Free Republic

A steel version of Velcro that is strong enough to hold together buildings has been developed by German scientists.The new invention, called Metaklett, uses the same hook-and-loop fastening system as Velcro but can support loads of up to 35 tonnes per square metre at temperatures as high as 1,472F (800C). Like the popular fabric fastener, Metaklett is designed to be peeled apart and reused, making it a potentially useful and cost-effective engineering component.

American Axle sues steel maker to resume shipments NEW YORK (AP) -- Auto parts supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. is seeking a court order to get one of its steel suppliers to resume deliveries, saying that cutting off supplies threatens the entire auto supply chain. ... In its request filed earlier this month, American Axle alleged that Republic wrongfully backed out of a four-year contract to supply custom-made steel. According to court documents, Republic sought from American Axle a "binding schedule" for deliveries, citing the parts maker's weak financial condition.

President Hugo Chavez has announced the nationalization of several steel companies in the country, to pave way for a large "socialist" state-run enterprise, without giving details on the venture. "There is nothing to discuss. We've been on this for a long time," he said, ordering the beginning of "a process of nationalization to create an industrial complex." Chavez named Matesi, Consigua, Ceramicas Carabobo, steel tube maker Tavsa, as well as Orinoco Iron and Venprecar, which belong to the Venezuelan-owned International Briquettes Holding (IBH), which exports iron briquettes. The announcement is the start of a "transition" so that these companies can...

<p>A large portion of the U.S. steel industry could be severely hurt under a carbon-emissions cap and trade system, with some companies indicating it could push operations overseas.</p> <p>U.S. Steel Corp., AK Steel, ArcelorMittal SA and OAO Severstal would be the biggest losers among the operators in the U.S., because of the carbon-intensive way that they produce steel.</p>

EAST CHICAGO — ArcelorMittal officials have announced plans to layoff nearly 1,000 workers at the steelmaker’s Indiana Harbor plant. Company officials announced a “mass layoff” at the Flat Carbon facility, where the steelmaker recently idled the No. 4 blast furnace, a letter to local union leaders states. Workers will be laid off “for an indefinite period of time during the 14-day period commencing on July 12, 2009,” a letter to United Steelworkers Local 1011 from General Manager Mark Whalen states. The sagging economy, particularly the deep slump in auto manufacturing, has caused steep declines in demand for steel — less...

U.S. Steel is suspending indefinitely the $1 billion modernization of its Clairton coke plant, a massive, multi-year project that was expected to create more than 600 construction jobs. The Pittsburgh steel producer said it was forced to make the "difficult but necessary decision" because of the economic slowdown that has prompted it to lay off about 7,000 union workers in recent months. "We cannot speculate as to when conditions will improve enough to allow work to resume," the company said in a prepared statement. When announced in November 2007, the project was hailed as the region's largest construction project since...

Lawmakers in Illinois are calling foreign steel being used to construct a pipeline a slap in the face to U.S. workers. Steel pipes painted with a "Made in India" logo are being shipped through Granite City, Ill., right in front of a steel mill where more than 2,800 steelworkers have been laid off. "This is a perfect example of how our trade laws are failing our workers. At a time when thousands of local steelworkers are laid off, shipping steel from India for a project in our area is unacceptable and outrageous," said U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill. "It is...

Temporary layoffs for 77 employees will result from U.S. Steel Corp.'s plan announced last month to shut down three of the 12 coke batteries at its Coke Works in Clairton, according to a notice the company filed with the state. The Downtown-based steelmaker said Thursday it also plans to idle four coke batteries due to economic conditions and cutbacks in steel production. In the state notice, the company said the shutdown of three batteries and associated layoffs will take place March 22 or later. Spokeswoman Erin DiPietro declined to say when the four other batteries would be idled, or how...

The chairman of the Republican National Committee has shot down hopes by minority homosexual groups that the party will open its "big tent" to endorse "civil unions" or homosexual marriage. "What would we do that for? What are you, crazy? No." Michael Steele told radio talk show host Mike Gallagher.

U.S. Steel Corp. will soon idle three coke oven batteries at its Clairton Works, the result of the steelmaking slowdown and current economic conditions, the company said today. The batteries will be kept in what's called hot-idle status, meaning they will remain hot to maintain structural integrity, but won't be making coke, a major ingredient in making steel. U.S. Steel spokeswoman Erin DiPietro said the company is "adjusting its production according to customer demand."

