Category: Features

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

SMU Managing Editor Michael Cowden shares his Final Thoughts for the week on what happens to steel if the United Auto Workers (UAW) launch a series of “stand up” strikes at midnight tonight against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis?

The overall steel mill negotiation rate jumped 14 percentage points this week vs. the last market check, with plate's rate rising by eight percentage points, according to SMU's most recent survey data.

Steel mill lead times were basically flat again this week compared to our previous market check, with production times shrinking slightly for hot rolled and cold rolled, and extending for galvanized, Galvalume, and plate.

Sheet prices have fallen to their lowest point of the year - just below $700 per ton ($35 per cwt) when it comes to hot-rolled coil (HRC).

US apparent steel supply declined 2% in July to 8.28 million net tons compared to the previous month, according to data from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). 

Steel prices kept falling throughout last month. Hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices ended August at $725 per ton ($36.25 per cwt) on average, having fallen by $105 per ton during the month.

The more of you I talk to, the more the question seems to be not whether the United Auto Workers (UAW) will strike later this week but instead for how long. You’re also asking whether the UAW will target one union-represented automaker or whether it might take the unprecedented step of walking out at Ford, […]

As the global trading system, which used to be “rules-based,” continues its slide toward the absence (defiance? disregard?) of rules, governments around the world are trying new things.

We’re just a week away from a potential United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against one, or potentially all three, union-represented automakers. The latest turn of the screw: UAW President Shawn Fain said an offer from Detroit-based General Motors was “insulting.”

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including steel prices, demand levels, sheet prices abroad, inventory, and what people are talking about in the market. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing some of them in each buyer’s own words.

US consumer confidence pulled back in August, declining for the first time in four months. The result came in after the index jumped to its highest level in nearly two years the month prior, consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions deteriorated, The Conference Board reported.

Steel Market Update’s Demand Index is still in contracting territory and moving lower, where it has been for the better part of the past four-plus months, according to the latest survey data.

The spot market remains quiet on fears of a potential United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike late next week.

Last week the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, visited China for high-level meetings with the Chinese government. Her counterpart, Wang Wentao, China’s Commerce Minister, participated in the discussions. The four-day meeting included an announcement of two new working groups dealing with US-China economic relationships. The first was a forum to explain US export controls relating […]

Steel Market Update will be taking time off in observance of Labor Day.

The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the Pricing and Analysis tab and look under the “Survey Results” section for “Latest Survey Results.” Historical survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]

Some of you may remember when the year “2000” seemed like the distant future.

Steel mill lead times were largely unchanged this week, with hot rolled extending slightly and plate falling back marginally.

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

The overall mill negotiation rate slipped this week, though plate jumped, rising by 25 percentage points, according to SMU's most recent survey data.

We’re roughly a week removed from the 2023 Steel Summit and some of the discussions, both on stage and the the sidelines of the event, remain of critical importance to many in the industry.

I headed back to the Atlanta airport after Steel Summit in 2022 hoping to catch up with a few colleagues and contacts only to learn that Cleveland-Cliffs had just announced a price hike. So, I set everything aside, opened up my laptop, and filed a short article about the $75-per-ton ($3.75-per-cwt) price increase from a […]

The Mexican government has placed temporary levies of 25% on inward-bound shipments of steel products from countries with which it does not have a free trade agreement.

The LME aluminum 3-month price moved higher this week wrapping up the week at $2,170 per ton on Aug. 25.

This year, the 13th annual edition of our Summit, we polled more than 1,450 attendees about where prices and demand would be, come August 2024.

Will there be a recession in 2023? Steel Summit keynote speaker Gene Marks weighed in on what he thinks about the possibility of a recession.

I learned a lot at Steel Summit this year. More than I can do justice to in one column. Below are four things that have stayed with me after the conference closed on Wednesday afternoon. Another, as I highlighted earlier this week, was electricity – who gets it, and which energy sources we use. 1. […]

Flack Global Metals’ Daniel Doderer was the recipient of the 2023 SMU NexGen Leadership Award.

Leaders of the NexGen Metals Community kicked off this year’s Steel Summit discussing ways the steel industry can recruit and retain new talent.