TPT March 2012

G lobal M arketplace

his support for the high-speed rail line. Mr Brown firmly linked his political fortunes to the proposed 520-mile bullet-train connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles and urged lawmakers to release the $9bn in state bonds needed to begin the project in 2012. The governor’s focus on the train line has been steady throughout a year in which his second turn in office (his first tenure was 1975- 1983) was roiled by a series of budget battles. The speech in Sacramento, the state capital, reached for stirring historic parallels to the high-speed rail project. “Critics abound, as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed,” Mr Brown said. “The Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical. And Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal, ‘Totally impossible to be carried out.’ The critics were wrong then – and they’re wrong now.” Steel › Emirates Steel announced it has commissioned its $6.5mn heavy section mill in Musaffah and can now produce large-size sections, beams, columns and sheet piles: long structural sections with a vertical interlocking system that creates a continuous wall. As reported 2 January in Gulf News (Dubai), Emirates – one of the largest steel concerns in the Persian Gulf – has been engaged in a $2.45bn, two-phase expansion of the integrated complex. Chairman

Suhail Al Ameri said that now, with completion of Phase 2 of the project, Emirates Steel becomes the sole producer of jumbo and heavy sections in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. The company, based in Abu Dhabi, expects to be able to offer drastically reduced lead times and improved product and cut-to- length services. The new heavy section mill, constructed by Italy’s Danieli, is to be integrated with a second 1.4 million metric-tons-per- year (mtpy) melt shop and a direct reduction plant that was started up in the autumn of 2010. Together with further planned expansions, the new facility will help advance an Emirates Steel goal of increasing its production to around 6.5 million mtpy by 2016. According to press reports, by that time demand for heavy sections in the area served by the Gulf Cooperation Council (a political and economic union of the states of the Arabian Peninsula) will have doubled. › Ukraine’s biggest steel producer Metinvest said it will commit $1bn to raise output at its Yenakiyeve Iron and Steel Works from 2.7 million metric tons per year to 4.5 million mtpy. Also on 6 December, Metinvest said it had opened a new blast furnace at Yenakiyeve, in eastern Ukraine, which would increase pig iron production from 1.8 million mtpy to 3 million mtpy. The furnace is expected to add 1.2 million mt of capacity to the plant’s annual hot metal production. As reported by Reuters, the steel producers’ union Metalurgprom said Ukraine is likely to raise its crude steel output to 36.5 million mt in 2012 from 34.6 million mt last year. The union also said Ukraine is

PERFECTION IN ALL AREAS

SEAMLESS PIPE PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT FROM ONE SOURCE • Cutting of semi-finished material and single pipes up to 800 mm in diameter • Cutting of finished pipe length up to 508 mm in diameter and a maximum layer width of 1.5 m • Chamfering of pipe ends from 200 mm up to 3000 mm in diameter

MFL MEETING POINT

Tube Düsseldorf 26 to 30-3-2012 Hall 6 Stand E41

Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei Ges.m.b.H. Technical Office Sawing and Milling Technology ∙ Fabriksplatz 1 ∙ 4662 Steyrermühl ∙ Austria Phone +43 (0)3612/270-800 ∙ saegen.fraesen@mfl.at ∙ www.mfl.at

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M arch 2012