The following information was collected from our flat rolled steel market trends survey which we have been conducting since Monday of this week. Much of the collection information is similar to the Lead Times article above as this question is posed to manufacturing companies and distributors. What we are trying to discover is if there […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the third 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 […]
The European Commission issued on July 29, 2016 final duties on the import of cold rolled flat steel products originating from China and Russia. The investigation was initiated on May 14, 2015 following a complaint by the European Steel Association (Eurofer) that dumping of CRC from Russia and China resulted in injury to the EU […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce will announce their final determination on the hot rolled antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) trade suits against Brazil, Australia, Turkey, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. We will publish an article on our website as soon as we get the results which normally come […]
Buyers and sellers of hot rolled steel are holding back on making any new offers (buy or sell) until the final determinations are announced on HRC later this week. According to Steel Market Update sources, hot rolled steel spot prices were ranging from a low of $590 per ton up to $630 per ton. Lead […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. It is important to understand the difference between our view of the present situation which is subjective and our analysis of trends which is based on the latest facts available. The total […]
Scrap trading has been slow to develop in all but the Detroit area mills. The domestic steel mills are trying to reduce the spread between shredded scrap and prime grades of scrap (busheling and bundles) which in some cases has expanded to $70 per gross ton. Scrap guru Michael Marley reported this afternoon that the […]
A note to those of you who are registered for our 6th Steel Summit Conference but have yet to make room reservations. The room block at the Marriott Gateway Hotel (our host hotel) is sold out. The hotel may have a few rooms left but they will most likely be at the full rack rate. […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the second week in a row, 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 […]
I have been receiving a large number of calls asking my opinion about steel prices and specifically can steel prices remain at the current levels for an extended period of time. The financial community is convinced that the numbers will come down over the next month to two months and that we will see mid […]
China is fighting back on trade restrictions imposed on export of its steel products. On July 22, Baosteel requested the U.S. International Trade Commission to uphold the suspension of the 337 investigation brought by US Steel to block all Chinese carbon and allow steel products from the US market. Baosteel accused US Steel of trying […]
What we like to hear for our member companies: One of the largest service centers in the U.S. told us earlier this week after registering for our Steel Summit Conference, “Our guys tell me your conference is very good, I’m looking forward to attending. Also, several mills tell me that your conference is turning into […]
We pointed out a couple of weeks back that lead times have been slowly shrinking but are still longer than year ago levels. Lead times refer to the amount of time it takes to get an order placed today produced at one of the domestic steel mills. The steel mill lead times we are discussing […]
As lead times begin to come back in (shorten), we are seeing an increase in the percentage of our flat rolled steel survey respondents who are reporting the steel mills as willing to negotiate steel prices. Hot rolled continues to be the weakest product. It has the shortest lead time and we have heard from […]
I don’t know if I have ever seen a market quite like the one we are living through right now. Supply is being constrained through the use of the trade suits coupled with US Steel taking down two blast furnaces at Granite City and AK Steel taking down their lone blast furnace at Ashland. There […]
Since 2008, Steel Market Update has been measuring how steel buyers and sellers feel about their company’s ability to be successful in the existing market environment (which we call “Current Sentiment”). We also probe the same group of manufacturers, steel service centers, steel mills, trading companies and toll processors on how they feel about their […]
Steel buyers purchasing foreign galvanized or Galvalume steels out of Taiwan will be paying higher prices due to a surprise change in the AD duty rate by the US Department of Commerce. Citing “ministerial errors” The US Department of Commerce International Trade Commission has adjusted the corrosion resistant (galvanized/Galvalume) duties for Taiwan from 3.77 percent […]
On July 21, 2016, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) announced its affirmative final determinations in the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of imports of certain cold-rolled steel flat products (cold-rolled steel) from Brazil, India, Korea, and Russia, and the AD investigation of imports of cold-rolled steel from the United Kingdom. The AD […]
The steel intensive washing machine is the subject of an antidumping investigation brought against China by Whirlpool Corporation. The Department of Commerce issued an affirmative preliminary determination on Wednesday, July 20, 2016, in the AD investigation into imports of large residential washers manufactured by LG and Samsung in China. The DOC also found that critical […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States turned negative this week, following a 28 week 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 price as a percentage. A positive […]
The spread between hot rolled and cold rolled/coated steels continues to be at dangerous (my opinion) levels. The U.S. steel industry has been systematically “building a dam” (Lewis Leibowitz words) around this country in order to prevent what they call unfairly subsidized and unfairly traded plate, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. The […]
I want to take a moment to thank my Steel Market Update team that has been working almost 24 hours a day in order to stay on top of the Steel Summit Conference for this year. I am not positive but, I think we will be the second largest steel conference in the U.S. by […]
United States Steel (USS) has filed a motion to reverse the judge’s decision to suspend the Section 337 investigation pending consultation with the Commerce Department. US Steel was not the only entity which felt the investigation should continue, the Office of Unfair Import Investigations which is part of the International Trade Commission (ITC) also filed […]
On Friday, July 15th, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its affirmative final determinations in the antidumping (AD) investigations of heavy walled rectangular welded carbon steel pipe and tubes from Korea, Mexico and Turkey, and the countervailing duty (CVD) on imports of the same products from Turkey. The following determinations came directly from the U.S. […]
We knew it would happen and it has, we learned late on Friday that our room block has been sold out. We are trying to see if there is anything we can do to expand the block and we will be working on that over the next couple of days. However, there is another option […]
Mexico announced it will enforce tariffs on imports of cold-rolled coil (CRC) from China with boron greater than or equal to 0.0008 percent. Antidumping duties will range between 65.99 percent and 103.41 percent. The Secretariat of Economy added the cold rolled steel with added boron to the existing antidumping duties on CRC after Altos Hornos […]
End users who use specialty steels that are not readily available in the United States have to be concerned about both supply and price due to the successful prosecution of the antidumping and countervailing duty trade cases by the domestic steel industry. Earlier this week Steel Market Update received a “letter to the editor” which […]
AISI, WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thomas J. Gibson, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), today testified before the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing on “Evaluating the Financial Risks of China.” Gibson highlighted global steel overcapacity, market distortions created by China’s state-controlled steel industry and China’s market economy status, among other issues. The […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained positive for the 28th consecutive week, following a 21 week 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 […]
We released our SMU Events App on Tuesday morning. On Wednesday I received a text from one of our registered attendees, “Hey, your app is pretty good John. Is there a quantity discount on additional sign ups?” First, thank you for the vote of confidence. I thought our App went over pretty well last year […]