美国钢铁行业的圣诞节旺季来得很早。
在今年早些时候受美国经济复苏停滞和欧洲债务危机加深的影响钢铁生产一度受挫。但因汽车和农用齿轮销售业绩上升，现在钢铁厂正在抬高价格，扩大生产。
盖尔道股份有限公司（Gerdau SA）巴西总公司将投资6700万美元用来为美国密歇根州门罗地区的工厂扩大生产。这家工厂生产的钢铁用于航天航空和国防工业。俄罗斯钢铁生产商谢维尔斯德海外有限公司（OAO Severstal）投资5.5亿美元于上个月在美国密西西比州哥伦布市开了家新厂。如此一来，其钢铁产能翻了一翻，达到年产340万吨。
监督安赛乐米塔尔（ArcelorMittal)公司在南美北美实施扁平化营运的娄朔施（Lou Schorsch）说：“如果你从等式中把欧盟移除，事情看起来就好多了。” 总裁安德烈盖尔道约翰彼得（André Gerdau Johannpeter）上星期表示：扩建盖尔道的密歇根工厂表明我们对北美市场的复苏和成长有信心。
安赛乐米塔尔，AK钢铁控股，纽柯公司(Nucor Corp.)及谢维尔斯德最近抬高了用于汽车业的冷轧钢和热轧网的基准价格。 今年初钢铁价格一度下滑，但从11月2日以来，价格回升了25%。比如钢厂原来收取热轧钢的费用是每吨600美元，而现在每吨收取750美元。这一价格变动给汽车、洗碗机等产品造成了涨价的压力。
安赛乐米塔尔北美副总汤姆.马查克（Tom Marchak）说，之前持续了33个星期的降价，所以增长的需求可以支持这些价格上涨。
2011年前10个月，从美国钢铁厂出货的总量是7640万吨，超过去年同期的6970万吨。
生产商仍保持谨慎，都知道美国尚未从经济衰退中恢复过来，如果公司和消费者信心不足收益很可能会延缓。包括建筑业在内的一些市场仍很弱前景不确定。利润很薄，很大程度上因为原材料能源成本高。一些生产商甚至警告说进口的增加和产量的增加很可能冲击到价格。纽柯公司上星期发布的一份价格预警指出进口产品和国内供应的增加正在侵蚀价格和利润。
2011年前10个月美国钢铁进口增加了14.5%， 而且如果中国的增长明显变缓的话，明年美国的钢铁进口会出现戏剧性的增长。目前中国生产的钢铁占全球产量的一半。欧洲的经济很可能遭遇更严重的崩溃，全球的银行和商业都会受损。
安赛乐公司的朔施先生说：“人们已经被欧盟的经济吓坏了，而中国经济很可能正在下滑”。
朔施和其他人都说，在超越其他地区的进程中，美国成了一个局外人。而AK钢铁公司的发言人艾伦麦科伊表示：“仍然有一线生机”。
最强的市场：汽车。美国汽车制造商有望在2011年制造出1340万辆车，而根据美国制造商生产和创新联盟的数据，2009年的产量是1040万辆。2011年前10个月用于汽车制造的带钢和盘绕钢板出货量比去年同期增长11.9%达到4410万吨。
其它市场尤其是能源市场也比较强盛。燃气和石油公司正采购更多的钢管用于用从页岩中开采天然气。位于芝加哥的研究公司钢铁市场情报（Still Market Intelligence）管理合伙人米歇尔阿普勒鲍姆注释表示：2011年前10个月能源用钢管出货量上涨了24.3%达到260万吨。她说：“这有利于帮助钢材在美国保持比其它国家更强势的价格。美国现在走在其他国家的前面，多亏了这些零星的活动。”
位于内布拉斯加州的诺福克钢铁及金属公司专门采购钢铁再分销给汽车生产商和其它制造商。这家公司的总裁理查得罗宾逊说：“由于农业综合企业和上中西部地区对钻探的推进，平轧钢的需求量很大，最近宣布的价格上涨有望在短期内得以保持。”
罗宾逊先生说，也有些负面的消息，现在公司销售给冰箱、洗衣机和其它家用电器生产商的钢材正在减少。而这些制造商通常是钢铁大买家。根据MAPI的消息，家用电器的生产在2011年降了4%。由于销量减少，大型制造商如惠而浦公司和伊莱克AB都在裁减员工缩减生产。非住宅建筑与房地产业一起遭受了损失。2011年前10个月，螺纹钢（用于支撑建筑物混凝土结构的钢铁）的出货量也减少了13%，下降到470万吨。
2011年公共工程建筑也减少了9%，而私有的非住宅建筑，传统的耗钢大户基本持平。
不来梅铸造有限公司生产的铸件、阀门和其它零件广泛应用于军事、农业和重型卡车行业。该公司打算订购更多的钢铁，预计今年销售额会在去年4700万美元的基础上上涨25%。增加的销售额有助于抵消增加的钢铁成本。
“我们看到钢铁价格已经上涨了50元，到明年一月，有望再涨50元，”公司总裁J.B.布朗说。不来梅公司最近以564美元每吨的价格购买了一批两英寸厚的板型钢，“但价格还能接受因为今年是我们创记录的一年。”
-------------------------------翻译：中国铸造网 -----------------------------------------
Christmas came early for the U.S. steel industry.
