Steel
Exploring the Steel Industry
Here’s another Basic Materials post for my millions of subscribers. This one is about steel producers. There are over 100 steel companies that I could cover here. For the sake of everyone’s time, I’ve decided to cover the following 10 steel companies:
But first, let’s check out how steel is made.
Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest producer of flat-rolled steel in North America. The company is fully integrated from mined raw materials to primary steelmaking to downstream stamping, tooling, and tubing. They’re also the largest supplier of automotive steel in North America.
Tooling and Stamping: Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (clevelandcliffs.com)
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata Steel is among the largest steel producing companies in the world, with an annual crude steel capacity of 35 million tons. It is one of the world's most geographically diversified steel producers, with operations and commercial presence across the world. The group recorded a consolidated turnover of $31 billion in the financial year ending 31 March 2023. It is the largest steel company in India (measured by domestic production).
Severstal PAO is a vertically integrated steel and mining company headquartered in Russia. The company has two operating divisions: Severstal Resources and Severstal Russian Steel. Its core asset is the Cherepovets steel mill, which is located within easy access of the company's mining operations, the Baltic ports, and Russia's industrial heartland. The company produces iron ore pellets, iron ore concentrates, crushed stones, ferrite strontium powder, coking & steam coal, and coking coal concentrate. These materials are provided to six industry categories: construction and service processing, tube and pipe, oil and gas, machinery, autos, and others. Construction and service processing accounts for a majority of sales. Severstal generates most of its revenue in Russia.
Founded in 1939 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Reliance, Inc. is a leading global diversified metal solutions provider and the largest metals service center company in North America. Through a network of more than 315 locations in 40 states and 12 countries outside of the United States, Reliance provides value-added metals processing services and distributes a full-line of over 100,000 metal products to more than 125,000 customers in a broad range of industries. Reliance focuses on small orders with quick turnaround and value-added processing services. In 2023, Reliance’s average order size was $3,210, approximately 51% of orders included value-added processing and approximately 40% of orders were delivered within 24 hours.
With manufacturing bases in Japan and 15 countries worldwide, Nippon Steel Corporation is Japan’s largest steelmaker and one of the world’s leading steel producers. The company does business in four areas, starting with their core segment of Steelmaking and Steel Fabrication and including Engineering and Construction, Chemicals and Materials, and System Solutions.
ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourg-based multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second largest steel producer in the world, with an annual crude steel production of 78 million metric tons as of 2022. It is ranked 197th in the 2022 Fortune Global 500 ranking of the world's largest corporations. It employs around 154,000 people and its market capital is $20 billion. The total value of company assets is estimated to be around $94 billion.
POSCO (formerly Pohang Iron and Steel Company) is a South Korean steel manufacturer headquartered in Pohang, South Korea. It had an output of 42,000,000 metric tons of crude steel in 2015, making it the world's sixth-largest steelmaker by this measure.
Founded in 1993, Steel Dynamics, Inc., sometimes abbreviated as "SDI", is an American steel producer based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. With a production capacity of 13 million tons of steel, the company is the third largest producer of carbon steel products in the United States. It is among the most profitable American steel companies in terms of profit margins and operating margin per ton.
Usiminas is one of the largest producers of flat steel in the Americas, with major steel mills in Brazil with a total capacity of 9.5 million metric tons of steel per year. The company accounts for 28% of total steel output in Brazil and is the leader in the Brazilian flat steel market.
Nucor Corporation is an American company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that produces steel and related products. It is the largest steel producer in the United States and the largest recycler of scrap in North America.