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 ...

Late Friday evening Steel Market Update received a number of messages from our contacts in Asia regarding the Chinese export markets and iron ore pricing. Our sources are telling us the Chinese mills have suddenly suspended providing export offers. Through contacts with a number of the largest steel mills in China the understanding is there will be an announcement some time this week of a settlement to the negotiations regarding the iron ore benchmark pricing Read more ...

Steel Market Update met with executives from California Steel Industries in an effort to improve our understanding of the West Coast flat rolled steel market. This is the first of a number of articles about California Steel Read more ...

Severstal NA has taken their two steel mill expansion projects for Dearborn (MI) and Columbus (MS) off hold. The two projects will increase capacity at Dearborn by approximately 500,000 tons and will essentially double capacity at their Columbus steel mill Read more ...

Steel Market Update takes great effort to insure we have the most accurate data available when it comes to prime mill pricing for hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products especially when price adjustments are being made. We understand – and our readers need to understand – the relationship between a mill and a customer is one on one. By this we mean not every customer receives the exact same price from a supplier and prices may vary even within individual mill facilities owned by one company Read more ...

Earlier today Nucor came out with a $40 per ton price increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized sheet steel. As the day wore on and more information has become available to Steel Market Update our understanding is there is a spread of pricing out of the Nucor mills. By this we mean not all customers and not all mills are receiving the same base prices on each product Read more ...

Nucor announced this morning a $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) across the board price increase on flat rolled steel products out of all of their flat rolled mills Read more ...

Data just released by the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) show flat rolled steel product shipments were at their highest levels since November 2008. The new data show flat rolled shipments of 80,300 tons per day which is a 23.5% improvement over the 61,500 tons shipped per day in December and the best shipment rate since November 2008 when 82,200 tons were being shipped per day Read more ...

West Chester, OH, February 15, 2010—AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) said today that it will increase spot market base prices by $50 per ton, effective immediately with all new orders for its carbon steel products. AK Steel said that the price increase is in response to increased demand for carbon steel products, as well as the need to recover higher costs. Read more ...

We were somewhat surprised with this past week’s Market Survey where we found a reversal of trends we did not expect. One we reported on earlier when our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment meter reading reversed its improving trend and declined by 7.5 points to -29.1%. Another trend reversal spotted was flat rolled steel inventory rebuilding at both manufacturers and service centers. Read more ...

Nucor Berkeley has begun to advise their customers of a change in flat rolled steel prices effective with any “new orders”. The new base prices are as follows Read more ...

SMU expects the U.S. will see more international steel coming into the country over the next two to three months as savvy buyers were able to take advantage of niche offers out of China, India, Taiwan, Korea and Russia. Trading companies are telling us the number of inquiries for international steel has grown but most buyers continue to be wary of placing orders at pricing similar to domestic and lead times which extend out to June Read more ...

Steel Market Update was surprised earlier this week by a number of trend changes we found in our SMU Market Survey. Steel prices continue to rise - albeit at a much slower rate than a couple of weeks ago. But, our SMU Buyers Sentiment meter reading and the trend to restock inventories appear to have reversed course Read more ...

Before we present our latest index numbers for this week we want to address the issue of “discounting” vs. “not sticking” when used in relation to mill pricing. To Steel Market Update (SMU), having worked in the steel industry for 3 decades, there is a significant difference between the two terms. Discounting are price adjustments made for various reasons in order to meet or beat your competition Read more ...

Steel Buyers are feeling the strain caused by lack of demand and price increases which some are finding difficult to pass along to their customers. We have not been dealing with the issue of passing on price increases as a negative factor in any of our surveys for quite some time. Margin constriction appears to be gaining strength and causing the SMU Buyers Sentiment meter to drop from its highest level since we began measuring Sentiment two weeks ago to our latest SMU Buyers Sentiment meter reading which now is -29.1% Read more ...

