Category: Features

SMU’s Current and Future Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices both declined this week, based on our most recent survey data.

There seems to be a consensus that US sheet prices have nowhere to go but up in the short term, in part because offshore material ordered now won’t arrive until late March or even April.

The percentage of steel buyers saying mills were willing to negotiate spot pricing fell for hot rolled this week, while plate's negotiation rate shot up, according to SMU's most recent survey data.

Center for Automotive Research (CAR) president and CEO Alan Amici will be the featured speaker on Steel Market Update’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 12 p.m. ET. You can register here.

Lead times for most sheet products were pushed out even further this week as domestic prices continue to rise. Plate lead times, meanwhile, contracted on falling prices and waning demand.

Alan Price discussed the deep complexity of issues in the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum negotiations between the US and EU on Wednesday’s Community Chat.

It was sort of like the UAW strike. It started out small. Then got big fast. Below is a timeline of the steelmakers’ target HRC prices since the spot market bottomed out in late September.

The US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) is updating import duties on hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan and South Korea.

SMU gives an overview of the steel market and economic indicators for October.

The LME aluminum three-month price was unchanged on the morning of Nov. 3 and was seen trading at $2,235 per tonne.

The American steel industry is the backbone of the US economy and produces the cleanest steel in the world.

It’s time to register for the Tampa Steel Conference 2024, easily one of the premiere North American steel events. It’s a can't-miss steel industry conference, especially following the record-breaking attendance at SMU’s Steel Summit 2023 this past August.

There was consensus that steel prices would crash on the UAW strike and then rebound just as sharply once the union and the “Big Three” automakers reached tentative deals.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including steel prices, demand, inventories, imports, the UAW strike, and what people were talking about in the market.

SMU will host a Community Chat on Wednesday Nov. 15 at 12 pm ET with Alan Amici, president and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). The webinar is free for all to attend live. A recording will be available to SMU subscribers. You can register here.

Sheet prices are getting back into very lofty territory. That’s assuming you can find spot tons available for the balance of 2023 – and some of you say you can’t.

The decline in imports from August to September was more pronounced than license applications suggested earlier this month.

The first rule of Steel 101 is that you’re free to talk about Steel 101. We actually encourage it. Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, SMU’s Steel 101 was held in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

The long-anticipated US-EU summit took place on October 20. There was wide anticipation that the two sides would announce a partial agreement on steel and aluminum policy and perhaps an agreement on critical minerals, such as lithium for electric vehicle batteries. Even modest accomplishments such as these were not to be. Instead, the US and […]

SMU’s Current and Future Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices both increased this week, based on our most recent survey data. Every other week we poll steel buyers about sentiment. The Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices measure how steel buyers feel about their company’s chances of success in the current market, as well as three to six months down the road. We have historical data going back to 2008. Check our interactive graphing tool here.

With the aluminum industry assembled in Nashville, Tenn., for the Aluminum USA 2023 conference, word was breaking of a tentative deal between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Ford.

The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members.

I wrote on Sunday that it could be a busy week for steel. It has been.

Mill lead times for flat-rolled products pushed out this week once again across the board.

Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” could be the theme song for the sheet market over the last month. A UAW strike? Shake it off. The lowest ABI since December 2020? Shake it off. A potentially widening conflict in the Middle East? Shake it off. Sheet prices have been rising since late September, and hot-rolled coil […]

This week could be a big one for steel, or at least for the steel rumor mill. For starters, there is renewed speculation that an announcement about the U.S. Steel sales process could be in the works. The rumor mill is also churning fast when it comes to the duration of the UAW strike and […]

After a meeting Friday at the White House, the EU and US issued a joint statement noting no concrete movement towards a Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum.

US sheet mills launched a coordinated push to increase sheet prices for the first time since June.

Wiley partner Alan Price will be the featured speaker on Steel Market Update’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 11 a.m. ET. You can register here.

Much effort has been made in examining the supply chain of commodities related to electrification: everything from copper to aluminum to critical battery materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt. One overlooked material, however, is electrical steel.