Category: Region

Sheet prices mostly continued their uneven but steady march higher this week, according to SMU’s latest check of the market.

AZZ Inc. posted on its website that it had temporarily closed more than half a dozen locations in response to the extremely cold weather gripping much of the US.

Alton Steel Inc. (ASI), a special bar quality (SBQ) steel producer, said it will close operations later this week.

Raw steel output from US mills climbed last week to the highest rate seen in over four months, according to the latest American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) figures

President Donald Trump in a post on Truth Social threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all exports from Canada into the US. It would be boastful (but not entirely inaccurate) to say you read it in SMU and heard it on Aluminum Market Update (AMU) first.

The latest tally of operational oil and gas rigs increased this week in both the US and Canada, according to the latest figures published by Baker Hughes.

A report on the sheet market this week.

SMU’s Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices both increased this week to multi-month highs

Steel mill lead times held steady on most products this week following the surge seen in early January, according to responses from SMU’s latest market survey

The plate market’s swell of optimistic sentiment marking the start of 2026 dissipated this week.  

The price gap between US hot-rolled coil (HR) and landed offshore product has been relatively flat to begin the year.

Just over a third of the steel buyers who responded to our market survey this week reported that domestic mills are willing to talk price to secure new spot orders.

US steel imports have fallen sharply under the new 50% Section 232 tariff regime. Jerry Richardson, general director of CSN LLC, discussed on an SMU Community Chat this week how the market is now structurally tighter and more volatile than at any point in the past decade.

The Italian authorities have seized a Russian cargo of hot-briquetted-iron (HBI) for violating European sanctions on Russian ferrous imports, according to media reports.

Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) announced a proposed schedule and minimum sale price for the auction of the bankrupt steelmaker and its Minera del Norte (MINOSA) operations.

The volume of raw steel produced by US mills grew last week, holding on to the gains seen the prior week, according to the latest figures released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

SMU’s sheet price indices climbed to new multi-month highs this week, while plate prices marginally declined.

Metallus and the United Steelworkers (USW) have agreed to another tentative four-year contract, the specialty metal producer announced.  

Cleveland-Cliffs' shuttered tin mill in Weirton, W.Va., caught fire on Saturday as a crew worked to recover scrap metal ahead of the plant's demolition, according to a local news reports.

ArcelorMittal Mexico announced it has restarted the blast furnace at its Lazaro Cardenas steel mill in the state of Michoacan on Mexico's Pacific coast.

Zekelman Industries is transitioning in a new chief financial officer upon the upcoming retirement of current CFO Mike Graham.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has provided Warrior Met Coal official permits for expanding its Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based mining projects.  

We’ve got some exciting announcements to make about the Tampa Steel Conference, which is now less than a month away! First, I’m very happy to say that Worthington Steel President and CEO Geoff Gilmore will be joining Kloeckner Metals CEO John Ganem on the stage for a fireside chat with my colleague David Schollaert.

Last week, the government of China reported a trade balance of $1.12 trillion in 2025, the largest merchandise trade surplus in history. And this surplus was despite massive tariffs imposed by the United States and other countries, partly in an effort to rein in China’s trade juggernaut.

Though they’re hopeful, domestic sheet market sources didn’t share a bullish outlook on the market this week.

The amount of finished steel that entered the US market contracted from September to October, driven primarily by slowing domestic mill shipments, according to SMU’s analysis of Department of Commerce and American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) data

The number of oil and gas rigs operating in the US fell this week, while Canadian activity recovered further, according to the latest data released from Baker Hughes.

The Commerce Department has released preliminary countervailable subsidy rates in the ongoing rebar trade case.

The volume of steel shipped outside of the country increased 11% from September to October 2025 to a seven-month high of 662,000 short tons (st), according to recently released data from the US Department of Commerce.

Members of the Congressional Steel Caucus met in Washington on Wednesday to assess the state of the domestic steel industry. Lawmakers and industry leaders discussed the importance of Section 232 tariffs, strong trade enforcement, and continued investment in American steelmaking.