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released their report on the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy this morning. Overall, manufacturing activity is being reported as having expanded for the sixth consecutive month while the overall economy grew for the ninth consecutive month. This is considered good news for the U.S. flat rolled steel industry and steel prices Read more ...

U.S. integrated steel mills are reacting to their lead time and production issues by bringing back to life blast furnaces, cold mills and coating lines. Last week ArcelorMittal told the union responsible for Indiana Harbor East Chicago plant (USW 1011) of their intention to bring up the idled IH-4 furnace and #3 melt shop. Over at Severstal the company officially announced the restart of the idled Warren steel mill. Earlier, Severstal announced the re-start of two areas of the idled Wheeling facilities - the cold rolled facility at Yorkville and the galvanizing facility at Martins Ferry. While at U.S. Steel the reline of their largest blast furnace - #14 at Gary Works – will be completed within the next few weeks and will then be brought back online before the end of 1st Quarter Read more ...

Steel Dynamics (SDI) is seeing improvements in flat rolled steel orders “but it is not yet where we need it to be.” Long products “are a huge problem.” The worst product is wide flanged beams due to the declines in commercial construction markets Read more ...

Jim Bouchard [Esmark] went to Haiti with a plane full of medical supplies and returned Monday with 102 orphans Read more ...

On Friday of last week (January 22, 2010) Goldman Sachs put a note out into the financial community regarding their concerns regarding the Chinese economy as the government (Chinese) has “embarked on a tightening process.” In their note the analyst discussed steel mill discounting (in China) and used the following words, “In steel, while not broad-based, we are beginning to see price discounting by some domestic mill, undermining recent price increases and could present a headwind for the stocks.” SMU believes this quote was aimed at the Chinese “domestic” market and not the U.S. Read more ...

SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment improved over the past two weeks and our Meter is now at -21.6% which is 10.6 points better than our reading of two weeks ago and it is the most optimistic level we have seen since we began measuring Sentiment in November 2008. Our SMU Future Sentiment Reading continued its optimistic trend measuring +16.4% although this is 7.9 points lower than our reading calculated two weeks ago.

The beginning of 2010 is painfully similar to a year which many in the steel consuming community would rather forget – 2008. Steel Market Update went back in our archives to take a look at what we were writing about during January 2008.

“…The stage is set for price increases worldwide due to higher scrap, iron ore, coke and pig iron costs that will be passed on to the mills. These higher costs are predicted to add Read more ...

Total steel imports (all products) declined in November 2009 compared to the prior month by 15.4% according to final data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. When comparing November 2009 against November 2008 total steel imports declined by 1,030,246 short tons.

Taking preliminary license data for December into account, 2009 total steel imports is projected to be 16,185,980 short tons. December total tonnage imported was 31,927,000 short tons. Read more ...

Steel Market Update participated in a three-way email conversation with a service center and a manufacturer regarding steel prices and questions/concerns about longer term prices for the North American market. We thought the information bantered back and forth might be of interest to our readers:

Service Center: “…We have seen here over $100 [per ton = $5.00/cwt] in increases in the last 4 weeks. Further I just saw AK increased another $60 a ton. Read more ...

Both Nucor and Severstal NA came out with new pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steels effective with all new non-contract orders. Nucor advised their customers of their intention to increase all flat rolled steel products by $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). Severstal increase was more specific as the mill provided base prices for each product.

AK Steel advised their customers late on Monday of their intention to increase base prices on all flat rolled products (hot roll, cold roll & galvanized) by $60 per ton ($3.00/cwt). At the same time the mill advised of a revision in their galvanized coating extras (charges for adding zinc onto the steel substrate). Read more ...

