ArcelorMittal USA advised their customers that they were raising flat rolled steel prices earlier today Read more ...

United States Steel Corporation (USS) sent a copy of an internal memorandum to their customers informing them of their intention to raise prices by a “minimum” of $50 per ton. The pricing was to be take effect “immediately” and no specific reasons for the increase were transmitted to the customers Read more ...

Colorado Springs, CO –The Board of Directors of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has elected Michael T. Rehwinkel, President and CEO of EVRAZ North America, to serve as Chairman of the Institute until May of 2014 Read more ...

We have a little more than three weeks before our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals workshop. We still have a number of seats left so now is a good time to pull at the boss’s sleeves and plead your case: I want to know more, I want to become a better employee and I want to grow in this business. I want to attend Steel Market Update’s Steel 101 workshop Read more ...

When reviewing our flat rolled price assessments it is important to note that our opinion is the range is more important than the average. Our index is nothing more than the average of our high and low. Our SMU Price Momentum Indicator which is currently at “Lower” provides the trend we see in our price evaluations. This past week our range on base thickness hot rolled coil was Read more ...

One week ago today (Sunday) U.S. Steel Canada locked out the union workers associated with USW Local 8782 which represents the Lake Erie Works facility in Canada. Late last week U.S. Steel Canada spokesperson Trevor Harris provided a letter to two Canadian news organizations which were published. Steel Market Update published a blog post on Friday regarding the issues raised by USS Canada. Today we are publishing the union response Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) has been conducting discussions in various LinkedIn groups (ours is called Steel Market Update) regarding the practice of selling contracts to an index and the repudiation of the CRU-minus contract deals by ArcelorMittal, Nucor and Severstal who have vowed not to discount off CRU in future contract negotiations Read more ...

The Lake Erie Works union workers were locked out of their jobs by U.S. Steel management at 9 AM Sunday morning. This is the second time USS has locked out USW Local 8782 since the company bought the former Stelco facilities in 2007. They have also locked out Lake Erie sister plant, Hamilton Works when its contract expired in 2010 Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) has a LinkedIn steel group (also named Steel Market Update) and one of our members left the following comment to our ongoing discussion about the contract negotiations at US Steel Lake Erie Works and the potential for a steel strike at the flat rolled steel producing mill located in Canada Read more ...

The international headquarters of the United Steelworkers has ordered Lake Erie steelworkers in Local 8782 to vote on the final contract offered by U.S. Steel. The mandate came after the local union voted 796-4 not to put the company’s final offer to vote, opting for a strike instead Read more ...

The United Steelworkers Union Local 8782 which represents the workers at the United States Steel (USS) Lake Erie Works steel mill in Canada, has voted to give their 72-hour notice of a potential strike. Below is the text of a notice posted on the union website dated today Read more ...

Severstal NA has announced effective base prices on new spot flat rolled steel orders as of April 22, 2013. The base prices announced, if collected, would result in price increases of approximately $40-$50 per ton above our most recent price indices (the average of the SMU price range) Read more ...

United Steelworkers Local 8782 which represents the workers at Lake Erie Works has been unable to reach an agreement on a new contract with U.S. Steel. Their contract expired at 12:01 AM this morning (Tuesday, April 16th). However, the two parties have a “protocol” in place whereby either side must provide a 72-hour notice if they intent to strike or lockout the union. The union has told their workers that the 72-hour protocol has not yet been started by either side Read more ...

Steel service center, Metals USA, will become part of Reliance Steel & Aluminum at the close of business today (Friday, April 12, 2013). Metals USA has three primary sales groups - flat rolled, plate & structural (long products) and fabricated construction products Read more ...

CHICAGO, IL — At its recent board meeting in Palm Desert, Calif., the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) recently approved Marc Saracco as its incoming executive director. Saracco, who has more than seven years of association management experience across various industries, will succeed Ron Pietrzak, who has served in this role for the past 21 years Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) received an email this morning from a flat rolled steel service center with the comment that next Monday would be a good day for the domestic steel flat rolled steel mills to raise prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels. Earlier this week, another steel distributor wrote Steel Market Update about the subject of steel price increases and how they are being received by the market Read more ...

I remember back to August 2008 when I first started selling memberships to the Steel Market Update newsletter – one of my good steel customers from my Winner Steel and trading company days wondered out loud when he told me he didn’t know what I would be writing about in 30 days (in other words he thought I would run out of things to write about). It has been almost a full five years since SMU has been existence and we still have plenty to write about.

More importantly to both me and our readers is we have expanded the company so we have more people to research, write, educate and market our products. Back in 2008 the company was 100 percent written by myself. As you look at Steel Market Update now you will notice that is no longer the case Read more ...

Our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals workshop will be held in Canada in early June. We have just received confirmation from ArcelorMittal Dofasco that our group is welcome to tour their fully integrated steel mill. Our workshop will be headquartered at a local Hamilton, Ontario, Canada hotel. We will advise the exact dates in early June for the two day workshop once the mill has advised us of their maintenance schedule. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada is located across the border from Buffalo, New York. U.S. citizens will need to bring your passports to cross into Canada.

