• Skip to main content

    Overseas

    March 24, 2022

    CRU: Raw Material Price Increases Cause Global Sheet Price Hike

    Written by Ryan McKinley

    By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor, March 23

    Persistently high steelmaking raw material prices and restricted global production pushed sheet prices higher w/w across the world. The largest of these increases were in Europe and the USA, with prices rising by triple-digit amounts for yet another week. Still, domestic buyers in both markets are growing wary of this sharp price spike and are generally only making purchases when necessary. Nearly all Asian exporters are now focused on sending material to Europe given the quick rise in prices there, leaving Chinese exporters as the only option for importers in other parts of Asia. Between this and logistical issues caused by the recent Covid-19 outbreak in China, prices around Asia were also up w/w.

    Ryan McKinley

    Ryan joined CRU in 2018 and is now the editor of the Steel Sheet Monitor. He also forecasts North American prices, production, demand, and trade for sheet and plate products in CRU's Steel Sheet and Plate Market Outlooks. Ryan has eight years of experience in steel market analytics, covering markets from steel metallics, steel long products, stainless steel, and now steel sheet and plate markets. Prior to joining CRU, he covered a variety of local North American scrap markets at Argus Media. He holds a BA in Political Science from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, and an MA in Energy Politics in Eurasia from European University located in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation. Ryan is based in Denver, Colorado.

    Read more from Ryan McKinley

    Latest in Overseas

    Price on Trade: Steel’s zero-sum game

    During the first three quarters of 2026, finished steel imports from South Korea increased 50.8% compared with the same period in 2025. Imports from Vietnam increased 23.4%, imports from Turkey increased 49.5%, and imports from India increased 29.5%. Those are not marginal increases. They are substantial import surges, especially in a US market where apparent domestic consumption has bounced around but has not grown since 2017. More importantly, these import surges are arriving at lower average unit values (AUVs).

    Commerce updates duties on Japanese HR

    The US Department of Commerce has adjusted anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled flat steel products from Japan. The adjustment has lowered duties for one company but raised them for others. Commerce made the adjustments in the final results of an administrative review of the year ended Sept. 30, 2024. The agency set a final weighted-average dumping margin of 13.96% for Nippon Steel companies. This is lower than the company’s previous rate of 29.7%.

    The words "Aluminum Market Update" in white against a dark blue background

    AMU: Edward Meir’s week in review and thoughts for the week of Oct. 12, 2026

    Base metals had a mixed week. Tin lost almost 4% on the week, finishing at $53,000/ton. Prices dropped to a low of $51,259/ton at one point. Aluminum was another loser, off by about 1.6% on the week. Investors are expecting more aluminum supply going forward, especially out of China and Indonesia. Copper prices tacked on 1.1%. They have now recovered more than half of the $700/ton loss sustained (over the course of a week) following reports/rumors in mid-September that US tariffs on refined copper imports might not proceed after all.

    worldsteel expects steady global steel demand in 2026, growth in 2027

    The World Steel Association (worldsteel) forecasts flat steel demand in 2026, as contraction in China and disruption in the Gulf region offset growth in India and other markets, including the US. Global demand is expected to rise slightly in 2027. The Brussels-based association’s Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2026 pegs global steel demand at 1,722 million metric tons (mt), essentially unchanged from 2025. For 2027, worldsteel forecasts 1.7% growth to 1,752 million mt. “The trajectory we set out in April holds, but the anticipated recovery is proving slower and more gradual than we had expected,” commented Alfonso Hidalgo de Calcerrada, chair of the worldsteel Economics Committee. “Global steel demand is now forecast to be flat in 2026 rather than to grow modestly, and to grow by 1.7% in 2027 rather than 2.2%. Almost the whole of that revision is a China story,” Calcerrada added.