NEWS

Fastener World News

Association News

Alacero: CBAM May Raise
Steel Trade Tensions
and Prices in Inevitable
Greening Process

CBAM risks heightening tensions in steel trade with Latin America, Alejandro
Wagner, executive director of Latin American Steelmakers’ Association (Alacero), saidin an interview with S&P Global Commodity Insights. CBAM could further encourage
steel imports into Latin America due to trade diversion from other regions impacted by
the new environmental barrier, in particular China, Wagner said. The Asian giant has
already boosted steel exports to Latin America this year. Steel prices may also rise in someregions, particularly in the EU, as markets become more protected and the costs related todecarbonization and CBAM-related bureaucracies grow. Adaption to CBAM rules may be
a challenge, according to Wagner, even though Alacero and worldsteel data shows Latin
America’s high percentage of renewable energy in its electricity matrix means its overall
carbon emissions in steel are lower than the world average. In Latin America, each metricton of steel produced emits an average of 1.6 tons of CO2, while the world average is 1.9
mt. Mills in some parts of Latin America could find new export opportunities in Mexicoand the US. Mexico’s steel production and demand are growing due to nearshoring projects
being undertaken with the US, where steel markets are more competitive, Wagner said.

Industry Development
UK Initiates Sunset Review
Investigation on Imported
Steel Products

On September 4, 2023, UK Trade
Remedies Authority issued a notice toinitiate a sunset review investigation on
certain imported steel products, including
non-alloy and other alloy wire rods. On
October 1, 2020, upon the application of
the UK Secretary of State for International
Trade, the UK initiated a transitional safeguard investigation on imported steel products,
and on May 21, 2021, the Trade Remedies Investigation Directorate (TRID) of the UK
Department for International Trade (DIT) made a final safeguard ruling on the imported
steel products.

Carbon Tax Rates in 26 Countries as of March 2023
Looking at the carbon tax rates of 26 countries, the tax can be broken into 3
pricing ranges: over US$100 per ton, US$10 to US$100 per ton, and under US$10 per
ton. Uruguay has the highest rate at over US$155, followed by Liechtenstein at about
US$130 and Sweden at about US$125. European countries (including Switzerland, France,
and Spain) and the UK have rates that largely fall between US$10 and US$100 per ton.
Emerging countries like South Africa, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Argentina, as well as
Singapore in Southeast Asia and Japan in Asia, have rates under $10. Ukraine and Poland
have the lowest rates at under US$1.

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Turkey Could be One of theCountries Most Hit by CBAM
Hurriyet Daily News reported that
An ka ra Chamber of Industr y (ASO)
Chairman Seyit said that Turkey willprobably be one of the countries most
hit by CBAM. The chairman said that
Turkey cannot afford to miss this green
transformation and the delay will be costly.
The Cha ir man sa id that f rom an
economic point of view, the carbon tax
is expected to cost Turkey more than 60
billion dollars by 2040. He said Turkey’s
non-participation in the India-Middle EastEurope Corridor (IMEC) program was aloss and emphasized that Turkey had notbenefited enough from China’s Belt andRoad Initiative (BRI). Easier and cheaper
access to the Middle East and European
ma rkets by I nd ia a nd Ch i na mea ns
increased competition for Turkey in thenear future.

Germany’s Supporting
Measures Not Ready While
CBAM is in Pilot Phase
Handelsblatt reported on September 28
that there is still no consensus within theGerman government as to whether CBAM
should be administered by the German
Customs Ser vice (under the Federal
Minist r y of Fina nce) or t he Ca rbon
Emissions Trading Authority (under theFederal Ministry of Economics). Volker
Treier, head of foreign trade at the German
Chamber of Industry and Commerce,
said that affected companies are stilltrying to understand the complicatedrules and to inform foreign exporters of
the information they should submit. The
situation is confusing because companies
have no solutions for their questions. In

