An officer of the Arcelor group—the newly merged European steelmaker—says the company will adopt a global approach to the scrap market and would look to “extend its partnerships with suppliers.”
Raw material purchasing is being split into seven regions with a separate buying team in each region, noted Guy Amedro, chair of the Usinor Achats division of the Arcelor group. Arcelor—formed by the merger of Spain’s Aceralia, Luxembourg’s Arbed and France’s Usinor steel companies—produces around 1.5 million metric tons of steel per month. The company has mills in those three countries as well as Germany, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Russia and Turkey, plus additional facilities in South America, North America and Asia.
Amedro made his comments to the Ferrous Division of the Bureau of International Recycling, which met in late May in Monte Carlo. The combined buying power of the new, larger company could mean tougher negotiations for European scrap dealers. Amedro stressed that Arcelor was looking to achieve “synergy” savings of 700 million euros by the year 2006, around 27% of which was expected to come in the area of purchasing.
In regional reports, Robert Philip of Schnitzer Steel Industries, Portland, Ore., noted that steel production rates in the U.S. have improved from a low of 63% to around 89%, prompting equally significant increases in scrap demand and pricing. Meanwhile, steel imports into the U.S. have fallen off in reaction to recently imposed tariffs.
By contrast in Europe, scrap prices have seen “only relatively small fluctuations,” according to Bjorn Voigt of TSR in Germany. The early months of 2002 had brought a clear increase in demand from Turkey and some Asian nations, he added.
Denis Ilatovsky of Mair in Russia predicted a three to five percent fall in his country’s scrap consumption this year and a similar percentage drop in exports. He cited rising transportation costs, export market closures and new customs legislation as reasons.
Sadao Taya of Shinsei Co reported that scrap prices in Japan had improved dramatically, with No. 2 heavy melt having almost doubled to the 10,500 to 11,000 yen price range.
A related BIR Shredder Committee meeting included a report from Richard Debauve of CFF Recycling in France, who provided a latest count of 699 shredders installed throughout the world. Europe led the way with 237 while Asia and North America boasted 214 and 212 respectively.