During their recent heyday, Russian billionaires bought far-flung companies, London mansions, massive yachts and private jets. Few of the reclusive oligarchs loomed larger than Roman Abramovich. The owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer team is one of two controlling shareholders in Evraz Group, which bought Portland-based Oregon Steel Mills for $2.35 billion in 2007. Michael Rubenstein/The Oregonian/2006Customers of Portland's Evraz Oregon Steel say that support from the Russian government could help the 80-year-old Oregon business survive the global crash in steel prices. Now some of the oligarchs, reeling from the global economic meltdown, are proposing a mega-merger -- including Evraz --...

Transcript: "This is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats have controlled both branches of government for less than a month. And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads. "For the last two weeks, they've been trying to force a massive spending bill through Congress under the guise of economic relief. "All of us -- Republicans and Democrats -- agree the government must act to kick-start the American economy. American families are doing their best to balance their own budgets and pay their mortgages. "The fastest way to help those families is...

Barack Obama, global hero of a new undefined era, will soon have to define what role he will play, as President of the world's greatest trading nation, on the world economic stage. The subject is trade in steel, but it's really about the future of the global trading system and free trade itself. The narrow issue is whether Mr. Obama will endorse -- as his vice-president, Joe Biden, already has -- the protectionist "Buy America" movement sweeping U.S. unions and politicians. The larger issue is whether Mr. Obama can move to rescue what is now a world drifting into protectionism....

Economy: In barring foreign steel from infrastructure projects and forcing payment of "prevailing wages," the stimulus bill merges the Davis-Bacon and Smoot-Hawley acts in a way that could be a recipe for depression.Protectionism, one of the contributing factors to the Great Depression, has reared its ugly head again with a provision in the recently passed House stimulus package — H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In an amendment inserted by Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and approved by the House Appropriations Committee, none of the stimulus-funded infrastructure projects can proceed "unless all of the iron and steel...

There is unsettling news for Canada in U.S. President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill, or at least in the version approved Wednesday night by the House of Representatives. It says that steel used in public projects under the $819-billion US plan must be made in the United States, an idea likely to cause trade disputes and block sales by Canadian mills. As passed by the House, section 1110 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 says, "None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this act may be used for a project for the construction, alteration,...

Bouncing-bomb boffins probe ancient weapons trade Boffins at the UK's famous National Physical Laboratory (NPL) - birthplace of the Dambusters' bouncing bomb and perhaps the internet - say they have used an electron microscope to analyse Viking swords. In a surprise twist, it turns out that the old-time Scandinavian pests, many of whom moved to England to become our ancestors, actually imported their best steel from Afghanistan. "Sword making in Viking times was important work," says Dr Alan Williams, a top archaeometallurgist at the Wallace Collection, a London-based museum of objets d'art which has a massive array of old arms...

US steel companies want money, too. Does it ever end? Their collapse happened 30 years ago. Now they want a TRILLION DOLLARS! Specifically, they want every government contract to require the use of American steel. And right at the time of Bambi's "economic stimulus." Seems like market manipulative to me. Consistent.

Now it's the steel industry with its palms out Rick Moran Screaming that they are "too big to fail," United States steel companies have gotten in line with their hands out hoping some of the goodies are tossed their way: The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes — and it is now in collapse — so will go the national economy. That maxim once applied to Detroit’s Big Three car companies, when they dominated American manufacturing. Now they are losing ground...

The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes — and it is now in collapse — so will go the national economy. That maxim once applied to Detroit’s Big Three car companies, when they dominated American manufacturing. Now they are losing ground in good times and bad, and steel has replaced autos as the industry to watch for an early sign that a severe recession is beginning to lift. The industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September...

As far as scenic ruins go, the Pittsburgh metropolitan area sets a high standard. The natural beauty of the Monongahela Valley and the built legacy of deindustrialization make gorgeous scenery out of blue-collar defeat. Beauty is no compensation for lost jobs though. The old steel towns of this region have been imploding for decades. No place has lost a greater share of its population than Braddock, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh. This ravaged, near-empty stretch of abandoned homes, storefronts, and buildings was once a storied cornerstone of the industrial age. After losing 90 percent of its peak population, today it looks...

At 2,200 degrees, the glowing yellow slab of steel rolling through JSW Steel's Baytown plate mill is the last thing you'd want near a natural gas field. Yet in a few days this angry molten mass will be headed north as two sections of pipe, 40 feet long and 42 inches in diameter, that will move gas from production fields in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. One of the largest steelworks in the U.S., the Baytown mills have been busy in the last few years because of a pipeline building boom... Much of it has been fueled by the rapid growth...

