The U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest foreign steel import license data late this afternoon. The license data is suggesting that July steel imports will be higher than the 3.1 million net tons suggested by today’s adjustment to June’s license data. This is not a positive for the steel market. Two items of interest […]
For the week ending July 11, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,740,000 net tons of raw steel, a 3.3 percent increase over the previous week but a 9.1 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 72.8 percent, up […]
Up, down and sideways is how to describe the various flat rolled price indexes this past week. Hot rolled prices averaged $465, down $1 from the week prior. However, the SMU index was up $5 per ton to $470, CRU was down $7 per ton to $461 and Platts remained stationary at $465 per ton […]
Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an important look at the overall trade picture and its effect on demand at the mill level. Figure 1 shows that net sheet product imports on a three month moving average (3MMA) basis in May, continue to be more than double that which existed before […]
The following article on Asian ferrous scrap markets is written by Damon Sun of Daido International: Fear, insecurity, confusion, vulnerability… these are the psychological trauma resulting from the whipsaw in the China stock markets. Publicly listed Chinese stocks have pledged their companies stock as collateral for financing. As the stock market sharply declined, banks started […]
According to the latest data released from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of May 2015 was 9,069,541 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. May supply […]
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. […]
A month ago one of our dealer sources echoed the views of many in the ferrous scrap business, he expected nothing worse than a sideways (no change) market for July scrap prices. He pointed to stronger demand at the steel mills and continued weak collection of obsolete scrap grades. We will hear more from him […]
In the first five months of this year bulk scrap exports were 5,724,456 tonnes for an annual rate of 13,741,000 tonnes, down by 9.3 percent from the first five months of last year. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages for 2015 and on the twelve month monthly average […]
AIIS, Falls Church, VA. July 9, 2015. Steel exports increased 3 percent from April to May, though they remained well below the level of a year ago. The United States shipped 870,099 net tons of steel in May, 16 percent less than the May 2014 total. Most of the growth resulted from a more than […]
The domestic steel mills are determined to keep pricing momentum on their side as US Steel became the first mill to announce a new round of price increases on flat rolled products. The US Steel announcement, which was made via the use of an internal memo to their sales group leaked to the industry, advises […]
Flat rolled steel prices have been struggling to keep momentum and move higher. We have not yet seen full compliance with the second price increase and now we have a new round of price increases beginning with the $40 per ton announced by US Steel this morning. We did see some minor changes to hot […]
Spot iron ore prices have been tumbling as the Chinese steel industry slows and the Big Three iron ore mining companies continue to dig up more and more ore. According to The Steel Index (TSI) iron ore spot prices for 62% Fe fines dropped below $50/dmt for the first time since the middle of April […]
Since SMU did not publish on Sunday evening we wanted to get the information regarding flat rolled steel price indices from last week. We saw prices tighten up amongst the various indexes which reported pricing last week (SMU, CRU and Platts). However, as with the week before, price momentum was flat going into the 4th […]
Final Census Data for May foreign steel imports was released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) earlier today. Imports for May were 107,000 net tons lower than the month of April. The May 2015 number is 600,000 net tons lower than the 4,033,351 net tons received during the month of May 2014. June […]
For the week ending July 4, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,684,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.8 percent decrease over the previous week and a 11.4 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 71.2 percent, down […]
Lisa Reisman, Founder and Executive Editor for Metal Miner, published their July basic metals forecast which includes zinc, aluminum, copper, lead, tin, etc. The July forecast is available to the public. Just click here to go to the Metal Miner site where you can download their full report. This is the last free report so […]
The silence you hear is, we guess, the market on vacation… There was very little movement in flat rolled steel prices and lead times this week. We have price announcements, a coated trade case, union negotiations and now new trade language and the market is just absorbing it and continuing on as though everything is […]
On Monday, President Obama signed into law the bill that contains the “Level the Playing Field” act. This is the bill that made some potentially significant changes to trade laws, including changing the criteria for “material injury” findings and increasing penalties for foreign respondents that do not provide information requested by the Commerce Department. This […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated the June license data late this afternoon. Based on the latest results the total foreign steel import trend appears will be below 3.0 million net tons. Last week the trend was suggesting imports of 3.0-3.2 million net tons and the week before that the trend was 3.2-3.3 million net […]
For the week ending June 27, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,733,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.4 percent increase over the previous week but a 8.3 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 73.3 percent, up […]
A little more than a week ago, Steel Market Update spoke at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner in Chicago. In the audience were a couple of scrap companies who told us the mills in the Chicago area (ArcelorMittal in particular) have come back into the market to buy scrap after a lengthy absence […]
Benchmark hot rolled prices remain stuck at $465(ish) according to the four flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Platts rose $3 last week and reported $465 per ton HRC as did Steel Market Update, which was unchanged from the prior week. CRU was down $3 per ton to $460 per ton and […]
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: On the S&P 500 we are […]
One of the key items Steel Market Update watches is the spread between world hot rolled export pricing and the HRC spot price average here in the United States. This spread is important to the domestic steel mills and their customers because as the spread narrows domestic steel becomes more competitive and their order books […]
Total steel imports, based on the just released Preliminary Census Data out of the US Department of Commerce, slide lower for the 4th month in a row. May imports are now being referenced as being 3,374,427 net tons (3.065 million metric tons) and we expect Final Census numbers to be very close to this 3.374 […]
When asked to report on how steel mill pricing was this past week, one coating mill told Steel Market Update, “Really nothing. It wasn’t up, nor down in my opinion. We are booking steadily. But people still have inventory so nobody is desperate or in a bind. Good lead time but not enough panic to […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) released the latest foreign steel import license data through the 23rd of June. Based on the latest data, the trend is for steel imports to continue to slide towards the magical 3.0 million net tons mark. Last week the data was suggesting imports would be about 3.2-3.3 million net […]
This piece, written by Peter Wright, combines our own data analysis with recently published opinions about the iron ore, metallurgical coal and zinc markets that we find credible. Iron Ore: The Platts IODEX of 62 percent Fe delivered North China recovered to $61.25 on March 22nd, continued its upward trend in June then on June […]
For the week ending June 20, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,726,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.2 percent decrease over the previous week and a 8.6 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 73.0 percent, down […]