Join us for a free, 45-minute SMU Community Chat on Wednesday with an infrastructure policy expert from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Brett Smith, senior director of government relations at the AISI, will be the featured speaker during the webinar on May 12, at 11 a.m. ET. Smith serves as liaison between AISI member […]
Price, Price, Price… I might as well begin where I left off in our last issue of Steel Market Update on Thursday. Everyone wants to know when this market will peak, then tip over, and how far it will then fall. There are a wide range of opinions within the steel community, from prices will […]
I have been “out” for the past few days as my daughter has received her shots and has been visiting us for the first time in well over a year. A special thank you to the SMU team for picking up the slack in my absence. Jumping right back into the fray, as Michael mentioned […]
Brett Smith, senior director of government relations at the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), will be the featured speaker during the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, May 12, at 11 a.m. ET. Smith serves as liaison between AISI member companies from the American steel industry and the U.S. Congress and federal agencies. He […]
I wish I could start off writing about something other than steel prices. That said, since I joined SMU from Fastmarkets AMM in early January, the news really has been the price. SMU’s average hot-rolled price on Tuesday, May 4, stood at $1,500 per ton ($75 per cwt). That’s a 12.8% increase from $1,330 per ton a month ago […]
While other measures of economic recovery still lag their pre-pandemic levels, that is not the case with the sentiment among steel buyers. Attitudes among buyers are already more positive than they were before COVID struck last year, and optimism levels are nearly the highest ever recorded in the 13 years that Steel Market Update has […]
Hot rolled steel prices have been on the rise since last August and hit a new record of $1,440 per ton this week as nine-week lead times have tightened supplies and made spot tons scarce. Can steel prices possibly continue rising for the rest of the year? Chris Shipp is convinced steel prices have a […]
Sometimes it seems like the faster I move the further behind I get…. I think steel buyers are beginning to realize they have precious little control over this market, and they are just along for the ride. As I reviewed the results of this week’s flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis (our steel […]
When I started Steel Market Update in August 2008 and I began to look at steel prices, I did so from a different viewpoint than the indexes that already existed. Having just completed a 31-year career in selling flat rolled steel, I believed what was most important for steel buyers to understand was the range […]
Nucor, SDI and Cliffs all announced earnings last week. All of the CEOs are quite bullish as all of their flat rolled mills are running at full capacity. And with pricing now in excess of $1,400 per ton for benchmark hot rolled, the mills are reporting record or near record quarterly profits for first-quarter 2021. […]
My first job in the steel industry started in July 1977. I have been involved with the industry ever since. I’m coming up on 44 years in a few months. That either makes me old or wise…well, old anyway. What I can tell you is during those 44 years I have never seen a market […]
Chris Shipp, Vice President of Supply Chain at Priefert Manufacturing/Priefert Steel, will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 28, at 11 a.m. ET. Priefert serves the agriculture and ranching industries, among others. Chris purchases more than 150,000 tons of steel each year. We will discuss solar projects, infrastructure, […]
Chris Shipp, Vice President of Supply Chain at Priefert Manufacturing/Priefert Steel, will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 28, at 11 a.m. ET. Priefert serves the agriculture and ranching industries, among others. Chris purchases more than 150,000 tons of steel each year. We will discuss solar projects, infrastructure, […]
Join us for a free, 45-minute Community Chat with an expert steel buyer on Wednesday. Chris Shipp, Vice President of Supply Chain at Priefert Manufacturing/Priefert Steel, will be the featured speaker during the webinar, which begins Wednesday, April 28, at 11 a.m. ET. Priefert serves the agriculture and ranching industries, among others. Chris purchases more than […]
Buyers of flat rolled and plate steels continue to complain of their inability to get enough steel in order to supply their customers. In the latest analysis conducted by Steel Market Update last week, 47% of the respondents to our survey reported they were unable to get enough supply. We have seen a small improvement […]
Steel Market Update’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Indexes show buyers still very optimistic about their prospects for the rest of the year despite lingering concerns over COVID-19 and the possibility of a sharp correction in record-high steel prices. Both Current and Future Sentiment Index readings are even more bullish than they were in the first quarter last year before […]
We understand at least one integrated steelmaker is approaching their spot customers with hot rolled base prices of $1,500 to $1,520 per ton. We are not aware of any buyers at this “suggested” HRC price level (it wasn’t that long ago that $1,300 was the “suggested” steel price). We concluded one of our SMU Flat […]
Flat Rolled = 41.4 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 43 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled U.S. service center flat rolled inventories remained very lean in March, as shipments were strong, but mills continued to run late on deliveries. At the end of March, U.S. service centers had 41.4 shipping days of supply of […]
Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of the monthly Key Market Indicators shows that our Present Situation markers have seen little change when compared to the month prior, while the Trend change saw a visible shift upward during the same period. Overall, the marketplace continues to recover from the pandemic as key metrics show further improvement. […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito is very bullish on the metals market, comparing the industry to a baseball game that’s just getting started: “I think we are in the first couple of innings of a really good market and cycle,” he said during Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat. Despite material shortages and supply disruptions, manufacturing is […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
There are specific reasons for the tightness of supply that exists in the market today. Events have been in motion for the past 25 years that have culminated in the limitations of supply. For those of you who have attended SMU Steel Summit Conferences you may recall a presentation done by Paul Lowrey, Managing Director […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. Topics will include infrastructure, supply chain disruptions stemming from COVID-19, and port congestion. […]
Over the weekend I was speaking with the CEO of a service center and we were talking about the resistance he was seeing from his plant employees. Many of them did not want to get the COVID vaccine. The office people were mostly vaccinated, but the plant people were not. We discussed the possibility of […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. Topics will include infrastructure, supply chain disruptions stemming from COVID-19, and port congestion. […]
Foreign steel imports are building, according to the latest license data from the U.S. government. Total licenses were 2.7 million net tons for March. This is well above the 1.984 million net ton average over the last two years. It is also equal to or above the first month of the quarter tonnage, which is […]
Looking for a Top… Looking for Steel…. As we conduct our analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel prices this week, we cannot help but notice the pace of increases has slowed…or is the slowing due to many mill order books being closed and having nothing new to offer. The availability of spot tonnage […]
Former President Donald Trump overstepped his powers when he extended Section 232 tariffs to downstream products such as steel nails, a trade court ruled. The U.S. Court of International Trade made the decision on Monday, April 5, in favor of the plaintiff in the case, PrimeSource Building Products Inc., and against the defendant, the United […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
The prevailing sentiment among steel buyers remains as steadfastly positive as steel prices are steadfastly high. Steel Market Update’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Index saw only minor changes since SMU’s last check of the market. Every two weeks, SMU asks buyers how they view their company’s chances for success in the current environment, as well as […]