Just weeks after posting record profits, steel makers are facing a harsh new reality: dwindling orders, production cuts, layoffs. And tougher times lay ahead, analysts say. The steel industry had been riding high earlier this year, as surging demand from China and other countries, coupled with soaring prices for materials used in steel making, produced the most lucrative market for the metal in more than 60 years. But the credit crisis and global economic slowdown have undercut customers in key markets — construction, automobiles and industrial equipment — sending prices tumbling and prompting steel companies to slash production, scale back...

US trade officials are close to filing a case against China at the World Trade Organisation challenging export restrictions on raw materials used in steel-making and other industries. The US has been working on the case intensely for the past few months, and could move ahead with a request for consultations – the first step in the WTO dispute settlement process – within weeks, according to people close to the discussions. The European Union has already opened three investigations into allegations of dumping by Chinese steel producers. A WTO fight over China’s treatment of raw materials would shake up the...

Carlyle sells off steel group for $3.53bn By Julie MacIntosh in New York Published: August 13 2008 00:24 | Last updated: August 13 2008 00:24 The Carlyle Group agreed on Tuesday to sell John Maneely, a US manufacturer of steel pipes and tubes, to Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel for $3.53bn, culminating a two-year turnround process. Carlyle has voluntarily filed to have the deal reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius), a panel that seeks to protect certain US national security interests from foreign investment.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- United States Steel Corp. shares jumped more than 14% on Tuesday after the company reported its second-quarter profit more than doubled on prices pushed higher by surging global demand for its steel products. The stock added $20.92 to $166.25 in early trading and, despite some recent weakness, has now surged 70% in the past year. The nation's second-biggest steelmaker posted a profit of $668 million, or $5.65 a share, up from $302 million, or $2.54 a share, earned in the year-ago second quarter. The Pittsburgh-based manufacturer reported that income from operations jumped to $954 million from...

Unexpected Climb in Workplace Fatalities Sparks Search for Causes by Unions, Firms At a time when steel mills in the U.S. are running flat out to meet increasing demand, the steel industry is trying to unravel the causes of on-the-job accidents that resulted in more deaths in the first half of 2008 than in recent full years. . . . Officials at the United Steelworkers, which is negotiating labor contracts with U.S. Steel Corp. and ArcelorMittal, contend that pressure to boost steel output while the market is strong has led to some fatalities . . .

USS New York It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center . It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft. Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds  on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total...

Inside scoop … Shhhhhh … you did not hear it from me! I am not revealing the location to protect my source. When it is published by our local paper I will. Our local Wal-Mart called an employee (selected) meeting this evening to announce a change in scheduling and new procedures. It is expected that 9 employees will have their schedules drastically altered during the meeting. Law Enforcement Officers will arrive during the meeting and escort the 9 employees in handcuffs through the store to waiting vehicles. Or just out the back door, to avoid any kind of problems (law...

Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have asked their Chinese steelmaker customers to accept the largest ever increase in iron ore prices or risk the interruption of supplies from Australia. Traders and industry officials said the mining companies have demanded price increases for their annual iron ore contracts in excess of the record 71.5 per cent rise of 2005 and were fighting for increases of 85-95 per cent.Rio and BHP have warned their Chinese clients some annual contracts will expire next Monday and they would cease supply under the old terms. They have told them the ore would instead be sold...

This newspaper is printed on paper made from cellulose fibers obtained from wood pulp. The fibers are fairly large, on the order of tens of micrometers wide, and the resulting paper is fairly weak — pulls on it and it tears easily. Researchers in Sweden and Japan have developed a much stronger paper, made from much smaller fibrils of cellulose. This "nanopaper" has a tensile strength greater than that of cast iron. Marielle Henriksson of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and colleagues used enzymes and a gentle beating technique to produce fibrils on the order of tens of...

The American steel industry is enjoying a new era of prosperity [snip] Buoyed by sharply reduced employee costs, soaring global demand, dramatic consolidation that has tamped down cutthroat competition, and a weakened dollar that has made imports less attractive, steel prices have tripled in the past five years. For the first time in decades, companies operating in America have added capacity and workers. [snip] "There hasn't been this much building in 25 to 30 years," the president of Locker Associates, a steel consulting firm, Michael Locker, said. "We are in a new period here. I don't see us going back...