Our Steel 101 workshop is meant for those new to the industry (both long & flat products), those wishing to gain a better understanding as to how steel is produced and sold, as well as experienced steel people looking for a refresher course. We cover the manufacture of both long and flat products and will tour a fully integrated flat rolled mill as part of our program. You can contact our office for more details: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we should have details and the exact date of the program on our website by the end of next week.

We still have openings in our next Managing Price Risk workshop which will be held in New York City on April 26th. Details can be found on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com or you can contact our office: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com

The Managing Price Risk workshop is meant for those interested in learning how to use hot rolled and ferrous scrap futures as a way to hedge price risk or provide an avenue to hold prices over and extended period of time. We also discuss options and other techniques of managing risk within the steel industry. Inquiries about the program can be made through our office at: Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Our Steel Market Update newsletter publishes a weekly review of the Hot Rolled Coil Futures (HRC), #1 Busheling scrap futures (BUS) as well as iron ore and Billet futures trading. You can register for a free trial to our newsletter on our website and there is a link just below this blog post you can click to go to our registration page.

Steel Market Update appreciates all the kind comments we have been receiving over the past few weeks. It appears the addition of Sandy Williams and Peter Wright to our newsletter staff are net positives for Steel Market Update and I am pleased with the work both of them are doing for SMU Read more ...

After 11 years flogging steel derivatives I can finally make the statement “HR matters”. I think it has mattered form some time, but Hot Rolled futures made a statement on Tuesday, February 26th when they traded 50K short tons in one day Read more ...

Construction spending snapped a nine-month string of monthly gains with a sharp decline in January but still rose from year-ago levels, according to an analysis of new Census Bureau data by the Associated General Contractors of America Read more ...

I have been involved in the flat rolled steel industry since 1977. I cannot recall another time during those 36 years in the business when the domestic steel mills have announced two significant price increases within six weeks of one another – with the target minimum base price being exactly the same Read more ...

Reliance Steel & Aluminum announced this morning a definitive merger agreement whereby Reliance will acquire all outstanding shares of Metals USA Holdings Corporation for approximately $1.2 billion. This will make Reliance the largest service center chain in North America with assets over $6.5 billion and annual sales in excess of $10.0 billion Read more ...

On Monday, January 23rd, AK Steel announced a price increase on all flat rolled steel products of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). The price increase is for “spot” orders only and is “effective immediately” according to the press release issued by the company Read more ...

Construction employers added 30,000 jobs in December while the industry's unemployment rate hit 13.5 percent, according to an analysis of new federal data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials noted that the monthly increase was the largest in nearly two years, driven primarily by increases in private sector demand for construction Read more ...

Construction spending dipped from October to November, but resolution of the uncertainty regarding federal taxes for 2013 should unleash more private construction investment, according to an analysis of new federal data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials warned, however, that unresolved issues about federal construction spending, including storm relief for northeastern states, will hold down public construction spending Read more ...

ArcelorMittal NA began advising their flat rolled steel customers this morning of their intention to raise prices by $20 per ton ($1.00/cwt). Read more ...

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) released their much watched Billings Index just prior to Thanksgiving and the news was good for those involved in multi-family construction, mixed practice and institutional construction projects Read more ...

West Chester, OH, November 05, 2012—AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) said today that it will increase current spot market base prices for all carbon flat-rolled steel products by $50 per ton, effective immediately with new orders.

Steel Market Update will have full coverage in our Tuesday evening issue of our newsletter.

This morning, November 2, 2012, the Severstal Dearborn steel plant experienced an explosion in its cold air pipe connected to the blast furnace stoves. No persons were injured; everyone on site was evacuated safely from the area of impact. The explosion may or may not be related to last night’s power outage at the Rouge industrial complex Read more ...

The speakers at this year’s annual fall conference for the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) probed a number of subject areas key to the steel industry and specifically to distributors. The first day of the conference was highlighted by an excellent panel of large distribution companies with Keith Busse as both moderator and participant Read more ...

It hasn’t taken the U.S. based steel mills very long to jump on the U.S. Steel bandwagon and follow suit with price announcements of their own. So far, Steel Market Update (SMU) is aware of price announcements out of the following mills: US Steel, AK Steel, Nucor, California Steel, NLMK USA, ArcelorMittal USA and Severstal NA. All raised base prices on flat rolled products by $40 per ton Read more ...

In last night's Steel Market Update (SMU) newsletter, we discussed what is needed in order for any new flat rolled steel price increases to "stick" in the marketplace. This is a question SMU receives on a regular basis and this is how we responded Read more ...

Earlier this morning, U.S. Steel (USS) advised their customers of their intention to raise flat rolled steel prices by a minimum of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) “effective immediately.” The increase announcement was made to the General Managers of Sales and came from the office of RY Kopf, General Manager North American Flat-Rolled Marketing. The increase impacts “…all open quotes and/or negotiations where an agreement is yet to have been concluded….” Mr. Kopf went on to state all pricing extras as published on the company web site were to be “fully applied.”

