Members of the Precision Metalforming Association are anticipating a slight downturn in business conditions during the next three months, according to the latest PMA Business Conditions Report. The April report sampled 120 metalforming companies in the U.S. and Canada and showed 45 percent of participants expecting improvement in general activity in the near future compared […]
Durable goods orders rose to a lower rate in March than expected. New orders rose 0.7 percent to $238.7 billion, well under the Bloomberg forecast of 1.3 percent. Orders for core capital goods (non-military capital goods minus aircraft that are used in GDP calculation) rose 0.2 percent, less than the 0.5 percent predicted. Automotive vehicles […]
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 With the exception of HR spot not much has changed this past month in the HR futures curve. When you compare […]
A ruling was made by the ITC on wood from Canada that could have long lasting implications for the flat rolled steel industry. On April 24, 2017, the International Trade Administration (ITC) released their Preliminary Determination of Countervailable subsidies of softwood lumber from Canada. The ITC found that there were subsidies on wood from Canada. […]
This report summarized seven data sources that describe the state of manufacturing in the US. We have reported on most of these separately in our Steel Market Update publications therefore will be brief in this summary. We don’t expect these data sources to all point in the same direction but our intention in summarizing them […]
Two important Federal Reserve reports on manufacturing came out this week from Dallas and Richmond. The Dallas Federal Reserve reports that growth in the manufacturing sector continued for the tenth consecutive month but at a slower pace in April. The production index of the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey dipped three points to 15.4. New orders […]
Once each quarter we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Currently available data is through the first quarter except for CPI which is through February. Many analysts don’t believe these Party self-serving figures but we include them in our reports because of the importance of […]
The states compile their employment numbers independently of the Feds, and then both are reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results are close. In the last seventeen quarters since Q1 2013, the Feds reported total job creation of 10,794,000 and the states reported 10,959,000 a difference of only 0.15 percent. Part of this […]
There have been a slew of Executive Orders coming out of the Trump White House aimed at impacting manufacturing and the steel industry. The “Buy American, Hire American” order is just one of the orders from last week that the manufacturing and steel industry need to watch and understand the potential impacts to your company. […]
Miami – April 20, 2017 – Optima Specialty Steel, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, collectively the “Company” or “OSS”) today announced that it has entered into a Plan Support Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Optima Acquisitions, LLC (“OA”), the sole shareholder of OSS. The Agreement contemplates that the Company will emerge from Chapter 11 by the […]
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 coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures […]
Washington, D.C. – April 19, 2017 – The first quarter of the year ended on a positive note for the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) […]
We include here an unabridged statement from the IMF that was released on Thursday this week which forecasts economic growth for all regions and nations through 2022. The IMF raised its forecast for economic growth in the US in 2017 from 2.2 percent in the October forecast to 2.307 percent and in 2018 from 2.08 […]
HAMILTON, ON, April 19, 2017 /CNW/ – Stelco, the name under which U. S. Steel Canada Inc. carries on business (“Stelco” or the “Company”), announces that it and Bedrock Industries Group LLC (Bedrock) have reached an agreement in principle (the “Agreement”) with the Stelco salaried employees and retirees and certain others represented by court-appointed representatives […]
Total Canadian steel shipments for all products in March were 421,300 net tons, an increase of 15.2 percent from the month before and an increase of 7.4 percent from March 2017. Total steel inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,165,000 tons, down 0.5 percent from last month and down 2.0 percent from […]
Manufacturing activity cooled in New York State in April after two exceptionally strong months. The general business index of the Empire State Manufacturing Survey fell eleven points to register 5.2. The new orders index dropped fourteen points to register 7.0, settling at a more sustainable level of growth. Shipments continued to increase at a moderate […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through February 2017 and year on year changes. It then compares domestic mill shipments with total supply to the market. It quantifies market direction by product and enables a side by side comparison of the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron […]
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 Interesting week in HR futures as spot retraced back to the mid $650/ST after moving higher the prior week. HR futures […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil prices. We want our readers to note that we have made a decision to replace SteelBenchmarker as the primary data provider of foreign hot rolled coil prices. We […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment report released Friday was another example of why we should not be fixated on a single month’s result. Month on month this was a dismal report with a net increase of only 98,000 jobs, well below analyst’s expectations. To make matters worse, January and February were revised down […]
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 coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures […]
Manufacturing activity in the U.S. continued to grow in March according to the Manufacturing ISM Report on Business. The composite headline PMI registered 57.2 compared to 57.7 in February for its seventh consecutive month of growth. Index readings for New Orders and Production were strong at 64.5 and 56.6, respectively, but slowed from February readings […]
For the thirteenth consecutive month, manufacturing across the globe expanded. The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI posted at 53.0 in March, the same as its February 69-month high. First quarter 2017 averaged a reading of 52.9, the best quarter since Q2 2011. As expected with a no-change reading, components of the PMI were little changed […]
Flat rolled steel Price Momentum ended the month of March where it began – indicating higher prices for hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and now plate prices. The steel and manufacturing industries remain firmly entrenched in the Optimistic camp as the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index hit new highs for the three-month moving average […]
The MNI Chicago Business Barometer only moved up slightly in March after a surge in points in February. The March reading was 57.7, up from 57.4. Increases were reported in new order and production with indexes reaching 4 and 14 month highs, respectively. Order backlogs increased for the third month but were still below the […]
The headline report of GDP growth in Q4 came in at an upwardly revised 2.06 percent which was a decline from 3.53 percent in the third quarter. GDP is measured and reported in chained 2009 dollars and in the third estimate of Q4 was $16.813 trillion. GDP is defined as Consumption (C) plus Investment (I) […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 31, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 824 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 15 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 10 to 662 rigs, gas rigs up 5 to 160 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil prices. We want our readers to note that we have made a decision to replace SteelBenchmarker as the primary data provider of foreign hot rolled coil prices. We […]
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 With HR spot hovering around $650/ST, HR futures prices declined in the latest week on modest trading volumes. Conflicting sharp price […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of February 2017, providing updated data on iron ore imports, scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in February were 83,490,000 metric tons, a decrease of 9.1 percent from the previous month but an increase of 13.4 percent from […]