Market Segment
July 31, 2023
Ryerson said it expected demand to weaken in the near term after it reported a slump in second-quarter earnings.
The Chicago-based service center group reported net income of $38 million in Q2’23, down 81% from $196 million a year earlier on revenue that fell 23% to $1.34 billion.
The United Steelworkers (USW) union will meet with U.S. Steel (USS) on Friday as negotiations around terms of a new labor contract continue. The meeting comes after the USW and Cleveland-Cliffs, one of U.S. Steel’s competitors, agreed to a tentative labor agreement last week. “USS knows how this process works. They agreed to meet with us on Friday. The company knows they need to move, so this meeting should be productive,” the union said in a text to members on Wednesday. U.S. Steel did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
In this week's Market Chatter, steel buyers point to tight supply and steady demand as reasons sheet prices could keep rising, with many expecting HRC to reach $1,400-1,449 per short ton in two months. Views on when the rally will peak are mixed, with some anticipating further increases while others mention softening demand and political uncertainty. Respondents also disagree on tariffs' impact. They say reshoring is generating activity but has yet to translate consistently into demand.
Latin American steelmaker Ternium is considering filing more anti-dumping cases in Mexico, according to a report from Reuters. Ternium CEO Maximo Vedoya told Reuters on Tuesday that the company would “very likely” file more trade cases in Mexico after supporting recent trade actions there. Additionally, Vedoya said the US and Mexico share a common issue in combating unfairly traded steel.
Randall Metals has closed on its acquisition of tinplate and specialty flat-rolled products supplier Titan Steel. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed. Titan Steel has facilities in Baltimore and the Chicago area, and serves the food packaging, filtration, and construction markets, among others. "Scale is increasingly important in the service center market, and this transaction brings together the complementary strengths of our two businesses to address the challenges and opportunities of the changing global steel industry," Titan Steel CEO Max Levin said in a statement on Tuesday.
Mesabi Metallics has received preliminary approval for tax incentive terms for a proposed steel plant in Iowa, following a Nov. 10 meeting of the Lee County Board of Supervisors. The company, owned by India’s Essar Group, announced in late September its intention to build an electric-arc furnace steel plant in the state, which, if built, would be the largest in the US.