Barry Zekelman, chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, says the import data unquestionably supports the fact that imports of Mexican conduit have been surging into the US market.
The Conference Board reported that consumer confidence in the US dropped to one of the lowest readings of the year in September. With concerns mounting about business conditions and the labor market, the tumble was the biggest monthly decline since August 2021.
In this Premium analysis we cover oil and natural gas prices, drilling rig activity, and crude oil stock levels in North America. Energy prices and rig counts are advance indicators of demand for oil country tubular goods (OCTG), line pipe, and other steel products.
SMU's prices ranges for flat-rolled steel were mostly sideways on Tuesday even as futures market shot higher. I got some questions as to why hot-rolled (HR) coil futures shot higher. As best as I can tell, it might have been in response to news that China plans to roll out stimulus measures. We have details on those measures here thanks to our colleagues at CRU. The chart below gives you some idea of just how sharply upward the move in HR futures was earlier on Tuesday:
A potential labor strike is threatening to disrupt supply chains up and down the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts beginning next week.
Former President Donald Trump has said he will place a 200% tariff on John Deere products imported into the US if the company makes good on previously announced plans to move some production to Mexico.
SMU’s Key Market Indicators include data on the economy, raw materials, manufacturing, construction, and steel sheet and long products. They offer a snapshot of current sentiment and the near-term expected trajectory of the economy.
It’s officially fall. And here’s a funny thing about steel prices in the fall over the last few years – they tend to move in the opposite direction of the leaves. SMU’s hot-rolled (HR) coil price averaged $676 per short ton (st) in September 2023. That figure increased to $1,035/st in December 2023, a gain of 53% percent. (You can follow along with our pricing tool.)
US presidential campaigns frequently sport an “air of unreality.” No more so than the 2024 campaign, where superlatives fly around like mosquitos. Steel trade has been a feature of political discourse for at least half a century now. Just last week, it proceeded to a new level of “unreality.” Four senators - Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) - wrote a “bipartisan” letter attacking Mexican exports of steel to the United States. They framed it as a “surge” in US steel imports from Mexico. To address this “surge,” the Senators urge the imposition of 25% tariffs on all steel imports from Mexico.
US rig counts remain near multi-year lows, which is the territory they have been in for the last three months. Canadian counts have edged lower in the past two weeks, slipping from a six-month high earlier this month.
The price gap between US cold-rolled (CR) coil and offshore product widened this week as stateside tags inched up. The premium has been steadily increasing after falling to a 10-month low in late July.
The latest Federal Reserve data paints a healthy and stable manufacturing sector. Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive members.
Continued highly competitive steel exports from China, amid weakening global demand, have triggered a wave of trade protectionism across major markets.
They say failure can lead to success. Such was the case for Nate Lerman. While liquidating the inventory of his failed toy truck business, he realized the profit potential in steel, which ultimately led to the creation of Steel Warehouse. Since its founding over 75 years ago in South Bend, Ind., Steel Warehouse has remained […]
US hot-rolled (HR) coil prices edged up this past week and remain modestly more expensive than offshore material on a landed basis. Since reaching parity with import prices in late August, domestic prices have been slowly pulling ahead of imports. The move has been driven largely by declines overseas.
The August Architecture Billings Index (ABI) continued to indicate weak business conditions amongst architecture firms through August, according to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Deltek.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. on Monday reiterated its commitment to a major decarbonization project at its Middletown Works in Ohio, despite an earlier report suggesting otherwise.
Stelco shareholders voted overwhelmingly on Monday to OK the $2.5-billion sale of the Canadian flat-rolled steelmaker to Cleveland-Cliffs. Indeed, 99.97% of those who cast ballots voted to approve the deal, according the Hamilton, Ontario-based steelmaker.
New York state saw a recovery in manufacturing activity in September, according to the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
We got a little flack for adjusting our sheet momentum indicators to neutral last week. To be clear, we didn’t adjust them to lower. Part of the reason we moved them to neutral was because there are some unusual cross-currents in the current market. On the news side, you could make a case that there should nowhere to go but up.
Oil and gas drilling activity in the US recovered the week ended Sept. 13, but remains near multi-year lows.
SMU has compiled a list of key dates to watch out for in the expansive trade case filed last week targeting corrosion-resistant steel imports.
CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores shares with SMU his analysis of the hot-rolled coil futures market.
Following significant recoveries in late August, SMU’s Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices tumbled this week.
It had been a relatively quiet and steady CME HRC futures market since the end of August. That was upended by Thursday’s news that instead of a two-week maintenance outage, Cleveland-Cliffs would hot idle the C-6 blast furnace at its Cleveland Works for an uncertain period of time. The CME October HRC contract, HRCV4, gained $22 per short ton (st) on the day to provisionally close at $744/st on Thursday. The first and second quarter futures strips of 2025 gained $25/st and $24/st to provisionally settle at $823/st and $829/st, respectively.
Steel mill lead times shortened for both sheet and plate products this week, according to buyers responding to our latest market survey.
Negotiation rates have edged lower from our previous market check, a downward trend witnesses since July.
Steel Warehouse Chief Commercial Officer Marc Lerman will join Steel Market Update for a Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 11 a.m. ET. You can register here. The live webinar is free for all to attend. A recording will be available only to SMU members.
US hot-rolled (HR) coil prices edged down slightly this past week but remain at a slight premium to offshore material on a landed basis.
US light-vehicle (LV) sales improved to an unadjusted 1.42 million units in August, up 7.6% from a year ago, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported.