During the process of completing our questionnaire all of those invited first get to respond to a number of questions aimed at all of our respondents. Then we segregate the respondents into their appropriate groups where they respond to questions specifically designed for each group. The two largest groups are manufacturing companies and steel service […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. This will explain 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. At the end of […]
In September Steel Market Update forecast October shipments of flat rolled steel out of the service centers would total 2,049,000 tons. According to the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) the actual total came in at 2,099,000 tons. SMU forecast flat rolled inventories to total 4,800,000 tons at the end of October. The actual number was […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained positive for the third consecutive 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 […]
NLMK USA has gotten the go-ahead on a new walking beam furnace for the Pennsylvania plant. Some pre-construction has already begun. James Baker, Jr. told us in an email, “We will be installing a walking beam furnace in Farrell. We have already started on initial site prep with target completion date of September 2018. There […]
As of late this afternoon www.Kitco.com was reporting zinc spot pricing around $1.22 per pound. Zinc recently reported prices not seen in the past 9 years and those of you buying galvanized and Galvalume steels need to be aware of how zinc is trading. The U.S. steel mills published new extras just as zinc pierced […]
Twice per month Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a survey of the flat rolled steel markets. We invite close to 600 people representing approximately 550 companies spread out around the United States and Canada. We concentrate on two main steel buying groups: manufacturing companies and service centers/wholesalers. Our most recent market trends analysis was completed […]
Every two weeks Steel Market Update publishes an analysis of flat rolled steel mill lead times by product. In our last newsletter we told our readers that those responding to our questionnaire just before Thanksgiving said hot rolled lead times were averaging 4.18 weeks from the time a new order is placed until the steel […]
This evening’s issue is a bit different than most Sunday evenings. With the Thanksgiving Holiday and most steel-related businesses being closed on Friday the amount of direct news was limited. We do have a couple of articles about new home sales. oil rigs and durable goods but, I spent a good portion of my 5 […]
Twice per month Steel Market Update conducts an analysis of the flat rolled steel market. One of the proprietary products that comes out of this effort is the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. Our index measures how steel buyers and those that sell flat rolled steels feel about their company’s ability to be successful both […]
Flat rolled steel lead times continued to move out (extend) according to those taking our flat rolled steel market trends survey which we began on Friday and concluded earlier today. Lead times are now more than one week longer than year ago levels as steel buyers have entered the market in response to the three […]
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 […]