Ferrous scrap prices are one of the key indicators to watch as the market determines if we have reached the bottom in the slide in flat rolled prices and, if prices will rebound from here. The thought process has been that a move higher in scrap will help change the psychology of the market and […]
Over the past few weeks we have seen major movement in flat rolled steel prices. The question now is have we seen the end of the major moves lower (some suggest hot rolled has a way to go since lead times are not yet into January at most mills) or do we have a way […]
Essar Steel Minnesota met a deadline set by Governor Mark Dayton to repay $66 million in incentives owed the state after failing to complete a $1.9 billion integrated iron ore-to-steel mill. The governor gave Essar a deadline of Friday, December 4, to make payments to vendors on the project and provide assurances that future debts […]
Steel Market Update continues to speak with both buyers and sellers of steel on a daily basis. As this week has worn on, we uncovered a number of price points below what we reported on Tuesday. We feel that we need to advise our readers of our findings and adjust the lower end of our […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data collected through December 1st for the month of November. Based on license data (which can vary from the final census numbers) November foreign steel imports should be approximately 2.5 million net tons. If correct, this would be the lowest level seen since December 2013 which was the […]
The following article is written by Spencer Johnson of FC Stone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer will rotate weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. […]
The frustration is beginning to build in the voices of some of the steel buyers as they deal with continuing depreciating flat rolled steel inventories. Prices have been falling since the middle of May 2015 when prices hit a cycle peak of $685 per ton ($34.25/cwt). With our latest adjustment to our hot rolled coil […]
For the week ending November 28, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,487,000 net tons of raw steel, a 4.8 percent decrease over the previous week and a 19.9 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 62.2 percent, down […]
Holiday weeks tend to be “quiet” when it comes to steel price movement but, according to the flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update, last week was an anomaly. SMU saw the market as being relatively stable with either no movement or small adjustments of $5 per ton on hot rolled and hot […]
Steel imports in October accelerated from September but were down by one-third from year ago levels, according to the latest import data analysis from the American Institute for International Steel. The press release from AIIS follows. Falls Church, VA. December 1, 2015. Steel imports increased in October, following two months of sharp declines. The United […]
Last week we received information about the expectation for ferrous scrap price negotiations between the domestic mills and their scrap suppliers for the month of December. Over the weekend one of our east coast scrap sources provided us more details as to what they expect this week as negotiations begin in earnest: I am not […]
All eyes are looking ahead to after the Thanksgiving Holidays. As lead times approach the New Year (for hot rolled coil, most coated products are already well into 1st Quarter 2016) and customers think of restocking/preparing for 2016 business levels, this tends to be prime time for the domestic mills to announce price increases. To […]
We learned late this afternoon that two domestic steel mills are offering to pay higher prices for shredded scrap from east coast dealers. Shredded scrap buy offers have been made at $180-$185 per gross ton up $10 to $15 per gross ton higher than November numbers (and higher than October numbers since November prices moved […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets The S+P 500 remains strong despite […]
For the week ending November 21, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,562,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a 15.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 65.3 percent, down […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of October 2015. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the […]
The London Metal Exchange announced November 23 the launch of new ferrous and premium contracts. LME Aluminum Premiums, LME Steel Scrap and LME Steel Rebar are the first new contracts to be offered by the LME in more than five years. The new contracts are designed to complement the existing ferrous contract for LME Steel […]
Flat rolled steel and plate prices continued to slide this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. SMU saw prices as being sideways on hot rolled, down $10 on cold rolled, down $5 on galvanized and down $10 on Galvalume. Both CRU ($376) and Platts ($375) dropped their averages […]
The Department of Commerce announced on Wednesday the initiation of AD and CVD investigations of imports of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from Pakistan. AD investigations were initiated on imports of the same products from Oman, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. The products in question are welded carbon-quality steel pipe and tube, of […]
Global steel production in 12 months through October totaled 1.609 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.3 billion tonnes. Production in the month of October was 133,640 tonnes up from 130,998 in September or 2.0 percent, however on a tons/day basis production was 4.311 million tonnes, down from 4.367 in September and from 4.518 in April […]
Magnetation LLC announced it may temporarily idle its Plant 2 facility in Bovey, Minn. A WARN notice has been issued to employees of the facility. If the production curtailment is followed through, the closure will take place on or after January 31, 2016. “While any operating curtailment is unfortunate, we must balance our current production […]
Flat rolled steel prices moved sideways to slightly lower this week, an improvement from the almost straight-line dive we have been reporting for the last couple of months. Our benchmark hot rolled index remained the same as the week prior at $380 per ton ($19.00/cwt) but we did pick up some minor movement at the […]
For the week ending November 14, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,601,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.1 percent decrease over the previous week and a 13.7 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.0 percent, down […]
Late Tuesday afternoon the U.S. Department of Commerce released import license data through the 17th of the month. Based on the licenses received during the first 17 days of the month, November is trending toward a similar month, September, at approximately 2.8 million net tons. Remember, this is only a trend based on the license […]
Cliffs Natural Resources announced today that it will temporarily idle iron ore production at its Northshore Mining operation in Minnesota. Pellet production will cease Dec. 1 and continue through Q1 2016. Existing customer demand will be satisfied from current inventory. The adjustment in production is due to dumping of foreign steel that has negatively impacted […]
Flat rolled and plate prices continued to erode this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. With the exception of SteelBenchmarker (who tends to be behind the other indexes due to it only collecting market price intelligence twice per month), all of the indexes are showing hot rolled prices […]
The following article is one produced for our Premium level members as we look to delve deeper into the overall steel industry picture in the United States. You can learn more about becoming a Premium member either online or by contacting our office: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an […]
Earlier this week, Steel Market Update adjusted our benchmark hot rolled coil (HRC) index to reflect the average pricing we have been seeing as of the beginning of this week. We reported our average as being $380 per ton ($19.00/cwt) which also happens to be the lowest hot rolled price seen during the height of […]
The following article is written by Spencer Johnson of FC Stone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer will rotate weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the spread between world hot rolled export prices as determined by SteelBenchmarker and domestic (US) hot rolled prices as published by SMU. Steel Market Update compares the world hot rolled export price to which dollars are added for freight, handling, trader margin, etc. The number […]