Monday is December 1st. This means we will begin our early December flat rolled steel market survey first thing Monday morning. Look for your invitation around 8 AM ET on Monday. If you receive an invitation please take a few minutes to click on the link and respond to our questionnaire which is housed on […]
First, I want to wish everyone in the United States a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends. Steel Market Update will not publish on Thursday but will return to our normal schedule on Sunday evening. Our offices will be open both on Wednesday and Friday of this week but will be closed on Thanksgiving […]
Last week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-November flat rolled steel market survey. We invited approximately 600 companies to participate representing manufacturing, steel service centers, trading companies, steel mills, toll processors and suppliers to the steel industry. Last week’s participation mix was very similar to what we see on a regular basis with 46 […]
This is part of a series of articles for those associated with the steel industry who are interested in steel sales or steel purchasing. Steel Market Update “Truth About Selling Steel” as well as our “Steel Buyers Basics” articles can be found on our website and are available to the public. Steel Market Update (SMU) […]
With crude oil prices breaking through $80 per barrel, all eyes are on the Baker Hughes rig count data. The question is will the lower oil prices affect the number of wells being drilled? Most assume there will be an impact, however, it could have a lag effect and take time before there is a […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. indicates hot rolled coil price momentum continued its downward trend for the 13th week in a row. MoMo, which is a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price movements […]
We understand from press reports in the Baltimore, Maryland area that the new owners of Sparrows Point will announce on Monday, November 24th when the “L” blast furnace will be demolished. It is expected that the furnace, which is one of the tallest structures for miles around, will be taken down sometime in December. The […]
Buyers and sellers of steel are beginning to feel the strain of reduced demand (whether seasonal or otherwise), stable to falling steel prices and a very competitive service center spot market which impacts distributors margins. The bottom line is those actively involved in the flat rolled steel industry in the United States and Canada are […]
Last year at this time hot rolled steel prices averaged $670 per ton and were close to the peak for the year which was $680 per ton (SMU index HRC average). Lead times peaked the first week in December on all flat rolled with the exception of Galvalume. From mid-December 2013 until the middle of […]
The vast majority of our SMU steel survey respondents reported the domestic steel mills as willing to negotiate flat rolled steel prices this week. Those reporting the mills as willing to negotiate hot rolled prices increase by 2 percent to 70 percent of the respondents. Cold rolled jumped by an even greater margin from 52 […]
Total light vehicle sales were little changed in October at 16.5 million units, up from 16.4 million in September, both on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. The spread between light trucks and autos, which in September was one million units in favor of light trucks, decreased to 0.5 million. On a y/y basis total light […]
Starts in October fell to an annual rate of 1,009,000 units from 1,038,000 in September. The three month moving average (3MMA) decreased from 1,033,000 units to 1003,000, (Figure 1). This was the second time since January that the 3MMA had exceeded a million units. The year over year growth rate of the 3MMA of total […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported flat rolled steel inventories earlier this week. Steel Market Update then reviews the data and incorporates the information into a proprietary model which assists us in determining whether inventories are short (deficit) or long (excess) based on what our model is telling us. When September ended we were […]
The way our market surveys work is we invite approximately 600 companies to participate. Each individual receives and email invitation with a link to the survey which is hosted on SurveyMonkey.com. The first few questions are posed to the entire group. We asked questions related to our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, general demand and […]
I noticed one of the analysts had reported CSN out of Brazil as shipping between 300,000-500,000 tons of flat rolled steel in the 4th Quarter 2014 into the United States. Our sources have advised us that the number is closer to 130,000 tons with a portion of the tons going directly to the CSN mill […]
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 August 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 September 2014 increased 9.5 percent, […]
With crude oil prices breaking through $80 per barrel, all eyes are on the Baker Hughes rig count data. The question is will the lower oil prices affect the number of wells being drilled? Most assume there will be an impact however, it could have a lag effect and take time before there is a […]
The Dodge Momentum Index, an indicator of nonresidential construction intentions, rose 7.6 percent in October. The following is the press release from Dodge Data & Analytics. NEW YORK – NEW YORK – The Dodge Momentum Index rose in October, climbing to 125.5 (2000=100) for the month, up 7.6% from September’s reading of 116.6 according to […]
This past week I participated in the Cowen & Company conference in New York City and then traveled to Savannah, Georgia to attend the Association of Women in the Metals Industries international conference. Both conferences were well done. I spoke about the Cowen & Company conference in our last edition of SMU. Tonight I wanted […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. indicates hot rolled coil price momentum continued its downward trend for the twelfth week in a row. MoMo, which is a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price movements […]
I was at the Cowen & Company Global Metals, Mining and Materials Conference in New York City earlier this week. I always find it interesting when meeting with members of the financial community as their questions and concerns can many times be much different than those of the steel community. The constant question was how […]
Vicwest Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of engineered storage and handling systems, will be sold to Kingspan Group and Ag Growth International Inc. (AGI). The company is valued at Canadian $350 million (US$ 308.6 million). Irish insulation and materials manufacturer Kingspan will purchase all the outstanding shares of Vicwest and will retain the Vicwest […]
I have been in New York City since Sunday. I am participating in a panel on Wednesday at the Cowen & Company conference. Steel people don’t get to attend most of the financial related conferences. The attendees tend to be hedge fund managers and investors. Their perspectives of the steel industry can be quite different […]
One of the items Steel Market Update is watching closely is steel mill lead times. This is especially true after price increases have been announced. Typically, we see lead times move out (extend) after a price announcement has been made. This is due to the rush to get orders quoted prior to the increase announcement […]
Based on the responses from last week’s Steel Market Update survey of the flat rolled steel market, buyers and sellers of steel reported the domestic steel mills as less willing to negotiate steel prices than what we saw during the middle of October. However, even though the percentages were smaller, the majority of buyers and […]
With crude oil prices breaking through $80 per barrel, all eyes are on the Baker Hughes rig count data. The question is will the lower oil prices affect the number of wells being drilled be affected? Most assume there will be an impact however, it could have a lag effect and take time before there […]
The Truth About Selling Steel is a series of articles written by John Packard (with help from some of his friends), founder and publisher of Steel Market Update. You can find a number of the previous articles about the sales process under the resources tab in our website. Steel Market Update is in the middle […]
One thing that we learned from the earnings conference calls which were conducted over the past two weeks: the domestic steel mills will be entering 2015 with all of their blast furnaces online, maintenance completed and (hopefully) running well. Barring any unforeseen circumstances we should have plenty of domestic supply going into the traditionally strong […]
It may be a different day but buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are still singing the same optimistic song regarding their company’s chances of being successful in the current (and future) steel environment. Steel Market Update has been conducting our early November flat rolled steel market survey all week and this afternoon we […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early November flat rolled steel market survey this week. We invited approximately 600 companies to participate in the process. Of those participating 44 percent were manufacturing companies and 44 percent were steel service centers. The balance of the respondents was comprised of 6 percent trading companies, 5 percent steel […]