Sky Island Capital, a Dallas-based private equity firm, has made a majority investment in Polished Metals Limited alongside the founding Lazarus family. Headquartered in Hillside, N.J., Polished Metals is one of the country’s largest polishers and suppliers of architectural and ornamental metals, offering a variety of finishes and metals to several end markets, including the […]
Mill lead times for spot orders of flat rolled steel have shortened slightly this month, though not yet enough to signal a definite trend. The current numbers suggest the mills are still maintaining relatively healthy order levels, but a change may be in the works. Lead times for steel delivery are an indicator of demand […]
Price negotiations with the mills have continued to loosen up as it’s rapidly becoming a buyer’s market. The vast majority of service center and manufacturing executives responding to Steel Market Update’s questionnaire this week said the mills are open to price negotiations on nearly all products to win the orders. In the hot rolled segment, […]
Writen by: John Packard, President & CEO, Steel Market Update On Tuesday I received a question about the SMU Price Momentum Indicator, which is currently pointing toward Neutral pricing over the next 30 days. Yesterday (Wednesday) I received the following note from one of our readers after reading Tuesday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update: […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive-level members. For more information on how to upgrade to a Premium-level subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Oil and gas prices declined from our previous update. The spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) FOB Cushing, Okla., was $49.59 on Feb. 10, down from $58.17/ barrel in […]
A surge in business activity in New York State surprised economists in February. The Empire State Manufacturing Survey’s general business index shot up eight points for a reading of 12.9, well above the forecast consensus of 4.0 and posting its highest level since May 2019. Business conditions improved across the board except for a softening […]
Flat Rolled = 52.6 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 48.4 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled Service centers scaled back their flat rolled steel inventories at the end of January to 52.6 shipping days of supply on an adjusted basis, down from 62.9 in December, according to the SMU Service Center Inventories Report. This […]
Based on our analysis of 10 economic indicators, the decline in manufacturing slowed in February’s data. This report summarizes 10 data streams that describe the state of U.S. manufacturing in general and the steel industry in particular. We have reported on most of these separately in our Steel Market Update publications, and therefore will be […]
In this report we examine the change in currency values of the 16 pre-eminent global steel and iron ore trading nations. The U.S. dollar has strengthened against 10 of the 16 currencies in the last three months. In January we replaced the British pound in this report with the Vietnamese dong in recognition that Vietnam […]
In three months through December, demand for total rolled products declined by 6.1 percent. This Premium analysis by Steel Market Update is based on steel mill shipment data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and import-export data from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). It is meant as a more in-depth look compared […]
U.S active rig counts remained steady this past week, while Canadian rigs decreased, according to oilfield services company Baker Hughes. The active drill rigs count is important to the steel industry because it is a leading indicator of oil country tubular goods demand. The number of active U.S. rigs was unchanged at 790, with oil […]
Service centers’ support of higher steel prices appears to have turned the corner and begun to recede, which helps to explain the recent downturn in the price of hot rolled coil. Steel Market Update data places the current price for hot rolled at $580 per ton, down $30 from the $610 peak in early January. […]
Net job creation in January was an encouraging 225,000, up from 147,000 in November, but down from the exceptional result of 261,000 in October. In the January report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) made substantial historical revisions. In this SMU analysis, we revised our data back to January 2017. Rising employment and wages are […]
January’s employment report was a downer for manufacturing, but construction was particularly strong. The net increase in employed persons was 225,000 in January, of which 108,000 were in health, education and leisure activities. In January, 44,000 jobs were created in construction and 12,000 jobs lost in manufacturing. The private sector gained 206,000 jobs in January […]
Steel buyers remain optimistic about their prospects for success, but perhaps slightly less so than in mid-January. Steel prices have seen modest declines since then, along with headlines on presidential impeachment and a deadly virus in China adding to worries about the economy. Steel Market Update’s Current Sentiment Index registered +61, down from +63 two […]
