For the week ending December 10, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,674,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.4 percent increase over the previous week and a 12.7 percent increase over the same week one year ago (revised). The estimated capacity utilization rate is 70.6 percent, […]
November import license data is suggesting the month will come in just shy 3.0 million net tons (2.9 million net tons). The U.S. Department of Commerce updated their import monitoring system this afternoon and the early trend for December as for the month to end up around 3.1 million tons. SMU believes the 3.1 million […]
We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of entry is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide a negotiating advantage for premium subscribers. We are now publishing […]
Licensed data for November was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on December 6th. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in short tons. Total rolled […]
On Friday California Steel Industries (CSI) and later in the day UPI (USS-POSCO Industries) increased base prices on flat rolled products produced by each mill. California Steel was the first mill to move, raising prices on hot rolled by $100 per ton, HRP&O by $100 per ton ($5.00/cwt) and cold rolled and coated by $120 […]
We saw double digit gains in both our indices as well as those of Platts. Benchmark hot rolled rose to $580 per ton average according to the SMU index which is up $30 per ton from one week earlier. By the end of this past week Platts saw their average up $20 per ton to […]
Bankrupt iron ore producer Magnetation LLC has a buyer. Tom Clarke owner of ERP Iron Ore has made an offer for the iron ore operation that closed its last plant in October 2016. Magnetation was a joint venture of Magnetation Inc. and AK Steel. The company recovered waste tailing for conversion into iron ore pellets […]
As you think about your business and where you think benchmark hot rolled prices will be in 2017 and 2018 one of the areas you need to consider are the energy markets. The energy markets have been in the doldrums for the past few years due to low oil and natural gas prices. The net […]
To date the domestic steel mills have announced four flat rolled price increases totaling a minimum of $140 per ton ($7.00/cwt) going back to October 21, 2016. As of today the U.S. steel mills are looking for base price levels on new orders to be placed for the 1st Quarter 2017 to be a minimum […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As Flack Steel’s director of risk management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing Futures articles for […]
On Wednesday SSAB, Nucor and ArcelorMittal USA all announced a $40 per ton price increase on plate products. In a letter emailed to their customers Nucor advised of their intention to increase plate prices with: Effective immediately, the Nucor Plate Mill Group will increase transaction prices on all new orders for carbon, alloy and heat-treated […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their march higher after the 4th price increase announcement set the bar at $600 per ton for hot rolled and $820 per ton on cold rolled and coated steels. The total of the four increases is a “minimum” of $140 per ton going back to the first announcement made on […]
There has been a flurry of activity over the past 24 hours with our sources suggesting that the very early trades on ferrous scrap were done up $30 to $45 per gross ton. As we slide into late Tuesday our sources were advising that the numbers could be up as much as $50 per gross […]
Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce released Final Census Data for October 2016 as well as license data for November and early December. Since there have only been 6 days of licenses collected for December we are going to ignore that data for now and will report on December next week. October foreign steel imports […]
For the week ending December 3, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,635,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.3 percent increase over the previous week and a 9.5 percent increase over the same week one year ago (revised). The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.9 percent, […]
A punishment tax proposed by President-elect Trump is not sitting well with either Republicans or Democrats. In a series of tweets instead of a press conference, President-elect Trump rolled out his position on U.S. companies that produce products in foreign countries and sell them back to the United States. “The U.S. is going to substantially […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to increase this past week with both Steel Market Update and Platts reporting steady to upward movements for all products. The average hot rolled price between SMU and Platts is $560 per ton (up $10 over last week), and the average cold rolled price is $775 per ton (up $18 […]
Late in the day on Wednesday, Nucor and NLMK USA advised their customers of their intention to raise spot flat rolled prices by an additional $40 per ton. This follows ArcelorMittal’s announcement on Tuesday of specific minimum base price levels of $600 per ton hot rolled, $820 per ton cold rolled and coated steel products […]
Ferrous scrap prices are poised to increase to the domestic steel mills and negotiations are under way. The domestic mills did not cancel the open orders that have not yet been delivered which is a sure sign that they expect prices to be higher in December than what they negotiated in November. A pig iron […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel Interesting futures markets in steel lately. Today Q1’17 HR traded at $625/ST, 1,200 ST/mo. Also Jan/Feb’17 HR traded at $625/ST, 500 ST/mo. […]
Today is Monday, please allow us to update you on the China steel market (Nov 21 – Nov 27, 2016) as usual as follows: In the past week, the market still kept rising heavily. It is out of our expectations as many non-market factors pushed spot prices to stand at very high levels. 1. China […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final U.S. raw steel production estimates for the month of October 2016. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on over 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent […]
Today ArcelorMittal USA announced new minimum base price levels for orders of hot rolled, cold rolled and coated products. This is the 4th flat rolled steel price announcement since late October. The announcement takes base prices to the following minimum levels: Hot Rolled = $600 per ton ($30.00/cwt) Cold Rolled = $820 per ton ($41.00/cwt) […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) spend the last 24 hours researching the flat rolled steel markets in an effort to come to a resolution on what the price spread is on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. We found about 90-95 percent of the buyers reporting the domestic steel mills as “firm” in their […]
Steel Market Update went out to a couple of hundred steel buyers and executives today as we probe for information about flat rolled steel prices. At the same time we asked questions about price direction and demand. Tonight we will cover price direction (prior to AM increase announcement) and on Thursday we will cover their […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) reported Preliminary Census Data for the month of October which came in at just under 2.7 million tons (2,681,608 net tons). At the same time the DOC updated license data which we warned last week was being over-stated at close to 3.0 million net tons. According to the license […]
For the week ending November 26, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,598,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.5 percent decrease over the previous week but a 6.5 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.4 percent, down […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their march higher this past week with both SMU and Platts reporting movement in the average prices of hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and plate products. Platts moved their prices by large double digits this past week. Platts took hot rolled up $35 per ton, cold rolled up $45 […]
In the past foreign steel imports have been a key component to the health of the domestic manufacturing base in the United States. Foreign steel helps keep U.S. steel mill pricing reasonably competitive with the world steel markets. The domestic steel mills do not have the ability to produce all of the steel needed when […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to move as the steel buyers absorb the three increases announced by the domestic steel mills going back to October 21st. Most buyers are telling Steel Market Update that this week is relatively quiet due to the Thanksgiving Holiday but the mill remain steadfast in their resolve to garnish higher […]