Category: Features

On Steel Market Update’s most recent Community Chat, we caught up with Timna Tanners, managing director of Wolfe Research, to hear her latest take on the steel market.

US service center flat-rolled steel supply edged up slightly in June as daily shipments dropped to the lowest rate this year.

On Steel Market Update’s most recent Community Chat, we caught up with Timna Tanners, managing director of Wolfe Research, to hear her latest take on the steel market. Tanners chatted with SMU managing editor Michael Cowden about the myth of mill discipline within the sheet market. The market isn’t much more disciplined than a few […]

I’ll get to the market in a minute. But first the big news, for us and we hope for you too. We crossed a big threshold this week with Steel Summit – more than 1,000 people are attending the conference on Aug. 21-23 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. Join more than […]

Every day, it seems, the headlines point to a general decline in the global situation. The more one reads, the more it becomes clear that our major issues are all interconnected. Addressing one will necessarily impact the others, either worsening or bettering them. Immigration is a prime example of this phenomenon. The two parties, and […]

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai will travel to Brussels next week to continue discussions on establishing a “Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum” with the European Union. Ambassador Tai will be in Belgium on July 20-21 to speak with European Commission EVP Valdis Dombrovskis. This is their second meeting in July, the USTR press […]

Join SMU’s next Community Chat webinar with Barry Zekelman, executive chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries – the largest independent steel pipe and tube manufacturer in North America. The webinar will be on Wednesday, July 26, at 11 a.m. ET. It’s free for all to attend. A recording will be available to SMU members. You […]

There’s been a lot of talk about AI. We’ve even used ChatGPT a bit here ourselves at Steel Market Update. But this week I had the chance to get a broader view on what’s on offer in the field at the Reuters Momentum Conference on July 11-12 here in Austin, Texas, where I live. I went […]

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including steel prices, demand levels, import offers, and inventory. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing some of them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! Contact david@steelmarketupdate.com to be included in […]

I’d halfway expected to see hot-rolled coil prices come down this week. A few of you made the case for price declines. The logic: softer demand meeting increased domestic supply and higher import volumes. Some of you also noted that lead times, while not bad, were hardly strong enough to support another round of price […]

Join us for SMU’s next Community Chat webinar with Wolfe Research managing director Timna Tanners. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, July 12, at 11 a.m. ET. It’s free for all to attend. A recording will be available to SMU members. You can register here. We’ll talk about what Tanners describes as “the myth […]

It’s the time of year when I’m going to be banging the drum about Steel Summit – even in the lede to Final Thoughts 🙂 We’ll get to the latest steel market trends in a moment. But first I want to highlight that hotels are still available near the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta, where […]

US-China relations have been in the news for at least the last five years. Cabinet officials are traveling to China, Chinese leaders are coming to the US, books are coming out and the European Union is dealing with the same quandary: should China be further isolated? Is the West too dependent on China? As I […]

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai met on Thursday in Cancun, Mexico, with Mexico’s Secretary of Economy, Raquel Buenrostro, where the two discussed confronting steel imports, among other issues. In a press release, the USTR said she spoke with Secretary Buenrostro regarding “the importance of addressing the recent surge of imports of steel and aluminum products, and […]

SMU’s Current and Future Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices swapped directions again this week, with current increasing and future sentiment easing, according to 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 […]

The ITC announced today it is taking up the fact-finding investigation requested by the US Trade Representative into greenhouse-gas emissions intensity in the US steel and aluminum industries. In steel, more than 50 products will be examined for their GHG emissions-intensity as of 2022. The study is set to be completed by Jan. 28, 2025. […]

Lead times were broadly stable this week, with sheet products rising modestly and plate unchanged from SMU’s market check two weeks ago. More meaningful movements in lead times should be seen in the coming weeks as buyers return to the market after the Fourth of July holiday. Should the mills’ recent sheet price hikes take […]

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said Wednesday it is conducting a fact-finding investigation to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of steel and aluminum made in the US. This is in response to a letter sent by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on June 5 requesting a Section 332 investigation in the midst of ongoing […]

The overall mill negotiation rate dropped this week following the July 4th holiday, though plate bucked the trend, increasing by four percentage points, according to SMU’s most recent survey data. The percentage of respondents saying steel mills were willing to talk price on plate stood at 63% this week, up from 59% two weeks ago, while […]

We’re now less than two months away from the kickoff of SMU’s 2023 Steel Summit Conference, which runs from Monday-Wednesday, Aug. 21-23, in Atlanta. Registrations for Steel Summit are flooding in, with roughly 820 people already registered, and hotel availability dwindling fast. Register here. The hotels within walking distance of the event – Georgia International Convention […]

Occasionally, a story jolts you awake. You realize how much things have changed—once, a pro-trade remark from a senior government official was routine. Now, it is remarkable. Last week the President’s Export Council (PEC), an advisory group currently chaired by Mark Ein of Kastle Systems, met for the first time since the Obama administration. The […]

Steel Market Update’s offices will be closed for Independence Day. We will send out survey invitations on Monday, July 3. We will not publish an issue on Tuesday, July 4. Our weekly pricing service will continue. We typically update prices on Tuesday. Next week, however, we will update them on Wednesday, July 5. We will […]

Worthington Industries Inc. announced strong earnings for its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter, boosted by an exceptional performance from its steel processing business. The Columbus, Ohio-based manufacturing and steel processing company reported net earnings of $129.9 million for fiscal Q4 ended May 31, a 62% increase from $80.3 million in the same period one year prior.   […]

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including steel prices, demand levels, and import offers. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing some of them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! Contact david@steelmarketupdate.com to be included in our […]

While a lack of inventory is constraining existing-home sales in the US, it’s proving a boon for sales of new homes. Existing-Home Sales Constricted by the lack of inventory, existing-home sales rose just slightly in May, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Sales of existing homes reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) […]

Raw steel production by US mills moved higher again last week, gaining ground for the second straight week, according to data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) on Monday, June 26. Domestic production stood at 1,758,000 net tons during the week ended June 24, up 0.9% from 1,743,000 tons the previous week. Production is […]

Our latest survey results indicate that the round of $50/ton ($2.50/cwt) sheet price hikes have a good chance of at least stabilizing prices or increasing them modestly. To be clear, SMU does not make formal forecasts. I’m basing this on what we’re seeing in past survey results following price hikes compared to what we’re seeing […]

A rare state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India culminated in a joint statement by President Biden and the prime minister last Thursday. This was a blockbuster statement, covering 58 paragraphs and resolving or narrowing differences on a host of issues. Some disputes had been festering for years. Despite pre-meeting statements advising that […]

European sheet prices have declined sharply by €112-146 per metric ton ($110-144 per net ton) month-on-month (MoM), around 12-18% across all sheet products. In CRU’s latest assessment, German hot-rolled coil decreased by €125 MoM to €689 per metric ton ($680 per net ton), while Italian HR coil saw a drop of €146 to €657 per […]

US rig counts dropped for the week ended June 23, while Canada’s count increased, according to the latest data from oilfield services company Baker Hughes. This marks the eighth consecutive week-over-week decline in the US and fifth consecutive weekly increase in Canada.   The total US rig count stood at 682 active rigs as of June 23, off five from the […]