By TDN.com| 2017-08-07 09:46:16

Last year, 960,000 metric tons of steel passed through docks on the Lower Columbia River — enough steel to build more than 800,000 cars. At least 870 jobs are directly tied to steel imports at the Ports of Kalama and Vancouver, so when President Trump starts talking about slapping tariffs on steel, Southwest Washington ports get understandably uneasy.While the Trump administration delayed any decision on steel tariffs for several months, local ports and companies who rely on steel are quietly preparing for a dramatic shift in how they do business. They worry tariffs could increase steel prices, which could at worst, undercut their business models and potentially spur reduced production and layoffs. Talk of tariffs has divided the manufacturing industry itself, too. Many domestic steel manufacturers cheer the tariffs, but companies who rely on foreign steel, such as Steelscape, are wary of their effects.Steelscape is particularly concerned that tariffs could impact its facility at the Port of Kalama, where it imports semi-finished steel from Australia and Japan to produce building materials.“We don’t know what the outcome is going to be. Obviously to continue to be a viable business, we’d have to look at everything,” said Sara Deukmejian, president of Steelscape, which owned by Australia-based Bluescope and Japan-based Nippon Steel.“We couldn’t continue with our existing supply chain … we would also have to reduce our volume. What does that mean to our manufacturing base? We don’t know,” Deukmejian said.Beyond steel, tariffs have the potential to impact another vital industry on the Columbia River too — grain and wheat exports — which play an even larger role at the Port of Kalama and Port of Longview. So it makes sense that southwestern Washington ports are closely watching the Trump administration’s next move.On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to help American factory workers by imposing tariffs on steel. He ordered the Department of Commerce in April to open an investigation into the matter under a little-known piece of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Section 232, which enables the executive branch to restrict imports for products tied to national security.Proponents argue the military needs to ensure it has enough high-quality domestic steel to make everything from helmets to tankers. But critics question the national security claims behind Trump’s investigation, because the American military isn’t critically dependent on steel imports. Only about 3 percent of steel shipments go to homeland security or national defense, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.The administration delayed any decision on the matter until the fall, presumably after the it tackles tax reform and health care.Those who support the trade barriers say it’s the only way to provide relief to American steel manufacturers who are suffering under the weight of cheap foreign steel, particularly from the millions of tons of steel flooding in from China. Imports now make up 30 percent of the American steel market. Meanwhile, the steel industry has shuttered plants and shed thousands of jobs over the last two decades. Steel manufactures say that targeted anti-dumping policies are not doing enough to fight Chinese competition.But opponents say broad tariffs will spark a new trade war that will extend beyond the steel industry, and they worry it could spur layoffs at American companies that rely on imported steel.At Steelscape and its subsidiaries, steel imports support about 800 jobs in the U.S., including 270 jobs at the Port of Kalama. The company imports hot rolled steel coils, which are processed into cold-rolled, flat steel for building materials such as siding and roofing.Although the company gets a small amount of steel from domestic sources, imports are the bedrock of its business model. Steelscape says it can save about $60 to $100 per a ton of steel by importing it through the Columbia River docks rather than shipping it in over the Rocky Mountain.“We’re a domestic steel manufacturer, but our production supply chain and the way we’ve been built as a business is such that we rely on imported, semi-finished steel,” Deukmejian. said. “We’re on the Columbia River. Everything comes in via boat. We don’t have rail access.”Switching its supply chain to domestic sources is possible but problematic, Deukmejian said.That’s because there are only two to three suppliers of hot-rolled steel on the West Coast and those companies are focused on supplying their own down-stream needs and customers, according to Steelscape.Not surprisingly then, Steelscape didn’t shift domestic sources last year when the Department of Commerce imposed a 30 percent dumping duty on hot-rolled steel from Australia. Instead, Steelscape just replaced Australian imports with steel from other countries.Yet the anti-dumping duties were a blow to the Port of Kalama, too. In 2016, Steelscape imported 308,000 metric tons of steel through the port, a 15 percent decrease from the previous year. The port relies on the steel import activity for 20 percent of its annual revenue.