This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 31st week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
So, why haven’t we released our program for the upcoming Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta on September 1 & 2, 2015? Well, we are waiting until we have all of our keynote speakers confirmed and committed. We believe we will have an exceptional program once again this year. As we have in the past, our […]
On a seasonally adjusted annual rate, light vehicle sales weakened in February to 16.2 million units, down from 16.7 million units in January but still up by 5.2 percent from February last year. The probable cause was inclement weather at the end of the month. Analysts had been expecting sales at a 16.7 million annual […]
Sales rose for both existing and new homes in February. However, buyers are facing availability issues and escalating pricing. The National Association of Realtors reported existing home sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million in February from 4.82 million in January. Sales were 4.7 percent higher than a year ago. Tight […]
Last week a number of the large Chinese steel mills who have offices in the United States met to discuss the pressures being placed on the Chinese mills by both the Chinese central government and the U.S. government to control (reduce) the amount of steel being exported to the United States. SMU heard over the […]
One of the most import keys being watched by buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are the steel mill lead times on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products. Lead times, which are the amount of time it takes to get material produced once a purchase order is placed, have been running “short” […]
Based on the results from our most recent flat rolled steel market analysis which we conducted this past week, manufacturing companies and service centers reported domestic (USA and Canada) steel mills as willing to negotiate pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steel coils. As you can see by the graphic shared below, […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 20th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,069 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 56 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 41 to 825 rigs, gas rigs down 15 to 242 rigs, and […]
I want to take a moment to welcome our newest members to Steel Market Update. I want to remind all of our members that we encourage comments, questions and suggestions. Many of our best articles are done in response to questions being asked of us by the active steel community. We find if one person […]
Those involved in the flat rolled steel industry continue to be optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful both in the current market environment as well as three to six months into the future. The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index (current market) is being reported at +53. This is four points higher than two […]
Not to toot our own horn too loudly, we came within a whisker of nailing both shipments and inventories in our last Service Center Inventory Apparent Excess/Deficit forecast. In our last forecast we indicated flat rolled shipments would be 2,253,000 tons and based on the MSCI data released earlier this week the actual number was […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 30th week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
Any of you out there feeling like the beat of the anti-import drums are once again beating harder and harder. So, what happens if the Chinese steel mills decide to “voluntarily” reduce or allocate their export tonnage to the United States? First, would they try to allocate at existing tonnage levels (which are quite high) […]
Continued increases in construction employment are at risk if Congress does not address infrastructure funding, says the Associated General Contractors of America. Increased regulation is also “adding costly new paperwork and reporting requirements for employers” without addressing problems. The report by AGC is reprinted below: Construction firms added jobs in 43 states and the District […]
Housing starts in February declined by 184,000 annualized to 897,000 from 1,081,000 in January. This data is seasonally adjusted by the Census department. The three month moving average, (3MMA) fared much better declining to 1,020,000 from 1,059,000 which was a blip in a steadily improving trajectory, (Figure 1). This was the sixth consecutive month that […]
I want to shout out to all of the people who worked on tonight’s newsletter as this has been a particularly hectic day for me due to my travel schedule. Brett Linton and Sandy Williams both did great jobs (as usual) as they bounced from subject to subject and article to article. Peter Wright continues […]
Below is the latest data issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through December 2014. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for January 2015 increased 11.2 percent, […]
We will begin a new flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) on Monday morning at 8 AM ET. There are lots of questions which are unanswered and we want to probe your thoughts on the subject. As I mentioned, invites to the survey will be sent out at 8 AM ET. If you receive an […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 29th week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
I thought I would wait for my Final Thoughts area of the newsletter before broaching the rumor mill which has been begun questioning at what point do the domestic steel mills go out into the market and announce price increases. I had a number of conversations over the past few days with both consumers of […]
The Dodge Momentum Index rose 4.3 percent to 126.3 in February from 121.1 in January, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. The index has shown volatility over the last three months, up in December down in January and up again in February. On a year over year basis the index is up 17 percent indicating […]
I reproduced part of an article written by David Phelps about the fling of an anti-dumping trade case, what the mills have to prove and how the system works. The original article was written back in July 2014 and the exact same subject, with the exact same products and same cast of characters, exists today. […]
When it comes to the laws of supply and demand within the steel industry, many steel executives in their quarterly conference calls will reference steel service center inventories. As you look at the graphic below you can clearly see the trend change as steel service center inventories began to balloon in 4th Quarter 2014 and […]
Lead times on flat rolled products remained less than stellar based on the results of our last flat rolled steel market analysis conducted this past week. The respondents to our steel survey pegged hot rolled lead times as averaging 2.92 weeks, statistically unchanged from what we saw as an average during the middle of February. […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel have been advising Steel Market Update during our flat rolled steel market survey process that the domestic steel mills are willing to negotiate steel prices. Since the beginning of the year the percentage of agreement amongst our respondents (which average 110 to 170 companies) has been almost unanimous. […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 6th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,192 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 75 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 64 to 922 rigs, gas rigs down 12 to 268 rigs, and […]
Someone asked me recently what value is there in a publication like ours? Perhaps the best real life example I have to reference is about the two decisions made here in Dawson County, Georgia to build first, a new jail and then second, a new courthouse. The county ignored my warnings when they built the […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) concluded our 5th flat rolled steel market survey earlier today. After evaluating the responses we found buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to be optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful both in the current as well as the future steel markets (3-6 months out). The SMU Steel […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 28th week in a row (6+ months!). MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil […]
Steel Market Update just concluded our 5th flat rolled steel market survey earlier today. We have a couple of articles in tonight’s issue associated with our survey results and there will be more on Sunday. Our Premium level members should have access to the latest Power Point presentation on the survey results on our website […]