Steel Market Update Helps Save Dawson County, Georgia $14.5 Million

Over the course of a day, week or month – Steel Market Update (SMU) is involved in many facets of the steel business. This includes working with our local community as they prepared to build a new 30-million dollar government center & courthouse. Working with the County Manager, Kevin Tanner – SMU took on an advisory role by assisting the county with steel and construction related pricing trends. We also assisted the county in making recommendations for the timing of the bidding process and with the timing for concluding the negotiations and signing of the contract. The contract was recently signed and the county has advised its citizens of a savings of $14.5 million out of the original $30 million budgeted.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting emergency crews are at the scene of an explosion at Beta Steel in Portage, Indiana. The City of Portage emergency dispatcher received a call at 7 PM. Portage Fire Chief Bill Lundy reported to the Northwest Indiana Times that 1 person was killed and 4 were injured in what he termed a “steam explosion.”

Beta Steel is an EAF flat rolled mill and is part of the Duferco Farrell & Sharon Coating group of mills. SMU sources had told us earlier this month Beta Steel had a full order book for the month of January in excess of 50,000 tons. Read more ...

Nucor Increases their Coating Extras

For a number of weeks Steel Market Update has been warning our readers to expect galvanized coating extras changes out of Nucor and California Steel due to higher zinc costs and the fact these two mills had not made changes at the beginning of this year as had the other domestic mills(coating extras are charges mills add to the base price for adding zinc to the steel substrate). Read more ...

SMU Buyers Sentiment Meter Reading at -32.2% for the week of January 4, 2009.

Steel Market Update (SMU) has been conducting our Steel Market Survey as of Monday of this week. Our results are showing the SMU Buyers Sentiment Meter reading to be -32.2% which is slightly more pessimistic than the -29% recorded a few weeks ago in our last Market Survey. We have been measuring Buyers Sentiment for slightly more than a year so we can now start to make comparisons against past readings. Our late December/early January reading one year ago was -71.3% - where we are today is significantly more optimistic than where we were one year ago. Read more ...

If you are reading this Blog post - congratulations you have survived one of the worst years in the history of the North American steel industry. This past year – 2009 – will be the new benchmark, the “new normal” upon which the industry will build over the next ten years (the time it will take to get back to 2004 business levels according to recent comments made by ArcelorMittal). The steel industry faces many challenges as we enter a new decade (“the teens”). Read more ...

Scrap dealers in the Midwest and Eastern United States have been telling Steel Market Update to expect another surge in scrap prices for the month of January. The reasons provided are demand at the integrated and flat rolled mini mills coupled with tight supply due to slow flows of inbound material. However, after January there is a feeling amongst dealers the market could begin to cool with stronger flows of inbound scrap (due to dealers offering to buy scrap at higher prices) and resistance to the higher prices in the export markets of Turkey and China. Dealers are telling SMU to anticipate January pricing to increase by $20-$50+ per long ton over the December numbers.

According to the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI), domestic (U.S.) raw steel production declined last week by 2.3% which should be considered normal for this time of year due to the Holidays (last week was Christmas). The new capacity utilization rate from last week was 60.6% when the domestic mills are projected to have produced 1,445,000 tons of raw steel. Read more ...

Zinc – 2009 was another Year to Remember

With but a few days remaining, 2009 has proven to be a year to remember for buyers of galvanized and Galvalume steels. Zinc began the year trading on the LME spot market around $.50 per pound ($1102/metric ton) and is now trading around $1.13 per pound ($2490/metric ton). The increase in zinc costs to the domestic steel industry provided the momentum needed for the steel mills to revise their coating costs several times during the calendar year. Read more ...

Latest Chinese Pricing

Steel Market Update received new Chinese flat rolled steel pricing just prior to the Christmas Holidays. North American customers should note these prices are not necessarily available to the North American markets. Chinese hot rolled is not permitted into the United States. Prices do not include freight, insurance or the trading company margin so you would need to add approximately $100 per ton to cover those costs.

Many of you are aware SMU is trying to get better educated about the CME/NYMEX hot rolled futures contract. We have a number of members who are active participants in the futures market for various reasons – most related to hedging but there could be a speculator or two amongst them as well. One important difference between hot rolled futures and other “metals” is the CME/NYMEX is based on an index settlement and not on actual physical delivery of a hot rolled coil.

