[Ferro-Alloys.com]

  03 global steel enterprises speed up strategic adjustment

  In 2020, coronavirus pamdemic situation and the international situation changed, and the global steel enterprises have made some strategic adjustments. On May 20, ThyssenKrupp issued a document saying that it is looking for suitable partners for its steel and marine systems business (including ship manufacturing and other businesses), and that the three business segments of material services, industrial parts and auto parts will remain within the group. It is reported that the annual sales of materials services, industrial parts and auto parts businesses total 18 billion euros, accounting for 43% of the group's total annual sales. The steel business, which will be removed from its core business, is the largest losser in the first quarter of this year.

  On July 1, India's Kindler steel and energy company (JSPL) said it plans to sell its subsidiary Jindal shade, which is located in the Sultanate of Oman, to Templar investments, which is headquartered in Mauritius, for $251 million. After the completion of this transaction, JSPL's comprehensive production capacity will drop by 21.8%. JSPL hopes to offset its debt, improve its balance sheet and upgrade its credit rating.

  On November 9, JFE Holdings Inc. (JFE) announced two structural reform measures: it will complete the transformation of No. 6 blast furnace of East Nippon Steel Works Co., Ltd. in Chiba area of Japan by December 2022 (estimated cost is about 412 million US dollars), and close the upstream process and hot rolling equipment of its Jingbin industrial zone by September 2023. In addition to shutting down the equipment and implementing the transformation, the structural reform measures of JFE steel production also include adopting big data technology, streamlining and optimizing the organizational structure, etc. JFE steel expects that the structural reform will contribute about 85 billion yen (about 813 million US dollars) to the annual profit.

  On December 8, American steel announced that it would acquire the remaining 50.1% shares of Dahe steel, the American EAF steel plant, so as to acquire all the shares of the most advanced plate production enterprise in North America. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.

  Comments: coronavirus pandemic is not only an effective measure to tackle the serious impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, but also an important weapon to adapt to the changes in the international market.

• [Editor:Catherine Ren]