“Increased duties that lower steel imports to our tenant cut our revenue and limit our job creation capabilities,” Mark Wilson, executive director of Port of Kalama wrote in a letter to the Department of Commerce.Imposing tariffs could discourage foreign companies from opening new factories or making direct investments in the U.S., Wilson said in an interview.The impacts of potential tariffs are magnified at the Port of Vancouver, where steel imports support 600 jobs and account for 36 percent of the port’s annual revenue. As the second biggest importer of steel on the West Coast, Port of Vancouver brought in 621,000 metric tons of foreign steel last year. Most of Vancouver’s steel imports come from Russia and Mexico, with some from South Korea and Japan.“The main concern around a lot of this talk of tariffs (has to do with) China, and we don’t import steel from China, it comes from these other countries,” that could be unfairly targeted by broad tariffs, said Ryan Hart, Port of Vancouver spokesman.Ports of Vancouver and Kalama, as well as our Washington congress members have all lobbied the Department of Commerce against the tariffs. In May, Steelscape’s former president, John Cross, traveled to Washington D.C. to testify on the Section 232 investigation with the support of Washington state Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Calif. State Rep. Pete Aguilar.Both Herrera Beutler and Cross asked the Department of Commerce for special considerations for American manufacturers like Steelscape, which rely on imported steel.“The department’s investigation is focused on ‘national security,’ and while I’m all for stemming any potential security concern, I’m urging Commerce to proceed with caution,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement to The Daily News. “It must ensure it’s guarding against actions that could result in crippling retaliation by strategic trading partners or unaffordable commodity prices that would devastate families in Southwest Washington.”Some observers worry that Trump could set a precedent for other countries to use the premise of national security to slap tariffs on other common consumer products, such as dairy or grain.“If we go down this road then … countries looking to protect themselves from U.S. agriculture could look at this and say, ‘Oh we can do the same things,’” said Ben Conner, director of policy at the U.S. Wheat Associates. For example, countries could argue grain is needed for bread to feed armies, he said. Although the U.S. could challenge retaliatory tariffs to the World Trade Organization, the potential trade war could inflict a lot of damage in the meantime, Conner said.Several countries who consume the most U.S. wheat also are among the top exporters of steel, too, Conner noted. Washington state exports about 85 to 90 percent of its grain abroad, so potential tariffs could grain industries here hard.“The Northwest … more than any other region, is dependent on exports, so disturbance of trade always come back and hurt the farmers who export wheat to a lot of the steel-exporting countries,” Conner said.Yet proponents say the U.S. already is in a trade war with China over steel, and it’s a war that China is winning. Last year, Chinese manufacturers pumped out 800 million metric tons of steel, far outpacing the second top-producing steel country in the world, Japan, which produced 100 million metric tons of steel, according to the World Steel Association. Overall, the global supply of steel has grown to 2,300 million metric tons, dwarfing the global demand for steel, which stood at about 1,500 million metric tons in 2015, according to research from Duke University.“There’s a ‘David and Goliath’ nature to this,” said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing.While there are already trade barriers against steel from China and other countries, those approaches haven’t gone far enough to protect American manufacturers, Paul said.“That approach has provided a little bit of breathing space but it hasn’t brought down China’s overcapacity,” Paul said.Paul argued while some businesses would have to adjust their business models, ultimately the American steel industry would benefit from strong tariffs.American steel mills are “operating at 70 percent of capacity some mills are idled. If there is more demand domestically they would bring back workers,” Paul said.But steel manufacturers and ports who depend on imports aren’t holding their breath for job growth. When Bush implemented strict tariffs in 2002, researchers estimated it cost 200,000 American jobs.Many American companies are ordering more steel now before the tariffs take effect, too. Steel imports soared by 21.7 percent in the seven months of this year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. At the Port of Vancouver, imports shot up 33 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same time last year. (Port of Kalama’s steel imports rose only slightly.)“We’re all kind of waiting to see what’s going to happen here,” Hart said.Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has until January 2018 to make a recommendation to Trump on whether to impose tariffs. Many companies are betting the tariffs will take hold, but they aren’t sure how big they will be.“We are looking at all kinds of options to make sure that we have enough steel so that we can reliably service our customers ... and that we can continue to be a viable American steel producer that supports our 400 employees,” Deukmejian said.Source: tdn.com

