All is quiet on the eastern front (the western front announced increases yesterday – so, not so quiet there). Steel buyers have been telling Steel Market Update over the past few days that their inventories are stable to high, they are not comfortable with all of the uncertainty and concerned with the lack of transparency […]
California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS-POSCO Industries (UPI) announced price increases of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) on Monday, hoping to stem the slide in flat-rolled steel prices that began last summer. The announcements do not include plate. In its Jan. 21 letter to customers, CSI stated that it is opening its order book for flat-rolled […]
On Monday, California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS/POSCO (UPI) advised customers of their intention to take spot prices on flat rolled products produced by the two mills up by $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). This is the first price announcement out of either mill since October 2018. So far, there have not been any announcements out […]
Raw steel production by U.S. steelmakers in the week ending Jan. 19 totaled 1,912,000 net tons for a capability utilization of 80.7 percent. Steel production was up 1.1 percent from the prior week and up 11.5 percent from the same week last year when the utilization rate was 73.6 percent, reported the American Iron and […]
By Stephen Miller Pig iron prices have declined by about $35/MT for sales concluded last week for delivery to the U.S. The latest sales are in the vicinity of $350/MT CFR. This has been a long time coming since the last confirmed cargoes were booked at $385/MT in November. Prior to November, many market participants thought […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores Scrap prices in the U.S. fell $30 /lt m/m in January, the first time since 2006 that prices have declined in the month. The fall was also the largest December to January decrease in at least two decades for obsolete grades. The unusual decline occurred because supply outpaced demand […]
Steel Market Update spoke with a number of foreign steel trading companies who service the North American market today. There was one very clear theme no matter who I spoke with – steel buyers are not willing to take any risk on foreign steel with spreads less than $60 per ton. A second common theme: […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Chief Market Risk Officer, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
When we looked at the hot rolled coil market this week, it became apparent there were a number of pressures on that particular product. Pressures from short lead times, for one. Some of our sources reported HRC lead times around 2-3 weeks. We also have at least one mill looking for market share with numbers […]
Raw steel production by U.S. steelmakers in the week ending Jan. 12 totaled 1,891,000 net tons for a capability utilization of 79.8 percent. Steel production was up 0.8 percent from the prior week and up 10.3 percent from the same week last year when the utilization rate was 73.6 percent, reported the American Iron and […]
Analysts at the CRU Group share their latest information on the global iron ore and coking coal markets. Iron Ore Prices Steady on Short Supply Weak seaborne supply kept iron ore prices elevated during the past week. The market is also closely following the development of the fire at Rio Tinto’s Cape Lambert port, which […]
The North American steel sheet market in 2018 was heavily influenced by effects from the Section 232 tariffs. These tariffs greatly increased U.S. sheet prices, while at the same time helped to further reduce imports. Our forecast today calls for a more measured rate of increase for underlying industrial growth, while prices will more closely […]
Steel Market Update faces unique challenges as we strive to “fairly” report market intelligence to the broader steel community. We understand that the consumers of our information are buyers, sellers and producers of steel and steel products. Of concern to our readers is the need to better understand flat rolled and plate steel prices and […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel Since the beginning of the year, the forward curve in CME HR futures has shifted down roughly $25/ST on average for […]
By CRU North America Analyst Ryan McKinley Long product prices in the U.S. are coming under downward pressure after a build-up in late-2018 inventory levels lingered into the new year and import prices became more attractive for domestic buyers. Price drops so far—where they have occurred—have been minimal but import deals with arrival dates 60-90 […]
We captured some very low (market-share grabbing) hot rolled prices this week. We are seeing two domestic mills aggressively going after hot rolled orders. We saw spot HRC as low as $660 FOB one specific mill. However, we have decided not to include their offers in the market pricing yet. Our readers need to be […]
U.S. mills began the new year with little sign of a slowdown. Raw steel production by U.S. steelmakers in the week ending Jan. 5 totaled 1,876,000 net tons for a capability utilization of 80.0 percent. Steel production was down a slight 1.2 percent from the prior week, but up 10.1 percent from the same week […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
January 2019 has begun and steel prices have taken up where they left off as Steel Market Update price ranges and averages dropped compared to where we ended 2018. Steel buyers are worried about inventory levels, which some service centers reported as having grown more than expected during the month of December. They also worry […]
Gaurav Chhibbar is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Gaurav’s previous role, he was a trader at Cargill spending time in Metal and […]
Cranking out steel at more than 80 percent of capacity late in the year, U.S. mills produced over 95 million tons of raw steel in 2018, 6.2 percent more than the prior year, according to weekly production data from the American Iron and Steel Institute. The average capacity utilization rate for the year increased by […]
By CRU Analysts Laima Balse and Director Paul Robinson Prices for all major commodities in the CRU price basket, except for U.S. steel, declined during 2018. There were a few factors that caused this downwards price trend and market volatility. This overview looks across the commodity groups at the common trends affecting the industry, and […]
Total raw steel production for the month of November was 8,156,077 net tons. Broken down by production method, 5,533,449 tons (67.8 percent) were produced by electric arc furnaces (EAFs) and 2,622,628 tons (32.2 percent) were produced by blast furnaces. November production was 174,428 tons or 2.1 percent lower than October, but 836,610 tons or 11.4 […]
Steel Market Update rolled flat rolled and plate steel prices for this past week (Dec, 26, 2018) due to limited data being available due to the holidays. We will produce new pricing on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Our Price Momentum Indicator continues to point toward “Lower” prices on flat rolled (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized […]
Editor’s note: Steel Market Update is sharing the following Premium content with all its readers in this issue. For more information on how to upgrade to a Premium-level subscription, email info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Table 1 summarizes the price changes through December of the five materials considered in this report. It reports the month/month, 3 months/3 months and […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Chief Market Risk Officer, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
Editor’s note: CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg contributed the following snapshot of the iron ore market, and steel demand, in China and India. Chinese Production Cuts Cause Market Volatility China’s winter heating season production cuts officially started in mid-November and it quickly became clear that this round of production cuts was not as strict as […]
We saw benchmark hot rolled prices slip this week. Hot rolled dropped to $745 per ton, which is down $15 per ton from what we measured one week ago. Cold rolled prices were unchanged. The lower end of the range on galvanized and Galvalume base prices slipped $20 per ton. The Steel Market Update Price […]
This afternoon, the U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest license data for foreign steel imports arriving during the month of December. The trend is for imports to drop from 2.6 million net tons in November (after dropping from 3.2 million tons in October) to just shy of 2.4 million tons in December. This is […]