Steel Market Update has adjusted our SMU Price Momentum Indicator to "Lower" from "Neutral". Our expectation is flat rolled steel prices (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume) will move lower over the next 30-60 days Read more ...

One of the most difficult challenges Steel Market Update has is with our Price Momentum Indicator. There has to be a balance between keeping buyers appraised of changes in the market dynamic without becoming a Read more ...

Employment did better than expected as the unemployment rate dropped from 8.5% in December to 8.3% in January as construction employment rose by 21,000 jobs. Read more ...

New orders for manufactured goods in December were up 1.1% to $466.2 billion for the second month in a row. Shipments continued increasing for the seventh month, up Read more ...

Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel in North America remain positive about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market environment. The latest SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index is +43 down 6 points from the +49 reported during the middle of January 2012. Read more ...

The CME Group sent me an email advising SMU that the group had set a record volume for hot rolled steel coil futures (HRC) during the month of January with 6,214 contracts (20 tons per contract = 124,280 short tons). The previous record was set in November 2011 with 5,205 contracts (104,100 short tons) Read more ...

Steel Market Update has been in the process of collecting data from flat rolled steel buyers and sellers over the past few days. This is the first of two steel market surveys we conduct during the month of February Read more ...

US Steel Mills Running at 90% Capacity – Hamilton Furnace Will Not Restart

John Surma Says No Need to Restart Hamilton Until Economy Gets Better

During the U.S. Steel earnings conference call with analysts held earlier this week, CEO John Surma in response to a question Read more ...

Production and new orders increased for Canada in January, according to the Royal Bank of Canada’s manufacturing index. This survey is an indicator of manufacturing conditions with any score over 50.0 indicating expansion. Read more ...

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. has announced its subsidiary Diamond Manufacturing Company has acquired McKey Perforating Co., Inc. McKey, with 2011 net sales Read more ...

Construction employment is up for December 2011, increasing in 148 out of 337 metro areas from December 2010. However, employment decreased in 128 and stayed level in 61 areas. Read more ...

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in January for the 30th consecutive month growing at a faster rate, Read more ...

Steel Market Update published our latest newsletter about the flat rolled steel industry last night. Tuesday evening issues are important to our readers as they contain our flat rolled price ranges and indexes on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. Read more ...

The Consumer Confidence Index declined in January to 61.1, down 3.7 points from December. Current and future indexes for consumer confidence Read more ...

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, posted declines of 1.3`% for both the 10- and 20-City Composites in November over October. Annually, both composite indexes were down as well. Read more ...

The Chicago Purchasing Managers reported the Chicago Business Barometer softened for January even as the index expanded for the 28th month. Read more ...

United States Steel Corporation reported fourth quarter 2011 earnings with a net loss of $226 million compared to a previous positive quarter. However, the quarter was Read more ...

ABB and Thomas & Betts Corporation have announced that ABB will acquire Thomas & Betts for $72 per share, approximately $3.9 billion. This price is a 24% premium compared to Thomas & Betts’ closing stock price on Jan. 27, 2012. Read more ...

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) announced a plan for the sale of U. S. Steel Serbia d.o.o. to the Republic of Serbia for a nominal purchase price, subject to finalization and execution of definitive agreements Read more ...

Those involved in the flat rolled steel market know steel prices are often affected by scrap prices, both domestic and the export markets. In last night’s newsletter, SMU writes about scrap prices in North America and what we expect to occur as we move into early February. SMU has a constant dialogue with dealers and others associated with the industry from around the country as we gauge current scrap prices as well as what is anticipated in the coming months Read more ...

Flat rolled steel buyers around the country are viewing the Hot Rolled Futures market and the Forward Curve with much more than a passing interest these days. As a service to the industry, Steel Market Update in conjunction with Andre Marshall (CEO of Crunch Risk) and Joseph Reinmann (CEO of Kataman Metals) produce a weekly review of the HR Futures, Billet, Scrap and other financial derivatives markets Read more ...

Written by Andre Marshall CEO Crunch Risk, LLC

Financial Markets:

The big news in the financial markets occurred yesterday when the Fed stated that they foresaw an extended period of slow economy and therefore low interest rates Read more ...

Nucor Corporation announced better than expected financial earnings for fourth quarter 2011. The company reported net earnings of $137.1 million Read more ...

New home sales for December were 2.2% below the previous month at an annualized pace of 307,000.

This pace is 7.3% below the Read more ...

There seems to be positive news for the unemployed as U.S. initial jobless claims for the latest week, ending January 14, were the lowest number since fall 2008. Read more ...

Steel Market Update spoke with Steve Rutherford, Project Director of Essar Steel Minnesota, regarding the status of the Essar Steel Minnesota project.

In the latest Steel Market Update newsletter sent out to all our members and free trials Tuesday night, we discussed the mixed messages being sent regarding market strength and pricing in the North American flat rolled steel market. Read more ...

Steel Dynamics, Inc. announced a positive fourth quarter 2011 with financial results that were considerably better than the prior year’s fourth quarter. Read more ...

On Tuesday, Steel Market Update adjusted our SMU Price Momentum Indicator to “Neutral” from Higher. The change to Neutral means flat rolled steel buyers need to watch the flat rolled steel market closely for signals of a change in the pricing cycle. Since early November 2011 flat rolled steel prices – which includes hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels – have been rising Read more ...

