Steel Products
Builder Confidence at Highest Level in 8 Years
Written by Sandy Williams
August 16, 2013
Builders are feeling more confident about the housing market according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The August Index shows an increase of three points to 59, bringing the index to its highest level in almost eight years.
Of the three components used in the monthly survey to compile the index, current sales conditions rose three points to 62 in August, sales expectations for the next six months rose one point to 68, and traffic of prospective buyers was unchanged at 45.
In a three month moving average for the Housing Market Index, the Midwest and West gained six points each, 60 and 57, respectively. The Northeast was unchanged at 39 and the South moved up four points to 54.
The NAHB reports buyers are motivated by firming home prices and limited inventory of homes for sale. The momentum of buying, however, is being slowed somewhat by “tight credit and low supplies of finished lots and labor,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.
Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Products
US HR and offshore prices hold steady
Domestic hot-rolled (HR) coil prices were flat this week, a trend mirrored in offshore markets.
North American auto assemblies improve in February
After slumping in December to the lowest total since July 2021, February assemblies further expanded on January’s growth.
US light-vehicle sales improve in February
US light-vehicle (LV) sales increased to an unadjusted 1.22 million units in February, a 9.9% gain over January but 0.7% behind year-ago totals, according to US Bureau of Economic Analysis data.
February service center shipments and inventories report
Flat rolled = 58.6 shipping days of supply Plate = 49 shipping days of supply Flat rolled With the rapid run up in prices, US service centers saw a significant pickup in orders that caused flat-rolled steel supply to decline in February. At the end of February, service centers carried 58.6 shipping days of flat-rolled […]
Leibowitz: Trade — bedrock economic relationships are circling the drain
Which is more important: producers or consumers? New (and arbitrary) steel and aluminum tariffs took effect last Wednesday. Based on the Section 232 trade restrictions initially imposed in 2018 – and kept by the Biden administration – they abrogate agreements between the US and Canada, Mexico, the UK, the EU, Argentina, Brazil, and Australia. They […]