Company is preparing to reopen South Carolina wire mill.

Liberty Steel USA has announced it has named Revansidha Gulve the new general manager of its plant in Georgetown, South Carolina. The addition of Gulve comes as the company nears the end of its process to restart the wire rod mill.

Liberty House Group,  the parent company of Liberty Steel USA, acquired the Georgetown plant from ArcelorMittal in December 2017 as the first part of its plan to bring what it calls its Greensteel vision for low-carbon steel production to the United States. Liberty House Group, based in the United Kingdom, says the acquisition of the Georgetown plant is the first of what it says will be additional acquisitions in the U.S.

German company will break ground on new facility by the first quarter of 2019.

Germany-based Progroup AG has announced it will build its next recycled-content paperboard mill near Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Progroup says it expects the construction of its PM3 paper machine line to start in the first quarter of 2019 and to be completed in the second half of 2020.

In February 2018, the company announced plans to build a facility in Germany but deferred on announcing the location.

The company is expected to invest around €375 million ($442 million) on the construction of the paper mill. The paper machine being built will produce both corrugated medium and testliner.

Progroup says the machine will be capable of producing around 750,000 metric tons of corrugated board per year. When the new machine is operational the company will have a combined annual production capacity of around 1.85 million metric tons.

The company says the investment is part of a project to add four corrugated board plants by 2021. The construction of PM3 means Progroup “is now entering the intense phase of its Two Twentyfive strategy period,” the firm states in a news release.

“Safe haven” investing plays a role, but physical markets for precious metals also are steady.

Gold prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) have been trending downward in May 2018, but panelists at the LME Asia Week 2018 Seminar, which took place in Hong Kong in mid-May, see reasons why the price may rebound by year-end.

Interest in the stock market (in the U.S.) and the property market (in China and other parts of the world) has helped dampen some investors’ interest in gold, according to Sunile Kashyap of the Bank of Nova Scotia. “I think there is more interest in other asset groups [so] money has been flowing out of gold.”

Mark To of Hong Kong-based Wing Fung Financial Group and Rhona O’Connell of Thomson Reuters GFMS pointed to geopolitical events and monetary policies triggering inflation as reasons why people may seek gold as a safe haven investment by the end of 2018.

O’Connell said the United States tax law changes taking effect in 2018 have added an estimated $1.3 trillion to the federal budget deficit, “which could support gold,” she commented.

The metal never completely loses its safe haven status, with O’Connell remarking that some 500 tons of gold were estimated to have been smuggled out of China in 2017, as wealthy people there seek to diversity their holdings both by asset class and geographically.

Regarding where the price of gold will head, “I think we’re looking for gold [to be] trading higher by year-end,” said Amar Singh of JPMorgan Chase. He said inflation figures will act as “the first trigger” while “wealth managers [are] quietly waiting” to reinvest in gold.

O’Connell referred to silver as potentially undervalued, and Singh commented that the metal had survived a fundamental market change with the phasing out of silver-coated films in the photo industry. Singh said the jewelry market (particularly in India) and the solar panel market now underpin silver’s physical demand side.

Solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs) should both provide steady to strong demand for silver at a time when supply “has slowed down,” according to Singh. “We believe silver is close to its low level [price] and will move up,” he added.

The downward spiral of the diesel engine in passenger cars has had a profound effect on the platinum market, since it is used in diesel catalytic converters. O’Connell said China’s demand for trucks and heavy equipment is providing some support to platinum pricing, but not enough to make up for Europe turning its back on diesel passenger vehicles. She said at its peak (before the Volkswagen scandal), the European auto market was accounting for 40 percent of global platinum demand.

The price of palladium, which is used in gasoline engine converters, has not been likewise affected. Strong palladium pricing also has been buoyed by output bottlenecks for palladium ingot makers, most of whom are located in either Russia or South Africa. Singh referred to each of those nations as “going through difficult times,” and thus not attracting full levels of investment that might boost ingot-making capacity and output.

The LME Asia Week 2018 Seminar was Thursday, May 17, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Equipment firm promotes John Blicha to director of global marketing and communications.

