Last Friday, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that the domestic solar industry has been seriously injured by imports of cheap, foreign-made solar cells. The case was brought by solar panel makers Suniva and SolarWorld under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974. The ITC now has until Nov. 13 to make recommendations to […]
Congress and the Trump administration are likely to act on both tax reform and infrastructure spending before the end of 2018, predict the majority of forecasters polled by the National Association of Business Economics. NABE conducted its September survey of 47 professional forecasters from Aug. 24 to Sept. 7 (during Hurricane Harvey and before Hurricane […]
On Friday, Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to Lower from Neutral. It is our opinion that flat rolled steel prices will move lower over the next 30 days for the following 10 reasons: First, when the head of commercial of a domestic steel mill tells SMU that “transaction pricing cannot go […]
Growth in Chinese steel production continues to outpace the world, according to a Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data. Production in the month of August was 143,580,000 metric tons, down slightly from 143,729,000 metric tons in July. Capacity utilization was unchanged at 71.7 percent. The three-month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer […]
Nucor Corp. executives urged the U.S. Trade Representative and Department of Commerce to vigorously oppose any efforts to weaken existing Buy America/n requirements, in their comments on President Trump’s April executive order. The steel company also urged the U.S. government to take additional action to stimulate demand for domestic steel in U.S. and foreign government […]
Steel buyers are evenly split on how their businesses will be affected by the cleanup from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. About half (48 percent) of respondents to Steel Market Update’s latest steel market trends questionnaire expect the hurricanes and flooding in Texas and Florida to have a significant impact on their businesses and steel demand […]
The weekly U.S. rig count remained steady this week, according to Sept. 8 data from Baker Hughes, a GE Company. The number of active U.S. drill rigs declined 1 to 935 rigs; oil rigs declined 5 to 744 rigs, gas rigs rose 4 to 190 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at 1 rig. Compared […]
Both Current and Future Sentiment showed a slight decline as a single data point in the latest SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, based on data gathered in mid-September. The index measures how buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful both in the current market environment, as well […]
Flat rolled steel lead times have been relatively flat going back to early May 2017, according to the service centers and manufacturing companies who participated in the Steel Market Update (SMU) flat rolled market trends survey this week. Lead time, which is the amount of time it takes for the domestic steel mills to produce […]
Mills are even more open to price discussions than they were a couple weeks ago, report steel buyers and sellers who replied to Steel Market Update’s latest flat rolled market trends questionnaire. More than 100 executives responded to this week’s questionnaire. Steel buyers’ perceptions of their suppliers’ attitudes offer a snapshot of how steel mills […]
The American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index continued to show demand for design services with a seventh month of growth in August.The ABI gained 1.8 points last month for a solid score of 53.7. The new projects inquiry index rose to 62.5 from 59.5 and the new design contracts index slipped to 54.2 from […]
Are “Buy American” policies good for the U.S. economy and the U.S. steel industry? President Trump issued an executive order in April instructing all federal agencies to conduct comprehensive assessments aimed at cracking down on weak enforcement of Buy American policies, and targeting the abusive use of waivers and exceptions that undermine Buy American laws. […]
The latest data on automotive production offers potential ammo to U.S. trade officials as they work to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Assembly of both cars and light trucks is shifting from the U.S. to Mexico, with Canada largely on the sidelines. Total light vehicle production in the U.S. and Canada has declined […]
For the second month in a row, Steel Market Update (SMU) did reasonably well with our forecast for August shipments, inventories and where we thought the Apparent Deficit/Excess for service center carbon flat rolled inventories would be at the end of August. SMU forecast shipments of hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels would total […]
The U.S. dollar is continuing to collapse on the international foreign exchange markets. Through Sept. 8, the Broad Index value of the U.S. dollar had depreciated by 9.3 percent since Jan. 3 and the decline is accelerating. See the end of this report for an explanation of data sources. The analysis of currency trends is […]
The value of the U.S. dollar on the international exchange markets has been in freefall since Dec. 12, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of currencies. From Jan. 3 through Sept. 8, 2017, the Broad Index value of the U.S. dollar depreciated by 9.3 percent. The value rebounded by 2.97 percent from Sept. 9 […]
Weakening federal vehicle fuel economy standards would not relieve the auto industry of burdensome regulation, but rather would hurt job growth, as well as the environment, maintains the BlueGreen Alliance (BGA), a coalition of American labor unions and environmental organizations whose mission is to “work together to solve today’s environmental challenges in ways that create […]
Steel Market Update is working on a new index to measure flat rolled steel inventories in service center warehouses at the end of each month. Our goal is to assist the flat rolled steel industry to better understand inventories and their potential impact on steel mill order books and lead times. SMU will also analyze […]
ArcelorMittal is not expecting a big bump in business anytime soon due to the hurricane damage in Texas and the Southeast. “That will take a while to pass through,” said Wendell Carter, vice president and general manager of the steelmaker’s Indiana Harbor mill. Carter responded to questions during a media tour of the East Chicago, […]
Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia added construction jobs in the year from August 2016 to August 2017, reports the Associated General Contractors of America, analyzing Labor Department data. Hiring likely would have been stronger if not for a shortage of workers. Seventy percent of companies report having a hard time finding craft workers […]
The Producer Price Index of commodities increased by 3.8 percent in the 12 months through August 2017, according to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS released its series of producer price indexes (PPIs) for more than 10,000 goods and materials this week. The latest release reported results through August. For […]
The Producer Price Index of commodities increased by 3.1 percent for the 12 months ended in November, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—the largest advance since the 12 months ending January 2012. On Thursday, the BLS released its series of producer price indexes (PPIs) for more than 10,000 goods and […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Indicator has been “stuck” in Neutral for a number of weeks as steel buyers and steel mills wrestle with the direction of flat rolled steel prices going forward. Steel buyers are beginning to say the next move in flat rolled steel prices may well be lower, rather than […]
Steel buyers and sellers report that most mills are still open to price discussions, even after recent price increase announcements, based on responses from Steel Market Update’s latest flat rolled market trends questionnaire. Over the course of the past week, SMU canvassed active participants in the manufacturing and service center segments of the flat rolled […]
Flat rolled lead times, the amount of time it takes for the steel mills to produce an order if placed today, have shortened ever so slightly in the past month, according to data collected by Steel Market Update (SMU) from manufacturers and steel service centers earlier this week. Viewed over a longer time frame, lead […]
Editor’s note: Following is a response from Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman to remarks by Daniel Pearson of the Cato Institute published in Steel Market Update’s Sept. 5 newsletter. Zekelman comments on his position on imports and the current state of steel-related trade into the U.S. During our exchange at the recent SMU Steel Summit […]
The weekly U.S. rig count remained steady this week, according to Sept. 8 data from Baker Hughes, a GE Company. The number of active oil rigs declined by 3 to 756 rigs, while the active gas rig count rose 4 to 187 rigs. The miscellaneous rig count was unchanged at 1 rig. Compared to this […]
The Dodge Momentum Index, a measure of nonresidential construction projects in planning, dropped 2.4 percent to register 129.1 in August. Commercial planning led the decline, falling 8.7 percent, while institutional planning partially offset it with a gain of 7.3 percent. In general, commercial planning has seen a steep rise this year as large office building […]
Both current and future sentiment showed a slight improvement in the latest SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, based on data gathered in early September. The index measures how buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful both in the current market environment, as well as three to six […]
Three out of four steel buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire believe the hurricane and flooding in Houston will have a significant impact on the steel industry, at least for the short term. Following are some insightful comments: · “It will have an impact. It will be negative in the short-term, […]