WCA March 2015

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2015
From the Americas
Steel
With women already holding 20 per
cent of its salaried jobs, ArcelorMittal
in Indiana is trying hard to recruit
many more
The traditionally male-dominated steel industry in the United
States may be changing. As reported by Joseph S Pete
in the Northwest Indiana Times , a major catalyst for the
change is ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker. It
is also the biggest in Northwest Indiana, where one in five
in its salaried and managerial ranks and one in ten of its
hourly workers is a woman. (“Women of Steel: More Women
Finding Home in Steel Industry,” 2nd December)
Mr Pete noted that the American unit of Luxembourg-based
ArcelorMittal has been actively recruiting more female
engineers as well as grooming its own female employees
for advancement. The company sends its female engineers
out to give talks at the engineering schools of Ohio State
University and Purdue University, also in Ohio; Penn State
University; the Colorado Schools of Mines; and others.
But the outreach to women is not confined to academic
circles, or indeed to the steel industry. ArcelorMittal also
dispatches representatives to middle schools and high
schools to try to get more students – girls and boys both
– to engage with science, technology and maths, and to
consider careers in steel. They also talk to established
female engineers in the Society of Women Engineers to talk
up the industry and the opportunities it offers.
Mr Pete noted that, at ArcelorMittal, women serve in
management, hold top positions in sales and marketing,
and lead global teams – automotive among them. And
the company has developed a pilot programme, Women
Emerging in Leadership, which offers guidance for careers
in management.
According to Mary Lynn Gargas-South, the human
resources director for ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon USA, who
works out of the corporate office in Burns Harbor, Indiana,
there are no limits or barriers to how high up the ranks
women can rise.
Ms Gargas-South is living proof of her assertion, having
worked in a variety of areas at ArcelorMittal including power
and utilities, operations, finishing, and product and process
improvement. Before ascending to her present distinctly
white-collar position, she was a hands-on engineer who
wore an oxygen tank and checked for leaks in steam valves.
Elsewhere in steel . . .
 Steel shipments into the Port of Milwaukee, in
Wisconsin, rebounded strongly in 2014, with tonnage
hitting its second-highest level since 1970. As reported
by Rick Romell of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on
15th December, a cargo of coil and structural and
plate steel unloaded off the ship Federal Mattawa in
December brought the port’s steel imports for the year
to 179,000 tons.
Steel imports peaked at the port in 2006, at 201,000
tons. They fell dramatically as the USA economy slid into
recession, bottoming out at 61,000 tons in 2011.
With the recovery and increased manufacturing
activity, steel imports have risen. The most dramatic
gains came last year, with tonnage up about 60 per cent
from 2013.
The Federal Mattawa, which carried steel from Germany,
Finland and the United Kingdom, was the last ship
bringing overseas cargo to Milwaukee before the
St Lawrence Seaway closed for the season later in the
month.
 Nucor headed into 2015 having made a significant
price cut in response to import pressure: $40 per ton
on a range of wide-flange steel beams, the company
announced in a letter to customers on 11th December.
From Pittsburgh, Platts also reported that competitors
Steel Dynamics and Gerdau Long Steel North America
promptly matched the Nucor decrease.
The lower price became effective immediately at Nucor’s
Berkeley mill in South Carolina and at the Nucor-Yamato
mill in Arkansas. Most medium sections from the
Charlotte, North Carolina-based mini-mill steelmaker
now go for $780/ton – down from $820.
“The price reduction is in keeping with current offers and
the recent arrivals of imports from Korea, Luxembourg,
Russia, Germany, Mexico, Spain, United Arab Emirates,
Taiwan, United Kingdom and Japan,” Nucor told
its customers. “We will continue to monitor market
conditions and respond accordingly.”
Heavy sections were excluded from the Nucor price
cut, applied only to “a select range of Mill 1 wide flange
beams and structural channels.” Gerdau’s lower prices
are for “select beam products and structural channels.”
 Another Platts item on steel prices preceded the
Nucor item by about a week. From Singapore, Keith
Tan reported that spot premiums for seaborne iron ore
lump reached their highest in 11 months on
3rd December, lifted by tight supply and a seasonal
pickup in demand.
In the opinion of a trader the lump market is in steep
backwardation, with material stocked at Chinese ports
being sold at about $6 higher per dry metric ton (dmt)
compared with seaborne cargoes loading in December.
The trader told Mr Tan that, while producers like Rio
Tinto and BHP Billiton customarily sell lump prior to
loading, traders who hold seaborne cargoes and had
operations at Chinese ports were more likely to wait until
they were discharged, selling them at higher prices as
port stocks.
A steelmaker source in eastern China told Platts that
stocks of imported lump were low at Chinese ports,
owing to steady demand from mills.
Dorothy Fabian
Features Editor