U.S. steelmakers have imported 7.19 million short tons of semi-finished steel so far this year, an increase of 9.1 percent over 2016, according to government data on October preliminary imports and November licenses as of Nov. 27 (Figure 1). Semi-finished steel includes slabs, blooms and billets, which mills hot roll into coils and other products. […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Dec. 2 totaled 1,720,000 net tons, a 7.8 percent increase from the same period last year, and up 1.0 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 73.8 percent, up from 73.0 percent the prior week and 67.3 percent the prior […]
We had yet another week of “mixed” spot pricing in flat rolled and plate products, according to the Steel Market Update (SMU), Platts and SteelBenchmarker steel price indexes. Benchmark hot rolled was down for the week, according to the SMU and Platts steel price indexes. SMU saw the HRC price average as $615 per ton, […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel import prices (delivered to USA ports) and domestic (USA) 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 […]
Except for a few flat rolled steel mills that have not yet completely filled their December order books, most steel producers are holding firm on steel pricing in anticipation of good demand in the first quarter. The result is we are seeing two distinct pricing markets – those who have December tons and are willing […]
Imports of foreign steel will be much lower in November than at any time since April 2016. Based on the most recent license data released on Tuesday, Nov. 28, imports will be approximately 2.6 million tons. This is down from 3.1 million tons in October and is also less than the 2.8 million tons imported […]
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 HR futures markets have paused post Thanksgiving. While the HR spot prices have retraced $27/ST in the month of November to approximately […]
Raw material markets have been tranquil since our October update, but the value of the U.S. dollar is once again in decline. In this report, we examine the latest prices for iron ore, scrap, coking coal and zinc. To put the raw materials analysis into perspective, we begin with Figure 1, which shows the spread […]
We launched an updated version of our website over the weekend. Since then, we have been working diligently to fix the last remaining kinks in the system. The goal of this update is to make all news, blog posts, and other content much easier to read on a mobile device and tablet. We also upgraded […]
Steel Market Update canvassed a large number of flat rolled and plate steel buyers during the course of the last 24 hours. The goal was to better understand where spot prices were being offered (and by whom) and if there were any differences in momentum or the negotiation positions of the various steel mills. We […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been canvassing our ferrous scrap sources to find out where the industry sees prices once the negotiations begin with the domestic steel mills. All of our sources tell SMU they expect prices to be higher, somewhere in the $10 to $30 per gross ton range, compared to the November prices. […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Nov. 25 totaled 1,703,000 net tons, a 7.0 percent increase from the same period last year, but down 2.4 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 73.0 percent, down from 74.9 percent the prior week but up from 67.1 percent […]
Since Nov. 20, 2017, two of the West Coast flat rolled mills have increased prices. On Monday, UPI (USS/POSCO) followed the lead of California Steel Industries (CSI) by raising prices. In a letter to customers, they advised that prices of hot rolled pickled & oiled (HRPO), cold rolled and galvanized would increase by $30 per […]
Flat rolled steel prices were once again “mixed” with hot rolled prices higher, cold rolled lower (on SMU), galvanized lower, Galvalume no change and plate higher this past week compared to the previous week. Both Platts and Steel Market Update (SMU) saw the benchmark hot rolled price average as higher this past week. The spread […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices are all over the place this week. We are seeing a distinct difference in pricing from those mills who still have November and December tonnage compared to those whose lead times are into January and beyond. Hot roll appears to be the strongest product with virtually all of our […]
U.S. demand for steel sheet products continued to expand through September, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Apparent supply is a proxy for market demand. Demand momentum for sheet products in total was negative in the three months through […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Nov. 18 totaled 1,745,000 net tons, a 9.7 percent increase from the same period last year, and up 0.3 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 74.9 percent, up from 74.6 percent the prior week and 67.1 percent the prior […]
The Keystone XL pipeline was approved by the Nebraska Public Service Commission on Monday giving TransCanada the access it needs to complete the $8 billion 1,897-mile pipeline. The commission rejected TransCanada’s preferred route, however, and in a 3-2 decision approved an alternate route that moves the pipeline further east and away from Nebraska’s ecologically fragile […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel import prices (delivered to USA ports) and domestic (USA) 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 […]
Flat rolled steel prices are still mixed, according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. SteelBenchmarker produced prices this past week and saw all items as moving higher. Platts, on the other hand, had a modest increase in hot rolled and a fairly significant decrease in cold rolled while plate remained the […]
On Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, Nucor Sheet Mill Group advised their customers that galvanized orders placed for the first week of January 2018 would have new zinc coating extras. The change in the extras is due to the high cost of zinc, which has been trading in the $1.45-$1.50 per pound range over the past […]
Nucor became the first sheet mill to step out and attempt to nudge hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel prices higher. On Wednesday afternoon the Nucor Sheet Group announced a new $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) price increase to be “effective immediately.” The Nucor announcement was quickly matched by NLMK USA who put a letter […]
Over the past few days, all of the domestic plate mills have announced a $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) price increase on plate products. We have seen announcements out of the Nucor Plate Group, ArcelorMittal USA commercial plate group, Evraz and SSAB. SSAB was the last to announce with their letter dated Nov. 16, 2017. In […]
Domestic steelmakers got a taste of good news this week when the U.S. Department of Commerce released foreign steel import license data for the first 14 days of November. Steel Market Update sees the trend for November imports to be 2.6 million net tons or lower. If correct, this would be the first month during […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Director of Risk Management, 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 […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed this past week. Benchmark hot rolled continues to be one of the better performing of the group. Our HRC average was up $5 per ton this week. Cold rolled was also up, galvanized was sideways and Galvalume dropped $30 per ton. Plate prices on a delivered basis were up […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Nov. 11 totaled 1,739,000 net tons, a 9.3 percent increase from the same period last year, and up 1.4 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 74.6 percent, up from 73.6 percent the prior week and 67.1 percent the prior […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of September totaled 9,144,648 net tons, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total U.S. steel exports. September apparent steel supply […]
This Steel Market Update analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled steel products by district of entry and source country through September 2017. We believe that misinformation (or a lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of […]
Flat rolled prices were mixed this past week with benchmark hot rolled dropping some of its recent gains. The spread between Steel Market Update (SMU) and Platts on cold rolled shrunk compared to what we reported one week ago. Coated products were mixed with galvanized steel remaining at prior-week levels and Galvalume increasing by $10 […]