Steel Market Update conducts market surveys on a regular basis - approximately every other week with some adjustments for holidays. Our survey is by invitation only and approximately 700 companies are currently invited. They are essentially evenly split between manufacturing companies and service centers with a few mills, trading companies and toll processors thrown in to provide market balance. However, our focus is on the core customers - manufacturers and service centers. Read more ...

Steel Market Update has learned the large #14 furnace at U.S. Steel Gary Works plant was brought down earlier this week for the previously announced maintenance by CEO John Surma during their 3rd Quarter conference call with analysts. The furnace, which is one of the largest in the United States with a rating of slightly more than 9,000 short tons of melt per day, is expected to be down for 90 days. The #14 furnace had an accident earlier this year and SMU has learned the furnace was producing slightly more than 50% of its rated capacity just prior to being shut down.

We have also learned the #4 furnace at Gary Works has been Read more ...

Steel Market Update conducts a Market Survey of the flat rolled steel industry approximately every other week. We invite 700 companies - equally split between manufacturing companies and service centers with a few trading companies, mills and toll processors thrown in to round out the field. Our survey is by invitation only as we try to utilize information from qualified buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel.

Our latest market survey, which Steel Market Update is conducting this week, is showing weak demand for flat rolled steel products as we approach the end of the year. However, our respondents are expecting a pick-up in demand as we move into 2010.

The latest SMU Market Survey results has 41% of those companies responding indicating demand will grow Read more ...

In their first conference call since the HARDI (Heating, Airconditoning, Refrigeration Distributors International) annual conference held in Orlando in early November, the steel committee discussed the current situation regarding steel price increases. The distributors on the call cover a large portion of the U.S. and Canadian markets.

This afternoon (Wednesday) Nucor began advising their customers of their intention to increase flat rolled steel spot prices effective immediately. The mill is going to the market with the following "base" pricing: Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) feels our approach to how we collect and analyze information regarding the North American (and world) markets provides us with an advantage over any and all potential competitors. Steel Market Update is unique in that it is run and written by experienced steel sales and purchasing professionals who have moved away from direct sales and we now concentrate all our efforts on providing our members (and trial members) the most accurate information possible. Read more ...

In last Friday’s SMU we published a letter from a trading company who was critical of us for providing pricing transparency to steel buyers and questioned the need for SMU to provide so much information to our members. As the dialogue progressed with the trading company, they came to the conclusion they could not stop what has already begun and that perhaps SMU was being responsible to the needs of the steel community – buyers and sellers alike.

A number of weeks back one of our steel sources located in Asia sent over a report outlining approximately 82 million metric tons of new or refurbished capacity would be coming online in China by the end of 1st Quarter 2010. SMU spoke to a number of steel analysts here in the U.S. who had contacts in Asia and they could only identify approximately 50 million metric tons of new or refurbished capacity.

Today I received new information from China which we would like to share with our readers:

Steel Market Update received a call earlier today (Wednesday) from a trading company who had some legitimate concerns regarding the information SMU provides to our members regarding pricing. Their concern was we were perhaps sharing too much information which was putting them into a disadvantaged and sometimes unfair situation as they negotiate with their customers. Read more ...

In what most consider a "surprise" move, Severstal NA has announced spot base prices to be charged by product beginning with new orders for January as well as the base price they will be charging for February 2010. In our 32+ years in the steel business we cannot recall another time when back to back increases where announced by a mill on the same day (we do remember mills "rolling" prices from month to month to try to stem the downward pricing spiral).

Last Two Weeks Show Slight Decline in Raw Steel Production Rates

With the Thanksgiving Holiday in the United States this past week Steel Market Update did not provide the raw steel production numbers for the week of November 21st – which ended up being important as production that week was 1,540,000 tons and the capacity utilization rate was 64.5 percent (according to AISI data). The tonnage produced was below the prior week’s 1,557,000 tons and the capacity utilization rate was 65.3 percent – which we believe is the highest tonnage produced and capacity utilization rate for this calendar year to date.