By Yonhap| 2017-08-02 16:50:37

South Korea’s trade commission said Monday that it has decided to launch an official investigation into the alleged dumping of a steel product imported from China that has been cited for disrupting fair competition.The decision follows a formal complaint from four South Korean manufacturers, according to the Korea Trade Commission (KTC).“The petitioners claim there has been actual damage to the local industry, such as a drop in domestic sales of products made here, due to unfair undercutting of prices by Chinese galvanized low carbon steel wire,” the Korea Trade Commission said in a press release.Galvanized low carbon steel wire is used for barbed wire fences and metal staples, with the China-made products accounting for 80 percent of the South Korean market worth 100 billion won last year.The investigation may last up to 10 months, including five months for a preliminary probe, upon which the KTC will decide whether to impose anti-dumping duties, the commission said.Source: Yonhap

By YIFAN XIE & Dow Jones| 2017-08-01 09:41:42

Beijing’s renewed vows to slash steel capacity triggered a big rally in Chinese metals futures, again highlighting the government’s ability to move markets — but also raising concern that prices have become overextended.Steel rebar and iron ore led the gains last night after Premier Li Keqiang over the weekend called for further efforts to cut overcapacity in steel production.Iron ore — the major raw material of steel — rose strongly at the open and steadily climbed to hit the 8 per cent daily limit for gains or declines. Prices held for the rest of the session on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, putting them at a four-month high of 570.5 yuan ($US84.66) a tonne. In Shanghai, benchmark steel-rebar futures rose to 3,733 yuan, a three and a half year high, up 4.7 per cent on the day and 27 per cent from June’s low.According to The Steel Index, the price of iron ore overnight was up 5.9 per cent to $US73.1 a tonne.“The market is in a hyperexcited state since funds tend to flood in the moment any policies on capacity cuts is released,” said Fan Qingtian, an analyst at Nanhua Futures Co. “It’s pretty crazy.”Beijing has repeatedly warned against illegal steel production, which has picked up of late along with steel prices.China first pledged “supply-side reforms” for its steel and coal sectors — reducing excessive production capacity that had long plagued them — in January 2016. Capacity was cut by 6 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, last year.This year, at least two-thirds of targeted 2017 reductions had taken place by May. In the first half, the government said, some 120 million tonnes of low-grade steel capacity targeted because of the pollution it causes was eliminated — 11 per cent of the country’s steel capacity and 15 per cent of annual output.But two mills in Tianjin and Hunan that had been ordered to end production of low-quality steel-rebar by the end of June were found still churning out substandard products after the deadline, said a statement posted on the website of the State Council on Saturday.“We must stand firm in capacity-cutting efforts to prevent shutdowns in production from flaring up again,” said Mr Li on Saturday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.However, a bulk of the capacity set for cutting was never in actual production, analysts say, and a large portion of the illegal high-pollution low-grade capacity that was eliminated has been replaced by legal capacity.Still, the capacity clampdown is expected to significantly improve the profitability of China’s debt-laden mills. The state-run Xinhua News Agency recently said that midyear reports from 21 of 24 listed steel companies are projected to show higher earnings than a year earlier.Mr Li’s comments came ahead of upbeat economic data yesterday for the steel industry from the purchasing-manager-index figures for July.Though steel demand has supported the latest jump in iron-ore and steel-rebar prices, speculative fervour is also at work, said S & P Global Platts analyst Hongmei Li: “People are looking at steel and iron-ore futures to gamble.”Demand is projected to cool for the rest of 2017, analysts say, especially in residential construction. And steel-rebar stockpiles have been growing since June as weather delayed overall construction activity, according to Soochow Futures Co.ANZ Bank analyst Daniel Hynes warned about a rerun of the cycle from earlier this year: After charging higher to start 2017, iron ore fell as much as 38 per cent and steel rebar 17 per cent. High output should worsen the iron-ore oversupply into the end of 2017, added He Ming of consultancy Wood Mackenzie.Source: www.theaustralian.com.au

