At least one major steelmaker is making preparations based on rampant chatter in the US market that ThyssenKrupp is poised to sell its Alabama rolling mill (possibly including its Brazilian slab operations) to a triad of ArcelorMittal, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metals (NSSMC) and US Steel.
The talk is widespread enough that a rival producer has drafted -- but not yet distributed -- an internal memo for its sales team, dated Tuesday, in which it says all contract negotiations and price offers will be temporarily suspended.
"Recent competitive announcements will undoubtedly have an impact on supply and marketplace dynamics both immediately and in the months to come. Because of the significance of these changes, we are temporarily suspending all contract negotiations and price offers," reads the draft announcement, obtained Tuesday morning by Platts.
"We've been hearing since Friday that the deal is done," a high-level source at the producer said, emphasizing the internal memo has only been readied and not circulated.
Sources at ThyssenKrupp and ArcelorMittal did not deny Platts' queries about the matter. ArcelorMittal's official position (from London) was "no comment," as was US Steel's. NSSMC could not be reached immediately.
One US analyst told Platts about hearing similar market chatter and saw NSSMC as "the pockets" for any such deal.
Brazil's CSN -- widely acknowledged to be in the process of buying TK Alabama -- had no official comment Tuesday. A CSN source said, however, that his company "was still in the battle for Alabama." A customer of CSN's existing US-based rolling mill was told the CSN-TK talks had gone "very quiet" when he inquired about them late last week.
