Pending home sales for April dropped 5.5% from March to a score of 95.5, but is still 14.4% higher than April 2011. The latest decline followed a three-month consecutive gain. The data reflects contracts but Read more ...

According to a Reuters press release RG Steel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this Monday in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. The filing comes one week after the company informed their workers of their liquidity crisis and of their plans to idle the Warren, Wheeling and Sparrows Point steel mills Read more ...

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed that all three headline composites ended the first quarter of 2012 at new post-crisis lows according to data through March 2012. Read more ...

Written by: Andre Marshall, CEO Crunch Risk, LLC

Hot Rolled NYMEX:

It was a pretty steady week of business with 815 lots having traded, or 16,300 ST as we are in the zone where buyers and sellers are prepared to meet. Read more ...

RG Steel has issued a WARN notice (WARN stands for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. – see definition below) which is required if the company is contemplating shutting down a plant(s) and/or large lay-offs. The company has plants in Sparrows Point, MD; Warren, OH and Wheeling, WV (mostly idled already) and has finishing operations in Yorkville and Martins Ferry, OH. All of the plants received the WARN notification Read more ...

Durable goods new orders in April were up 0.2% to $215.5 billion, following a 3.7% decline in March. Transportation equipment had the largest increase, Read more ...

Total U.S. construction spending was reported up 0.1% in March to $808.1 billion SAAR after falling 1.4% in February. Read more ...

Written by: Damon Sun, Daido International

The market apparently has no shortage of scrap or raw materials for the time being. Main cause is the lack of finished demand and reduced operating rates in Asia.

According to the latest Richmond Fed manufacturing survey, manufacturing activity in the central Atlantic region expanded in May for the sixth consecutive month, albeit at a slower pace than in April. The broadest indicator of manufacturing dropped Read more ...

Existing-home sales rose 3.4% m-o-m in April to an adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million, which is 10% higher than April 2011’s rate. Home prices continued to rise, as the median home price gained 10.1% from year-ago levels. Read more ...

Dear Editor,

The recent ' Letter to the Editor ' by Thomas Danjczek, President of the SMA, needs some clarification.

1. Over the last 40 years the USA had to import about 20-25% of the steel consumed in this country simply because we didn't produce enough. It all started in the 60's when the USW went on strike and threatened to cripple a booming industry. Read more ...

According to Steel Market Update (SMU) sources RG Steel and CSN out of Brazil had been discussing synergies between the two companies over the past few weeks. RG Steel people traveled to Brazil to meet with CSN management, among others, and during the meeting RG Steel informed CSN they were there in an effort to find a raw materials partner or even sell the company Read more ...

Dear Editor,

In his May 4th Letter to the Editor, Peter Brebach suggests steel imports are needed as “brakes against the tendency of US steel producers of wanting to increase prices all the time” and that there is an ideal market share, 80 percent, for domestic steel producers. Read more ...

In tonight’s Steel Market Update (SMU) newsletter we will cover items of interest to the flat rolled steel industry in North America and across the world. Steel Market Update just completed a steel market survey as of this afternoon. For the past four days we have been collecting information on a wide variety of topics from those actively involved in the flat rolled steel industry in the U.S. and Canada.

Some of the topics which will be covered this evening include Read more ...

As soon as Steel Market Update saw the Baltimore Brew article regarding RG Steel we requested comments through both the RG Steel spokesperson (who is on vacation) as well as through Mr. Jerry Nelson who is the General Manager of Commercial for RG Steel. Mr. Nelson was kind enough to respond to our request and allow us to publish his comments which we have done in their entirety:

ThyssenKrupp corporate headquarters in Germany has put out a press release regarding their plan to look at "strategic options" regarding the potential sale or new partnership regarding their two Steel Americas plants. ThyssenKrupp Steel USA is a conversion mill capable of rolling 4.0+ million tons of carbon flat rolled (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume, Aluminized. In Brazil their CSA plant produces slabs to service the Mobile, Alabama TKS USA mill Read more ...