By David Stanway| 2017-07-31 10:38:34

China shut 42.39 million tonnes of crude steel capacity in the first half of 2017, equal to 84 percent of its target for the whole year, a government official said at a meeting of the country's steel industry body on Friday.The country has essentially completed its five-year target, set last year, to cut between 100 million and 150 million tonnes of excess steel capacity within less than two years, said Xia Nong, an inspector with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at the China Iron and Steel Association's (CISA) annual meeting.China made the pledge January 2016 as it bid to put an end to a price-sapping capacity glut that had left the country's massive steel sector mired in debt and losses.The capacity cuts made this year do not include a nationwide campaign to shut down illegal low-grade steel production, believed to amount to around 100 million tonnes a year, which was completed by the end of June.Jin Wei, CISA's president, said that all low-grade producers in China had already been forced to cease operations, according to an account of the meeting published on CISA's official website (www.chinaisa.org.cn). Jin also warned steel producers that despite rising output and improving steel product prices in the first half of the year, profits still remained relatively low and the sector was still struggling to make a sustained recovery, especially after a steep decline in export volumes.Chinese steel production rose 4.6 percent in the first half of this year to 419.75 million tonnes, with production reaching a record monthly high in June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed earlier this month.Profits of the ferrous metal processing sector rose 1.1 times year-on-year in June, compared with 5.7 percent growth in May, due to the surge in steel prices and low comparison base, NBS data showed earlier this week.(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)Source: Reuters

By Reuters-Global Times| 2017-07-27 09:46:31

China's steel rebar futures climbed for a third session on Wednesday, rising as much as 2.8 percent, reflecting concerns about a possible tightening of supply as the country sends inspection teams to mills across the nation.The government is sending 18 inspection teams to inspect low-end steel plants to prevent them from reopening after a crackdown on low-tech steel furnaces ended on the deadline of June 30, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency.China in the first half of the year closed around 120 million tons of low-grade annual steel capacity, which was mostly for making construction industry products.The world's largest steel producer has been clamping down on production of low-grade rebar in a bid to cut excess supply and help tackle pollution."Steel supply is limited by inspections, while new capacity has not been released. This provides momentum for the price rally," said Xu Bo, analyst at Haitong Futures.Analysts estimate China's total steelmaking capacity at about 1.2 billion tons, with an annual surplus of as much as 400 million tons.The most-active steel futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.79 percent to 3,568 yuan ($528) a ton during the afternoon trade after touching a high of 3,639 yuan in the morning session.Spot rebar prices gained 0.25 percent to 3,928.21 yuan a ton on Tuesday, according to Shanghai-headquartered industry news site Mysteel.September coking coal prices gained nearly 2 percent on Wednesday to 1,276.5 yuan a ton.Source: www.globaltimes.cn

By www.globaltrademag.com| 2017-07-26 09:21:35

US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced last week the affirmative final determination in this antidumping duty (AD) investigation, finding that steel concrete reinforcing bar from Taiwan is being sold in the US market at unfair prices.The Commerce Department determined that exporters from Taiwan have sold steel concrete reinforcing bar in the United States at 3.50 percent to 32.01 percent at less than fair value based on factual evidence provided by the interested parties.The Commerce Department will instruct US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits from importers of steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) from Taiwan based on these final rates. In 2016, imports of steel concrete reinforcing bar from Taiwan were valued at an estimated $53 million.Nucor Corp. of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Steel Dynamics, Inc., of Pittsboro, Indiana.From January 20, 2017, through July 21, 2017, Commerce has initiated 54 antidumping and countervailing duty investigations – a 40 percent increase from the previous year. For the same time period in 2016, Commerce had initiated 40 antidumping and countervailing duty investigations.Antidumping laws provide US businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of dumping unfairly priced products into the United States. Commerce currently maintains 404 antidumping and countervailing duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.The US International Trade Commission (ITC) is conducting an investigation to determine whether or not the domestic industry is harmed by imports of steel concrete reinforcing bar from Taiwan. The ITC is currently scheduled to make its final injury determination on or before September 5.If the ITC makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue an antidumping order. If the ITC makes a negative final injury determination, the investigation will be terminated and no order will be issued.In fiscal year 2016, the United States collected $1.5 billion in duties on $14 billion of imported goods found to be underpriced or subsidized by foreign governments.Source: www.globaltrademag.com