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. Read more ...

In a letter to their customers dated November 24, 2009 - Nucor Steel's sheet group informed their customers of their intention to increase transaction pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized by $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) effective with orders promised for the week of January 2, 2010.

I was speaking with a steel buyer earlier today and we were comparing notes regarding the surge in flat rolled steel pricing which began in June 2009 with what is happening at this very moment.

For the ten months prior to June 2009 prices of flat rolled steel products fell. Hot Rolled steel fell from a high of $1170 per ton ($58.50/cwt) down to $380 per ton ($19.00/cwt) during that ten month period. Finally, in June, AK Steel announced a price increase and prices rebounded over the next three months to $570 per ton. Read more ...

Earlier this week Steel Market Update pointed our readers toward AK Steel and wondered out load, "AK Steel led the way this past June - will they be the leader once again?" It did not take long for our readers and the flat rolled steel industry to get the answer. AK Steel is alive and kicking and not afraid to "pull the trigger."

Late on Thursday afternoon (November 19, 2009) AK Steel came out with the following press release:

U.S. Steel Raises Coating Extras

United States Steel (USS) got the New Year going by issuing revised galvanized and Galvalume coating extras effective January 1, 2010. USS uses a formula utilizing the current and past two months average price for zinc as a determining factor regarding their coating extras.

According to Steel Market Update sources as well as press information out of the Chicago area - Beta Steel suffered a "slag eruption" in their Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). The eruption is under investigation but the assumption at this time is water may have been introduced into the vessel by accident. Read more ...

Some Background

Steel Market Update (SMU) originally started as a way to compliment my direct sales efforts and to communicate with my customers during my active sales career. I felt everyone – small, medium and large companies with whom I did business deserved to be treated fairly and they were entitled to the best information about the flat rolled steel market I could muster Read more ...

SMU tends to breeze through or not read at all the other steel-related periodicals. We feel they do a good job for their niche and in some ways may be a compliment to our publication. We managed recently to skim an issue of the American Metal Market and came across the following “Letter to the Editor.” Normally, I wouldn’t dare print (or reprint) an AMM article without permission. However, this is an open letter to the steel community written by a steel analyst with some following and stature in the industry. Read more ...

Esmark, Inc. may be back in the steel business a little more than a year after selling their assets at the peak of the market to Russia's Severstal for $775 million.

The recession has dealt us wealth creating opportunities

Earlier this week SMU attended the HARDI conference in Orlando, Florida. HARDI members are the distributors who service the residential and commercial construction industry with HVAC related products. Read more ...

Steel Market Update conducts a market survey every other week. Our survey is by invitation only to active buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel products within North America. Our invitation is sent to close to 700 companies - both manufacturers and service centers with a smattering of mills, trading companies and toll processors to get the full flavor of the market.

Steel Market Trends...

Our intention is to track trends - market momentum, Buyers Sentiment, inventory trends, purchasing trends, pricing trends and the general overall mood of the market. We keep track of the results and publish many of the items in our newsletter and on our website.

This week our SMU Buyers Sentiment was measured and we are reporting it to be -47% which is essentially unmoved from two weeks ago when we found it to be -45%. Those involved in the flat rolled business continue to remain negative about their companies position and the state of the steel markets.

Any Buyers Sentiment reading below 0 indicates buyers and sellers are not confident in their companies ability to grow their business in the current environment. So far this year, Buyers Sentiment has not reached into positive territory and the worst readings were achieved back in March at -85.4%.

Pricing momentum continues to trend lower this week as prices have declined on all products SMU indexes - hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume. Read more ...

SMU happens to have contact with a U.S. based steel buyer traveling in Asia looking for steel export opportunities and getting a feel for the landscape and mood in Asia. Here is a portion of what they had to say late last week:

“Construction appears to be booming around Shanghai. A world expo will be held here in May 2010 and there is much construction ahead of the Expo. Funny thing is you see tons of cranes but very little actual work except on the government projects. Read more ...