Earlier today, Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicators on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume to Neutral. What this means is we see market prices in transition, or in a holding pattern, and we no longer expect prices to rise over the next 30 days. Prior to today we had momentum on […]
Mill lead times for spot orders of flat rolled steel extended by more than a week during last year’s fourth quarter, but so far this year have been fairly flat. The average lead time for orders of hot roll is now a bit less than five weeks, cold roll around six and a half weeks […]
Price negotiations between steelmakers and steel users have loosened considerably on most steel products. Buyers report some new wiggle room in talks over spot prices. In the hot rolled segment, nearly three out of four of the steel buyers responding to SMU’s questionnaire this week (74 percent) said the mills are now more willing to […]
By CRU’s China Steel Team, with Senior Analysts Richard Lu and Erik Hedborg. On Monday, Feb. 3, financial markets and commodity trade resumed after the extended Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Equity markets fell sharply as fears of economic slowdown prompted investors to push the sell button. […]
Manufacturing grew in January along with the overall economy, reported the Institute for Supply Management. ISM’s January PMI gained 3.1 points from December to register 50.9, above the crucial no-change mark of 50. New orders and production pulled from contraction to post respective index readings of 52.0 percent and 54.3 percent for the month, said […]
Global manufacturing performed slightly better in January, according the latest J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI. The composite PMI rose to a nine-month high of 50.4 from December’s reading of 50.1, although only slightly above the no-growth mark of 50.0. Consumer and intermediate goods led the increase as investment goods continued to contract further. Output rose […]
As advanced as steelmaking has become, producing steel is still an inherently carbon- and energy-intensive process. Steel mills in the United States and the rest of the world find themselves in the crosshairs of the many environmental and political groups now calling for dramatic steps to reduce harmful air emissions and slow the pace of […]
By CRU Principal Economist Lisa Morrison and Economist Anissa Chabib, from CRU’s Economic Outlook CRU Economics ran its fourth annual survey to gauge our clients’ expectations of economic conditions for 2020. We elicited responses across CRU’s full product portfolio and received information from 182 clients, working in 41 different countries. This feature presents the results […]
Both steel and scrap prices increased in the month of January, raising with them optimism levels over market conditions one month into the new year. The average price for hot rolled steel rose by about $30 per ton in January. The benchmark price for hot rolled peaked at $610 per ton in mid-January, but ended the […]
U.S active rig counts decreased this past week, while Canadian rigs increased, according to oilfield services company Baker Hughes. The active drill rigs count is important to the steel industry because it is a leading indicator of oil country tubular goods demand. The number of active U.S. rigs fell by 4 to 790, with oil […]
Key Market Indicators show that the improvement in market trends that occurred in December continued into January. This report is designed to be a big picture summary of data SMU has reported in detail during the month. It summarizes 36 data streams that describe the state of the steel market and provide forward guidance for […]
China increased steel production by three million metric tons in December. Figure 1 shows annualized monthly global steel production on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis and capacity utilization since January 2000. Based on OECD data (see below), capacity utilization in December on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis was 80.9 percent, down from 86.3 […]
The Conference Board report of consumer confidence in January shows stability at a high level based on 10 years of history. The composite value of consumer confidence in January, reported by The Conference Board, was 131.6 with a three-month moving average (3MMA) of 128.9. The 3MMA has decreased from 132.1 in September, but was up […]
The Chicago Business Barometer, a leading indicator of Midwest manufacturing, dropped to its lowest level since December 2014, said MNI Indicators. The PMI posted a reading of 42.9 in January following two months of gains. The three-month average dipped to 45.9. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction. New orders fell 6.1 points to 41.5 and […]
The recent rise in flat rolled mill spot prices have, in Steel Market Update’s opinion based on our survey analysis, been supported by a rise in service center spot prices to their end customers. However, the analysis of last week’s flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey indicates that support for higher prices has […]