coil processing facility opened at BlueScope’s Port Kembla Steelworks on Monday.

The new processing line uses state-of-the-art stretch-levelling technology to make coil plate and has been strategically installed next to the hot strip mill.

Construction finished ahead of schedule, which meant Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery was able to open it a month early. Cr Bradbery spoke about the importance of adding value to the region’s economy.

He said BlueScope’s willingness to continue its long relationship with Wollongong was testimony to its ongoing confidence in the region.

BlueScope sales, marketing, innovation and trading general manager Jason Ellis said it was a great day for the steelworks and an investment in the future. The company was able to deliver a higher-quality product, he said.

“It is also important for our industry in general because this is a reinvestment back in steel. It doesn’t happen very often. It really is a significant milestone for all of us, not just BlueScope. This material and this product will help deliver better value for our customers and their customers,” he said.

BlueScope manufacturing general manager John Nowlan said the new processing line would employ about 10 people in two shifts.

“It is adding value to the coil that we make,” he said. BlueScope’s new coil plate product will be available in the market as TRU-SPEC™ Coil Plate steel. It is designed to bend, cut, press and form predictably to ensure quality products can be produced efficiently and easily.

BlueScope product and brand manager Gregory Moffitt said customers were definitely in mind in the latest investment.

The flatness and consistency of the coil plate steel was particularly suited to the industry’s growing preference towards laser cutting, which required products to stay flat during cutting, he said.

“Stretch levelling technology produces a ‘memory-free’ product, which means TRU-SPEC™ Coil Plate steel is less likely to flex up and jam or damage the laser cutter.”

Full production is expected to begin on September 1.

U.S. Steel Industry: Reducing Energy Consumption

The U.S. steel industry has taken enormous strides over the past decades to reduce its energy consumption; since the end of World War II, the industry has reduced its energy intensity (energy use per shipped ton) by 60 percent. Between 1990 and 1998 alone, intensity has dropped from 20 to 18 million Btu (MBtu) per ton.

According to a report by Energetics, Inc. Domestic shipments are projected to flatten out over the next decade to around 105 million tons which means that total energy consumption will also decrease. Historically, the steel industry has accounted for about 6 percent of U.S. energy consumption. Today, that figure is 1.5 percent.

The primary causes for the decrease in energy consumption since WWII are:

• The use of pellets in the blast furnace and the application of new technology in the ironmaking process to further reduce fuel rates per net ton of hot metal (NTHM).

• The total replacement of the open hearth process by basic oxygen and electric furnaces. C The almost total replacement of ingot casting by continuous casting (which improved yield dramatically and thus reduced the tons of raw steel required per ton of shipments).

• The growth of the electric furnace sector of the industry at the expense of hot metal-based processes (which has also stimulated scrap recycling so that about 55 percent of “new” steel is now melted from scrap steel.

 

The Chernobyl NSC: The largest moveable steel structure

 

At Leveltek International, we are always looking for the incredible things that steel creates. The New Safe Confinement is the structure intended to contain the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, part of which was destroyed by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

THE SACROPHAGUS 

The sarcophagus that currently encases Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is a giant metal concrete structure quickly constructed as an emergency measure in 1986 to halt the release of radiation into the atmosphere following the explosion. The official Russian name is “Obyekt Ukrytiye” which means shelter or covering.

It is estimated that within the shelter there is 200 tons of radioactive corium, 30 tons of contaminated dust and 16 tons of uranium and plutonium (source Wikipedia). In 1996 it was considered impossible to repair the sarcophagus as radiation levels within it were as high as 10,000 röntgens per hour (background radiation in cities is around 20-50 microröntgens per hour, a lethal dose being 500 röntgens over 5 hours).

A decision to replace the sarcophagus with a “New Safe Containment” was taken and construction of the new structure is now well underway. Originally planned to be in place by 2005, the New Shelter is expected to be completed by the French consortium Novarka in 2015.

 

 

THE CHERBOBYL NEW SAFE CONFINEMENT 

The Chernobyl New Safe Confinement is the largest moveable steel structure out there. It will prevent radioactive leakage from the old nuclear site. Just one way steel is keeping us safe! 

According to The Chernobyl Gallery, The New Safe Confinement (NSC or New Shelter) is the structure, paid for by the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, intended to fully contain the damaged nuclear reactor and prevent the reactor complex from leaking further radioactive material into the environment for the next 100 years. The confinement is expected to be completed by the French consortium Novarka in 2015.

 

Photographs of construction progress can be seen at www.chnpp.gov.

 

The word “confinement” is used rather than the traditional “containment” to emphasize the difference between the “containment” of radioactive gases that is the primary focus of most reactor containment buildings, and the “confinement” of solid radioactive waste that is the primary purpose of the New Safe Confinement.

Objectives of the NSC:

 

• Make the destroyed ChNPP Unit 4 environmentally safe (i.e. contain the radioactive materials at the site to prevent further environmental contamination)
• Reduce corrosion and weathering of the existing shelter and the Unit 4 reactor building
• Mitigate the consequences of a potential collapse of either the existing shelter or the Unit 4 reactor building, particularly in terms of containing the radioactive dust that would be produced by such a collapse.
• Enable safe deconstruction of unstable structures (such as the roof of the existing shelter) by providing remotely operated equipment for their deconstruction.

Watch this YouTube video to learn more about The Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

U.S. Steel to be replaced in S&P 500

U.S. Steel Corp. (X) is out and Martin Marietta Materials is in. After five straight annual losses, the 113-year-old metal producer, will be replaced in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by Martin Marietta Materials Inc. (MLM) 

This announcement came late last month. The Pittsburgh based company was founded by J.P. Morgan and steel magnates including Andrew Carnegie, but according to a statement from S&P Dow Jones Indices the metal producer is too small for the American equity benchmark. 

