Existing home sales declined for the second month in a row, falling 0.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.33 million in August. The National Association of Realtors suggests higher home prices and tight inventory kept buyers at bay last month, despite low mortgage rates. “Healthy labor markets in most the country should […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the tenth consecutive week, following a 28 week long positive streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average […]
The Architecture Billings Index dipped to 49.7 in August from 51.5 in July. The Northeast average dropped to 44.9 which pulled the headline index down. “This is only the second month this year where demand for architectural services has declined and it is only by a fraction of a point,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit […]
There have been two complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce for circumvention of duties by Vietnam. One is on CORE (corrosion resistant steels like galvanized and Galvalume) and the second one is on cold rolled. Steel Market Update has seen the CORE complaint but we have not yet seen the cold rolled one. […]
Housing starts were down 5.8 percent from July to August. The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,142,000, 0.9 percent higher than year ago levels. Single family starts were down 6.0 percent and multi-family down 6.9 percent. The housing starts […]
I got a note from Eddie Lehner, the CEO of Ryerson who attended our Steel Summit Conference for the first time this year. He dropped me a note today about our conference, “The SMU Conference is flat out worth attending. An unusual combination of candor, depth and subject matter relevance throughout the steel value chain […]
With the Wheatland Tube filing of a complaint against China using the ENFORCE Act we are about to enter the next stage of trade complaints. The Wheatland complaint is for circumvention of duties that already exist against Chinese products, so it will be interesting how quickly this first test case takes and will Customs and […]
Below is the latest release issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through July 2016. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for July 2016 increased 3.0 percent […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the ninth consecutive week, following a 28 week long positive streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average […]
When speaking to one of the main ferrous scrap analysts in the industry our newsletter was paid a compliment when I asked if the scrap community was aware of our newsletter. I was told, “They do already. Many of them have a lot of confidence in your reports. They refer to it more often then […]
The Dodge Momentum Index rose 1.3 percent in August to 134.9. Institutional construction planning gained 1.7 percent last month and commercial planning 1.0 percent. The index has made gains for five consecutive months. The Momentum Index is up 16 percent from August 2015 due to a 22 percent growth in institutional planning and 22 percent […]
I spent a great deal of time on two projects: flat rolled pricing and steel mill maintenance schedules. I want to thank those companies who worked with me over the past few working days to be able to provide what I think is better data (both in pricing and in the schedules) than what has […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a review of the flat rolled steel market in our quest to better understand market trends which affect steel pricing and purchasing. We invite approximately 550-600 steel people to participate in our questionnaires. Those invited come from the manufacturing segment of the industry (approximately 45 to 50 […]
The duties on automotive steel from Korea due to antidumping (AD) may affect pricing of vehicles at Hyundai and Kia here in the U.S. Dumping and countervailing duties have been determined by the Department of Commerce on imports of Korean coated, hot-rolled, and cold-rolled steel. Hyundai Steel, part of Hyundai Group, exports approximately 545,000 tons […]
Today we remember those who lost their lives in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and those aboard United Airlines flight 93 which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Although it was a time of devastation and despair it was also a time when the world united behind the United States and the global fight against […]
The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index has been showing signs of a rebound as our Current Index is being released as +63 this week. This is a +2 point improvement from the middle of August and +5 point improvement since the beginning of August. However, SMU prefers to look at our Current and Future Sentiment […]
The following information comes from our flat rolled steel market trends survey which began last Friday and concluded earlier today. Do not confuse our survey results with actual lead time sheets produced by individual steel mill locations. Based on what our respondents shared with SMU, lead times on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume […]
With lead times shrinking on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels it would be normal to collect data suggesting the domestic steel mills are becoming more negotiable on the spot pricing. The following information was gathered through our flat rolled steel market trends analysis over the past six days. We found that the […]
U.S. automotive sales took a 4.1 percent dip in August as demand softened after record breaking sales in 2015. Sales totaled 1.506 million vehicles last month, according to final tally by Wards Auto. The seasonally adjusted annual rate fell short of expectations at 16.9 million, well below July’s SAAR of 17.8 million and the August […]
Canadian autoworkers selected General Motors as target company as contract negotiations begin for approximately 23,000 union workers Unifor, which represents autoworkers at GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler NV in Canada, will use negotiations with GM to set the pattern for talks with the other two manufacturers. Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, called General Motors the […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States dropped this week for the eighth consecutive week, following a 28 week long positive streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average price […]
Ferrous scrap prices drifting lower by as much as $30 per gross ton (Detroit) on primes and $20 (Detroit) on shred will put some pressure on flat rolled steel spot prices in the coming weeks. Not all of the regions have settled prices and the dealers are resisting going down as much as what was […]
Boy was it nice to have a long weekend off. After the non-stop go, go, go of our Steel Summit Conference I needed a few days to just unwind and do essentially nothing. As of 6 PM this evening the weekly raw steel production report provided by the AISI had not been published. Too much […]
Home prices in June gained 5.1 percent year-over-year, according to the latest results of the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices. The National Home Price NSA index was unchanged from last month. The 20-city composite gained 5.1 percent year-over-year, down from 5.3 percent in May. Portland, Seattle and Denver reported the highest annual gains. On a seasonally […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the seventh consecutive week, following a 28 week long positive streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average […]
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Steel Market Update conducted our 6th Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was the largest for us with 428 steel executives participating. I will let a few of the comments I got this morning speak for themselves: “Great conference John. Very well put together…..best one […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. This will explain the difference between our view of the present situation which is subjective and our analysis of trends which is based on the latest facts available. At the end of […]
Earlier this evening we concluded the second day of our three day Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. The conference kicked off on Monday afternoon with trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz discussing antidumping/countervailing duty and other trade related items and remedies. Today we had a full day with speakers representing Steel Dynamics, Cliffs Natural Resources, Cargill, Bank […]
I had dinner with trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz this evening (Sunday). We discussed his presentation which will begin at 3:30 PM in Salon E at the Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel. During dinner we spoke about the history of the steel industry and how the United States, after World War II intentionally helped build those countries […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the sixth consecutive week, following a 28 week long positive streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average […]