ArcelorMittal SA steel plant in Mexico was faced a strike from unionised workers of the company. The plant is one of the Mexico's largest tseel facilities and was shuttered by a strike for more than four months in 2006.
The Mine, Metal and Steel Workers Union said that 3,500 union members were on strike at the plant. The plant employs a total of about 7,000 people.
The union said the strike was launched after it made several proposals for a new labor contract to the company that were rejected, while the steel major denied to comment. However, the union had said that it would continue talks. ArcelorMittal is the world's largest steel producer and it acquired the Larzo Cardnas plant in late 2006.

U.S. Steel Corporation, the largest U.S. - based steelmaker by sales, locked out the remaining workers at its Canadian plant idled since March after failing to reach a new labor agreement.
The company denied entry to 150 workers at its facility in Nanticoke, Ontario, the United Steelworkers union said. About 800 workers were laid off at the site in March.
“We were still at substantial disagreement on a number of issues, so that necessitated our lockout decision” Trevor Harris, a U.S. Steel spokesman, said.
Industry Minister Tony Clement said on July 17 that Canada will file an application with a federal court because U.S. Steel broke its investment commitments by idling most of its Canadian operations this year. U.S. Steel gained control of the Nanticoke plant when it acquired Stelco Inc., Canada's last domestically owned steel mill, in 2007.
“We see this action by U.S. Steel as a clear violation of its written undertakings to maintain employment and production levels under Investment Canada Act,” Tony DePaulo, a United Steelworkers spokesman, said in a statement. “We are calling on Clement to urgently expedite the government's request to the Federal Court of Canada to order U.S. Steel to resume steel production and put its employees back to work.”
U.S. Steel and the Nanticoke workers failed to reach a labor agreement that would have replaced a contract that expired on Aug. 1, Harris said.

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau unexpectedly posted a second-quarter loss as it wrote down the value of assets and as a stronger local currency and a plunge in steel prices weighed on revenue from overseas subsidiaries. The net loss totaled 329 million reais ($178 million), Gerdau said in a regulatory filing, compared with a previously reported profit of 2.12 billion reais a year earlier.
Gerdau, Brazil's biggest producer of long-rolled steel was expected to report a net profit of 707 million reais for the second quarter. The company booked 1.1 billion reais in asset write-downs in the quarter while its specialty steel segment posted a 683 million reais loss that also weighed on the quarterly results.
The result, because it was impacted by nonrecurring issues, surely doesn't reflect the company's efforts to streamline operations and maintain profitability. The write-downs come as Gerdau, betting on growing demand for steel particularly from China and other emerging market economies, went on an acquisition spree that spanned from the United States to Colombia. Assets fell to 49 billion reais from 56 billion at the end of the first quarter.
A reversal of global economic activity triggered by the intensification of the credit crisis last September led the steelmaker to suspend operations at several of its facilities over the past six months. Gerdau put off production and closed a mill in New Jersey and shut blast furnaces in Brazil. Revenue fell 41 percent from a year earlier to 6.4 billion reais as Brazil's currency gained 19 percent in the period and hampered revenue from subsidiaries located overseas. Sales volume in the local market offset the impact of plunging steel prices. Costs fell 31 percent to 5.6 billion reais in the quarter.

Tenaris SA, the world's top producer of seamless steel pipes for the energy industry, is seeing signs that its energy company customers could resume their medium-term projects. Oil groups have started to put in motion projects that will come on-stream in the second part of 2010 on expectations that a recovery in China and other emerging markets will support crude prices and demand in the medium term.
Tenaris reported a 67 percent fall in second-quarter profit due to weaker demand from oil companies, and forecast lower sales and operating income in the second half of the year than in the first. National and international customers are perceived to resume development of their medium-term projects especially in some areas like in the Middle East, a company executive said.
The company expects, therefore, a gradual recovery in the shipments in the first half of 2010 as big projects entail a time lag of several months between procurement, production and delivery. Tenaris' fortunes are closely linked to global energy exploration and oil prices, which have fallen sharply from sky-high levels in mid-2008. Italian oil field services firm Saipem said has recently said that oil groups could raise capital expenditure if the price of crude stabilized for a period between $60 and $70 a barrel.

Russian steel pipe maker TMK has decided to buy back $413 million of a $600 million loan participation note (LPN) due in 2011. The company, which supplies pipes to the oil and gas sector, will pay $90 for each $100 of the notes' nominal value, along with an early consent fee of $5,000 for every $100,000 of notes. The company said last month that it wanted to retire the bond in order to free itself from covenants that restrict its ability to refinance short-term debt. It said 89 percent of noteholders voted in favour of the resolutions to change the covenants, though not all participated in the buyback offer.
TMK is one of several Russian steel heavyweights that took on billions of dollars worth of debt to finance acquisitions and expand production during the pre-crisis steel boom. The steelmaker currently has $3.2 billion in debt, and it said in July that it needs to increase the threshold of secured indebtedness to 40 percent of total assets from the current 15 percent level outlined in its debt covenants as it seeks to refinance. The company said there is a late offer purchase price of $87 per $100 of nominal value along with a late consent fee of $3,000 per $100,000

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., Australia's third-largest iron ore exporter, swung to a full - year profit after boosting sales of the steelmaking raw material as output from its mine increased.
Net profit was $508 million, or 17.70 cents a share, in the 12 months ended June 30, compared with a loss of $772 million, or 47.63 cents, a year earlier, Perth-based Fortescue said. The company reported sales of $1.8 billion. Fortescue, which made its first shipments in May last year, has boosted sales in 2009 amid a rebound in demand from China, the world's biggest buyer. The company is seeking to expand output from its ($2.4 billion) operation in Western Australia and mine other deposits.

CSN, Brazil's third-largest steelmaker, said that second-quarter net income fell 67 percent to 334.7 million reais ($181 million), well below market expectations. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a key measure of cash flow and operational profitability known as EBITDA, fell 57 percent to 727.6 million reais, from 1.702 billion reais in the quarter from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. CSN was expected to post a profit of 722 million reais in the second quarter, according to the average forecast of five analysts surveyed by analysts.