Weak Dollar, Strong Demand Raise Steel Prices, Production By PETER KROUSE   A furnace helper at Republic Engineered Products in Canton, Ohio, cleans out the tap hole and the runner that allows liquid steel to flow from an electric arc furnace into a waiting ladle. (Photo by Scott Shaw)     CLEVELAND, OH — The last time the U.S. economy was in or near a recession, the U.S. steel industry was tanking, too.Not this time around.U.S. steelmakers are full sail amid the doldrums. That's good news for Northeast Ohio, where several mills churn out steel for such diverse products as...

WASHINGTON — This is not your economy. It's not even your parents' economy. To a surprising degree, this is your great-grandparents' economy. Quietly, while attention has focused on the technology, finance and service sectors, businesses that stood astride 19th century industrial America but then collapsed have been resurrected to meet the needs of a feverishly industrializing world. In the process, much of what Americans think they know about their economy is being upended. Steel makers, railroads, mining concerns and agriculture, long considered part of a fading past, suddenly have bright futures. And segments of the economy long lauded as the...

Russian metals and mining company OAO Severstal offered Tuesday to buy Esmark Inc. for $17 (€10.87) per share in cash, claiming it has the critical support of the United Steelworkers union. The union late last week said it would oppose an identical $670 million (€428.4 million)cash buyout offer from India's Essar Steel Holdings, contending that Wheeling-based Esmark accepted the deal without giving the USW adequate notice or a chance to put forth an alternative. [...] Severstal released a copy of its offer letter, arguing it is "best suited to unlock the potential of Esmark's current operations" by merging them with...

CARACAS, VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to expropriate Venezuela's largest steel maker due to what he said are the soon-to-be-nationalized company's excessive compensation demands. Chavez said he could not help but laugh when he heard that Sidor's parent company, Luxembourg-based Ternium SA, is asking for at least US$4 billion (euro2.56 billion) in compensation for its 60 percent stake in Sidor. "I'm not going to pay $4 billion for that company," Chavez said during his Sunday radio and television program. "If they don't want to reach an agreement with us, I'll sign an expropriation decree. I'll take immediate control...

CARACAS [EL COMERCIO/AGENCIAS]. Last week it was the cement industry and now it is the Andean and Caribbean steel giant’s turn. The Venezuelan government ordered the nationalization of the steel company Siderúrgica del Orinoco (owned by Ternium-Sidor, which has majority Argentine ownership) after the collapse of contract talks with the workers, announced the Venezuelan vice-president Ramon Carrizales. "After a long process of negotiations were fruitless in solving the conflict between Sidor and its workers, president Hugo Chavez decided to assume control of Siderúrgica del Orinoco which has been privatized for some 10 years", said Carrizales. The company "took a radical...

Russian steelmaker to buy Sparrows Point OAO Severstal says it has agreed to purchase Balto. Co. mill for $810 million Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal said early this morning that it has reached an agreement to purchase the Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County for $810 million. It will be the plant's fourth owner in four years. The 119-year old steel mill employs 2,450 hourly and salaried workers and has the capacity to produce 3.6 million tons of steel a year. The sale, which faces several regulatory approvals, is expected to close during the second quarter of the year. Related...

A new U.S. Navy ship to be christened Saturday was built partly using steel from the 9/11 ruins of the World Trade Center. The company says on its Web site that the bow-stem of the ship, the seventh to be named "New York," includes 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center.

Taiwan bans certain steel exports for first time By Kathrin Hille in Taipei Published: February 21 2008 03:53 | Last updated: February 21 2008 03:53 Taiwan has banned exports of certain steel products for the first time, in a move that could further contribute to the squeeze in global steel supply. From March 5, exports of small billets and rebars will be banned for three months, and exports of H beams and scrap steel will be subject to government approval on a case-by-case basis, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday. The measure is an attempt to protect the...

Government Grants Steel Makers' Request to Extend Tariffs to China, India, Four Other Nations WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a victory for U.S. steel makers, the federal government agreed Wednesday to continue tariffs on imports of certain steel products from China, India and four other nations. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. Chrysler and other steel consumers had opposed the tariff extension. But ending the tariffs would have increased steel imports, harming U.S. steel makers, said Alan Price, a lawyer for Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor Corp. "China has a staggering amount of excess (steel production) capacity," he said. The U.S. International Trade...

