Mill lead times on all flat rolled steel products shortened in the past two weeks, according to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends data. Lead times for hot rolled now average a bit over five weeks, cold rolled a bit over seven weeks, and galvanized and Galvalume at roughly seven and a half weeks. Lead […]
Steel mills appear slightly more willing to negotiate spot prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steel than two weeks ago, according to respondents to this week’s Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire. Every two weeks, in a proprietary poll, SMU tracks how buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel represent the mill negotiation […]
I spent all day on Wednesday of this week in the Pittsburgh offices of the CRU Group. I was impressed with the people working out of Pittsburgh and was even more impressed with the size and scope of the company here in the United States and across the world. The company indexes all kinds of […]
A meeting of the Global Forum on Excess Steel Capacity scheduled for Wednesday in Paris has been postponed until September as trade tension intensifies among world leaders. The agenda for the ministerial meeting of the 33-member Forum was to include discussions on preferential policies that China and other countries apply to their steel industries, as […]
We are sliding into summer and so far (knock on wood) we are not hearing of any erosion in demand. Those with whom we have spoken over the past week are optimistic about business, although concerned about the uncertainty caused by the Section 232s and now the escalation in trade issues with China using the […]
The trade war with China has begun. On June 15, the United States announced it will place 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods. The announcement was swiftly followed by one from China imposing retaliatory tariffs in an equivalent amount. In a statement on Friday, President Trump said: “My great friendship with President […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest developments in Washington: The Trump administration announced new tariffs on China on Friday, covering about $36 billion in imports (2017 figures). Two lists were released. The first list consists of 863 tariff lines that will be subject to […]
Dan DiMicco is the outspoken chairman emeritus of Nucor Corp., a trade advisor to the president and current chairman of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, so it’s no surprise he is a strong defender of the 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods announced by the Trump administration this week. In […]
Twice each month, Steel Market Update conducts a review of the flat rolled and plate steel industries. We do this through a web-based questionnaire, which is sent to approximately 640 individuals associated with either the flat rolled or plate steel industries. The individuals invited are from manufacturing, steel distribution, steel mills, trading companies and toll […]
I got a note from one of our readers who pointed out that Sept. 18 & 19 are Holy Days on the Jewish calendar. These were the days selected for our first SMU 201: Intro to Advanced High Strength & Other New Steels workshop, which is going to be held at AK Steel Research and […]
U.S. steelmakers filed trade cases this week on cold rolled and corrosion resistant (CORE) steels alleging that Korea and Taiwan are guilty of using the same circumvention tactics as the Chinese–namely sending hot rolled and cold rolled substrate to Vietnam. As many predicted, the Commerce Department’s recent Chinese circumvention ruling has set a precedent that […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest trade developments in Washington: • The Section 232 investigation into automobiles and auto parts is in the comment phase. The deadline for written comments is June 22. The hearing in the investigation is on July 19 and 20. If […]
Foreign-made automobiles and parts may soon be facing tariffs if the administration is successful in its investigation to determine whether imports of automobiles and auto parts threaten to impair national security. On May 23, the Commerce Department initiated a Section 232 investigation on imported automobiles and parts, noting that during the past 20 years imports […]
Editor’s Note: Not a Premium-level subscriber to SMU? See the sample Premium report below: Hot-rolled coil imports in the first four months of the year increased by 38 percent nationally, but saw big variations regionally. Imports can vary significantly from one region to another. Steel Market Update has produced import reports by product at the […]
Editor’s Note: Not a Premium-level subscriber to SMU? See the sample Premium report below: Overall, U.S. imports of cold rolled coil declined by 17 percent year to date through April, but some regions saw increases. Imports can vary significantly from one region to another. Steel Market Update has produced import reports by product at the […]
Editor’s Note: Not a Premium-level subscriber to SMU? See the sample Premium report below: Imports of hot-dipped galvanized sheet into the U.S. as a whole declined by 8 percent year to date through April, but the Great Lakes region was up by 14.1 percent and the South Pacific was down by 33.8 percent. Imports can […]
I am excited for you, our customers. I have been working closely with the CRU Group, and our members will begin to see some subtle changes to the articles we write. One will be the use of CRU data on such items as our Foreign vs. Domestic Price Spread articles, which we will publish in […]
Beginning in July 2018, Steel Market Update has been recruiting flat rolled and plate steel service centers to participate in our monthly analysis. Our goal is to produce a quality data stream out of the service centers, which can help answer questions regarding future demand from the steel distributors. We provided data sources with our […]
This Steel Market Update report examines the import share of sheet, plate, long and tubular products and 18 subcategories. Table 1 (click to enlarge) shows total supply to the market in three months through April and in 12 months through April for the four product groups and the 18 sub-categories. Supply to the market is […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update receive reports on imports broken down into district of entry and source nation. This new report from SMU takes the analysis to the product detail level. Our rationale is that the more information steel buyers have about product coming into their region, the better job they can do of […]
ArcelorMittal Mexico is requesting that government officials impose permanent tariffs on the import of steel slabs into Mexico from non-free-trade agreement countries. “Mexican slabs are without protection and we are working jointly and permanently with the SE to find a mechanism that could protect domestic production of slab from imports, which are impacting our ability […]
Speaking in support of the Section 232 tariffs, the American Line Pipe Producers Association is challenging recent claims by U.S. pipeline developers that they are unable to source sufficient quantities of large-diameter line pipe in the United States. The large-diameter welded pipe industry in the U.S. is operating at its lowest capacity in years—well under […]
Is Canada really guilty of the trade inequity that President Trump charges? We looked at two product targets of the administration—dairy and automobiles—to find out. The office of the U.S. Trade Representative estimates trade with Canada in 2017 totaled $673.9 billion–$341.2 billion in exports and $332.8 billion in imports, for a goods and services trade […]
I (and the SMU team) are firmly ensconced in trying to learn all we can about our new owners the CRU Group, while at the same time answering questions from them about our products and services and how we can provide the most value to our members. One of the first things that came up […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest trade news in Washington: Is there anyone out there who believes President Trump is not methodically alienating our closest allies? Yesterday, in what was clearly a deliberate attempt to provoke the other six members of the G7, President […]
Meetings last week between the House Ways and Means Committee and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer failed to reassure congressional members that a clear strategy on trade exists within the administration. Neither Republican nor Democrats’ concerns were assuaged after discussions with Lighthizer on trade issues that included China, NAFTA negotiations, and Section 232 tariffs on […]
I am finally home long enough to gather my thoughts and hopefully get back to providing some insights into the flat rolled, plate and scrap markets from my perspective. There is obviously a lot of uncertainty connected to the Section 232 tariffs in both steel and aluminum. The Trump administration appears to have an intense […]
The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, which measures how buyers and sellers of flat rolled and plate steels feel about their companies’ ability to be successful both now and three to six months into the future, was slightly lower this week. Demand has stayed strong, and buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel generally remain […]
Mill lead times for hot rolled steel appear to have peaked in the current market cycle, while lead times for coated steels extended a bit in the past few weeks, according to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends data. Lead times for hot rolled now average about five and a half weeks, cold rolled about […]
Steel mills appear less willing to negotiate spot prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steel than two weeks ago, according to respondents to this week’s Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire, perhaps reflecting events on the trade front. Mills may anticipate less competition from imports as a result of Trump’s tariffs. Every two […]