This Morning in Metals: Raiders’ Las Vegas Stadium Project Faces Steel Delivery Delays

Steel Deliveries Delayed at Raiders’ Las Vegas Stadium

The National Football League’s Oakland Raiders are scheduled to make the move to Las Vegas in 2020, when the franchise’s new stadium is scheduled to open.
However, completion of the stadium project — for which taxpayers are contributing $750 million — is expected to be pushed back due to recent delays in deliveries of steel components, the Associated Press reported.

Indonesia, China Take Aim at Each Other’s Steel

Sticking with steel, Reuters reported Indonesia and China have slapped anti-dumping duties on each other’s steel products.
According to the report, Indonesia opted to extend an existing 20% duty on flat-rolled steel products, which targeted imports from China and six other countries.

Ford Announces Battery Electric, Autonomous Vehicle Moves

Automakers around the world are preparing for an increasingly electrified and/or autonomous vehicle market.
In that vein, Ford Motor Co. recently announced moves related to those two next-generation vehicle segments.
Ford announced it is expanding its electric vehicle production to a second plant, its Flat Rock Assembly plant in southeast Michigan.
“We’ve taken a fresh look at the growth rates of electrified vehicles and know we need to protect additional production capacity given our accelerated plans for fully electric vehicles,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, in a company release. “This is good news for the future of southeast Michigan, delivering more good-paying manufacturing jobs.”
In addition, Ford said it will begin production of the automaker’s first autonomous vehicles at a new production center in southeast Michigan.
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“As we ramp up AV production, this plan allows us to adjust our investment spending to accommodate the pace of growth of this exciting new technology,” Hinrichs said in the prepared statement. “This new plan combines our core strength in mass manufacturing with the agility and leanness we’ve shown with our modification centers for specialty manufacturing.”