Commodity prices have been skyrocketing with the declining value of the U.S. dollar. North American galvanizing mills are once again starting to get squeezed as spot zinc pricing has gone from $.80 per pound (approximately $1760 per metric ton) in early September to the current price of $1.0039 per pound (approximately $2215 per metric ton) at the close of trading on Thursday.

NCI Building Systems has completed a recapitalization which the company has been working toward for almost one year now. In an interview with Steel Market Update, Norman Chambers, CEO of NCI reported the immediate impact of the recapitalization will be to allow the company to return to their core strategy of organic growth and prudent acquisitions.

Over the past year NCI has shut down 25% of their plants and reduced their workforce by 40% in order for the company to return to profitability which it did during their 3rd Quarter. Read more ...

Getting the News Not Quite Right

I received a request from MetalMiner (agmetalminer.com) for an interview regarding the information contained in a recently published article on the U.S. steel business by The TEX Report, Ltd. which is the only English produced newsletter dedicated to the steel industry in Japan. The TEX Report published an article about the U.S. integrated steel mills and the number of blast furnace accidents which, according to The TEX Report have caused a new deterioration in steel supplies for North American customers. The article was picked up by another newsletter called Steel Trade Today (Steel Guru) and broadcast around the world.

Every other week, Steel Market Update (SMU)conducts a market survey by invitation only. We invite slightly more than 700 active companies who either purchase, sell, produce, trade or toll process flat rolled steel products - hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume in sheet or coil form. Read more ...

SMU received the following letter (email) over the weekend and the author, who is part of a large service center organization, gave us permission to share the information presented and the question posed to SMU and our readers. Here are the comments made:

John, to your dialog on, "Are the domestic mills bringing back too much capacity too soon?" - I'd be interested on your readers thoughts on the following....

How much has business improved from the depths of April & May '09?

The supply picture is easier to document. Domestic production is up 400,000 tons per week from that period or about 40% (call it 1,000,000 to 1,400,000). Read more ...

Steel Market Update conducts regular conference calls with a number of the financial analysts - Kuni Chen of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Timna Tanners, UBS and we are working with Chuck Bradford as well. I thought our readers might be interested in some of my notes from this morning's conference call with Kuni Chen as we discussed the new steel capacity coming online and whether it is too much for the market to bear. Read more ...

Essar Steel Algoma was to have started "blowing wind" into the #7 furnace on Wednesday of this week. However, the mill determined additional repairs to the bustle pipe were necessary and have delayed the restart until late his week or this weekend.

As of today, the mill has lost 120,000 short tons of production and are projected to lose an additional 40,000 to 56,000 short tons if the mill comes up as the mill now suggests in their note to Steel Market Update earlier today: Read more ...

Update - 3:50 PM Friday, October 2 - according to SMU sources the AK Steel fire was small and was termed as a "break out". The furnace is back in operation.

Original Post

Local press reports have been reporting a fire at the AK Steel Middletown blast furnace (Number 3 furnace). Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) recently informed our members (those who subscriber or are trial subscribers to our newsletter and website) the pricing trend, or market momentum, has reversed itself over the past few weeks.

In our most recent pricing analysis of flat rolled steel products we are seeing a decline in pricing in hot rolled coil and galvanized coil. The SMU hot rolled index declined by $20 per ton this week from $565 per short ton to $555 per short ton. We are now forecasting hot rolled prices to trend lower over the next 30-60 days. Read more ...

Essar Steel Algoma lost their only operating blast furnace late last week (see Friday article in our newsletter) due to the failure of a bustle pipe which supplies hot blast into the furnace. The mill has evaluated the damage and has reported their results to Steel Market Update earlier today (Monday):

"We have completed an assessment of the damage caused by the failure of the bustle pipe on No. 7 blast furnace.

