MWI Bureau

Coal imports for China surged 22 percent in April from a year earlier, as traders scrambled to snap up low-cost coal from the seaborne market amid plunging demand for the fuel worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cerrejon, the Colombian coal miner, equally owned by BHP group, Anglo American and Glencore has started ramping up operations following a temporary reduction in the production as part of efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, the respiratory illness that has infected more than 7,600 people in Colombia and killed 340.

According to the IHS Markit purchasing managers index (PMI) survey, India’s manufacturing activity witnessed an unprecedented contraction in the month of April due to the lockdown across the country in order to contain the spread of the virus which led to a slump in demand and caused massive supply chain disruptions.

Coal India Limited (CIL) subsidiary Central Coalfields Limited has registered the drop in offtake to customers with the offtake falling by 55 per cent in April, making CCL one of the worst hit Coal India subsidiaries during lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Insteel Industries Inc had announced the appointment of Mark A. Carano as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer effective May 18, 2020. Mr. Carano will be succeeding Michael C Gazmarian, who will be continuing with the Company through July 31, 2020, to assist with the leadership transition.

Jindal Steel & Power Limited(JSPL) reported its highest ever exports of steel & related products during the month of April 2020. JSPL exported 248,000 tonnes of steel & related products, which accounts to a growth of 109%(m-o-m).

SW Steel Limited reported that the crude steel production stood at 0.563 million tonnes in the month of April 2020, recording an average capacity utilization of about 38 percent for the month. The production of flat-rolled products was 3.44 lakh tonnes while the production of long rolled products was 0.89 lakh tonnes for the month of April.

According to the latest data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) world’s crude steel production for March 2020 declined 6 percent. Crude steel produced in the month of March was 147.1MT as per the data received from the 64 countries which report to world steel.

According to the data released by the China Customs Statistics China's coking coal imports fell 8.1% YOY to 5.64 million tonnes in March mainly due to a decline in the inflow from major suppliers Mongolia and Russia.

U.S. Steel plans to idle Blast Furnace 6 located at Gary Works. It has plans to temporarily lay off up to 6500 workers nationwide including thousands of workers in Northwest Indiana in response to the coronavirus pandemic