WSD Special Studies

Besides its regular subscription service, WSD has created a series of limited edition studies to help its clients evaluate strategic and tactical directions. The Limited Edition Studies answer questions such as: How is your company's cost position versus the competition? How will it look in five years? What is the production cost of those who are offering you steel slabs? What are steelmakers' materials balances by world region? How much scrap and coke will steelmakers need to buy? What is the likely price of cold-rolled sheet under various scenarios given the suppliers' cost curve? What specific facilities in the U.S. are aging and have a limited life? What is the production cost at each minimill in the U.S.?

Discounts are available on multiple studies.

WORLD COST CURVE

WSD now offers an interactive verions of its World Cost Curve (WCC) for flat-rolled sheet mills.

Flat-rolled sheet mills. We now offer WCC users not only enhanced web-based access to the classic process-by-process steelmakers' costs, but also the hands on ability to simulate various scenarios. The user is able to perform one-of-a-kind "What-if" analyses through 67 adjustable inputs for all 208 steel sheet plants and 57 standard plants. The steelmaker's cost competitiveness is instantaneously displayed for the input scenario.

For all those having to constantly make difficult competitive assessments and decisions (industry analysts, suppliers, investors, fund managers, etc.) regarding various steelmakers, the WCC Interactive System is the perfect tool to provide definitive answers.

To see the utility of the new system for yourself, please view this brief video demonstration:

The flat-rolled sheet WCC includes the following:

• Input prices and usage factors for coking coal, coke, iron ore, directly reduced iron, steel scrap, electricity and labor. Input/output ratios are provided by stage.

• Costs-by-process, where applicable, for cokemaking, blast furnaces, steelmaking (via the BOF/OH or the EAF route), slabmaking, billet- or bloom-making, hot-rolling, cold-rolling, finishing, plant overhead, depreciation expense and interest expense.

• Capacity data for slab or billet, hot-rolled band, cold-rolled coil, wire rod and plate.

• Quality rankings for each plant that produces hot-rolled band, cold-rolled coil, wire rod and plate. Costs are compared among plants that produce similar product qualities.

• In-depth comparisons of fixed/variable costs, costs in U.S. dollars and the home currency, manhours per tonne at stage, etc. Detailed home and global rankings at and through each cost stage.

The Interactive WCC for Flat-Rolled Sheet Plants is priced at $15,000 annually.

The far reaching conclusions of WSD's traditional Global Metallics Balance system are now at your fingertips via the internet. The immense complexity of one of the most important subjects in the steel industry have been synthesized into a user-friendly interactive web-based application.

In the mid 1990s, the insights revealed by this rigorous model led us to predict the dawn of a new era in the steel industry - i.e., one of volatile pricing due to constrained supply of steel scrap, pig iron and steel scrap substitutes in part because of limited additions to the steel scrap resevoir and booming developing country steel demand. This is even more true in today's "Age of Metallics." The GMB system is the essential tool for gaining deeper insight into the future supply/demand relationship of steelmakers' metallics.

The Interactive GMB is updated monthly and supported by s historical database compromised of best-in-class sources covering detailed steel and raw material production, generation, trade and consumption. Subscribers have the ability to manipulate as many as 15 key factors/variables in the model across a 15-year forecast period, including: a) crude steel production and methodology by country or region; b) trade balances of finished and semi-finished steel products; c) trade balances of scrap, iron ore, coking coal, pig iron and DRI; and d) coke and PCI usage in steelmaking.

Having accessed the Global Metallics Balance online system, users have the ability to view WSD’s most recent forecast, customize and alter the forecast to their own specifications, or simply browse the vast historical database of production and trade data at the core of the system. Should the user wish to experiment with scenarios of his choosing, the system processes and stores the new results which may be viewed and quickly compared to the base WSD forecast. The GMB output is available at various levels of geographic granularity – from individual country to various regional/economic aggregations. The system offers a variety of graphical and analytical displays, and all GMB data is easily exportable to Microsoft Excel

To see the utility of our new system for yourself, please view this brief video demonstration:

The World Steel Dynamics staff is available to answer questions and help subscribers use the system for their particular needs.

The Interactive Global Metallics Balance is priced at $15,000 annually.

STEELMAKERS' PROCESS-BY-PROCESS COSTS
A detailed specification of costs by process from ore and coal through coke ovens, blast furnaces and finishing mills for all products for key producers, i.e., hot rolled, cold rolled, HDG, EGL, tinplate and plate. Identifies input prices, input usage, labor productivity, yields, costs at each production stage, energy needs, raw material needs, scrap/DRI, iron ore, coal, PCI, shipments and revenues by product.

NORTH AMERICAN STEEL: CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS OF CAPABILITY AND PERFORMANCE
For over 30 major flat-product plants in North America, including all new mini flat mills, this study shows in diagrammatic flow chart form facility capacities, raw material requirements, manhour and cost flows, and shipments by product for all major producers. It provides the status of existing and new facilities and outlines the technical specifications.

$20,000

NORTH AMERICAN PRODUCER FACILITY RATINGS
An assessment of the technical characteristics and capacities of all major steel producer facilities. Each mill is rated based on its age and condition, performance and market acceptability of product. Includes capacity technical performance and operating parameters..

$7,000

GLOBAL STEEL MILL PRODUCT MATRIX FORECAST
Production, Import, Export and Apparent Consumption. Where? What? How Much? WSD has created this study to answer these questions and to provide special insights into the possible evolution of the steel industry in the years ahead. Herein, we forecast semi and finished steel product markets for 81 countries and regions annually to 2015. Product coverage includes: Flat-rolled products, including hot-rolled sheet, cold-rolled sheet, tinplate, galvanized sheet and other coated; long products, including structurals, wire rod, rebar and bar; and other products, including rail and pipe/tube.

$5,000