Fastener World News
addition, Dirk Jandura, president of BGA, pointed out that importers have to rely on
foreign manufacturers to provide information on the carbon footprint of their products,
but the information may not be easy to obtain, and even if it is obtained, there is a lackof experts in the field to certify, and there are loopholes in the reliability and validity of
the information. On the other hand, although European manufacturers participating in
the international market have already received free emission certificates, the number ofcertificates is not enough to eliminate the cost of CO2 emissions in the entire production
process due to the nature of the policy and can only partially reduce such cost. In the
future, when CBAM fully replaces the free quota, manufacturers will have to bear thefull cost of carbon emissions, which will reduce their international competitiveness. The
question of how to compensate companies in order to maintain international competitiveness is still under discussion. The EU plans to ensure
the export competitiveness of European companies through international collaboratin and a comprehensive multilateral climate agreement.
To this end, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promoted the establishment of a “Climate Club” at the G7 summit in the hope of reaching aunified price agreement for carbon dioxide, but it is still far from being achieved. Carsten Rolle of BDI criticized that the implementation of
CBAM is imminent, but the EU’s complementary measures to protect companies’ exports are still far from being realized.

India Rolls out Mandatory
Quality Norms for Nuts, Bolts,
and Fasteners
The Indian government has implemented
mandatory quality norms for nuts, bolts andfasteners to curb the import of sub-standard
goods and boost domestic manufacturing ofthese products. Items cannot be produced,
sold, traded, imported and stocked unless they
bear the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
mark. A notification in this regard was issued
by the Department for Promotion of Industry
and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on July 21.
Now, manufacturing, storing and saleof non-BIS certified products are prohibitedas per t he BIS Act, 2016. Violation of
the provision of the BIS Act can attract
imprisonment of up to two years or a fine ofat least Rs 2 lakh for the first offence. In caseof second and subsequent offences, the fine
will increase to a minimum of Rs 5 lakh andextend up to 10 times the value of goods orarticles.

Indian Steel Tycoon Advises
the Government to Impose
Import Tariffs
To counter U.S. tariffs and European
carbon taxes, Indian billionaire industrialist
and steel tycoon Sajjan Jindal is hoping
for the government to impose similar taxes

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Fastener World no.203/2023 惠達雜誌Fastener World Newsto level the playing field for Indian companies. “Each region is considering their own protective measures. The U.S. has an import tariff onsteel. Europe has the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The European Union is subsidizing or supporting their own industry
by providing a lot of money, while companies in other regions are not getting this subsidy support. I hope India will also put up non-tariffbarriers or steel import barriers,” Sajjan said in an interview.

Companies Development

Taiwan CSC Successfully Develops 3rd-Generation Advanced
High Strength Automotive Steel
Under the global trend of energy saving and carbon reduction, major automobile manufacturers
are delving into vehicle lightweighting to reduce carbon emissions and increase the endurance ofelectric vehicles. In response to this trend, Taiwan CSC has successfully developed 980TT, a 3rdgeneration advanced high-strength automotive steel with a tensile strength higher than 980MPa.
980TT surpasses the grade of steel used in nuclear submarines, and has an elongation rate of more than 20%, with a ductility 1.3 times that of
the same grade of conventional steel, which effectively solves the problem of difficulty in processing high-strength automotive steels.
Taiwan CSC invested in automotive steels 20 years ago, starting from the conventional 270MPa grade steel, and gradually moving towards
higher strengths. While the strength of steel and needs to meet the demand for lightweighting increase, the ductility of steel decreases.
For example, the 980MPa duplex steel developed by Taiwan CSC in the past could not meet the demand for cold working formability,
and therefore the application to car bodies was limited. To solve the contradiction between the strength and cold working formability of
automotive steels, Taiwan CSC has successfully mass-produced 980TT which combines ultra-high strength and excellent formability. With
the same strength as 980MPa duplex steel, the machinability and formability of 980TT is increased by more than 1.3 times, which can meetthe stringent cold-stamping and pressing requirements of automotive structural components. 980TT not only helps lighten bodies of cars andreduce carbon emissions, but also enhances Taiwan CSC’s ability of supplying automotive steels, which will help the domestic automotive
parts industry increase competitiveness.

