Steel Market Update (SMU) communicated with US Steel, Nucor and Severstal on Friday of this week regarding their steel mill operations in Alabama and Mississippi to see if they were impacted by Wednesday’s storms which ravaged the South. The Severstal Columbus mill as well as Nucor Decatur and Tuscaloosa are currently not in operation due to lack of power. U.S. Steel Fairfield Works is back in operation after taking their equipment offline just prior to the storm hitting Read more ...

Consumer sentiment rose in April to 69.8 after a more pessimistic reading of 67.5 in March. Reuters accounted for the increase in optimism a result of the gas prices views as temporary. The survey reported that Read more ...

The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index fell from 70.6 in March to 67.6 in April. However, anything over an index of 50 signifies improved business activity for the majority of companies. April will make this the 19th consecutive Read more ...

On November 7, 2011 United States Steel (USS) locked out the union workers at their Hamilton Works flat rolled steel mill (Canada). The workers belong to USW Local 1005 and the dispute revolves around two pension-related issues. USS does not want to continue the practice of “indexing” for the approximately 7,000 retirees of the former Stelco steel mill. The second issue is the mill wants to eliminate any “new hires” from participating in the existing pension plan Read more ...

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. reported positive 1Q11 financial results. Net income was up 107% from 2010 first quarter at Read more ...

Canada’s total employment for March showed a slight decrease in jobs, losing 2,000 from February, according to Reed Construction Data. Although, there was a large increase in full-time jobs, up Read more ...

New Orders

New orders for manufactured durable goods in March increased again for the third month, up 2.5% to $208.4 billion. Transportation equipment, also up three consecutive months, had the largest increase, of $3.1 billion to Read more ...

There has been a tremendous amount of attention given to the “new mill capacity” which is coming on-stream over the next couple of months and what impact the added tonnage will have to flat rolled steel prices. Steel Market Update has been writing about the new flat rolled capacity including a detailed article in this evening’s edition of our newsletter Read more ...

Metals USA Holdings Corp. reported net sales increasing 50% from last year’s first quarter. Net sales were $432.3 million for 1Q11 while net income was $12.4 million. Net income increased $12.3million from the same time last year even with Read more ...

As of February 2011, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices show home prices are lower than last year but still slightly above April 2009’s all-time low. The index, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, shows the 10-City Composite fell Read more ...

Construction employment increased in 138 out of 337 metropolitan areas from last March. However, from March 2010 to March 2011, construction employment decreased in 153 and stayed level in 46 areas. The Associated General Contractor of America said that the construction industry’s Read more ...

AK Steel today reported strong growth in net income from last year’s first quarter. For the first quarter of 2011, net income was $8.7 million, up from $1.9 million last year. Net sales also improved, increasing to $1,581.1 million on shipments Read more ...

This morning, United States Steel (USS) reported a net loss of $86 million, or $.60 per share, during the first quarter 2011. The loss includes a foreign currency gain of $81 mill due to the re-measurement of Read more ...

Sales of new single-family houses in March 2011 increased to 300,000, up 11.1% from the revised February rate of 270,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development report. Read more ...

The domestic steel mills have been reporting earnings over the past week and more will report this week. Many of the mills are pointing to low steel service center inventories as a reason why prices will hold during the third Read more ...

Steel Market Update reviewed the Nucor earnings conference call from earlier this week. Nucor discussed the flat rolled steel market and what they saw as a potential saving grace for steel prices for the 3rd Quarter 2011 Read more ...

Nucor Corporation reported strong earnings for 1Q11, increasing 416% from last year’s first quarter. The company had net earnings of $159.8 million after a net loss of $11.4 million last quarter. The steel mill segment helped Read more ...

ThyssenKrupp Steel USA began the commissioning process on their CAL (Continuous Anneal Line) mill on Tuesday of this week. The first coil successfully run was Read more ...

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. has reached a settlement agreement with Essar Steel Algoma Inc. Cliffs supplies Essar Steel Algoma, located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, with iron ore pellets needed for Read more ...

New Star Metals, Inc., a leading Midwest metals processing and supply chain management company, today announced the appointments of Read more ...

Toyota Motor began advising their suppliers of their intention to slash production in the United States. One of their steel suppliers told Steel Market Update (SMU) this afternoon schedules were being cut 50% on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays at all manufacturing facilities. On top of the 50% cut is another 15-16 days of “non-production” between now and June 3, 2011. These include Monday and Friday’s as well as the last a shut-down during the week of May 30 in the United States and the week of May 23rd in Canada Read more ...

Yesterday, flat rolled steel producer Steel Dynamics (SDI) reported earnings of $106 million for the 1st Quarter 2011 and held their quarterly conference call with steel analysts. During the conference call the steel mill discussed Read more ...

Existing-home sales rise in March, increasing 3.7% to an annual rate or 5.1 million in March. February’s home sales were revised upward to 4.92 million. March’s pace is still 6.3% less than Read more ...

AK Steel Corporation has come to an agreement well ahead of time with members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), Local Lodge 1943. The members have ratified a new labor Read more ...

In the week ending April 16, 2011, domestic raw steel production was 1,861,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 76.1 percent. Production was 1,789,000 tons in the week ending April 16, 2010, while the capability utilization then was Read more ...

Canada has decided that hot-rolled steel sheet anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties are still needed for Brazil, China, Chinese Taipei, India and Ukraine. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has determined that these duties should not Read more ...

