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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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 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.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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).

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."

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.

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 ...

Say What?

The lead on the front page of the Wall Street Journal – “Big miners and steelmakers are pushing for a quarterly, rather than annual pricing system, which could make steel prices more volatile.”

Hello, I don’t know about you guys – but I think prices here in the U.S. have been about as volatile as humanly possible – especially over the past 18 months (and counting). Read more ...

Besides watching flat rolled steel prices SMU likes to keep our eyes on the scrap markets as they are one of the key drivers of future steel pricing. This week saw increases in scrap prices on HMS (heavy melt), shredded scrap as well as prime grades such as number 1 busheling which Nucor uses as the benchmark for their flat rolled contract customers raw material surcharge.

Read more ...

Nucor, Berkley is the first mill to move as they have told their customers spot prices on any remaining August orders will be higher. Hot rolled has been taken up to a $24.00/cwt base ($480 per ton) and Cold Rolled has been moved to a $28.00/cwt base. Their galvanized order book is full for the month of August.

I am in New York City for a few days attending Steel Survival Strategies conference. Many of the CEO's of the largest North American mills will be speaking - U.S. Steel,Nucor, AK Steel, ArcelorMittal and others. A number of analysts will be speaking as well. Read more ...

Welcome to the Steel Market Update brand new website. It seems like we have been working on getting this site up for years when in reality it has taken but a few months. I want to take the opportunity to introduce interesting items which can be found on our new site.