The global steel industry is on the hunt for homes for a new generation of steel mills. Low-cost places like Ukraine, Russia, Brazil and India stand to benefit from investments to satisfy the world's growing appetite for steel. Also set to benefit: The U.S. This month, big construction machinery is felling trees and leveling the earth outside Mobile, Ala., to make way for a 3,500-acre stainless- and carbon-steel mill being built by Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG. The $2.7 billion mill, which is expected to be up and running by 2010, will make and process 4.5 million tons of steel, making it...

The owner of Tarrasco Steel, a company that supplied workers on the Biloxi Bay Bridge, was arrested and charged with hiring illegals on projects in three states. Some had improper welding certification. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Jose Gonzalez. Tarrasco Steel was hired as a subcontractor for rebar installation services to major projects in Mississipi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. The federal government considers those bridges as critical infrastructure, and they were part of routine inspections of facilities that if damaged could pose a threat to national security and public safety. "There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens,...

'Ring of steel' plan to protect New Yorkers By Tom Leonard in New York Last Updated: 2:03am BST 10/07/2007 America's deep-seated sensitivity about the privacy rights of its citizens is being challenged in New York where police want to set up a London-style "ring of steel" to protect the city against terrorism. Officials say that 116 licence-plate reading cameras will have been installed in Lower Manhattan by the end of the year, the initial phase of a $90 million (£45 million) surveillance programme that will be the first in the United States. The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative will resemble the...

The Economy: You used to know good economic times were nearing an end when stock leadership rotated into such "late cycle" plays as steel, chemicals and machinery. But that, as they say, was then. And this, as they also say, is now. And when it comes to shares of these and other "basic" industries, now is wow! Unlike past bull markets, when "quality" leadership was synonymous with new-age jack rabbits grouped in the tech, medical and retail sectors, slower-moving old America is stealing the show. Credit a global economic boom that the U.S. not only made possible by defeating communism...

Conspiracy: Unless the feds had something to do with it, the theory held by Rosie and others that the Twin Towers were brought down by the Bush administration just crashed and burned on a California freeway. In recent discussions on the jaundiced "View" and her Web site, conspiracy theorist Rosie O'Donnell opined that the 9/11 collapse of the Twin Towers, as well as 7 World Trade Center, marked "the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel." This, she said, is "physically impossible." Well, not exactly. Fire only has to weaken a structure already weakened by, say, a...

The chief engineer in charge of reconstructing the mangled ramps connecting Interstate 80 to two major East Bay freeways said this morning that it could take six weeks to several months to get the steel necessary to complete the job. A connector to Interstate 580 collapsed onto the southbound Interstate 880 connector after a crash early Sunday morning in which a tanker truck carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline crashed on the highway below and burst into flames. Steel holding up the section of I-580 started to melt, causing pavement to pull away from support beams. Today, Chief Engineer Rick Land...

Just a few years ago, over one thousand Chinese descended upon the Ruhr valley. "They bedded down in a makeshift dormitory in a disused building in the plant and worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week throughout the summer. Only later, after some of the German workers and managers complained, were the Chinese workers obliged to take a day off, out of respect for local laws." In less than one year, they successfully disassembled the plant and shipped the 275,000 tons of materials and equipment to China. A manufacturing entrepreneur and a former peasant farmer named Shen Wenrong...

Molten steel shower kills 32 workers in China 52 minutes ago At least 32 workers were killed and two injured Wednesday when they were engulfed by molten steel at a metal factory in northeast China, the government said. The accident was triggered when a steel ladle, with a capacity of 30 tonnes of liquid steel, sheared off from the blast furnace, spilling molten metal onto the factory floor some three metres (three yards) below. The molten steel then engulfed an adjacent room where all the victims were gathered for a routine shift change, the State Work Safety Administration said in...

March 19, 2007 Giuliani Notes: California State Board of Equalization Member Michelle Steel Endorses Giuliani for President Michelle Steel, California State Board of Equalization Member for Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and portions of Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties has ENDORSED Rudy Giuliani for President in an interview with Flap this afternoon. Mrs. Steel, elected this past November is the highest ranking elected GOP woman politician in California. She is also the highest ranking elected Korean-American official in the United States.Steel’s California government website is here.Her biography is here and here.Why Rudy?“America is in a war. He is the...

A 6-inch-thick section of concrete flooring in the second-floor loading dock of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center collapsed yesterday under the weight of a tractor-trailer, sending steel, debris and equipment crashing 30 feet down into a walkway and a water feature below.