TPT-January-2015

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70 January 2015
Global Marketplace
Steel
A visionary pedestrian drawbridge
lends interest – and then some –
to a venerable London waterway
“For the ubiquity of the mechanism used to operate it, it’s
got an ingenious amount of bang for the buck. With a few
pieces of expertly crafted steel, some counterweights, and a
hydraulic jack, these designers built a bridge unlike any other
in the world.”
The assertion, by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan of gizmodo.
com, is incontrovertible. The structure in question – the
Merchant Square Bridge over Paddington Canal in central
London – is unique by any reckoning. (“This Hydraulic Bridge
Opens and Closes Like a 30-Ton Steel Fan,” 2 October)
The 65-foot-long bridge is divided lengthwise into five distinct
steel beams. Each beam is cantilevered out over the canal
with a massive counterweight hidden in the ground at one
side and controlled by an underwater hydraulic jack. When
the bridge is down, the beams lock together to create a
10-foot-wide path across the canal, complete to handrails.
When the bridge is raised, the five beams compose a twisted
steel form described by its London-based creators, Knight
Architects and AKT II, as “a kinetic sculpture.” A respondent
to the gizmodo.com article offered another vision: “Edward
Scissor-bridge.”
ArcelorMittal sees rising demand
in US and European steel markets
as offsetting a plunge in iron ore
prices
Given the impact on ArcelorMittal’s mining operations of iron
ore prices at five-year lows, analysts had expressed concern
that the world’s largest steelmaker would temper its outlook
for 2015. But in early November the company – which makes
about 6 per cent of global steel and is also one of the world’s
largest iron ore producers – published a remarkably upbeat
forecast.
ArcelorMittal, a benchmark for manufacturing worldwide, did
cut its estimate for 2014 global steel consumption growth to
2.25-2.75 per cent from 3.0-3.5 per cent, citing mainly the
slowdown in China. But it also made a sharp upward revision
of its overall market estimate for US steel consumption,
while that for Europe was left little changed. Together the two
regions account for about two-thirds steel of shipments by the
Luxembourg-based steel group.
“What we say, which is important, is that we are constructive
on the US economy and the European economy next year,”
the company’s CFO Aditya Mittal told Reuters in Brussels on
7 November, adding that he also sees a steel rebound just
ahead in Brazil, which fell into recession in the first half of
2014.
Philip Blenkinsop, who is responsible for Reuters news out
of Belgium and Luxembourg, noted Mr Mittal’s assertion
that years of plant closures and job cuts had served the
steelmaker well in Europe. In the context of an improved
steel market overall, the cost and volume improvements
would help counter the effects of the price decline in iron ore.
(“ArcelorMittal Says Strength in Key Steel Markets Offsets
Mine Pain”)
But it is the US, with its increased profit from higher steel
shipments and average prices even as fixed costs have
risen – buoyed by a broad-based recovery and the building
of inventories – which provides ArcelorMittal with the most
encouragement. The group, which is double the size of its
rivals Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp combined, said
US steel consumption would be 8.25-8.75 per cent higher this
year.
› American steelmakers would appear to justify that
confidence. Industry leaders Nucor and US Steel Corp
have reported strong demand from the auto, appliance, and
oil and gas industries, as well as lower energy costs. The
domestic construction sector, which uses about half of the
world’s steel, has also improved from 2013.
As for its own prospects, ArcelorMittal said that strong
demand in key developed markets meant it would maintain
its forecast for steel shipments 3 per cent higher this year
than in 2014. Iron ore shipments, it said, would be up 15
per cent after the ramp-up of capacity at its mines in eastern
Canada.
China and Latin America: a sharp
rise in imports of Chinese steel
turns a spotlight on a complex
evolving relationship
“Latin America is important to China as a source of minerals
that the Chinese can convert into products like steel. Latin
America is not a major export market for China although that
could begin to change in the long term.”
Margaret Myers, director of the China-Latin American
programme at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-
based think tank, had been asked about the recent increase in
China’s steel exports to Latin America. This was, she told Paul
Welitzkin of China Daily USA, a reflection of a Chinese steel
industry in transition and not of pressing immediate concern.
(“Steel Exports Unlikely to Strain Sino-Latin American Bond,”
25 October)
Ms Myers’s view is at variance with that of the Latin American
Steel Association (Alacero), which in September urged the
governments of the region to develop public policies to
address steel imports from China.
The trade group – based in Santiago, Chile – reported that
these jumped 60 per cent year-over-year over the first seven
months of 2014. It said Chile, Brazil and Central America were
the main destinations for the Chinese steel, but that imports to
Mexico were also rising rapidly.