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 […]
Late last week the International Trade Commission (ITC) temporarily suspended the Section 337 case brought by United States Steel (USS) against China, pending consultations with the Department of Commerce. ITC Administrative Law Judge Dee Lord stated that two of the three causes of action brought by USS (evasion of antidumping and countervailing duty orders and […]
We discovered earlier today that our office phones (including our 800 number) are down and calls are not being transferred or going to voicemail. We are in touch with Comcast to get the issue resolved. Although we understand it is a system wide failure not just our phones. In the meantime, if you need to […]
Flat rolled steel industry participants continue to be optimistic about the markets, according to the recent flat rolled market trends analysis conducted by Steel Market Update. However, we are seeing a slightly less optimistic trend for this time of year compared to what we were reporting at the same point in time in 2014 and […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are not believers that the next move will be for higher flat rolled steel prices over the next couple of months. At least that is what the respondents to our most recent flat rolled steel questionnaire believe. Based on the analysis of last week’s survey, 60 percent of […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission has put the Section 337 case brought by US Steel against Chinese steel companies on hold until Oct. 2, 2017. Administrative Law Judge Dee Lord said that two of the three complaints in the case, price fixing and transshipment, belong under the purview of antidumping and countervailing duty laws that […]
Many of those associated with the steel mills believe this week will be the one where buyers come back to the market after having taken a couple of weeks off for holiday. We will see if the buyers return or if the erosion of scrap prices (at least obsolete grades) will be enough to start […]
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 […]
On Tuesday of this week Steel Market Update began canvassing the flat rolled steel industry through the use of our online survey which we use twice per month. We invited slightly more than 550 people to participate as we try to analyze market trends. One of the key areas of inquiry is that of lead […]
A second key subject addressed in our flat rolled steel survey regards negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their customers. We ask manufacturing companies and steel service centers to comment on whether their domestic mill suppliers are willing to negotiate spot steel pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. The less […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained positive for the 27th 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 […]
An executive with one of the larger scrap companies told us that trading finally got under way in the Southeast over the past 24 hours. We were told, “Scrap trading got underway in the Southeastern markets late yesterday and today. While demand remained intact for the most part, bearish sentiment seems to be on the […]
To our USA customers welcome back from your 4th of July holiday. I saw this quote while doing some research this afternoon, “Fun is one of the most important and underrated ingredients in any successful venture” (Richard Branson) This is something I have believed in for my entire steel career. Speaking of fun, we have […]
This Key Markets Indicator report is something we produce for our Premium level clients. However, we thought that our Executive level readers would appreciate knowing… An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in […]
Steel Market Update received the following question from one of our new readers who has a specific project related to sourcing of hot rolled and cold rolled steels from outside of the United States. Based on our conversation with the reader we believe this question is being raised at this time due to the wide […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained positive for the 25th 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 […]
I happen to be traveling this week and weekend. I am in Maine where in my youth my family used to vacation. Maine is a beautiful state to visit if you have not been here. I want to take a moment to wish all of my U.S.A. readers a safe and happy 4th of July […]
China is threatening to file a suit at the World Trade Organization against the U.S. following the latest duty assessments against imports of cold-rolled and corrosion resistant steel products from China. The Commerce Ministry said it is deeply concerned about the protectionist policies of the U.S. steel industry and fears the large anti-dumping and anti-subsidy […]
I want to thank everyone who has gone to the effort of registering early for our Steel Summit Conference. We are exceeding expectations having already registered three times as many people as we had at this time last year. If you have not yet registered we have provided a listing of the companies attending (so […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission announced Friday that it made an affirmative decision on injury to U.S. steel producers by imports of corrosion resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, Korea, and Taiwan. The USITC determined by unanimous vote that the U.S. steel industry was materially injured by the import of corrosion-resistant steel products (galvanized, […]