Steel products maker said 53 workers will be out of work by the end of November, blaming a slowdown in construction and highway projects during the winter for the job cuts.

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. said Thursday it will temporarily idle production at its two smelters in Italy, affecting about 2,000 workers.

Steelmaker says its cold rolling mill in Yorkville, Ohio, is resuming operations in mid-December, citing increasing demand for cold rolled and coated steel products.

Crude steel output in October declined 12.9 percent from a year earlier to 8.8 million tons, slipping below the year-before level for the 13th straight month.

Steel producer said the stainless steel price hikes will depend on the grade and form of the products.

European steelmakers want EU antitrust regulators to block a joint venture between BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto PLC that they claimed could hike prices for iron ore.

Germany's biggest steel maker says it will report a pretax loss of $3.6 billion for the 2008-2009 fiscal year as the global downturn severely affected demand.

Daniel Bealko admitted he took $6.5 million in kickbacks in the sale of hundreds of millions of pounds of aluminum worth an estimated $1 billion.

Steelmaker is getting a $32 million federal grant to install equipment at its northern Indiana steel mill that will generate power from a blast furnace's waste gas.

Beijing criticized Washington for imposing anti-dumping duties on Chinese-made steel pipes and added to trade tensions by launching a probe of imported U.S. autos.