For those of you who are interested the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) shipment and inventory data is scheduled to be released tomorrow (Wednesday). We will have a full report for our Executive members in Thursday’s issue and our Apparent Excess and Price Forecast and another more detailed report for our Premium level members later […]
During my conference call with Cowen & Company and their customers last week I mentioned that I thought we could see a domestic mill price increase by the middle of May. My reasoning is inventories should begin to drop at the service center level and many of the end users want to tie up steel […]
We have an article in tonight’s Steel Market Update about a service center which installed a new piece of processing equipment. Earlier today we posted on our website blog an article about Olympic Steel naming Andrew Wolfort general manager of their Schaumburg plant. We are interested in keeping the industry informed of these kinds of […]
SurveyMonkey.com handles our flat rolled steel market analysis (surveys) and sends out invitations twice per month. They have made some changes to the way they send out the surveys and the way you access the questionnaire. If you normally get a invitation and have not seen it please check your SPAM folder as it is […]
A reminder to our readers that we will not be publishing our Steel Market Update newsletter on Sunday due to the Easter Holiday. We will go back to our normal publishing schedule on Tuesday, April 7th. Our offices will be open on Friday and Monday and we can be reached at: 800-432-3475 or by email: […]
A note to those interested in attending our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop in May. The workshop is about 50 percent fully registered at this time. The location is Merriville, Indiana just outside of Chicago. Our mill tour will be of the NLMK Indiana electric arc furnace (EAF) plant which […]
This will be an interesting week as we watch to see how the negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their suppliers end. Expectations are mixed. Late last week we received a note from one of the larger scrap companies in the U.S. They told us, “Generally speaking, obsolete scrap flows have remained tepid in […]
So, why haven’t we released our program for the upcoming Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta on September 1 & 2, 2015? Well, we are waiting until we have all of our keynote speakers confirmed and committed. We believe we will have an exceptional program once again this year. As we have in the past, our […]
Last week a number of the large Chinese steel mills who have offices in the United States met to discuss the pressures being placed on the Chinese mills by both the Chinese central government and the U.S. government to control (reduce) the amount of steel being exported to the United States. SMU heard over the […]
I want to take a moment to welcome our newest members to Steel Market Update. I want to remind all of our members that we encourage comments, questions and suggestions. Many of our best articles are done in response to questions being asked of us by the active steel community. We find if one person […]
Any of you out there feeling like the beat of the anti-import drums are once again beating harder and harder. So, what happens if the Chinese steel mills decide to “voluntarily” reduce or allocate their export tonnage to the United States? First, would they try to allocate at existing tonnage levels (which are quite high) […]
I want to shout out to all of the people who worked on tonight’s newsletter as this has been a particularly hectic day for me due to my travel schedule. Brett Linton and Sandy Williams both did great jobs (as usual) as they bounced from subject to subject and article to article. Peter Wright continues […]
We will begin a new flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) on Monday morning at 8 AM ET. There are lots of questions which are unanswered and we want to probe your thoughts on the subject. As I mentioned, invites to the survey will be sent out at 8 AM ET. If you receive an […]
I thought I would wait for my Final Thoughts area of the newsletter before broaching the rumor mill which has been begun questioning at what point do the domestic steel mills go out into the market and announce price increases. I had a number of conversations over the past few days with both consumers of […]
I reproduced part of an article written by David Phelps about the fling of an anti-dumping trade case, what the mills have to prove and how the system works. The original article was written back in July 2014 and the exact same subject, with the exact same products and same cast of characters, exists today. […]
Someone asked me recently what value is there in a publication like ours? Perhaps the best real life example I have to reference is about the two decisions made here in Dawson County, Georgia to build first, a new jail and then second, a new courthouse. The county ignored my warnings when they built the […]
Steel Market Update just concluded our 5th flat rolled steel market survey earlier today. We have a couple of articles in tonight’s issue associated with our survey results and there will be more on Sunday. Our Premium level members should have access to the latest Power Point presentation on the survey results on our website […]
I spent three days in Chicago this past week, enjoying the snow, wind and cold temperatures. Upon my return one of my first directives was for Sandy Williams of our staff to research the ice cover on the Great Lakes as the opening of the Soo Locks is only three weeks away. We will let […]
I will be staying put for a couple of weeks and can be found in our current headquarters. Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions, comments or suggestions. This offer includes those of you who are on a trial of the Steel Market Update (SMU) newsletter(s). I am always interested in […]
I couldn’t escape the snow. Our offices in North Georgia were closed today due to 4″ of the white stuff which paralyzes those in its wake in the South. However, I traveled to Chicago yesterday only to find that the flurries being forecast earlier in the week became closer to 5″ of snow and much, […]
President Obama vetoed the Keystone XL Pipeline bill passed by the U.S. Congress. We have a full story on the veto on our website blog. We are trying to put more and more general interest stories, press releases, etc. on our website blog as opposed to publishing everything in our newsletters. This way we hope […]
Have I mentioned lately that our next Steel 101 workshop will be held in the Chicago area and will include a tour of the NLMK Indiana mini-mill? Details are on our website or you are welcome to contact our offices at: 800-432-3475 or info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. We believe this will be another excellent program as we bring […]
I was relieved to see the Sentiment 3MMA trend break after dropping for almost five straight months (since mid-September). I am not quite yet ready to say we have vanquished any growing pessimism within the flat rolled steel industry. But, breaking the streak was the first step. I have a number of concerns. The continuation […]
OK, I have been asked for my opinion as to what I think will happen to steel prices from this point. I have a sense that we may be entering a period of transition. A point where the price spreads between foreign and domestic are “reasonable” and the domestic steel industry can re-capture some of […]
On Monday we will begin our mid-February flat rolled steel market analysis. The market has seen prices dropping over the past few weeks at a rate not seen for a number of years. Our survey will help us not only understand where price offers/orders are today but when we think the bottom will be reached. […]
Traders at the Port of Tampa Steel Conference told me hot rolled offers at in the $460 to $480 per ton range with little to no activity. It is not clear yet if the import offers will move lower from the $460 to $480 level. One trader told me that they were not taking any […]
I have been speaking with a number of service centers involved in the secondary side of the steel industry. Although early in my investigation, I am learning that no one really knows how the huge drop in scrap prices will ultimately affect the secondary markets. Usually there is a relationship between secondary steel prices and […]
Just a quick note to let everyone know I will be in Tampa later this week for the Port of Tampa Steel Conference. I will be reporting on what I learned in Thursday evening’s edition of Steel Market Update. I want to take a moment to welcome our newest members and to remind them that […]
For some reason, we made an error when setting up this newsletter yesterday evening that stopped it from being published. We apologize for the delay in getting it to you. Earlier this week ferrous scrap pricing in Detroit settled at down $100 per gross ton on prime grades of scrap such as #1 busheling and […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) ferrous scrap sources are advising us that the scrap market pricing have not settled yet. It seems that every periodical wants to fan the flames of scrap price collapsing (and we do our share as well I suppose) before the final numbers are locked in. Keep that in mind when evaluating […]