We are being a bit facetious when we tell steel buyers to “forget about it” when asked if the steel mills are willing to negotiate flat rolled steel prices. According to those taking our mid-November flat rolled steel market trends survey, the percent of buyers reporting the mills as willing to negotiate has dwindled from […]
First, I want to wish every one of our USA readers a safe and pleasant Thanksgiving Holiday. Due to the holiday Steel Market Update will not publish a newsletter on Thursday. We do expect to publish an issue on Sunday evening that may be a little lighter than normal and we will return to our […]
Later this week is Thanksgiving so we will have an abbreviated publishing schedule this week. We will publish on Tuesday and we will not publish on Thursday. If we publish on Sunday it will be a shorter than normal issue and then we will get back to our normal schedule until we reach the Christmas […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission delivered a surprising decision in the US Steel Section 337 case against China. In its complaint, US Steel alleged that China was violating antitrust laws in a “conspiracy to fix prices and control output and export volumes, the threat or effect of which is to restrain or monopolize trade and […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States turned positive this week, following a 17 week long negative streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average price as a percentage. A […]
A note to our Premium level members, we put out a Premium supplemental newsletter this afternoon that covered an extensive analysis of the MSCI data (long and flat rolled), there is also an article on currency values for steel trading nations (not good news for domestic mills as dollar has been strengthening), there is a […]
The World Trade Organization said 85 trade-restrictive measures were implemented by G20 economies from mid-May to October 2016, approximately 17 measures per month. The number is a slight decline from 21 per month reported in the previous reporting period but continues to be high compared to the roll-back of existing trade-restrictive measures. During the reporting […]
Good evening from Memphis, Tennessee and Ocseola, Arkansas home of Big River Steel. Earlier today our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop held our class on the steel making and rolling process. The morning session was then followed by a trip to Osceola and a tour of the brand new (so […]
We received a question from the financial community about “significant transformation” and the U.S. Department of Commerce initiation of an investigation into circumvention by China where hot rolled or cold rolled substrate is sent to Vietnam where it is then converted to cold rolled (from HRC) or coated steels. Their question was about the following […]
Brazil has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the United States over countervailing measures on imports of Brazilian cold- and hot-rolled steel flat products and requests dispute consultations with the U.S. In the November 11 filing, Brazil alleges the U.S. has been inconsistent with a number of procedural and substantive provisions […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel responding to our early November flat rolled steel market trends survey were found to be of the same mind as what we measured in the middle of October. Current Sentiment* was recorded as being +53.00 the same as what we reported in mid-October. The +53 is the best […]
The amount of time it takes a steel mill to produce a product once a new order is placed is measured in weeks. Twice per month Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a market trends analysis on the flat rolled steel industry. We invite just under 600 steel executives representing about 550 companies to participate in […]
One of the areas of our focus during our twice monthly flat rolled steel trends survey is how flexible are the domestic steel mills when negotiating spot steel prices with their customers? Over the past three months the mills have been willing to discuss discounts in order to obtain business. We found this on all […]
I am about to embark on a two-week trip which includes stops in Memphis (and Big River Steel in Arkansas), Las Vegas (FabTech and ASD annual meeting), San Diego and then on to Los Angeles to have Thanksgiving with my daughter and the rest of our family. I will be in the office early tomorrow […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the 17th consecutive week, following a 28 week long positive streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average […]
On Wednesday of this week I participated in the monthly HARDI conference call (see article in tonight’s newsletter). During the call one of the executives from an east coast HVAC wholesaler told the group that he didn’t believe prices could or would move much higher from here. I disagreed with him. One of the justifications […]
On Monday the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated an investigation against China for trying to circumvent antidumping and countervailing duty orders. The DOC was responding to petitions filed by the domestic steel industry on cold rolled. The DOC also initiated an investigation on CORE (corrosion resistant) which SMU will cover in a separate article. There […]
On Monday the U.S. Department of Commerce, responding to petitions from ArcelorMittal, Nucor, US Steel, AK Steel, Steel Dynamics and California Steel, initiated an inquiry of circumvention of the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders against China. The probe will be for hot rolled and cold rolled substrate supplied by China to Vietnam for […]
The Department of Commerce announced on Monday its affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping investigations of imports of certain carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate (CTL plate) from Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. CTL plate is a flat-rolled carbon and alloy steel product that is 4.75 mm or more in […]
We are setting up this issue of Steel Market Update to be published at 11 PM Eastern Time. By then the polls will be closed in most, if not all, of the lower 48 states of the union. We may well know who will be the new President of the United States. Either way, whether […]
Two more days and we will all (I hope) be able to breathe once again. This is the last Sunday before the election here in the United States when we will decide who will be President and, just as important, who will control the House and Senate. The world is watching so I hope that […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the 16th consecutive week, following a 28 week long positive streak. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average […]
I have had a number of conversations with steel mills and steel buyers regarding when the next flat rolled steel price increase would be announced by the domestic mills? My opinion is the mills will use the new ferrous scrap settlement prices combined with stronger order books as the reasons for going out after perhaps […]
AISI, Washington, D.C. (Oct. 27, 2016) – The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) today submitted comments to the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) on USTR’s 2017 National Trade Estimate Report (NTE) on Foreign Trade Barriers. This submission marks the fifth year in a row that AISI has documented the foreign trade barriers that distort […]
I want to spend a few moments to discuss an issue that I know is a sore point to the CEO’s at the steel mills. Lourenco Goncalves brought it up in a discussion we had this morning and that is why service centers (and others) do not sign or allow comments made to Steel Market […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) is adjusting our Price Momentum Indicator to “Higher” from Neutral. It is our opinion that flat rolled steel prices in the United States and Canada will move higher over the next 30 to 60 days. There are a number of reasons why we have chosen to make this move now, here […]
The Brazilian Steel Association has requested that the World Trade Organization initiate a “bilateral consultation” with the United States regarding the countervailing duties applied against imports of Brazilian hot and cold-rolled steel. The Association claims that the U.S. Department of Commerce did not take into consideration in their determination of “actionable subsidies” the explanations by […]
The World Trade Organization requires members to inform the organization of any domestic subsidy programs they are providing to industries. The WTO said compliance with the obligation to notify “remains discouraging low.” “As of today, a total of 89 members have not yet made their 2015 new and full subsidy notification, for which the deadline […]
Our next flat rolled steel market trends analysis will not begin until next Monday, November 7th. We will begin our November surveys on the 7th and the 21st of the month. If you would like to be added to our invitee list please send me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. We currently have about 575 people on […]
With all of the domestic steel mills announcing $30 per ton price increases either late last week or early this week, the industry is waiting to see if there was a surge of orders and how those orders have impacted lead times. Everyone knows if lead times begin to extend then buyers will have no […]