Displaying items by tag: coronavirus

US: Harsco’s Environmental division has driven its parent group’s revenue in 2021 as services and product demand increased. Its revenue rose by 17% year-on-year to US$1.07bn in 2021 from US$914m in 2020. Its operating income grew by 75% to US$103m from US$59m. Overall group revenue and operating income increased by 20% to US$1.85bn and from a loss of US$3.3m in 2020 to a profit of US$88.4m respectively.

“For the fourth quarter, our businesses continued to benefit from increased environmental solutions demand, and I'm pleased to have met our expectations for the quarter. However, steel volumes slowed through the fourth quarter in some markets, inflation pressures persisted, and labour-market tightness and Omicron impacted productivity. We were able to offset these pressures by controlling our overall spending in the fourth quarter,” said chairman and chief executive officer Nick Grasberger. He added that the group expects to see further improved operating results from its Environmental division in 2022.

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the US sold 17Mt of ferrous slags in 2021, a rise of 31% year-on-year from the estimate in 2020. Blast furnace slag represented about 49% of the volume sold and accounted for 87% of the total value ofslag, most of which was granulated. Steel slag produced from oxygen and electric arc furnaces accounted forthe remainder of sales. Slag was processed by 28 companies servicing active iron and steel facilities or reprocessing old slag piles at about 124 processing plants, including some iron and steel plants with more than one slag-processing facility, in 33 States, including facilities that import and grind unground slag to sell as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS).

A further 2.2Mt was imported, a slight decline from 2020. From 2017 to 2020 the USGS reports that 42% of imported slag came from Japan, 18% from Brazil, 11% from China and 10% from Italy.

The USGS noted that during 2021, domestic GGBFS remained in limited supply because granulation cooling was known to be available at only two active US blast furnaces while, elsewhere, only one domestic plant produced pelletised slag in limited supply. Grinding of granulated blast furnace slag was only performed domestically by cement companies. However, following Covid-19 related decrease in availability in 2020, supply of steel slag increased in 2021.

US: Harsco Corporation recorded net sales of US$1.85bn in 2020, up by 23% year-on-year from Euro1.50bn in 2019. The group’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 10% to US$238m from US$265m. Harsco Environmental’s fourth quarter net sales rose by 2% to US$246m from US$243m. Its adjusted EBITDA rose by under 1% to US$52.0m from US$51.0m. The company attributed the division’s growth to higher demand for applied products and lower general and administrative spending, partially offset by a less favourable services mix and contract changes.

Chairman and chief executive officer Nick Grasberger said, “Against a challenging market backdrop in 2020, Harsco made significant progress on its strategic, operational and financial objectives. While the disruption caused by the global pandemic could not have been predicted, our teams executed well, with a consistent focus on our key priorities – operating safely, serving customers, preserving financial flexibility and executing our Environmental Solutions business from Stericycle (ESOL) integration and operational recovery plan in Rail.”

World: Global steel production was 1.86Bnt in 2020, down by 1% year-on-year from 1.88Bn in 2019. The decrease is the first since 2015. The sharpest declines were recorded in the US (17%), Japan (16%), the EU (12%) and India (11%). Chinese steel production rose for a sixth consecutive year to 1.05Bnt, up by 5% from 1.00Bnt. The rest of the world produced 811Mt, down by 8% from 879Mt. China’s share of world steel production rose to 57% from 53%.

Belgium: The World Steel Association (WSA) forecasts that total global steel consumption in 2020 will be 1.65Bnt, down by 6.4% year-on-year from 1.77Bnt in 2019, due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on steel-intensive industries. The WSA estimated that demand will decline by 17% in developed countries, with the steepest falls in Japan, South Korea and the US, and by 18% in India. China’s steel consumption is expected to rise by 1% due to increased infrastructure spending and a swift post-coronavirus recovery. Construction, a mostly seasonal sector, had already reached full productivity in April 2020.

The WSA expects steel demand to increase by 3.8% year-on-year in 2021 to 1.72Bnt globally. The sharpest recovery is expected to be in developing countries, where the WSA says that total demand will increase by 9.2%, following a fall of 11.6% in 2020.