US mills eye debt, downstream rather than capacity expansions as profits rack up

摘要

Pittsburgh—With US steel prices at all-time highs and mills starting to report record first-quarter profits and sales, their longer-term focus is on potential downstream projects and reducing debt levels rather than expanding capacity. Domestic steelmakers are still in the process of completing capacity expansion projects spurred on by the last boom in 2018, when steel prices spiked to nearly 10-year highs. US hot-rolled coil prices topped out at $920 per short ton in July 2018 on the back of former President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum products. The temporary runup in steel prices led to a profit windfall for mills in 2018 and a resulting rash of capacity expansion announcements at new and existing locations.