Based on our targeted repair plan, best case scenario for start up is Monday, October 5 with an expectation for usable metal within 3 to 5 days thereafter. It should be understood there is always an element of unknown when dealing with repairs of this nature and the timeline will be subject to review as repairs progress. No. 6 blast furnace will be readied as a back up in the event it is required.

A previously scheduled steelmaking maintenance outage has been pulled ahead and the reline of No. 4 vessel is underway.

Production at the Plate and Strip mills and all finishing units continues this week."

The question now is how much melt will the mill lose and do they have enough slabs to not impact their current order book. The number 7 furnace is rated at 8400 short tons per day. It appears the mill will lose approximately 14 days of production which means if the furnace was operating at peak capacity at the time of the accident the mill lost 117,600 short tons of hot metal.

SMU will continue to watch this story as it develops.

Severstal North America published new extras on Thursday of this week. The mill has been consolidating their mills (Dearborn, Sparrows Point, Wheeling, Warren and Columbus, LA) into one sales unit. This latest move to come out with a single pricing system is a continuation of the consolidation process and change in corporate philosophy. Read more ...

The following article was published by Recycling Today after attending the ISRI commodity conference in Chicago this past week. Steel Market Update participated in the ferrous roundtable portion of the conference and here is what Recycling Today had to say about our discussion:

While American manufacturing and steelmaking activity remains sluggish, the rest of the world continues to place significant orders for ferrous scrap. Read more ...

Based on preliminary import license data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Import Administration - flat rolled steel imports for the month of August increased by 25.4%.

Imports of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized sheet total 248,279 metric ton (273,680 short tons) for the month of August (again these are preliminary import license numbers) compared to 185,319 metric tons (204,278 short tons) received during the month of July. Read more ...

President Obama took a big step toward the protectionist hall of infamy when he invoked a previously unused trade law to impose stiff tariffs on Chinese tires last week. But the law at issue in that case is far from the only legal tool available to U.S. protectionists. For an example, look no further than steel. Read more ...

The Wall Street Journal published an article in their September 14, 2009 edition (came out this evening online) and the writer presents a case for steel prices eroding. I have written to the author of the article with my own opinions and documents and we are involved in an email dialogue as I write this article. I think it is necessary to share some of my thoughts here as I expect the WSJ article could create confusion for those actually buying and selling steel in the marketplace. Read more ...

ArcelorMittal confirmed to Steel Market Update today (Friday) of their intention to restart the C-6 blast furnace at their Cleveland Works. According to the company spokesperson:

ArcelorMittal is restarting the C-6 blast furnace at ArcelorMittal Cleveland.

It's only Wednesday and it seems like we have already been through a full week's worth of new pricing data and associated news. As Steel Market Update has reported in our newsletter - on Tuesday the domestic (North American) steel market absorbed a number of body blows from the domestic steel mills. Read more ...

U.S. Steel has finally come out with their November and December 2009 flat rolled steel base prices. The mill began informing their customers this morning (Tuesday, September 8) of their intention to increase prices as follows: Read more ...

Almost every domestic steel mill has made some sort of price announcement for late October/early November production. The move to higher prices began with ArcelorMittal (North America) announcing spot price increases of $60 per short ton ($3.00/cwt or $66 per metric ton) on August 27th effective with any new order. AM clarified their position to their coated customers the following day by advising them to use the "U.S. Steel extras on the USS website".

Severstal NA followed closely behind AM by matching their base prices but, Severstal decided to continue with their existing extras thus giving them an advantage in the spot market vs. ArcelorMittal on coated products - galvanized and Galvalume. Read more ...

In a letter to their customers dated September 2, 2009 (today) - Nucor announced a flat rolled price increase effective with orders acknowledged to ship the week ending October 24th. Read more ...

Steel Dynamics and AK Steel came out this week with new rounds of price increases. As usual the two companies responded to their markets differently. Steel Dynamics (SDI) began informing their customers of their base price changes on a customer by customer basis. AK Steel presented theirs as a press release on their website.