John Blicha has been promoted to the newly created position of director of global marketing and communications at Erie, Pennsylvania-based equipment and technology firm Eriez. The announcement was made by Eriez CEO Tim Shuttleworth and its vice President of sales and marketing Charlie Ingram.

Blicha joined Eriez in 2012 as its manager of marketing communications and served most recently as its director of corporate communications. In his expanded role, he will direct Eriez’ global marketing strategy and programs, manage internal and external communication campaigns, design new product commercialization programs and coordinate marketing objectives with Eriez subsidiaries around the world. He also will continue to manage the company’s global website and oversee its direct advertising, public relations and promotional activities.

“As director of global marketing and communications, John will create and implement a more cohesive global marketing approach to increase Eriez’ market share,” says Shuttleworth. “He will also provide strategic and operational direction to our international teams in developing and executing localized world-class marketing programs which align with our corporate strategies and objectives.”

 Adds Shuttleworth, “In his time at Eriez, John has proven himself as a visionary and a talented leader. Under John’s direction, I am confident our global marketing and communication efforts will continue to advance Eriez on the worldwide stage and help take us to the next level of growth and success.”

Eriez makes and sells magnetic lift and separation, metal detection, fluid filtration, flotation, materials feeding, screening, conveying and controlling equipment used in the recycling, food, mining, aggregates, metalworking, packaging, plastics, rubber and textile industries. It manufactures and markets its product line at 12 facilities located on six continents.

London Metal Exchange chief executive calls scrap-related products “a bright spot.”

Trading contracts introduced in late 2015 by the London Metal Exchange (LME) for ferrous scrap and steel rebar (commonly made from scrap) have seen increasing amounts of activity, according to Matthew Chamberlain, the LME’s chief executive.

In a presentation given at the LME Asia Week 2018 Seminar, which took place in Hong Kong in mid-May, Chamberlain referred to the contracts as a “bright spot” in the LME’s portfolio since the LME held its previous Asia Week seminar in May 2017.

Approximately 4.8 million metric tons of ferrous scrap and 1 million metric tons of rebar have been traded using the contracts since they launched, according to Chamberlain.

Ferrous scrap contract trading began gaining momentum in the summer of 2017, according to a slide presented by Chamberlain. In eight of the nine months between July 2017 and March 2018, more than 250,000 metric tons were traded monthly using the contract.

December 2017 was the lagging month (195,000 metric tons traded) while in both November 2017 and February 2018, more than 500,000 metric tons were traded using the ferrous scrap contract.

Although LME steel rebar contract trading has not been as heavy, the contract did see more than 100,000 metric tons worth of trading in both January and March of 2018.

Chamberlain reaffirmed the LME’s commitment to the physical market while also saying the exchange remains protective of its overall trading “ecosystem,” which also includes banks and algorithmic traders.

When reaffirming the LME’s commitment to in-person ring trading in London, Chamberlain also said the LME is going to conduct a three-month trial in 2019 by fixing the nickel pricing for that period without any ring activity. He said the trial will serve as a data collection exercise to help determine how or if the lack of ring trading affects nickel’s pricing during that stretch.

Chamberlain acknowledged LME warehouse activity may still be suffering from the damage caused by long warehouse withdrawal waiting periods that occurred for aluminum customers in 2012 and 2013. The long queues have disappeared, he noted, but volumes have not greatly rebounded.

“We want a [warehouse] network that reflects real world buying and selling,” said Chamberlain. While the LME’s warehouse volumes have not returned to pre-2012 levels, “I think our warehouse network is there if needed,” he remarked.

Chamberlain said adding cobalt and lithium cash settlement contracts to the LME’s existing roster of cobalt, nickel, copper and aluminum contracts means the LME “is uniquely positioned to service the growing lithium battery industry.”

Overall, he said the LME is committed to “fairness, choice and efficiency” as its guiding principles. “I’m optimistic about the future of the LME market,” stated Chamberlain.

The LME Asia Week 2018 Seminar was Thursday, May 17, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.