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Chun Yu Could Be Seeing Mild Revenue Recovery
in Early 2024
Chun Yu held a conference on September 20, where General Manager
Zhou said this year is when Taiwan fastener industry encounters such a
prolonged downturn for the first time. He said that Chun Yu’s business may
encounter a recession, but that’s as worst as it can get. Next year will turn out better than this year. Customers’ stockpile is going down, so
there is a chance of minor recovery for Chun Yu next year. The European and U.S. market demand dropped, and in the first 7 months of 2023,
Taiwan’s fastener export weight declined. However, in early August there appeared a slight growth. The market next year will not be worse
than 2023.
In H1 2023, Chun Yu’s revenue declined mainly due to the poor market demand, but recently the revenue and incoming orders have begun
to stabilize. Indonesia is less affected by the recession, and with the continuous launch of local infrastructure projects, the outlook for thesecond half of the year is expected to be promising. Chun Yu’s Indonesian plant has been always a strong financial momentum for Chun Yu’s
overseas investment. Zhou pointed out that Indonesia will become a market of greater opportunities for Chun Yu. The Indonesia plant will
receive new investments backed by related expenditure in the future.

Chin Well Holdings Reports Earnings Results for Q4
and Full Year Ended June 30, 20233
For the fourth quarter, the company reported sales were MYR 95.61 million
compared to MYR 196.87 million a year ago. Net income was MYR 5.08 million
compared to MYR 27.61 million a year ago. Basic earnings per share fromcontinuing operations was MYR 0.0177 compared to MYR 0.0964 a year ago.
For the full year, sales was MYR 456.45 million compared to MYR
657.84 million a year ago. Net income were MYR 39.46 million compared to MYR 95.99 million a year ago. Basic earnings per share fromcontinuing operations was MYR 0.1378 compared to MYR 0.335 a year ago.

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Fastener World no.203/2023 惠達雜誌Fastener World NewsJSW Readies for CBAM Era with 4 Mt
Green Steel Unit
JSW Steel Ltd, India’s second-largest maker of thealloy, plans to establish a green steel manufacturing facility
by 2030 as part of its response to the EU’s Carbon Border
Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), said Jayant Acharya,
joint managing director and chief executive. “We arelooking to set up a lower carbon-emitting facility for steel
in the western part of India, subject to board approval.
With this, we will be able to provide low-carbon steel forboth the international and domestic markets,” Acharya saidin an interview.
“It will have a capacity of 4 million tonnes (mt), andthe plant is to start production by 2030. We are trying tocomplete it in two parts. We will do phase I (up to 2 mt)
just before 2030, and the remaining construction will begoing on and may spill over by one or two years.” JSW’s
investment for the facility will be in addition to the ₹10,000
crore the company had announced for its green energy
transition plans, Acharya added.
As part of its expansion plan, the firm plans to increase capacity from the current 28 mt to 50 mt by 2050. The (proposed) green steel unit
will be separate from the ₹10,000 crore electric arc furnace plant based on direct reduced iron (DRI) technology. The company is also in theprocess of adding 8.5 mt within two years to reach a capacity of 37 mt, Acharya said.

