Steel Market Update publishes our newsletter three times per week. We publish on Sunday evenings so that our members can prepare for the week ahead. We publish on Tuesday evenings with our focus being on our flat rolled steel price indexes (hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil, galvanized coil and Galvalume coil). Then we publish on Thursday evening which is dedicated to the hot rolled coil futures markets, scrap and other factors which can impact steel prices.

In each issue we discuss a variety of topics. Our goal is to provide issues and insights which are relevant to the steel community and will prompt a dialogue within companies or within the community at large.

In this evening’s newsletter we will present a number of topics for our readers to review and discuss:

Having just completed a steel market survey of the flat rolled steel industry our newsletter this evening will have a number of articles about the results of our survey. The articles include a shift in inventory purchasing habits out of the service center segment of the steel industry. As many who follow the industry know it is the buying patterns of the service center segment of the industry which many times drives lead times and ultimately pricing. A second article which emanated from our survey is about service center spot pricing as there is a change occurring there as well which is important to anyone buying spot inventory from the service centers or wholesalers in North America.

Last week Severstal rescinded a previously announced flat rolled price increase. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time in the last 30+ years a domestic steel mill has actually gone out in writing to their customer base and pulled back a price increase. You can read what we wrote at the time on our Blog but, if you want to know more about how the industry is responding to the Severstal move you will need to read tonight’s edition of Steel Market Update.

Every Sunday evening SMU provides a review of a number of the steel indexes (or indices) which exist in the marketplace and with whom we have relationships. This is a way of providing insights into how our hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume prices compare with others. We also discuss our SMU Price Momentum Indicator which you can see on the Home Page of our website.

The publisher of Steel Market Update (John Packard) was formerly an active participant in the flat rolled steel industry both in North America and around the world. One of his trading friends who is located in Asia provides information about iron ore, steel and general topics of interest about China and the region in general. Tonight we have two articles from him – one on iron ore and steel prices and the second on the Chinese banking system and changes just announced over the weekend.

There is good news in the U.S. as Caterpillar is going to build a new factory in Georgia. We have the details in tonight’s edition of SMU.

We also have the 2011 ferrous export data, information on international steel and scrap prices, information from Reliance Steel & Aluminum about imports and flat rolled steel pricing and about oil rigs in operation in the U.S. and Canada.

On Sunday evenings we provide our readers things to watch in the week ahead and each and every issue has final thoughts from our publisher. This evening he speaks about markets and market changes and perceptions within the steel and analytical communities about the direction of prices going forward. He also speaks to some of the changes Steel Market Update is making within the company which will strengthen – in this case – our educational programs as well as our newsletter for the future.

If the above are items which are of interest to you or your organization we recommend registering for a free trial to our newsletter. You can begin the process by clicking on the free trial button below or you can click on the free trial logo on our website.

For those who want a steady stream of quality information about the steel industry written by experienced steel people – we recommend becoming an annual subscriber (we call them members) and you can do so by clicking on the subscribe button below this blog post or in the top tabs on our website. You are also welcome to contact our office with any questions. You can email us at: info@steelmarketupdate.com or you can call us toll free in North America at 800-432-3475.

We look forward to having you join us soon.