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 […]
U.S. steel exports in September totaled 903,388 net tons (819,541 metric tons), down 1.5 percent over August, but up 13.6 percent from September 2016. Total exports have averaged around 885,000 tons over the last few months after reaching a 2.5-year high in May (1,006,087 tons). The total September export figure is above both the three-month […]
Chinese steelmakers in the heavily industrial “2+26” region—Beijing, Tianjin and the 26 surrounding cities—are expected to cut steel production by 34 million tons this winter under government guidelines designed to reduce air pollution during the home-heating months. Analysts at Wood Mackenzie estimate the government restrictions will reduce China’s hot metal supply by about 14.2 million […]
There was a surge in foreign steel imports during calendar year 2014. That high rate continued into the first half of 2015 at which time the domestic steel mills filed antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cases on CORE (coated steels), cold rolled and hot rolled steels. The U.S. Department of Commerce investigation found most […]
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 It has been a relatively light volume week in HR futures as the recent push higher in prices has left the […]
Foreign steel imports for the month of October 2017 were just over three million net tons, based on the license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) earlier this week. The 3,110,002 net tons were essentially unchanged from the Final Census Data released for the month of September when the U.S. imported 3,086,196 […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed this week. There was no clear-cut direction being set, although the expectation is for prices to rise once lead times go into January. For that matter, we did hear from some steel buyers who placed December HRC orders for $600 per ton and at the same time placed January […]
A couple of weeks ago, ArcelorMittal USA announced price increases taking flat rolled steel base prices on hot rolled to $625 per ton and $41.25/cwt base on cold rolled and galvanized. We have yet to see spot prices out of the domestic steel mills reach the prices suggested by AMUSA. The rest of the industry […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Nov. 4 totaled 1,715,000 net tons, a 9.0 percent increase from the same period last year, but down 1.4 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 73.6 percent, down from 74.6 percent the prior week and 68.7 percent the prior […]
On Monday, SSAB sent a letter to customers advising of the company’s intention to raise spot transaction prices by a minimum of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) effective immediately. The increase covers all “…As-Rolled Mill Plate, Cut-to-Length Plate >72”, Hot Rolled Coils >72”, as well as Normalized and Quenched & Tempered Plate.” SSAB also advised that […]
Ferrous scrap prices for the month of November began coming into focus on Friday with SMU scrap sources advising prime grades as being down $10 per gross ton compared to October levels. Obsolete and cut grades were reported as trading sideways (same prices as October). Not all regions are trading at the same pricing or […]
Flat rolled steel prices moved higher, while steel plate prices slipped this past week, according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled price averages exceeded $600 per ton ($30.00/cwt) on both Platts ($620 per ton) and Steel Market Update (SMU), which was a little lower at $605 per ton. SteelBenchmarker […]
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 […]