The Coface Group, a worldwide leader in credit insurance, publishes country risk assessments for 160 countries, based on its unique knowledge of company payment behavior and on the expertise of 350 underwriters located close to clients and their debtors. The following a reprint of their risk outlook for 2015. Laborious Global Recovery, Subject to Multiple […]
Dry cargo rates continue to plummet as the Baltic Dry Cargo index dropped to record lows last week. The index fell to 553 on Wednesday and continued to slide downward to end the week at 530 points. MID-SHIP says shipowners and operators are suffering major revenue losses, with one owner/operator declaring bankruptcy last week. Charterers […]
Operations were terminated at West Coast ports by the Pacific Maritime Association over the weekend. On Monday, the ILWU issued the following statement regarding the re-opening of the ports. “West Coast ports re-opened Monday morning after employers closed the docks for two days, increasing delays for customers needing containers. The union remains focused on reaching […]
The following article was taken from the Armada Corporate Intelligence Report dated February 11,2015. The report is written by Dr. Chris Kuehl and his business partner, Keith Prather. Dr. Kuehl spoke at our last Steel Summit Conference in September 2014 and will once again be a keynote speaker for our 2015 Steel Summit Conference on […]
The USW oil refinery strike has expanded to 11 plants and is nearing the end of its second week. Over 3,800 workers are now actively striking, protesting unsafe conditions and use of unskilled contractors. The latest facilities to be affected by the strike are British Petroleum (BP) refineries in Whiting, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio, joining […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 25th week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
Last month we began to report on domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market in one single report to be able to compare side by side demand and the degree to which imports have absorbed that demand. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce with analysis by […]
The Q1 2015 February Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices was released on February 2nd. This survey addresses changes in the standards and terms on, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households on a quarterly basis and is based on the responses from 73 domestic banks and 23 U.S. branches […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on non-farm employment indicated that 257,000 jobs were added in January. As we were analyzing this date we noticed massive historical revisions and had to go back to January 2000 (15 years!) before were confident we had caught them all. In the 12 months of 2014, job creation […]
In Thursday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update we advised that our SMU Pricing Momentum Indicator continues to point to lower steel pricing over the next 30 days. One of our service center readers pointed out two reasons why he believes pricing will move lower when he wrote us, “Prices here are falling due to […]
I remember one time I became so irate with a customer that I literally was standing on my desk and screaming at him on the phone. It may have made me feel better for a couple of minutes but it didn’t do much to enhance the customer’s experience with the company I represented. Nor did […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are less optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market conditions than what we saw just two weeks ago. The buyers and sellers who participated in this week’s flat rolled steel market analysis reported concerns regarding falling steel prices, bloated inventories and shrinking margins. […]
Flat rolled steel mills saw their lead times shorten according to the buyers and sellers of steel responding to this week’s market analysis. Weakening lead times are one of the keys which is impacting flat rolled and scrap prices – both down big over the past few weeks. Hot rolled lead times average 2.79 weeks, […]
It doesn’t get any clearer than this. Based on the results of the respondents to this week’s flat rolled market questionnaire, the domestic steel mills are willing to negotiate pricing on all flat rolled products: hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume (zinc-aluminum). Hot rolled came in with 95 percent of our respondents reporting the […]
Earlier this week Steel Market Update suggested that perhaps we are getting close to that time when it is necessary to have a dialogue/debate as to when and at what level will flat rolled steel prices bottom. As of Tuesday of this week, Steel Market Update range for benchmark hot rolled coil was $520 to […]
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association are closing the gap on negotiation demands. The latest offer by the PMA includes higher wages, continuation of a fully paid health care package and jurisdiction over maintenance and repair of truck chassis. The ILWU said a contract agreement is “extremely close” and the few […]
Dan DiMicco continues to make economic and political waves with his newest book, American Made: Why Making Things Will Return Us to Greatness. In his book, the outspoken former Nucor CEO and chairman tells how restoring American manufacturing to greatness will make America strong. Publisher St. Martin’s Press, says that DiMicco, with his usual blunt […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. indicates hot rolled coil price momentum continued its downward trend for the 24th week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price movements against the […]
The Institute of Supply Management released their January report on February 2nd. An explanation of this data set is given at the end of this piece. After the October surprise on the upside, the index slid back once again from 55.1 in December to 53.5 in January. The three month moving average has declined for […]
The United States Senate passed the Keystone XL oil pipeline bill by a vote of 62-36 on Thursday, Jan. 29. Nine Democrats joined the Republican-controlled Senate in supporting the bill. The House is expected to vote on the Senate version of the bill early next week. The Keystone XL legislation includes two energy-efficiency programs that […]
Global manufacturing continues to grow steadily with expansion in production and new orders in January. The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI rose slightly last month to 51.7 from 51.5 in December. “The PMI turned higher in January, including moderate gains in the indexes of output and new orders,” commented David Hensley, Director of Global Economics […]
SMU Price Momentum Indicator has been stuck pointing lower for a number of months, ended the month of January as it did at the end of November and December. We saw SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index improve by +1 point in January over the month of December. However, when looking at Sentiment based on a […]
Barge activity on the lower Mississippi remains strong. Winter weather has hindered freight movement in a few northern regions and barge availability is tight in some areas, according to the latest MID-SHIP Report. Northbound barges are showing strong steel and salt cargoes. Stevedores have been working vessels as they arrive in New Orleans and elsewhere […]
The Chicago Business Barometer rose 0.6 points in January to 59.4 from a revised reading of 58.8 in December. The increased manufacturing activity follows two consecutive months of declines. The index showed a modest increase in a new orders, order backlogs and production, driving employment to a 14-month high. Inflationary pressures eased for the fourth […]
The states compile their employment numbers independently of the Feds then both are reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results are reasonably close with the Feds reporting total job creation in 2014 of 2,968,000 and the states reporting 2,664,000. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show the history of Federal and State totals since […]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the first estimate of Q4 2014 Annual Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts on Friday. The annualized growth rate in the 4th Q disappointed economic pundits by coming in at 2.64 percent after increasing by almost 5.0 percent in Q3. GDP is measured and reported in […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in this analysis is currently 36. Please refer to Table 1 for the view of the present situation and the quantitative measure of trends. Readers should […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of December 2014, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in December were 86,850,000 metric tons, an increase of 28.9 percent from the previous month and an increase of 18.4 percent […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. indicates hot rolled coil price momentum continued its downward trend for the 23rd week in a row and is at the lowest level recorded since May 2011. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of […]
The consumer confidence index as reported by the Conference Board rose strongly in January and the December results were revised upwards. The composite rose from 93.1 to 102.9, the view of the present situation rose from 99.9 to 102.6 as expectations rose from 88.5 to 96.4. This was the first time for the composite to […]