After price increase announcements, it is important to follow steel mill lead times (and other keys) as a way of seeing if the increases are being seriously considered by steel buyers. The farther and faster lead times move out, the more support for the price increases announced by the domestic steel mills. Steel Market Update […]
According to the buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel, the domestic steel mills are willing to negotiate spot steel prices. The percentages of those reporting the mills as willing to negotiate has shrunk, but continues to be well above 50 percent. This is a bit of a surprise considering the price announcements made in […]
Another reminder that mill metallurgist and Steel 101 instructor John Eckstein and I will be in Chicago next week for FABTECH 2017. We will be conducting a mini-version of our Steel 101 workshop during the expo. Our workshop will be held in the McCormick Place Convention Center in room 502 B on Tuesday, Nov. 7, […]
Steel market indicators look good in the October data, but the trends took a turn for the worse. In the data released in October, our view of the present situation is that 47.2 percent of the 36 indicators are historically positive with only 19 percent negative. The balance are within the band of historically normal. […]
Nearly as disturbing as the steel imports themselves are repeated delays in promised trade relief, say steel industry executives, who find themselves doing business in a state of “perpetual uncertainty.” While there is no official confirmation from the Department of Commerce, SMU’s sources have confirmed reports that the Commerce Department has again delayed a preliminary […]
Market economy status for China is out of the question, according to a 205-page memo from the Commerce Department. The detailed memorandum, published on Oct. 26, was released just days before President Trump is to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and in close timing with a preliminary AD/CVD determination against China regarding imports of […]
We began sending out our sponsorship package to last year’s sponsors and will send it out to previous years sponsors as well as those who have expressed an interest in becoming a sponsor or exhibitor. We have a limited number of sponsors and already have commitments from Pacesetter, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Magic Coil […]
As we approach the end of October, SMU wanted to update our readers on the flat rolled inventory information we have been collecting from the steel service centers in the United States. At the end of July, we began gathering the number of months of supply being held at a select number of service centers. […]
We did a quick check of lead times at a number of domestic steel mills on Friday of this past week. This is what we learned: Steel Dynamics Industries (SDI) – Butler, Ind. HR – closed for November production Pickled – closed for November production CR – closed for November production HRG – 11/20 (4 […]
If the Trump administration restricts steel imports under Section 232, it will open the United States to a host of retaliatory measures by other nations and will do little to address the root cause of the problem, which is China, argues the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), a trade group representing foreign steel producers. […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) will begin our next flat rolled steel market trends survey at 8 AM ET tomorrow (Monday). If you receive an invitation, please take a few moments to click on the button in the message and fill out our questionnaire. Most people are able to get through the process in less than […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update conducts an analysis on the flat rolled steel market. Our focus is on pricing and price direction, demand, inventory management, international steel, buyers’ sentiment, service center spot price direction, mill lead times and negotiations, and more. We have been conducting our market analysis going back to late 2008. The […]
We are three months away from our Mobile, Ala., Steel 101 workshop and we are sold out. Having said that, I would recommend that if you want to attend, add your name to our wait-list. You can do that on our website by clicking on the registration link; after you are advised that the workshop […]
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted one of our flat rolled steel market trends analyses, sending invitations to 655 executives associated with the manufacturing, steel distribution, steel mills, trading companies and toll processor segments of the industry. The majority of respondents completed the questionnaire prior to the ArcelorMittal USA price increase announcement. One of […]
Trucking associations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico issued a joint statement on Monday supporting an updated NAFTA agreement. The North American truck-transported trade supports tens of thousands of jobs and generates billions in revenue annually, said the statement from the American Trucking Association (ATA), Cámara Nacional del Autotraporte de Carga (CANACAR), and the Canadian […]
The Mario Briccetti article entitled: “Steel Buyers Basics: Kobe Steel Problems and How to Avoid Them” prompted a number of comments. The comments all came from other Steel 101 instructors who spent their careers working for steel mills either in sales or in quality/metallurgical positions. We should have an interesting discussion between our instructors at […]
The following is an editorial from The Detroit News published on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017. You can go to the original article by clicking here. One of the things President Donald Trump likes to boast about — and has a right to — is the performance of the economy since he took office in January. […]
SMU Note–The Kobe Steel scandal regarding falsifying test certifications has had a ripple effect. Steel Market Update asked those responding to our flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire if the Kobe scandal is raising some concerns that other mills may cut corners with testing and falsify documentation. Twenty-nine percent of our respondents had concerns. From […]
Two popular appliance manufacturers, Samsung and LG, are facing potential quotas and tariffs on imports of their products to the United States. Earlier this month, following a global safeguard petition by Whirlpool, the U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously in a Section 201 investigation that a surge of large residential washer (LRW) imports was injuring […]
We have an article in tonight’s newsletter from Mario Briccetti that I want to make sure is not misconstrued as a criticism of the domestic steel mills. The Kobe Steel violation of trust by certifying test results for tests that were not conducted has created some unease here in the United States. It is Steel […]
On Tuesday of this week, ArcelorMittal USA announced new “minimum” base pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized products. On Wednesday, Nucor and North Star BlueScope followed with increase announcements of their own of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). This morning (Thursday), NLMK USA emailed a letter to their customers advising of their intention to […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index market cycle appears to have bottomed as buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel were slightly more optimistic than what we collected at the beginning of the month. We measured the single data point for those responding to our flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire this […]
Flat rolled steel lead times continue to shorten up, a trend under way since early August, according to the service centers and manufacturers who responded to Steel Market Update’s flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire this week. On average, lead times have dipped to nearly three weeks for hot rolled, slightly less than six weeks […]
On Monday of this week, Steel Market Update began collecting data for our mid-October flat rolled steel market trends analysis. We invited over 600 companies to participate in our questionnaire. The vast majority of the respondents are either service centers or manufacturing companies. Based on the data collected we found that prior to any of […]
Does the Kobe Steel scandal raise the question that other steel mills, including those in the United States, might cut corners with testing and falsifying documentation? About 70 percent of buyers and sellers of steel responding to Steel Market Update’s flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire this week say no, they remain confident about the […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has a proprietary model that analyzes the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) carbon flat rolled shipment and inventory data, from which we calculate whether distributor inventories are in Excess/Balance/Deficit. We ended the month of August with steel service center inventories as essentially balanced (-26,000 tons). The month of September saw a […]
SMU published an article in Tuesday evening’s issue about the comments made by General John Adams on national security and the need for steel. The title of the article was “General Goes Nuclear in Support of Section 232.” We received a number of comments from that article wanting to know if we had fact-checked what […]
The U.S. government has advised the steel industry that it will delay its preliminary determination on the circumvention trade suit against Vietnam until Oct. 30. The suit alleges Vietnam was assisting China to circumvent the U.S. antidumping and countervailing duties assigned to China in 2015/2016. Domestic steelmakers say the U.S. government should no longer recognize […]
The American Automotive Policy Council is challenging data that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross cited in his bid to raise the NAFTA auto rules of origin. In a September report, Ross used data from 1995 to 2011 in an effort to “debunk the claim that U.S. content in the form of parts is so high that […]
As the afternoon turned into evening, I began hearing rumors that a flat rolled price increase would be announced “soon.” I heard from a service center who was texting us from his car (a definite no-no) telling SMU that a yet to be named (by us) mill was moving prices. We are still waiting for […]