Category: Region

Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.

Cleveland-Cliffs expects its acquisition of Canada’s Stelco to close later this year, which will help the the Cleveland-based steelmaker as a bottom to steel tags nears.

Cleveland-Cliffs’ earnings tumbled in the second quarter as the company cited weak demand and pricing.

ArcelorMittal Mexico reached an agreement with the local mining union on Thursday, July 18, to end the 55-day blockade of its steelmaking and mining facilities in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán. While a large majority of Section 271 of the Sindicato Nacional de Mineros voted to accept the proposal, a group of unknown size continues to protest illegally and has even turned to violence, according to the company.

The price gap between US cold-rolled (CR) coil and imported CR has fallen to a 10-month low as domestic tags continue to drift lower. Domestic CR coil prices averaged $920 per short ton (st) in our check of the market on Tuesday, July 16, down $40/st from the week before. CR tags are now down […]

SMU’s Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices both saw improvement this week. Current sentiment ticked higher but remains near the four-year low seen earlier this month. Future Sentiment continues to indicate that buyers are optimistic for future business conditions.

US light-vehicle (LV) sales fell to an unadjusted 1.32 million units in June, down 3.4% vs. year-ago levels, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported. The year-on-year (y/y) dip in domestic LV sales came in with a 4% month-on-month (m/m) decline.

North American auto assemblies ticked down by nearly 6% in June after reaching a nine-month high in May, according to LMC Automotive data. Assemblies were also down 1.4% year on year (y/y).

Drilling activity in the US saw a slight uptick last week but continues to hover near multi-year lows, according to the latest data release from Baker Hughes. Meanwhile Canadian counts rose for the second-consecutive week and are now at a four-month high.

Operating income from Steel Dynamics Inc.’s (SDI) recycling operations clocked in higher in the second quarter than in the first on increasing volumes and despite lower realized pricing. Recycling operations brought in $32.1 million, an increase over $22.6 million in Q1, but lower than the $40.3 million last year, the Fort Wayne, Ind.-based company said […]

The recently announced acquisition of Stelco by Cleveland-Cliffs (Cliffs), priced at nearly three times book value, provides a great price for Stelco shareholders. And various synergies will likely leave Cliffs with tremendous runway for further growth in this deal. Cliffs expects to close this deal in 2024 Q4 upon government approval. This approval is expected but not a given.

A roundup of aluminum news from CRU.

I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

Steel Dynamics Inc. executives provided further insight into operations at the company’s Sinton, Texas, flat-rolled steel mill on a second-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday morning. Despite a series of start-up woes, the company recently commissioned two new coating lines there, and the mill continues to ramp up production. The execs were also bullish on […]

Sheet steel buyers continue to report that mills are willing to talk price on new orders, according to our most recent survey data collected this week.

A labor judge in Mexico City has ruled that the strike of a local mining union is illegal at ArcelorMittal Mexico’s Lazaro Cardenas mill and Las Truchas mine in Michoacán state, Mexico.

US hot-rolled (HR) coil prices this week drifted further below offshore hot band prices on a landed basis. The premium is now near a two-year low. SMU’s check of the market on Tuesday, July 16, put domestic HR coil tags at $640 per short ton (st) on average, down $10/st from last week. Stateside hot […]

Steel mill lead times remain short according to our latest market canvass of steel service center and manufacturer buyers. Of the sheet and plate products SMU tracks, production times for all materials are nearing historical lows not seen in months or years.

The CME steel futures complex saw a slight decrease in activity from levels seen at the end of June. This has coincided with a notable decline in flat prices for the nearby futures contract, now August HRC, which is lower by $81 per short ton (st) since last writing on June 13. It settled at $672/st on July 17.

Growth in the US economy continues to be constrained. The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report for July shows more areas reporting flat or declining economic activity than in its previous report at the end of May.

The spread between hot-rolled coil (HRC) and prime scrap prices  narrowed for the third consecutive month, hitting a level not seen since 2020, according to SMU’s most recent pricing data.

Cleveland-Cliffs has been pursuing M&A opportunities for some time now and thinks it has found a solid partner with aligned interests in Stelco. The companies announced on Monday that Cliffs would acquire the integrated Canadian steelmaker. That same day, Cliffs held a conference call with analysts to discuss the acquisition. Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ chairman, president, […]

SMU’s hot-rolled coil price fell to $640 per short ton (st) on average on Tuesday. That’s down $10/st from last week and marks the lowest point for HR prices since December 2022, according to our pricing archives. SMU’s HR price is now $5/ton below 2023’s low of $645/st, which occurred against the backdrop of a United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have received a grant to enhance emissions reporting for steel construction projects.

New York state saw a continued decline in manufacturing activity in July, according to the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Reliance Inc. has reached an agreement to buy certain assets of Ferragon Corp.'s FerrouSouth division, a toll processing operation based in Iuka, Miss.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has agreed to purchase Canada’s Stelco Holdings Inc. in a deal valued at $2.5 billion (CA$3.4 billion).

There are a lot of rumors swirling around the steel market over the last couple of weeks. Chief among them was that we might see a price hike after Independence Day. Another concerns a key detail in the new Section 232 agreement with Mexico. Namely, steel imported from Brazil into Mexico. Of particular interest is its potential implication for slabs imported from Brazil, rolled in Mexico, and then exported to the US.

Steel is, mostly for historical reasons, a bellwether of international policy. No longer an industry of primary importance, its advocates still proclaim that it is. And steel still continues to punch above its weight in Washington, DC. Below are a few recent examples.

A month ago, when we last presented this column, there was a surprising amount of optimism in the presumably imminent reversal of the downtrend in hot-rolled steel prices in the second half of this year.