“It’s an old name,” Walter “Bucky” Hellwig, a senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management, said in a phone interview from Birmingham, Alabama. “There may be some short-term price movement based on the fact that it’s not in the index, but it’s not going out of every index.”

According to an article on bloomberg.com, U.S. Steel, the country’s largest producer of the metal by volume, has struggled amid overcapacity in the global steel industry and competition from cheap imports. It has posted five straight annual losses and the shares tumbled 12 percent this year. 

Shares of the Pittsburgh-based company were included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) in 1901. Ninety years later, when the company was called USX Corp., it was dropped.

Martin Marietta, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has seen its shares rally 32 percent in 2014. It has a market value of about $6.1 billion and the U.S. Justice Department yesterday approved its $2.7 billion purchase of Texas Industries Inc., helping the company gain entry into the cement market amid a recovery in the construction industry.

Leveltek International selected by Australian Steel Company to provide equipment for launch of new coil plate processing line

BENWOOD, WV – Leveltek International, an industry leader that has been operating and producing stretch leveling equipment for more than 20 years, has been selected by BlueScope, an Australian steel company, to provide state-of-the-art stretch-leveling technology for a new coil plate processing line due to start supply in late 2014.

BlueScope announced they were investing in Leveltek International’s stretch leveling technology, along with Bradbury’s CTL equipment for a new coil plate processing line May 19. This technology, not used before in BlueScope’s Australian domestic product range, will provide customers with an industry-leading standard of consistently flat and memory free coil plate products.

“Leveltek is honored to be selected by BlueScope, a well respected leader in the steel industry, to help grow their coil plate business,” says Michael Kelly, President of Leveltek International. “For more than 20 years, we have been committed to providing quality and reliable services to our partners. It is a vote of confidence that BlueScope chose Leveltek and we are thrilled to expand our footprint across the globe.”

Ken Liddle, Market Manager for BlueScope says the decision to invest in the new coil plate processing line was made after considerable feedback from their customers. “Our customers have a preference to buy locally made high-quality steel and through this investment we are able to offer them such a product. The flatness and consistency of stretch-leveling is particularly suited to the industry’s growing preference towards laser cutting and will be appreciated by our customers,” says Liddle.

“BlueScope has utilized the expertise of industry leaders in stretch-leveling technology, Leveltek International LLC in West Virginia, and industry leaders in steel processing equipment, The Bradbury Co., Inc. in Kansas.”

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Leveltek International designs, manufactures and installs stretch leveling systems for retrofit and new light-to-heavy gauge cut-to-length and coil-to-coil lines. Leveltek Stretch Leveling can help you cut sheets that satisfy fabricators’ increased demand for the memory-free steel required by laser and plasma cutting. The company was established in 1997 and has installations worldwide. Leveltek International is headquartered in Benwood, WV, about 60 miles (100km) west of Pittsburgh. For more information, call Leveltek International at 304.232.8530, e-mail sales@leveltek.com or visit http://www.leveltek.com

MARKIT Group is a full-service traditional and digital marketing and public relations firm with an emphasis on digital marketing, social media, reputation management, brand management and web design. Headquartered in Naples, Fla., with clients throughout the U.S. For more information visit markit-group.com, or call (239) 676-9756.

 

 

 

Trade Surpluses in Metals Narrowing

Imports and exports of metals fell across the board in June, further narrowing the US trade surplus in iron and steel.  AMM has the full story below:

Toyota Tsusho America Suing over Catalyic Converters

Toyota Tsusho America Inc. (TAI) has filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act lawsuit against Anaheim, Calif. – based Sino Scrap Inc.. Full story below, from AMM:

Going Green Generates Jobs, Contributions

Good news for going green – the U.S. recycling industry has generated over $87 billion in economic activity this year, and currently provides about 463,000 jobs. Scrap companies have contributed an estimated $4 billion to state and local governments.

A recent study with these findings was conducted by John Dunham & Associates Inc., based in New York. The group has estimated that the industry provides revenue of almost $4 billion in state and local taxes and $6.3 billion in federal taxes which are paid by companies and the workers they employ.

The report also explained that U.S. scrap exports to nearly 160 countries brought in $27.8 billion in sales last year. International trade is a key part of the U.S. economy, and almost $2.2 trillion in total goods and services have been exported from the U.S. since 2012.

-AMM

Demand for steel is still strong

According to recent news from the American Metals Market (AMM) bulletin, demand for strong sheet steel is still high. So far in July, interest has remained steady, and end-use markets have been providing a large percentage of the optimistic sentiments surrounding the metal.

In an interview they conducted recently with a Midwest service center source, business is good and has been steadily improving since May.

Hot-rolled brand prices remain little changed, holding at $32 per hundredweight (or $640/ ton), and cold-rolled coil is slightly up at $37.50 per cwt.

Marketing and steel factory leaders are speculating that the recent strength of steel is due in large part to supply side disruptions, such as the as yet unresolved lockout at the U.S. Steel Corp.’s Lake Erie Works location in Nanticoke, Ontario. Another key factor this week is the accidental outage of a blast furnace at AK Steel Corp’s OH-based company.

Slimmer inventories overall have also meant a modest spike for sheet demand and prices, as mills have eagerly been getting in on the positive sentiment.

Manufacturers and sellers continue to look towards September as another key date for steel price and progress assessment.