The
“Motor-Max” products are designed for electric vehicle (EV) motors, aircraft
motors and generators and other rotating equipment operating at frequencies
above 60 hertz, a Cleveland-Cliffs spokesperson told Fastmarkets on Tuesday
December 13.
The
launch reflects expectations of rising demand for NOES products and electrical
steels in general ahead of rapid growth from the EV revolution over the next
several years, according to Philip Gibbs, KeyBanc Capital Markets managing
director and senior equity analyst for metals and aerospace. At some point, all
domestic steelmakers will have to “chase” the electrical steels market because
demand for these products is set to increase, he told Fastmarkets.
Cleveland-Cliffs
cited growing demand for EVs, which require NOES, in its announcement on
Tuesday. It also highlighted increasing needs for EV charging stations, which
are built with grain-oriented electrical steels (GOES).
The
Cleveland-based steelmaker is the only producer of automotive-quality
electrical steels in North America, according to the press release. These
capabilities were partially enabled through the 2020 acquisition of AK Steel,
which at the time had a leading domestic position supplying the electrical
grid. For example, AK Steel accounted for all domestic production of NOES in
2012.
However,
US Steel — which currently produces NOES only in Europe — has plans to start producing it in the US in September
2023 with its new NOES line at Big River Steel. Other electric-arc
furnace producers, including Nucor, do not produce NOES, although Nucor does
make steel for electrical equipment manufacturers.
“Asia
leads the way when it comes NOES,” a source told Fastmarkets. “The US producers
are just getting to the point where they can support the automotive market.
Cliffs already had the [AK Steel] assets to makes NOES but had yet to produce
automotive grade material and have been working with the [original equipment
manufacturers] to get qualified.”
Annual
production of motor steels in the US, including NOES and the lower-quality
cold-rolled motor lamination (CRML), is around 400,000-500,000 tonnes, of which
around 100,000 tonnes is NOES, according to Gibbs. The rest is CRML, which is
produced by US Steel, ArcelorMittal/Nippon Steel, Nucor and Steel Dynamics, he
said.
The
US imported only around 9,900 tonnes of “flat-rolled products of silicon
electrical steel, not grain-oriented” from January through October of this
year, up 43.48% from roughly 6,900 tonnes in the same period last year,
according to data from the US International Trade Commission’s Interactive
Trade DataWeb. The Top 3 importing nations year-to-date were Austria, France
and Romania.
Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment of steel cold-rolled coil, fob mill US was
$44 per hundredweight ($880 per short ton) on Thursday, December 8, flat for
the second week in a row but less than half of $102 per cwt in the same week
last year.
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