SMU sources are telling us to expect April scrap prices to be higher than March due to continued strong orders out of the domestic steel mills, Turkish mills paying the export price and competing for available scrap and sluggish in-flows of new scrap into the dealer’s yards. Higher scrap costs will mean higher flat rolled steel prices Read more ...

Media attention around the world is focused on what appears Read more ...

The iron ore benchmarking system has been in place for 40 years and it is believed 2010 will be the year the system will change. The original system called for a single “benchmark” price for all steel mills which buy annual contracts from the big three miners – Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton Read more ...

Here is a quick overview of items deemed important by Steel Market Update as you look at the existing flat rolled steel market in North America Read more ...

When your company is barely making progress – or worse yet Read more ...

The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released their shipments and inventory data for the month of February. Shipments of all steel products in the United States increased from 128,900 tons per day to 133,000 tons per day while inventory levels increased to 6,484,500 tons or 2.4 months supply (unadjusted). Although total tons on the floor increased the months of supply has remained stable due to the shipment increase Read more ...

Nucor Corporation, a large U.S. based sheet and long products mill, pre-announced 1st Quarter 2010 earnings this morning. The company projected it would fail to meet consensus earnings of $.15 per share. In a note to his clients steel analyst Mark Parr pointed out the mill is forecasting growth in orders, production and shipments of 23%, 26% and 20% respectively compared to 4th Quarter 2009 levels Read more ...

The Chinese have thrown their hands up in despair as Baosteel – the lead negotiator for the Chinese steel industry – has been unable to bring the iron Read more ...

John Anton, Director of Steel Services for IHS Global did not mince words in his opening statement – “I will put a stake in the ground. Prices will come down in the second half of this year for most carbon steel products.” Read more ...

Steel prices in the North American markets continued their move higher this week. Mills took offers for lower priced product off the table at the end of last week according to Steel Market Update sources. Many buyers are “non-believers” and do not think the new prices which are pushing $680-$700 on hot rolled, $800 for cold rolled and a galvanized base price around $800-$820 per ton Read more ...

Steel Market Update reviews steel prices in the North American market on a daily basis. Our indexes cover hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume pricing in the U.S. and Canada. Since our readers tend to be steel buyers we take the responsibility of being accurate very seriously Read more ...

Steel Market Update participates in conference calls with steel analysts from time to time in order to provide insights into steel prices, steel inventories and demand as well as the steel market trends we see during our analysis of the steel market Read more ...

The Nucor Corporation increased prices by a “minimum” of $50 per ton on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel. The announcement was released to their customers late on Friday afternoon although individual plants had been informing their specific customers of the changes earlier during the week. SMU reported on the Berkeley base price adjustments on our blog on March 3, 2010 and in our newsletter on Thursday March 4th Read more ...

An internal memo to the Severstal sales force on Wednesday outlined the latest prices for spot flat rolled steel products out of the Severstal mills effective with new orders. Steel prices are up approximately $40 per ton compared to the mills last announcement Read more ...

Nucor Berkeley facility is leading the charge and has been telling customers this morning of their intention to collect higher prices on new hot rolled, cold rolled or galvanized steel orders Read more ...

Early this morning Nucor announced a joint venture agreement with Mitsui which owns Steel Technologies. This arrangement puts Nucor into the steel processing and service center business and changes the playing field for both Nucor and their customers Read more ...

In a move anticipated by Steel Market Update, AK Steel announced this evening an increase of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) on all flat rolled sheet products. This increase will affect all new hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel orders Read more ...