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 […]
Existing home sales lost momentum in July, falling for the first time since November 2015. The National Association of Realtors reports that sales were down 3.2 percent from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million. On a year over year basis sales fell 1.6 percent marking only the second time in the […]
I am in Atlanta and if you see me walking aimlessly about town on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a glassy look in my eyes it is because the kickoff of our 6th Steel Summit Conference is on Monday. We are essentially sold out, every seat in the house should be filled. We have an […]
The following article is normally shared with just our Premium level members. Steel Market Update (SMU) has a proprietary product whereby we analyze the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) carbon flat rolled shipments and inventories at the end of each month. Based on our model, we come up with a number indicating whether service center […]
Light vehicle (LV) sales bounced back to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 17.9 million units in July from 16.7 million in June (Figure 1). July was the best month since November last year. Autos rose from 6.8 to 7.1 million and light trucks rose from 9.9 to 10.8 million. The mix in July […]
New home sales rose 12.4 percent from June to July according to estimates released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 654,000, 31.3 percent above the year ago level and at their highest level in almost nine […]
As I wander around the industry talking to buyers and sellers of steel I am always asking and listening for the signs of change. These are “warnings” to my ears and I heard one earlier today that needs to be pursued further and I think we will have the opportunity to do so at our […]
Last week Steel Market Update conducted our mid-August flat rolled steel market trends analysis. For those new to our newsletter, we invite approximately 600 people representing about 550 companies to participate in our bi-monthly questionnaire. Our normal response rate is 100 to 150 people. Last week’s mix was 44 percent service centers, 43 percent manufacturing […]
The following Steel Buyers Basics article was originally written by Mario Briccetti, CEO of Briccetti and Associates and an instructor for Steel Market Update (Steel 101 & Custom Training). If you would like to learn more on this subject Mr. Briccetti will be at our Steel Summit Conference on the 29th through the 31st of […]
I expect the next seven days will be quite hectic in my life and those of our SMU team as we make final preparations for the 2016 Steel Summit Conference. I will actually be traveling to Georgia on Wednesday and will work from there until the conference has concluded. We do have a few spots […]
SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index Twice per month, Steel Market Update surveys the flat rolled steel industry. One of the proprietary products which is derived from that expansive survey is the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. Sentiment is defined as how buyers and sellers feel about their company’s ability to be successful both in the […]
In our last issue of Steel Market Update we wrote about lead times shrinking as being one of the reasons why we adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator. We cited published lead times by NLMK USA and Nucor Berkeley as examples of the changes we were seeing and discussing with steel buyers. This week we conducted […]