SMU will have more details regarding the increase in tonight's Steel Market Update newsletter.

The presentations have been coming into our Steel Market Update (SMU) offices and based on what we have seen we are quite confident we will have a tremendous Steel Summit Conference next Monday in Rosemont, Illinois. Here are just a few of the questions which will be presented and answered during our conference Read more ...

ArcelorMittal USA provided Steel Market Update (SMU) with a statement regarding the new contract reached with the United Steelworkers (USW) earlier today Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) understands the United Steelworkers and ArcelorMittal USA have come to a new three year contract agreement to replace the contract which expired this past weekend. Based on the USW update which was published earlier this morning (Saturday, September 08, 2012) the union was able to blunt the efforts of the company to change labor rates, benefits, two-tier pay system and elimination of pensions for new hires Read more ...

The United Steelworkers Union (USW) have made a new comprehensive proposal to ArecelorMittal USA in an effort to settle their contract negotiations. At this time the AMUSA mills continue to run under the old contract which expired at midnight, September 1st. The following is from the most recent update to the USW membership from their Negotiation Committee Read more ...

The members of the United Steelworkers currently working at the ArcelorMittal USA plants without a contract are rallying today in support of their Negotiating Committee Read more ...

With the settlement of the US Steel contract all eyes now are focused on ArcelorMittal and their on-going negotiations with the United Steelworkers. The USW put out an announcement dated September 2, 2012 where the union states the blast furnaces are in the process of being restarted - which is an indication the sides have agreed not to strike or lock the union workers out as the process continues Read more ...

U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers (USW) have come to terms on a tentative contract over the next three years. Details regarding the contract were not available as of this morning but, the key issue was related to health care coverage for retirees Read more ...

Two of the top three steel mills and one of the largest iron ore companies in the United States are coming close to having their union contracts expire. At midnight on Saturday evening the United Steelworkers union contracts with U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal USA and Cliffs Natural Resources, Inc. expire and the next step could well be a shutdown of the mill steelmaking and rolling facilities as well as the mines and pellet processing plants associated with the three companies Read more ...

The United Steelworkers Union (USW) representing the ArcelorMittal USA steel mills put out a new update to their membership on Friday morning. The latest memo is the second update from the negotiating committee to the AMUSA membership this week. SMU reported on the August 20th memo in our Tuesday evening edition of Steel Market Update Read more ...

The United Steelworkers (USW) has begun to answer questions for the workers at ArcelorMittal facilities regarding what happens on September 1st should the union fail to come to an agreement with the Company. Below is the latest update presented to AMUSA union workers this morning by the USW. The update is titled: “Q&A: Strikes, Lockouts, & Working Without a Contract” Read more ...

Based on conversations Steel Market Update has had with steel buyers over the past two days we are beginning to see a slowdown in orders being placed with the domestic mills. We are also finding the domestic mills as being more willing to negotiate pricing this week compared to one week ago. We are not seeing any further extension of lead times and buyers appear to be content with their inventory levels – even if there is a strike at either ArcelorMittal or USS for a short period of time Read more ...

Those actively buying and selling flat rolled steel (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized & Galvalume) continue to be optimistic about their company’s chances for success in both the current market as well as looking three to six months out into the future. Steel Market Update (SMU) measured our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index at +34 based on the results of our mid-August steel market survey. The newest reading is +13 points higher than what we measured at the beginning of August and the most optimistic reading we have seen since early May 2012 Read more ...

The tone of the USW negotiating team update to the U.S. Steel union members is much more subdued than that of their ArcelorMittal counterparts. The negotiating committee working with U.S. Steel have identified retiree health care issues as being “the most complicated issue on the table this year.” This leads Steel Market Update (SMU) to believe the issues at USS may be quite different than those being faced by the AMUSA union members Read more ...

Negotiations continue between the United Steelworkers (USW) and ArcelorMittal USA as they strive to beat the midnight deadline on August 31st for a new contract. Over the past few weeks the union and management have been working on local issues. The big issues continue to remain unresolved. ArcelorMittal has taken a stance that their costs to do business in the United States are non-competitive with the other mills in North America. AMUSA has taken aim at the benefits package of their union workers as well as looking for flexibility in work hours as markets change and they are looking at eliminating retirement health care benefits for new hires (after September 1, 2012). With 17 days to go before the contract expires the company and union still have lots of work to accomplish Read more ...

Steel Market Update spoke with Charles J. Betters owner of CJ Betters Enterprises who confirmed his company was the “highest bidder” for the RG Steel Warren assets. Mr. Betters told SMU in a phone conversation this afternoon that his intention “is to maintain jobs” and restart the Warren mill which was idled when RG Steel filed for bankruptcy Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) sources have identified two liquidators (acquisition & disposal companies) as the winning bidders for the assets of RG Steel Warren and Sparrows Point fully integrated steel mills Read more ...