On Thursday evening I attended an Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) regional meeting in Chicago. Although the program had been set a couple of months ago, the timing was spot on as they had Larry Friedman, trade attorney with Barnes, Richardson & Colburn, LLP. He did an excellent job of positioning where the idea of […]
I was speaking with someone associated with one of the Korean trading companies earlier today. I was told that the Koreans will continue to quote and ship coated steels as they do not believe their mill(s) were involved in any dumping. I was also told by the same trader that they were placing business with […]
Steel Market Update was analyzing data from our last flat rolled market survey just as the domestic mills began announcing price increases. We thought our readers might be interested in looking at the data with us and then guess as to whether the new price increases will “stick” or falter over time. In our opinion, […]
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 April 2015. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for April 2015 decreased 8.8 percent, […]
I am back in my office for the first time in about three weeks. Of course, I am only here on Monday and Tuesday before taking a quick trip to Chicago where I will be speaking to a Bank of America group and then the following day I will attend the Association of Steel Distributors […]
Just a quick note to let our Premium level members know that earlier this week we put the latest imports by product, port and country on our website. You can review the data by clicking here. We received notification from the MSCI that their data will be released on Monday of next week. We will […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the United States was positive for the third consecutive week, following a 39 week negative streak. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current U.S. hot rolled coil (HRC) price movements against the previous […]
I was able to pick up a number of sponsors for our Steel Summit Conference. We now have commitments from: Magic Coil Products, Pacesetter Steel, Alliance Steel and Cargill. We thank those who support our efforts to produce quality steel workshops and conferences. Sponsors, such as the ones named above, help us keep our conference […]
Hello from New York City, the Big Apple, the friendly city (oh, that’s somewhere else…). If you have $20 for a drink (bar brand) and $50 for breakfast (for 2) it’s a great place to be, even better if you are on an expense plan with your company. Darn, I own this one… I’ve managed […]
Lead times have not shot out since the price increase announcements were made in early May. Hot rolled lead times were reported as being 3.5 weeks at the beginning of May and one month later HRC lead times averaged 3.66 weeks according to the results of our most recent flat rolled steel survey. Lead times […]
Our respondents to last week’s flat rolled steel market survey continue to report prices as being negotiable, maybe not to the degree we have been seeing since the beginning of the year, but negotiable non-the-less. However, we need to remember that the vast majority of our responses were made prior to the anti-dumping trade suit […]
The Dodge Momentum Index was unchanged in May at 122.3. The Index, a monthly measure of the initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning, has been flat so far in 2015 after growing in 2014. Although, May activity was at a standstill, the Index was still 6.1 percent higher compared to a year ago. […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our flat rolled steel analysis over the past four days. Based on the responses collected from those taking our survey we found a continuation of the optimistic trend that we have seen for a number of years now but, when compared to 2nd Quarter 2014 our index has been disappointing […]
You have 23 days (as of today) to take advantage of our early bird special registration rates for the SMU Steel Summit Conference which will be held on September 1 & 2, 2015. For our regular customers (subscribers) when you take the early bird special rate and include the $100 per person discount given to […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the United States is showing positive hot rolled coil price momentum for the second consecutive week, following a 39 week negative streak. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. April data was released on Monday this week. Construction Put in Place is based on spending work as it occurs, estimated for a given month from a sample of projects. In […]
I was pleased to hear from a number of our readers who had used the search function at the top right hand side of our website in order to find old articles that we had written on the subject of dumping suits and the process that the suit has to go through. I used the […]
May U.S. automotive sales exceeded expectations with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17.71 million vehicles, according to the final tally by WardsAuto. Predictions ranged from Bloomberg’s consensus of 17.0 million to GM’s prediction of 17.5 million. May sales were at the highest single-month level since July 2005. The final tally for April was 16.5 […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in this analysis is currently 36. Please refer to Table 1 for the view of the present situation and the quantitative measure of trends. Readers should […]
As this issue started and I began working on my final thoughts for tonight’s issue, it began with comments from one of our service center friends about the prospect of dumping suits being filed. As the evening progressed I started to receive a number of credible comments from steel mills, service centers and others. The […]
Last month, Alfred (Al) Plummer, Sales Manager for Hanwa American Corporation, made a presentation about the steel industry at a regional meeting of the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD). Over the past few days Mr. Plummer has been communicating with Steel Market Update and we thought that the items being discussed should be of interest […]
We ended the month of April with the SMU Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral. As the month of May began, the domestic mills announced price increases and managed to move our needle to Higher. As the month ends, our Momentum Indicator continues to point toward higher domestic flat rolled steel prices over the next 30 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 29, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 875 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on January 31, 2003 at 873 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 10 rigs […]
To those of you who receive invitations to participate in our flat rolled steel market questionnaire (survey) we will send out invitations for the early June analysis on Monday, June 1st at 8 AM. The survey will remain open until Thursday afternoon. Please take a few moments to click on the button (link) which will […]
After 39 consecutive weeks of being negative, the Steel Market Update (SMU) Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the United States is showing positive hot rolled coil price momentum. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price movements against the […]
That sound you may be hearing is the drums (again) pounding, pounding louder and louder. I continue to get calls from people who “heard from a friend” that the dumping suits are days, maybe hours away. I don’t know if it is the boy in the woods crying wolf for the umpteenth time. Or a […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a detailed flat rolled steel market analysis. We do this by inviting approximately 600 companies, which have been vetted by our publisher to make sure they are legitimate buyers, sellers or executives involved with hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume or plate products. We then send invitations […]
One of the core themes in my series of articles on steel purchasing basics is the importance of the supplier/customer relationship. Many large OEM customers rate their suppliers as a tool in order to get them to improve their performance but generally they pay little attention to how their suppliers rate them. However, Planning Perspectives […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 22, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 885 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on June 12, 2009 at 876 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 3 rigs […]
About a week ago I asked if our readers would mind if we switched from a three day a week schedule to twice a week plus supplemental issues as warranted. We provided a link and to date we have received a modest number of respondents with 90 percent responding they did not have objections to […]