If you are following steel production and trade in China, you might be interested in the spreadsheet below which we will update each month. Since data is typically available six weeks after the end of each month, we are currently posting the July figures. August results should be available by September 20th.
China finished steel production fell 4.4% in July to 40.89 million metric tonnes, reversing the average monthly growth trend through June of about 3%. Net exports rose to 5.8m tonnes, the highest level since April 2007’s 5.5m tonnes. Finally, exports as a share of finished steel production grew from 12% in June to 18% in July.
Here is an excellent profile of pipe and tube maker John Maneely (JMC) in PDF format produced by NLMK at the time of their acqusition of JMC on August 12, 2008. It provides some very interesting detail on the size and shape of some of JMC’s major tube markets in the US. Click on the link below to open or right click to download.
nlmk-briefing-on-john-maneely-acqusition
US long products imports remained low at about 270,000 short tons in July, as reported by SIMA import licenses. May and June imports were similarly low (242,000 tons and 269,000 tons respectively) compared to peak 2008 levels of 440,000 tons in April. The April peak was due to rebar and wire rod imports that were about double levels in March, May, June and July.
For those looking for more details on today’s NLMK acquisition of the John Maneely tube operations from Carlyle, Bloomberg has a good piece here. It looks like they paid about $1,665/ton for operations generating about $230/ton of EBITDA. Here are some of the salient details from the Bloomberg article:
In the year ended June 30, John Maneely shipped 2.1 million tons of pipe and had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $485 million, it said. The acquisition is priced at 7.3 times earnings.
John Maneely, which combined with Canada’s Atlas Tube Inc. in December 2006, is based in Beachwood, Ohio. Annual sales were boosted by about $800 million under Carlyle’s ownership, according to the statement. About 80 percent of revenue comes from plumbing and electrical applications used in non- residential construction markets, according to Carlyle’s Web site.
Ternium announced Q2 results yesterday. This is the first time we’ve seen the company’s financial results excluding SIDOR, the Venezuelan steel company that was renationalized earlier this year. This first look at Ternium ex SIDOR is encouraging – Q2 EBITDA per ton was $314, well above other North American steel companies tracked in the Nerds of Steel earnings spreadsheet. Of course, as the company pointed out, Q2 margins were buoyed by selling prices rising faster than raw material costs, especially slabs. The company expects “a slightly lower operating margin” in Q3.
The release contains no specifics on the compensation the company might receive from the Venezuelan government for ceding control of its previous 60% ownership in SIDOR.
