Last month we based our U.S. flat rolled steel service center shipments and inventories on a relatively conservative model. Our belief at that time was both shipments and inventory receipts would be 3 percent below the 3 year average. In actuality shipments were -3.7 percent below year-over-year levels but 7.2 percent below the 3 year […]
This area of the Steel Market Update newsletter is reserved for me to be able to provide my thoughts/opinions on a variety of subjects and our readers clearly know where these comments are coming from. I have been asked on a number of occasions to comment on “rumors” of a domestic mill flat rolled price […]
Flat rolled lead times continued to slip, according to those responding to last week’s Steel Market Update flat rolled market trends analysis survey. Lead times are very close to where they were at this time last year when benchmark hot rolled was being reported at $660 per ton (September 16, 2015) and then proceeded to […]
Spot steel prices are now negotiable on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume according to those responding to our mid-September 2016 flat rolled steel market trends survey. Hot rolled continues to be (almost) unanimous with 97 percent of our respondents reporting spot prices are being negotiated by their mill suppliers. At the beginning of […]
On Thursday, September 22, 2016 four steel mills: ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor, AK Steel and US Steel submitted petitions asking the US Department of Commerce to review imports of cold rolled and corrosion resistant steels (galvanized and Galvalume) arriving in the United States from Vietnam as actually being a way for China to circumvent antidumping and […]
A note to our Premium level customers, the Power Point presentation of last week’s flat rolled steel market trends analysis has been placed on the website. We will have a Premium level newsletter coming out on Monday as well. If you have any questions or need assistance to find our survey results please contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com […]
Steel Market Update reached out to trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz and to review the Vietnam CORE (corrosion resistant steels = galvanized and Galvalume) filing by California Steel and Steel Dynamics. The filing was made by the law firm Schagrin Associates. I only have time for a brief response after quickly reviewing the Schagrin filing asking […]
We might as well get the debate started. The circumvention complaints against Vietnam have prompted comments and a healthy discussion is needed as the industry tries to wrap its collective mind around the facts of the latest request of the US Department of Commerce to stop Vietnamese exports of cold rolled and coated steels. We […]
Earlier today California Steel and Steel Dynamics filed a Request for Circumvention Ruling with the U.S. Department of Commerce against Vietnam. One of the trading companies Steel Market Update spoke to this afternoon termed the complaint a “game breaker” for steel trading companies importing foreign steel who will now shy away from any country that […]
Last summer the U.S. Congress passed the ENFORCE Act. The ENFORCE Act provides a path for U.S. companies to ask for investigations of foreign products (and the importer of record) when a question arises as to evasion of duties through misrepresentation of the product/source country, etc. Last week Wheatland Tube became the first company to […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index dropped 14 points since we last measured Sentiment at the beginning of the month. The 14 point drop took the Current Index to +49, the lowest point for our index since the +44 reported during the first week of January 2016. The 14 point drop is […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the tenth 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 […]
There have been two complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce for circumvention of duties by Vietnam. One is on CORE (corrosion resistant steels like galvanized and Galvalume) and the second one is on cold rolled. Steel Market Update has seen the CORE complaint but we have not yet seen the cold rolled one. […]
I got a note from Eddie Lehner, the CEO of Ryerson who attended our Steel Summit Conference for the first time this year. He dropped me a note today about our conference, “The SMU Conference is flat out worth attending. An unusual combination of candor, depth and subject matter relevance throughout the steel value chain […]
With the Wheatland Tube filing of a complaint against China using the ENFORCE Act we are about to enter the next stage of trade complaints. The Wheatland complaint is for circumvention of duties that already exist against Chinese products, so it will be interesting how quickly this first test case takes and will Customs and […]
Friday, the Department of Commerce announced its affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping investigations of imports of certain carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate (CTL plate) from Brazil, South Africa, and Turkey. CTL plate is a flat-rolled carbon and alloy steel product that is 4.75 mm or more in thickness and that has a defined […]
Wheatland Tube, a division of Zekelman Industries, has filed one of the first allegations of duty evasion under the new ENFORCE Act. The allegation was filed Wednesday with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) charging duty evasion by Chinese imports of circular welded steel pipe. The pipe in question is used in solar projects […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained negative this week for the ninth 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 […]
Australia has initiated a review of antidumping measures on imports of Aluminum Zinc Coated Steel from China. Jiangyin Zongcheng Steel Co. and Angang Steel Co. applied to the Antidumping Commission to review the import duties assessed on August 5, 2013. Angang Steel currently has AD duties of 5.8 percent and Jiangyin 18.1 percent. The review […]
When speaking to one of the main ferrous scrap analysts in the industry our newsletter was paid a compliment when I asked if the scrap community was aware of our newsletter. I was told, “They do already. Many of them have a lot of confidence in your reports. They refer to it more often then […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission announced its AD/CVD determinations on Monday in the investigation of imports of hot-rolled steel flat products from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the U.K. A final determination of injury was found by the ITC in the antidumping investigation of imports from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, […]
US Steel President and CEO Mario Longhi said he is encouraged by the affirmative determinations in the recent AD/CVD investigations of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and corrosion resistant steels. Said Longhi in a statement released following the ITC determination on hot-rolled steel: “It is clear that the International Trade Commission recognized the significance of this case to […]
Brazil will fight the U.S. imposed dumping duties on steel products through a trade dispute at the World Trade Organization, according to Brazilian Trade Minister Marcos Pereira. Reuters reported on Tuesday, that Pereira expects the Brazilian foreign trade office to approve the initiation of cases regarding cold-rolled and hot-rolled steel. “I will defend that position… […]
The Department of Commerce announced an affirmative preliminary decision in the investigation of dumping of imports of stainless steel and strip from China. The China-wide rate assigned was 76.64 percent due to a failure of producers and exporters to respond to Commerce’s request for information. Non-selected separate rate respondents received a dumping rate of 63.86 […]
I spent a great deal of time on two projects: flat rolled pricing and steel mill maintenance schedules. I want to thank those companies who worked with me over the past few working days to be able to provide what I think is better data (both in pricing and in the schedules) than what has […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a review of the flat rolled steel market in our quest to better understand market trends which affect steel pricing and purchasing. We invite approximately 550-600 steel people to participate in our questionnaires. Those invited come from the manufacturing segment of the industry (approximately 45 to 50 […]
The Congressional Steel Caucus introduced a House resolution last week that calls for the Administration to take action regarding non-market economy (NME) countries to protect U.S. manufacturing jobs and economic security. Chairman Tim Murphy (R-Pa) and Vice-chairman Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN) introduced the bill, along with 23 bipartisan cosponsors, that addresses market-distorting policies and subsidization […]
Today we remember those who lost their lives in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and those aboard United Airlines flight 93 which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Although it was a time of devastation and despair it was also a time when the world united behind the United States and the global fight against […]
The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index has been showing signs of a rebound as our Current Index is being released as +63 this week. This is a +2 point improvement from the middle of August and +5 point improvement since the beginning of August. However, SMU prefers to look at our Current and Future Sentiment […]
The Department of Commerce announced an affirmative preliminary determination in the countervailing duty investigation of cut-to-length steel plate from China but a negative determination in the CVD investigation of imports of CTL plate from Korea. Exporter and producers in the China investigation received subsidy rates of 210.5 percent based on available adverse facts (they did […]