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TriMas Announces New President of Its TriMas
Aerospace Group
TriMas announced the appointment of Vitaliy Rusakov as President of
TriMas Aerospace, effective November 13, 2023. He will report directly to
TriMas President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Amato.
Rusakov is a proven aerospace industry veteran, with more than 25 yearsof experience leading global manufacturing businesses in the aerospace, commercial transportation and related sectors. In his most recent
role, Rusakov worked at Howmet Aerospace, formerly a division of Arconic and Alcoa, where he served as President of Howmet’s Fastening
Systems business. Prior to this role, he held the position of Chief Operating Officer, Engineered Products and Solutions Group at Arconic,
where he was responsible for managing the global operations of fasteners, forgings, extrusions and other components, for both aerospace andcommercial customers worldwide. Rusakov also held multiple operational and leadership roles of increasing responsibility during his tenure
at Alcoa, focused on operational excellence and Lean manufacturing. His career in the fasteners industry began when he joined Fairchild
Fasteners’ cont inuous improvement
organization, and earlier in his career,
Rusakov held consulting roles with Bain &Company.
“I am very pleased to welcome Vitaliy
Rusakov to the TriMas leadership team, as
our new President of TriMas Aerospace,”
said Amato. “He has incredible experienceand a remarkable track record of fostering
growt h a nd en ha ncing per for ma nce
within the aerospace industry. We believe
his background will be instrumental
in propelling t he growt h of Tr iMas
Aerospace.”

Albolt Manufacturing
Relocates to Rockford 14
Albolt Manufacturing, a producerof specialty fasteners, announced that it
has relocated operations from Addison,
Illinois, to Rockford. Albolt is now locatedat 5055 26th Ave. in southeast Rockford.
“The new location provides a larger,
more efficiently designed facility,” Albolt
General Manager Jeremy Rubens said in
a news release. “With a larger footprint
and more efficiently designed floorplan,
Albolt now has greater capacity to produce
the unique specialty fasteners that ourcustomers need, more quickly.”Some of the products Albolt produces
are specialty hex bolts, sockets, studs, nuts
and pins. Albolt has been around that long.
The company was founded just last year asa way to meet the increasing demand forhigh-quality specialty fasteners for use in
specific industries.

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Fastener World no.203/2023 惠達雜誌Fastener World News
Patriot Bolt and Fastener
Makes the Inc. 5000, at No.
1716 in 2023
2023 - Inc. revealed that Patriot Bolt andFastener ranks No. 1716 on the 2023 Inc. 5000,
its annual list of the fastest-growing privatecompanies in America. 2023 Inc. 5000 are
ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2019 to 2022. The prestigious
ranking provides a data-driven look at the most successful companies within theeconomy’s most dynamic segment — its independent, entrepreneurial businesses. “Weowe our success to the amazing efforts of our team. Their dedication to excellence,
innovation, and working together has brought us to new levels and made us a leading
company in the industry,” said Kris Kolb, Founder and CEO of Patriot Bolt andFastener. The Inc. 5000 class of 2023 represents companies that have driven rapid
revenue growth while navigating inflationary pressure, the rising costs of capital, andseemingly intractable hiring challenges. Among this year’s top 500 companies, theaverage median three-year revenue growth rate was an astonishing 2,238 percent. This
year’s Inc. 5000 companies have added 1,187,266 jobs to the economy over the past
three years.

Japanese Yamahiro
Completes theIntroduction ofAutomated Inventory
Ya m a h i r o ’s a u t o m a t e dwarehouse, which it began building
last year, was completed at the endof July. The warehouse is currently
in trial operation, but the company
is working to improve efficiency. In addition to the automated warehouse, the company
also introduced new color painting equipment that can be used to paint screws. The
warehouse incorporates TOYOTA L&F Rack Sorter B technology and has a capacityof 9,568 buckets. It responds quickly to customers’ shipping needs and sorts products
ten times better than conventional systems while reducing the need for labor. Receiving
and shipping are managed automatically, which reduces labor time and errors, thereby
greatly increasing efficiency.

Intelivation Technologies Expands into New Markets
After Success of Golden
Isles Pedicle Screw
System™
Intelivation Technologies, a medical
device company with a cutting-edge orthopedic and spine portfolio announced that
it is expanding into new markets with its Golden Isles Pedicle Screw System™. The
comprehensive system features multiple options for surgical preferences. President Amit
Sinha remarked, “Golden Isles Pedicle Screw System™ has been a tremendous successfor Intelivation. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, not only from its easeof use due to its simplified instrumentation and modularity but most importantly, theclinical results and feedback have been equally convincing.” Dr. Raymond Topp, of Topp
Spine and Orthopedics added, “I have been using both the open and minimally invasive
screws in my practice since the launch. I have seen great results with respect to fusion
as evidenced on radiographs. The Golden Isles Pedicle Screw System™ modular design
enables me to make on-the-spot intraoperative decisions to most efficiently addresspatients’ clinical needs more than any system I have previously used.” After the early
success in the beta launch, Intelivation plans to expand to new geographical markets.