Construction employment further decreased in 27 states and the D.C. between February and March, while 33 states lost construction jobs during the past 12 months, the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) Read more ...

After RG Steel LLC just acquired Wheeling; Warren, Ohio; and Sparrows Point, Md. from Severstal North America for over $1 billion, the proposed labor contract is bringing mixed feelings about the new Read more ...

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (STLD) announced first quarter net income of $106 million, up from $65 million for 1Q10. Net sales of $2.0 billion were also up from last year’s first quarter of $1.6 billion. This is a huge jump from 4Q10 net income of Read more ...

Freight Investor Services (FIS) has added two brokers to its US Midwest presence to cover swaps contracts for US domestic Hot Rolled Coil, Iron Ore and Scrap from the St Louis, MO, area Read more ...

The consumer price index (CPI) for all urban consumers—the most commonly cited measure of inflation—rose 1.0%, not seasonally adjusted (0.5%, seasonally adjusted), in March but only 2.7% over 12 months, BLS reported. The relatively mild rise in the CPI Read more ...

The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) forecasts that apparent steel use will increase by 5.9% to 1.359 million metric tons in 2011. This is much less than the double digit growth seen in 2010, with a 13.2% increase. However, the forecast for 2012 is set to reach a new record of Read more ...

Going into the 24th week for USW Local 1005 members on lockout with US Steel Hamilton Mill, union members are still in battle with the steel mill. This past Sunday, about 25 workers stayed in the cold and wind all day in a bid to prevent a ship transporting Read more ...

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey showed improved conditions for New York manufacturers in April. The general business conditions index hit 21.7, highest level in a year after the four point Read more ...

After the March 11 earthquake in Japan that halted production at many plants, the demand for steel has fallen. This is especially true in the automotive sector as many parts manufacturers were damaged from the earthquake. To counter the falling demand, Taiwan's large steel maker China Steel Corp (CSC) has announced it would keep domestic prices for most products unchanged for Read more ...

The union workers of the U.S. Steel Hamilton steel mill are in the middle of their 23rd week since the company locked the gates and threw away the key. The USW Local 1005 president, Rolf Gerstenberger, spoke with Steel Market Update earlier today and told us, “Everybody would rather be working” when asked about the status of the lockout and its impact on the union workers Read more ...

Contractors’ financial position grew more precarious in March as prices for key materials escalated while prices construction firms charge for completed projects stayed flat, according to an analysis of producer price index figures Read more ...

Steel Dynamics, Inc. has appointed Mark D. Millett as President and Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. Millett, a co-founder of the company in 1993, has been Executive Vice President for Metals Recycling and Ferrous Read more ...

The Producer Price Index (PPI) for finished goods rose a modest 0.7% in March, seasonally adjusted. This is the ninth month in a row that the PPI has seen increases.

Most recently, February had a 1.6% increase and a 0.8% gain in Read more ...

Unemployment weekly jobless claims report showed that for the week ending April 9, seasonally adjusted initial claims increased 27,000 to 412,000. This was an increase from last week's revised figure of Read more ...

Steel exporters, particularly those in India are afraid that the US and EU will extend their countervailing duty (CVD) to more products than steel. Recently, the US has been aggressive in using CVD on Indian steel, putting a 586.43% CVD on Tata Steel’s exports starting in January 2011. In 2008, an anti-dumping duty (AD) of 21.95% was Read more ...

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. announced it has reached a negotiated settlement with ArcelorMittal USA Inc. Under the terms of the settlement, the two companies have agreed to specific pricing levels for 2009 and 2010 pellet sales and related sales volumes. Cliffs will receive a cash payment of about Read more ...

Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's second-largest steelmaker, started the construction of its third blast furnace on Tuesday, which will boost its steel output by Read more ...

Nippon Steel Corp , the world's No.4 steelmaker, said production has resumed at its Kamaishi wire rod plant, which was submerged on March 11 by a massive tsunami in northeast Read more ...

Since November 7th, 2010, 900 production workers have been in lockout with US Steel Hamilton Mill. The lockout still rages on, with the Local USW 1005 members still fighting for a new contract with US Steel. Although these people are not working at the mill currently, U.S. Steel is still hiring, advertising for a Read more ...

RG Steel, LLC announced in their press release four key executive appointments for the newly formed company.

• Richard D. Caruso has been named Chief Financial Officer

• David A. Howard has been named Chief Commercial Officer

• David A. Pryzbylski has been named Chief Administrative Officer

• Mark D. Whalen has been named Chief Operating Officer Read more ...

Toyota Motor Corp. is warning its U.S. dealers that it could face a shortage of new vehicles by the summer, a report said Monday, as the effects of the Japanese earthquake continues to hamper auto production Read more ...

The lockout that began November 7th, 2010 is still going on between Local USW 1005 members and US Steel Hamilton Mill. At a press conference at the Juravinski Cancer Centre on the Mountain, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff says the Conservative government has let companies like U.S. Steel “run roughshod” through the Read more ...

Steel Market Update was contacted by James Banker, Jr., Executive Vice President Commercial this afternoon to advise us their Portage, Indiana EAF (electric arc furnace) steel mill blew a transformer earlier today. There were no injuries, no fire and no damage to their steelmaking equipment. Other than the EAF all other flat rolled steel making equipment is functioning as normal Read more ...

Schnitzer Steel reported second quarter 2011 revenues of $722 million, up 28% from last year’s second quarter. This was the best second quarter since 2008, with operating income up 61% Read more ...