By Clyde Russell| 2017-07-25 11:06:33

Anybody looking at the United States' import data would wonder why the Trump administration is bothering making a big deal out of its steel trade with China.U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that he is considering imposing tariffs on steel imports, while talks between the commerce secretaries of the United States and China ended without any concrete measures..The threat of U.S. import taxes on Chinese steel have helped boost the share prices of U.S. steelmakers, but this is likely more of a sentiment driven improvement rather than any expectation that imposing tariffs will be anything more than largely symbolic.While China is the world's largest producer of steel, and has emerged as a major exporter in recent years, the simple truth is that very little of its output reaches the United States.U.S. Commerce Department statistics show that China supplied 73,594 tonnes of steel in May, a tiny 2.4 percent of the 3.12 million tonnes imported by the United States that month.China's exports to the United States also represented just 1.05 percent of its total steel product exports in May of 6.98 million tonnes.China was the 10th largest supplier of U.S. steel product imports in May, which is actually a drop of one spot since May last year, when it was ninth.In the first four months of 2017, U.S. imports of Chinese steel products were 236,690 tonnes, representing 2.1 percent of total imports and down from 283,676 tonnes for the same period last year.What the U.S. import data reveals is that if there is a problem with too much imported steel, China is definitely not the source of that problem.If Trump wants to boost the U.S. steel industry by cracking down on imports, he should focus much closer to home, with Canada supplying 514,488 tonnes in May and Mexico 266,544.China isn't even the biggest supplier of steel from Asia, being behind Japan, South Korea and India in May and only just ahead of Taiwan.If the Chinese are dumping steel into the U.S. market, the only reasonable conclusion that could be reached is that they are remarkably bad at doing so, given their miniscule market share, and their seeming inability to grow it.China's ExportsChinese steelmakers are also struggling in other markets, with exports in the first five months of the year totaling 34.18 million tonnes, down 25.7 percent on the same period in 2016, according to official customs data.Much is made of China's steel behemoth swamping the rest of the world, but the reality is maybe not quite as threatening as made out.No doubt China's steel sector is huge, accounting for more than half of global production, but this is largely consumed domestically.Steel output rose 5.7 percent in June from the year-earlier month to 73.23 million tonnes, the highest on record and beating April's 72.78 million, the previous high.In the first half of this year, Chinese steel production was 419.75 million tonnes, up 4.6 percent on the same period in 2016, according to official data released on July 17.But this record level of steel production isn't causing a glut in China, where prices are performing well.The main Shanghai rebar contract closed at 3,506 yuan ($518.64) a tonne on July 21, up 32 percent since the end of last year.It's possible that some of the price surge can be attributed to speculative investors, but China's solid growth performance does provide some fundamental justification, with the economy expanding by 6.9 percent in the second quarter, slightly ahead of market expectations.Chinese steel producers are likely becoming more efficient as well, as older, more expensive plants are closed as part of Beijing's efforts to cut steel capacity by as much as 150 million tonnes.While the United States and others, such as the European Union and India, have made noises about unfair competition from China, these arguments may be getting harder to sustain in the light of China's falling steel exports and seeming success in eliminating excess capacity.Editing by Christian SchmollingerSource: Reuters

By Lesley Wroughton and David Lawde| 2017-07-21 10:04:01

Senior Chinese and U.S. officials discussed cutting excess global steel production capacity and agreed to "active and effective" measures to address the issue, China's embassy in Washington said on Thursday, a day after high-level economic meetings in Washington."In this breakout session, the two sides focused their discussion on steel, aluminum and high-tech trade," the embassy said in a statement. "The two sides had in-depth discussion on cutting excess steel production capacity in the world and agreed to active and effective measures to jointly address this global issue."(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Adler)Source: Reuters

