ArcelorMittal & Sharon Coatings come out with new coating extras:

On Wednesday of this week ArcelorMittal (AMUSA) came out with new coating extras similar to those announced by AK Steel at the end of October and U.S. Steel late last week. Yesterday, Sharon Coatings began advising their customers of their new extras which also are similar to the U.S. Steel extras.

The only integrated mill which has not yet made an announcement is Severstal. As for the mini-mills Nucor has made a $30 transaction price increase and we are waiting for other mills to fall into line. Our expectation is pricing will increase going into January. We have changed our price momentum indicator to reflect the move toward higher prices.

Steel Market Update will have much more about the new pricing in North America early next week as we conduct our market survey next Monday.

China Steel Corporation (Taiwan) comes out with new lower prices:

One of our Asia sources provided SMU the new prices from China Steel Corporation which surprised many in Asia by lowering their pricing for January/February 2010 shipment out of Taiwan. Here are the CSC prices:

Hot Rolled prices are remaining the same at NTD 18813 = $584/MT or $530 short ton. Cold Rolled prices are down NTD 129 to NTD 21,899 or $680/MT or $617 short ton. Galvanized prices declined NTD 1157 to NTD 28,945 or $899/MT or $816 short ton. Plate prices declined NTD 1384 to NTD 23,087 or $717/MT or $651 short ton.

HR Futures Contract closes month at $511 per short ton:

According to steel futures pioneer Jonathan Putman, CEO of Birmingham Futures Inc. (a brokerage firm founded in 2003 to focus on steel price risk management), the NYMEX/CME November steel futures contract settled Wednesday at $511, down $44 from October's final of $555, which was the highest in the 12 month history of the contract. There were 770 open November contracts (20 short tons each) that went to settlement. There are currently 7,827 open contracts for the 13 months from December 2009 through December 2010. Trading volume was light during the month of November.

Putman commented, "The NYMEX forward curve (http://birminghamfutures.com/Documents/NYMEX%20HR%20Forward%20Curve.pdf) is being watched closely to see if the announced price increases for January and beyond will stick. The forward curve currently has them factored in but that could change in the next few weeks if the mills are simply trying to fill their December order books. It is an exciting time to be in this business."

Stay tuned to both our website and this blog as well as our newsletter - Steel Market Update (SMU) which will return to our three times per week publishing schedule on Monday morning. For a trial subscription to SMU you can register online at www.steelmarketupdate.com