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Acquisitions

Shrieve Chemical
Acquires Gilbert &Jones
Shrieve Chemical Company(“Shrieve”), a portfolio companyof Gemspring Capital and aleading, value-added chemicals distributor, announced that it
has acquired Gilbert & Jones (“G&J”), a premiere distributorof industrial chemicals throughout North America. Basedin New Britain, Connecticut, Gilbert & Jones delivers a broad
product offering to customers across a range of industries andapplications, including aerospace, water treatment, fasteners,
automotive, electronics, and other industries.
“The Gilbert & Jones acquisition aligns perfectly with our
long-term growth strategy and allows us to further diversify
our product offerings and expand our reach into new markets.
Together, we will capitalize on our collective strengths andcapabilities to provide unparalleled service and solutions to ourcustomers. We are excited to welcome the Gilbert & Jones teamto the Shrieve family and are looking forward to our combined
success,” commented George Fuller, CEO of Shrieve.
Gilbert & Jones Founder and CEO, George Gilbert, added,“Joining forces with Shrieve represents an exciting chapter for
Gilbert & Jones. We have always been dedicated to deliveringhigh quality products and services to our customers. With
the support and resources of Shrieve, the existing G&J teamis confident that we can take our long history of exceptional
service and innovation to the next level.”

MPE Partners Announces Investment in
Mid-States Bolt & Screw Co.
MPE Partners announced Oct. 19, 2023 an investment
in Mid-States Bolt & Screw Co., a value-added distributor of
fasteners and MRO products serving a diverse range of end
markets. MPE’s investment positions Mid-States for accelerated
growth while supporting the Company as an industry leader, an
employer of choice, and a strategic partner for its customers.
MPE partnered in the transaction with the Somers family,
who founded Mid-States more than 50 years ago. Scott Somers,
President of Mid-States, said, “On behalf of my family, we are
excited to partner with MPE. Since my father’s founding of thebusiness over 50 years ago, Mid-States has continued to drive
success through our dedication to excellent customer service.
We are excited to work with the MPE team to maintain thistradition while pursuing the Company’s next phase of growth.”惠達雜誌 Fastener World no.203/2023

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Graham Schena, Partner at MPE, said, “We are looking
forward to partnering with the Somers family and the restof the Mid-States team to accelerate the Company’s growththrough continued customer service and product availability,
as well as organic and inorganic geographic expansion.” Nick
Stender, Principal at MPE, added, “The Somers family has built
Mid-States into a world-class distributor over the past several
decades. We look forward to helping Mid-States accelerate
its growth while maintaining the culture and tradition of
excellence that has made the Company so successful to date.”

OneMonroe Acquires Electronic Fasteners
Monroe Engineering has recently completed the acquisitionof Electronic Fasteners, Inc. (EFI), a wholesale stocking
distributor. From now on, Electronic Fasteners will be known
as Monroe EFI. According to a press statement, the combined
strength of the two companies is expected to lead to better
customer service, expanded product offerings, and deeper
supplier partnerships.
OneMonroe is an ISO 9001:2015 certified global industrial
manufacturing company, offering a broad product line andhas a diverse customer base of manufacturers and distributors
across several vertical markets.
This means the Electronic Fastener team — now Monroe
EFI — has expanded access to thousands of additional vendors
and products through the nationwide OneMonroe network. The
companies will operate much as before, but with the additional
advantage of shared knowledge and products to serve themarket better.
compiled by Fastener World

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