We are now two weeks away from the opening of our 4th Steel Summit Conference and our first two day conference. I am quite pleased at the response that we have received from a number of different fronts regarding our conference. Our conference is being held on September 3 & 4 which is only two […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported shipment and inventory data to paid subscribers on Friday. The steel industry media will receive the data on Monday. Steel Market Update will produce a number of reports based on the MSCI data. We will have our normal shipment and inventories for the U.S. and Canada for our […]
I got a note from a manufacturing company regarding the size of the Nucor move on galvanized coating extras. The comment that was made was, “Zinc average for 2014 is up 8.6% since average of 2012. Nucor increase is way too high.” This steel buyer went on to comment, “Aluminum average in same time period […]
We are starting to learn that the holdup on the flat rolled dumping suits has been due to the desire by the domestic mills to protect the automotive companies. If suits are filed look for exclusions on I.F. steels and potentially coils wider than 60 inches. We have heard from both mill and non-mill sources […]
As of Monday we will have 16 working days before our 4th Steel Summit Conference (22 total days) and the work only gets more intense for those of us working to put on a great conference. There is still time to register which you can do on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com or by calling our office: […]
Earlier today you should have received a special issue newsletter about our upcoming Events – Steel Summit, Steel 101 workshop and Managing Price Risk II. There is a ton of information in that newsletter and you are welcome to forward it around the country. Probably the one thing of the most interest is who is […]
You may start to notice that we are beginning to “tweak” our new website. It has been online for approximately 8 months and we have identified a number of areas which we think we can improve for both our existing customers and those coming to our website for the first time. We have changed the […]
We will conduct our early August steel market analysis (survey) beginning first thing on Monday morning. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few minutes to click on the link which will take you to SurveyMonkey.com where you can interact with our questionnaire. If by chance you would rather direct someone else […]
Today is the last day of July. During the past 30 days or so we have been giving our Executive Level subscribers (our normal newsletter members) access to Premium Level content and supplemental newsletters/articles. There are two Premium articles in tonight’s newsletter and you can recognize them as we have put a premium logo in […]
We are going to hold off on doing an import analysis other than to say that the latest license data suggests July imports will be approximately the same as June. I will check the latest numbers to see if there are any huge variances compared to what we reported over the past few days. If […]
I believe US Steel releases earnings after the close of the Stock Exchange on Tuesday and their earnings conference call will be held at 8:30 AM on Wednesday. Due to the issues the company had with two of their mills during the second quarter the expectation is USS will report a loss. I would expect […]
A special thank you to Pacesetter Steel Service Inc. who has stepped up to sponsor our networking/cocktail reception to be held at the end of the first day of the SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. For those of you who are unaware the conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) […]
For those of you who don’t realize it – Steel Market Update is conducting our mid-July market analysis this week. I have added a couple of questions about the sale of the Dearborn and Columbus steel mills. I will send out a reminder email first thing in the morning on Wednesday. If you receive an […]
In the last issue of Steel Market Update I warned that there are lots of rumors swamping the steel market as negotiations for Severstal NA heat up (or are perhaps already over) and Gallatin entertains bids on their mill (half owned by Gerdau and half ArcelorMittal). The other mill issue is the Chapter 15 (Canadian […]
First thing I want to say is everyone needs to be aware that the market is plum full of rumors and half-truths. There are rumors about dumping suits, Severstal sale, pricing (going both ways) and more. When you hear something question the source, see if there is anything in writing or if the information can […]
I thought the train references in the articles above were fitting as the Kansas City Southern Railroad just became one of our corporate sponsors for this year’s Steel Summit Conference. They are joining Alliance Steel and Magic Coil Products as sponsors. We are in the process of negotiating with a number of other potential sponsors. […]
For those of you who would like to read the fact sheet sent out by the International Trade Administration (ITA) which contains the US Department of Commerce Final Determination on the OCTG trade case you can click on this link. As I mentioned in one of the above articles, Roger Schagrin of Schagrin Associates is […]
I spoke with the International Trade Administration this afternoon (Thursday) and they advised me that the OCTG Final Commerce ruling announcement will come out between noon and 4 PM ET tomorrow. The deadline date is today, July 10th but the actual announcement is always made on the next business day. We will receive a copy […]
Earlier today I learned that the deadline for offers to buy the assets connected to Severstal North America had been moved to July 11th. We originally reported the date as being July 2nd. None of the mills we contacted today were willing to share information about the bidding process or even if they had a […]
A reminder right up front that Steel Market Update will not publish on Thursday and Sunday evenings due to the 4th of July holiday here in the United States. We will return to our regular schedule beginning on Tuesday of next week. If, by chance, there is some breaking news which needs to be covered […]
With the 1st of July not coming until Tuesday and Friday being a holiday in the United States, I have decided to hold off our next flat rolled steel market analysis until next Monday, July 7th. That means we will produce our first survey for the month of July next week and then the second […]
We had some international reservations for our Steel Summit Conference this week and the pace of registrations appears to be picking up over the last couple of days. Thank you to those who are registering early. If you are having any issues with the registration process on our website or just have questions we are […]
Hello from Chicago, home of our first Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution workshop. We have an excellent group in attendance and the program is going well. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is day 2 when we provide an opportunity to our attendees to do simulated trading based on profiles and directives that they have to meet […]
My hectic travel schedule continues as I go to Chicago on Monday afternoon as we will be conducting our new Managing Price Risk II: Strategies and Execution workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The workshop instructor is Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk and one of our speakers at this year’s Steel Summit Conference […]
I am going to start off today’s final thoughts with a shout out to one of our own, John Temples, who recently was interviewed by a Michigan Business Network radio station about Steel Market Update. You can listen to a replay of the interview by clicking on this link. For our Premium Level members, be […]
Hello from New York City. If you are in the steel industry and you have never attended a Steel Success Strategies conference (or been a lobby rat hanging out in the hotel lobby and talking to people as they pass in and out of the hotel) then you need to do it at least one […]
By the time this newsletter is published I will be in New York City which by Monday afternoon will be crawling with steel and related industry people. There are a number of conferences, meetings and dinners surrounding the Steel Success Strategies conference which will be held during the first few days of this week. I […]
If you are in any way involved with analyzing risk within your company I have two suggestions: 1) Sign up for the Armada Executive Intelligence Brief and, 2) Come to our Steel Summit Conference in September when Dr. Chris Kuehl, one of the Managing Directors and founders of Armada Corporate Intelligence, will address our conference. […]
Those of you who know me understand that during my steel sales career I not only worked in the service center segment of the industry but I also represented a domestic steel mill and, during the last five years of my career I also represented two trading companies who were selling foreign steel into the […]
A note to remind you that we have a few spots left for our new Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution workshop which will be held in Chicago at the CME Building at 20 South Wacker Drive. The workshop will be conducted over two days: June 24 & 25th. Our instructor will be Andre […]