The Baltimore Brew has published an article this evening that RG Steel is suffering from a “liquidity crisis” based on reports coming from USW Local 9477 which is responsible for the union workers at the Sparrows Point mill. Reports coming from the union expect layoffs in the coming weeks Read more ...

ArcelorMittal is a sponsor for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company has given the city of London a new landmark which will remain long after the games have come and gone. Read more ...

Canada’s employment levels increased by 58,000 jobs in April, which is 1.2% more than in last April. April was the second month of increases, even as the unemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 7.3%. Read more ...

Based on Steel Market Update (SMU) sources, RG Steel Sparrows Point blast furnace was taken down on Wednesday for maintenance. The furnace was originally scheduled to come back up by this morning but was extended for an extra day or two. The rest of the mill is running as normal and SMU is not aware of any interruptions in source materials or any other issues with the mill Read more ...

Written by: Andre Marshall, CEO Crunch Risk, LLC

Hot Rolled NYMEX:

It was a quiet week with almost nothing trading until yesterday when 829 lots (16,580 ST) traded on the back of the CRU price drop of $13/ST that morning. The CRU Wednesday price, which was $669/ST, had dropped considerably after having gone up $4/ST Read more ...

ArcelorMittal reports first quarter 2012 results with net income of $11 million, up from a net loss of $1.0 billion for 4Q 2011. However, annually the company was below the $1.1 billion net income reported in 1Q11. Read more ...

In last evening’s Steel Market Update newsletter we published an article about the precipitous decline in flat rolled steel prices since the end of January. We are hearing in the marketplace from both buyers and sellers of hot rolled, cold rolled and coated products that something has to give – either prices reverse course or the domestic mills must take capacity out of the market Read more ...

In March, contractors in Canada reported building permits worth $6.8 billion, up 4.7% from the previous month. Statistics Canada attributes the gain to higher construction intentions for both institutional and commercial Read more ...

Service center Olympic Steel reported earnings of $6.2 million for the 1st Quarter 2012 on $382.1 million in sales. The company advised analysts during their earnings conference call the $382.1 million sales mark is a record for the company. Read more ...

The construction industry lost 2,000 jobs in April, slightly lower than the 3,000 lost jobs in March. However, April showed a 1.1% or 63,000 job gain over Read more ...

The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index remained in optimistic territory this week as our index was measured at +36. This is two points lower than the +38 measured during the middle of April and is thirteen points higher than one year ago when our Sentiment Index was reported at +23. Our latest reading is two points higher than the lowest reading of the year (+34) achieved at the beginning of April.

Read more ...

Dear Editor,

As reported by Steel Market Update (SMU 4/29), “Thank God for Foreign Fighters” was a statement made by a well-known steel analyst during Reliance Steel & Aluminum's recent quarterly earnings conference call. I have some thoughts about that comment (and about some of the other comments that were made). To add insult to injury, Reliance's no. 2 man Gregg Mollins responded with an "Amen" to the analysts comment. Read more ...

General Motors Co. announced first quarter 2012 earnings with net income of 1.0 billion, down from $3.2 billion in 1Q11. Net revenue was $37.8 billion, up $1.6 billion compared to 1Q11. Read more ...

Canadian manufacturing business conditions in April improved to the greatest extent in 2012 so far, according to the RBC Canadian Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index. Read more ...

Construction employment increased in 155 out of 337 metro areas in the past year, from March 2011 and March 2012. However, employment also decreased in Read more ...

U.S. industry light vehicle auto sales figures for April were released today and are projected at an estimated 14.6 million units Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR). Actual sales were higher than the 14.4 SAAR forecast Read more ...

According to the Association of General Contractors, the latest update on construction spending is below:

Construction spending inched up in March 2012 to an annualized rate of $808 billion, up 0.1 percent compared to the previous month and is now 6 percent above year ago Read more ...