Buoyed by rising sales of cars, farm gear and oil-drilling equipment, steelmakers are increasing prices and expanding production after setbacks earlier this year when the U.S. recovery stalled and the European debt crisis deepened.
Gerdau SA, based in Brazil, will invest $67 million to expand production at a plant in Monroe, Mich., which makes steel for aerospace and defense industries. Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal last month opened a new part of its plant in Columbus, Miss., a $550 million project that doubled annual capacity to 3.4 million tons.
“If you take the [European Union] out of the equation, things look pretty good,” says Lou Schorsch, who oversees ArcelorMittal’s flat carbon operations in North and South America. Gerdau’s Michigan plant expansion came as a “result of our confidence in the recovery and growth of the North American market,” Chief Executive André Gerdau Johannpeter said last week.
ArcelorMittal, AK Steel Holding Corp., Nucor Corp. and Severstal recently have raised prices on benchmark hot and cold rolled steel used by the auto industry. After declining earlier this year, steel prices are up 25% since Nov. 2, with, for example, mills charging around $750 a ton for hot rolled steel, from around $600, causing upward price pressure on goods from cars to washing machines.
Tom Marchak, a vice president for Severstal North America, said that prices previously had declined for 33 weeks and that demand has reached a level “to support these increases.”
Total shipments by U.S. steel plants were 76.4 million tons in the first 10 months of 2011, up from 69.7 million tons over the same period in 2010.
Still, producers remain cautious, noting that the U.S. is still recovering from a recession and gains could stall, if companies and consumers get skittish. Certain markets, including construction, remain weak and their outlook uncertain. Profit margins remain tight, due largely to high raw material and energy costs, and some producers are warning that increased imports and higher production could erode prices. Nucor issued a profit warning last week saying increased imports and new domestic supplies were eroding prices and margins.
U.S. steel imports have risen 14.5% during the first 10 months of 2011, due to the strong markets and prices in the U.S., and could rise dramatically next year if growth in China, which produces half the world’s steel, slows markedly. The European economy could crash even harder, hurting banks and businesses around the world.
“People remain spooked by the EU, and China potentially slumping,” said Arcelor’s Mr. Schorsch.
The U.S., said Mr. Schorsch and others, has become an outlier in outperforming other regions. “There are some glimmers,” said Alan McCoy, a spokesman for AK Steel.
The strongest market: automotive. U.S. auto makers are expected to turn out 13.4 million vehicles in 2011, up from 10.4 million units in 2009, according to the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. Shipments of steel, strip and coiled plate steel, used to make cars, were up 11.9% to 44.1 million tons in the first 10 months of 2011, compared to last year.
Other markets are likewise strong, energy in particular. Gas and oil companies are buying more steel pipes to tap natural gas in shale basins. Michelle Applebaum, managing partner at Chicago-based research firm Steel Market Intelligence, noted that shipments of energy pipe were up 24.3% to 2.6 million tons in the first 10 months of 2011. That has helped keep prices strong in the U.S. relative to other parts of the world, she said. “The U.S. is ahead of everybody right now, thanks to pockets of activity” Ms. Applebaum added.
Richard Robinson, president of Nebraska-based Norfolk Iron & metal, a company that buys and distributes steel to car makers and other manufacturers, said demand for heavier flat rolled steel is high “thanks to agribusiness, and the push for gas drilling in the upper Midwest.” As a result, he expects recently announced price increases to stick “at least for the short term.”
There are some bleak spots. Mr. Robinson said the company is selling less steel to makers of refrigerators, washing machines and other household appliances, which are typically big steel buyers. Household appliance production fell 4% in 2011, according to MAPI. Big manufacturers such as Whirlpool Corp. and Electrolux AB have cut jobs and output recently because of weak sales. Nonresidential construction has also suffered along with the real-estate market.
Shipments of rebar, the steel that supports concrete in structures, were down 13% to 4.7 million tons during the first 10 months of 2011.
In 2011, public works construction was down 9% while private non-residential construction, traditionally a big user of steel, was merely flat.
Bremen Castings Inc., which makes castings, valves and other parts used in the military, agriculture and heavy truck industries, is ordering more steel with sales set to increase 25% from $47 million last year. The higher sales are helping to offset higher costs for steel.
“We’ve seen steel prices go up 50 bucks, and we expect them to go up another 50 in January,” says J.B. Brown, the company’s president. Bremen recently paid $564 a ton for a shipment of two-inch thick plate steel kind of steel. “But that’s OK because we’re having a record year.”
