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    Analysis

    May 30, 2025

    SMU's Week in Review: May 26-30

    Written by Stephanie Ritenbaugh

    With so much happening in the news cycle, we want to make it easier for you to keep track of it all. Here are highlights of what’s happened this past week and a few things to keep an eye on this upcoming week.

    We’re still waiting for more details on the agreement between U.S. Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel. Is it an acquisition? Is it a massive investment? What role do shareholders have in this? What will Nippon actually own?

    Stephanie Ritenbaugh

    Stephanie Ritenbaugh is a reporter for Steel Market Update. She is an experienced business journalist, holding a variety of positions for trade publications and newspapers, including covering shale development for Gas Business Briefing/Platts and for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She can be reached at stephanie.ritenbaugh@crugroup.com or +1 724-759-7868

    Read more from Stephanie Ritenbaugh

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    SMU Survey: Current Buyers’ Sentiment rises slightly as Future Sentiment dips

    SMU’s Current Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Index ticked up slightly this week, while Future Sentiment fell, according to our latest market survey. Every two weeks, SMU polls thousands of steel-industry executives, asking them to rate their companies’ chances of success today and also three to six months down the road. We use their responses to calculate our proprietary Current and Future Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices, measures tracked since 2008.

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    SMU Survey: Mill willingness to negotiate price at lowest levels since 2021

    The majority of steel buyers responding to our latest market survey reported that mills continue to hold a firm grip on prices. The share of buyers reporting that mills were negotiable fell this week to the lowest rate seen in over five years. Every two weeks, SMU surveys service center and manufacturer buyers asking if mills are negotiable on new spot sheet and plate orders. In this week’s survey, just 3% of respondents said mills were willing to talk price to secure an order (Figure 1). This is down 11 percentage points from our mid-October survey.