By SCOTT HORSLEY| 2017-07-14 11:35:23

President Trump is hinting that he may impose tariffs, quotas or both on imported steel in an effort to protect the domestic steel industry."Steel is a big problem," Trump told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One en route to Paris, where he landed Thursday. "We're like a dumping ground, OK? [Other countries are] dumping steel and destroying our steel industry. They've been doing it for decades and I'm stopping it.""There are two ways," Trump said, "quotas and tariffs. Maybe I'll do both."The Commerce Department has been conducting a review of both steel and aluminum imports under a rarely used 1962 statute designed to protect industries deemed vital to national security. Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters in April that imports now account for more than a quarter of the U.S. steel market, while domestic steel mills are operating at just 71 percent of capacity.Trump railed against what he called unfair trade practices throughout the campaign and has continued to advocate protectionist measures since taking office.The Alliance for American Manufacturing, which represents steelmakers and the steelworkers union, supports new restrictions on imports. "If we don't step up now, America's entire aluminum and steel industries could disappear," the alliance warns on its website, "and we'll have to rely on Russia and China for our national defense needs."Restricting steel imports through tariffs or quotas would be controversial, though. It would potentially raise prices for steel consumers and could spark retaliation from major trading partners.Although the administration blames China for most of the glut on the global steel market, allies such as Canada, Mexico and South Korea would likely be hard-hit by any import restrictions. Those countries could respond with limits of their own on U.S. exports.This week, more than a dozen former White House economists signed a letter, urging the president not to take action against steel imports."The diplomatic costs might be worth it if the tariffs generated economic benefits. But they would not," the economists wrote. "Additional steel tariffs would actually damage the U.S. economy. Tariffs would raise costs for manufacturers, reduce employment in manufacturing, and increase prices for consumers."Trump's comments in support of import limits were originally made to reporters "off the record," but the White House later agreed to make them public.Source: www.npr.org

By Maytaal Angel| 2017-07-11 10:25:00

European steel association Eurofer raised its 2017 EU steel demand forecast on Monday but said isolationist measures such as a U.S. plan to levy steel tariffs on national security grounds could be disastrous for global trade flows.Eurofer said apparent EU steel demand, which includes inventory changes, will rise 1.9 percent this year to 159 million tonnes. It previously forecast demand, seen as a gauge of regional economic health, would rise 1.3 percent in 2017.Despite the raised forecast, the association issued its starkest warning yet about potential import distortions, saying regions mills could again fail to benefit from demand growth and instead lose market share to imports."With no structural solutions for the underlying problem of global overcapacity in sight, the number of protectionist and even isolationist measures look set to increase," Eurofer director general Axel Eggert said in a statement."In particular, measures potentially stemming from the U.S. section 232 investigation may lead to a proliferation of disastrous global trade flow distortions."The United States launched a "section 232" probe in April into whether imports of steel, the second biggest industry in the world after oil and gas, posed a risk to national security.Though the move is aimed primarily at top global steel producer China, Eurofer fears EU countries will bear the brunt of the measures because Chinese steel is already largely subject to U.S. restrictions.It is also concerned that steel headed for U.S. shores will be re-routed to the EU.Invoking national security in peacetime is seen by trade experts as a move that risks undermining the global rules-based trading system by sparking retaliatory action around the world in products beyond steel.At a weekend summit in Germany, leaders from the world's 20 leading economies set an August deadline for an OECD-led global forum to compile information about steel overcapacity, with a report on potential solutions due in November.Eurofer expects apparent EU steel demand to moderate to a 1 percent growth rate next year, as the impact of economic stimulus measures fade. The association previously forecast demand would grow 1.2 percent next year.European steel prices ST-MBEUDNHRC-MB ST-MBEDSHRC-MB ST-MBEDNREB-MB ST-MBEDSREB-MB fell some 10 percent in the second quarter thanks to high inventories and increased import pressure. Prices rose some 50 percent in 2016.Although China cut some 65 million tonnes of steel capacity in 2016 and aims to cut another 50 million tonnes this year, its trading partners say much of the cuts cover already idled capacity and that the problem of unfairly traded steel remains.Chinese steel exports [MTL/CHINA3] fell 25.7 percent in the first five months of this year. However, the country still accounts for about a quarter of global steel exports and about half of the world's spare steelmaking capacity.(Reporting by Maytaal Angel, editing by David Evans)