The net result are both companies have chosen to increase prices effective with new orders (in the case of AK Steel) and on October orders (for SDI). Read more ...

With the recent price increase announcement by ArcelorMittal of $60 per ton in North America, the gauntlet has been dropped for the rest of the industry to follow suit. Steel Market Update (SMU) sources are telling us to expect Severstal to follow this week and many other mills who suspended their order book (stopped taking new orders at old prices)will make their price adjustments - some as early as today (Monday, August 31).

Steel Market Update reported on August 20th the intentions of U.S. Steel to restart their blast furnace at the Hamilton Works facility in Canada. At the time, our sources advised SMU that heat was being blown in the furnace and it would be only a matter of seven to ten days before the furnace would be ready to begin making hot metal. Read more ...

In a letter to their customers, ArcelorMittal fired the first new salvo from a domestic mill raising prices on flat rolled steel orders. Mittal advised their sales staff the new pricing will be in effect on any "new order or commitment."

U.S. Steel Looking to Start Hamilton Furnace

Industry sources have informed Steel Market Update that work has begun to prepare the Hamilton Works blast furnace for restart. Contractors have been working on the furnace for a couple of weeks and have begun blowing heat into the furnace. Once they start blowing heat our sources tell SMU the furnace could be ready for production within the next week to 10 days. The “E” furnace is capable of producing 5,500 short tons of melt per day. Read more ...

MSCI - Flat Rolled Inventories at 1.8 Months

Total Steel Inventories Down 49% from 2008 peak

The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported total U.S. steel shipments increased in July to 113,800 tons per day (average) which is an increase of approximately 2% compared to June. However, compared to July 2008 shipments were almost 40% lower.

On Thursday, August 13th, Nucor Steel announced their anticipated flat rolled steel price increases. In a letter to their customers, Nucor cited "increased order activity and strengthening demand" as the reason for this spot market price increase. The increases are as follows: Read more ...

Steel Market Update (SMU) price indexes continued to rise this week for all flat rolled products. Hot rolled prices, which began 2009 with a range of $500 - $520 per short ton ($25.00/cwt-$26.00/cwt) and an average of $510 per ton ($25.50/cwt) and then dropped virtually every week for the first five months of 2009 hitting a low on June 1 of $360-$400 per ton with an average of $380 per short ton ($19.00/ccwt). As of today, August 13th, hot rolled prices have essentially returned to the early January levels as our average hit $520 per ton ($26.00/cwt) as the domestic price increases for September and October are starting to take affect.

Severstal NA Operating as Normal – Disputes AMM Article

The Story

The American Metal Market published an article earlier today (Thursday) which stated according to their sources, Severstal NA (North America) plans on pulling out of the U.S. steel market. According to the AMM union leaders representing the USW led plants were informed of the decision over the past couple of weeks. Read more ...

Late last week (July 31st)and earlier this week, U.S. Steel began advising their customers of a change in their coating extras. The new extras will become effective beginning with October 2009 shipments out of the USS mills. The new extras were not unexpected by Steel Market Update as we have been warning our members for weeks of the increased LME zinc pricing and that the current coating extras out of the domestic steel industry were not covering the cost to apply the zinc to the steel - never mind any margin.

The U.S. dollar closed at its lowest level in a year on Friday. With the low value of the dollar commodity prices are rising and the net affect is going to be higher steel prices. The low dollar means steel imports will not be a factor here - even with the rising price of flat rolled steel products. It also means Read more ...

One of the key leaders of the "Buy American" push here in the United States has been Dan DiMicco and Nucor Steel. Nucor reported earnings earlier this week (another loss) and during the analyst conference call Mr. DiMicco was asked if there had been evidence of stimulus related spending - his response was "zero". Read more ...

For those who don't know there is a little "tiff" between U.S. Steel (the mill) and Canada (the country located just north of Minnesota). The disagreement has to do with the idling of the former Stelco steel plants which U.S.Steel purchased in 2007 with the permission of the Canadian government. Read more ...