AK Steel reported its fourth quarter 2011 results, with a net loss of $193.9 million compared to a net loss of $98.3 million 4Q10. Read more ...

Steel Market Update has learned the 100,000 square foot warehouse facility operated by pipe & tube distributor Marmon Keystone was “totaled” due to a severe storm which struck the Birmingham, Alabama area on Monday morning. Read more ...

The question on everyone’s mind is now that RG Steel has restarted the “L” blast furnace at Sparrows Point can the plant ultimately succeed or, did the shutdown of the hot end of the mill do irreparable damage to the company’s customer base?

Last week’s SMU Steel Market Survey was one of the key ingredients in the most recent issue of the Steel Market Update newsletter published earlier today. One of the areas of primary importance to those involved in the flat rolled steel industry is the subject of steel pricing and trends which are associated with flat rolled steel pricing Read more ...

Written by: Andre Marshall, CEO Crunch Risk, LLC

The CME has decided to list options on Hot Rolled Coil Futures. What does this mean for you. Well, Options (Calls and Puts) will provide you the opportunity to put on protections in the markets at certain levels in exchange for Read more ...

In Steel Market Update’s latest issue, we gave SMU members the update on the flat rolled steel market in North America. It’s been a busy first of the year with a lot going on in the steel industry. SMU reported on the various steel mills changing their prices, analyzing whether the other mills will follow suit or keep at their current pricing position. Read more ...

Written by: Joseph Reinmann, CEO Kataman Metals

In last week’s issue of Steel Market Update, we informed SMU members that Hot Rolled Coil (HRC) futures prices on the CME were on the verge of topping out and reversing course. And that is exactly what happened this week.

HRC prices on the CME fell by an average Read more ...

Both Current & Future Sentiment at Record Highs

Buyers and Sellers of flat rolled steel continue to remain optimistic about both the short-term and longer-term future of the steel industry and their company’s ability to be successful both now and in the future. According to the results of our latest Steel Survey the Steel Market Update Steel Buyers Sentiment Index was measured at +49 setting a new record high for our Index.
Read more ...

SMU Sources Advise Bloomberg Report is “Only Speculation”

In a Bloomberg news report published earlier today (Thursday), speculation is flying in Europe and Brazil over the potential that ThyssenKrupp AG, the parent company of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and ThyssenKrupp Americas (which includes USA and Brazil), may sell their Brazil and USA plants Read more ...

Steel Market Update will publish our newsletter later this evening for those who are registered members and our free trial members. The flat rolled steel market has been quite active over the past few days and Steel Market Update has been speaking directly with buyers and sellers of steel and we are conducting one of our bi-monthly Steel Market Surveys this week as well. Read more ...

According to the January Business Outlook Survey, regional manufacturing activity expanded as all the broad indicators remained positive. Read more ...

New residential construction had some pitfalls in December as housing starts dropped 4.1% from November’s surprisingly strong 9.1% increase. Read more ...

According to the Conference Board in Canada’s most recent survey, the Index of Consumer Confidence fell 6.5% in December. For December, Read more ...

Steel maker RG Steel acknowledged late today their relationship with Cerberus Capital Management which is providing liquidity (cash) so that the company can restart the Sparrows Point blast furnace and to "execute its business strategy Read more ...

For those who are interested in hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steel prices – our last edition of the Steel Market Update newsletter did an analysis of the flat rolled steel prices. Steel Market Update covers not only flat rolled steel price indexes but we are the only publication which produces the range of pricing (high to low) being transacted in the market on a weekly basis Read more ...

RG Steel finally came out with a press release on the status of the "L" furnace at their Sparrows Point facility. The "L" furnace, also called "The Beast of the East" was idled by RG Steel two days before Christmas Read more ...

The January Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that manufacturing activity expanded in the New York FED region since the last survey. The general business conditions index was up 5 points to Read more ...

Yesterday [Jan. 15, 2012], around noon a fire occurred at Mon Valley Works’ Irvin Plant in the facility’s 84-inch Pickle Line [where flat-rolled – or sheet – steel goes through an acid treatment to prepare the surface for further finishing applications]. All individuals in the area were safely evacuated and accounted for and no injuries were reported. The fire was extinguished at approximately 2:30 p.m. by U. S. Steel personnel, including its own hazmat team, with assistance from the West Mifflin Fire Department Read more ...

Steel Market Update publishes a newsletter about the flat rolled steel industry which is sent to our members (and trial members) three times per week. Our latest newsletter was published earlier this morning and contained information about the restart of the “L” furnace at RG Steel Sparrows Point as well as the following articles Read more ...

In last night’s Steel Market Update newsletter, we had predicted a price increase announcement out of the domestic steel mills was imminent and could come out of one of the mills as early as this morning.

In a letter to their customers dated, January 13, 2012 Severstal announced a flat rolled price increase Read more ...

The Baltimore Brew reported this morning 250 workers associated with the steel making side of the RG Steel Sparrows Point plant have been asked to report to work. At the same time, Steel Market Update learned this morning that scrap which had been purchased by Sparrows Point prior to the idling of the “L” blast furnace has been released for shipment to Sparrows Point starting on Tuesday of next week Read more ...