Category: Sheet

Exports at lowest levels since February 2011    

Written by: Andre Marshall, Crunchrisk LLC Financial Markets On the equities markets we hit a new 5 year high reaching 1485 on SP 500 today. In this current rally you might recall our target point for this move is 1488 and so we may be near a point for a little retracement. If this current move […]

U.S. distributors grew annual shipments by 1.81 percent (all products) according to Metal Service Center Institute data during calendar year 2012. Shipments totaled 41,447,900 tons. Flat rolled shipments also rose during 2012 totaling 26,378,900 tons which represents an improvement of 2.39 percent over the previous year. Plate shipments were up by 2 percent, while pipe […]

The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released service center shipment and inventory data for the month of December on Wednesday of this week. For total steel products, shipments were down slightly to 136,900 tons per day compared to 140,800 tons per day last year. On a seasonally adjusted basis shipments were 4.6 percent lower than […]

SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index improved to +27 this week, this is 6 points better than the +21 measured during the first week of January and is almost back to the levels achieved during the middle of December (+28). However, current Sentiment is well below the +49 measured during the middle of January 2012 – […]

Our steel market survey continues with invitations out to approximately 689 companies. We will send a reminder to those who have not yet responded at approximately 8 AM ET on Wednesday morning.  SMU will continue to collect responses until 3 PM ET on Thursday and will begin reporting our findings in Thursday evening’s issue of […]

Steel Market Update (SMU) has developed an exceptional basic steel training program covering the steel industry (flat and long products). Our two day workshop, which we call – Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals – is meant to provide a comprehensive review of the way steel is made by the blast/BOF or electric […]

Written by: Sandy Williams Former RG Steel assets from both Sparrow Point and Warren are headed for the auction block. Sparrow Point assets are being offered by Hilco Industrial at an onsite auction January 23-24 and will include mobile, construction, material handling and support equipment along with spare parts and production lots. An online auction […]

Written by: Sandy Williams Construction employment is expected to rise in 2013 according to survey data presented by the Associated General Contractors of America in their construction industry outlook report for 2013. Of those firms surveyed in 30 states, 31 percent expect to add new staff this year while only 9 percent plan to make […]

Written by: Sandy Williams Conditions for New York manufacturers continue to decline at a modest pace according to the Empire State Manufacturing Survey for January 2013. The general business conditions index declined for the sixth consecutive month to -7.8 in January. New orders fell four points to -7.2 and the shipments index declined 15 points […]

Written by: Sandy Williams Iron ore prices are at a 15 month high but are unlikely to stay that way say analysts. Currently, 62% Fe ore is at $158 per tonne, soaring from November’s price of $116 and almost doubling from the low of $87 per tonne in September. Analysts say the increase is a […]

The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their estimated raw steel production data for the week ending January 12, 2013. According to AISI estimates the U.S. steel industry produced 1,819,000 net tons of raw steel last week. This represents an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the week earlier but is 5.2 percent lower […]

For the past seven weeks, Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Indicator has been stuck in “Neutral” waiting for something to push prices in one direction or another. When we made the adjustment the week of November 27, 2012 from Higher to Neutral our SMU range for hot rolled coil was $620-$660 per ton (average […]

Flat rolled steel prices continued to drift slightly lower as buyers reported a tighter range than what we had seen one week ago. The top end of the range for all of the items declined between $10 and $20 per ton this past week. The net result being our averages adjusted lower by $5 to […]

I want to extend our apologies for the “test” newsletter which was sent out to our members by our website developers on Saturday. We received a few emails surprised at some of the dated headlines.  Seems like a few people don’t believe “stability” is in the cards for the current market. I received a number […]

According to Baker Hughes data from January 11th, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,761 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This number represents a decrease of 1 rig from last week. Compared to last year the 1,761 count is a decrease of 226 rigs. Canadian rigs increased by […]

Written by: Sandy Williams Natural gas is providing cost savings for steel plants while at the same time creating more demand for steel products used in pipelines, drilling equipment and rigs. It is a win-win situation for the steel and the natural gas industries One of the ways natural gas is utilized by the steel […]

  Written by: Sandy Williams Essar Steel Algoma was granted temporary pension relief on Friday by the Ontario government. The company will defer special pension payments for the 12 months beginning December 2012 and ending November 2013. Low interest rates have caused Essar Steel Algoma’s pension contribution requirement to more than double from those made […]

Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for November 2012 increased 23.9 percent, to 412,416 units, up from 332,886 units shipped in November 2011. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 6.9 percent in November 2012, to 331,237 units, up from 309,985 units shipped in November 2011. For the year-to-date, […]

Written by: Sandy Williams ThyssenKrupp continues to cull members of its boards for roles in the failed ThyssenKrupp AG venture and for allegations of corruption. The latest member of a board to leave is Bertin Eichler, vice chairman of the ThyssenKrupp AG supervisory board. Eichler has been under investigation for misuse of company funds for […]

This week, the SMU Fair Value HRC (hot rolled coil) Model has spot HRC pricing above Fair Value for the ninth week in a row. This is due to the SMU average spot HRC index decreasing $10 per ton to $625 per ton and scrap inputs remaining the same over last week’s figures. The Fair […]

At the moment we have broken into two camps when it comes to hot rolled coil – the CRU and SteelBenchmarker (which did not report prices this past week) who both pegged their HRC prices in the mid-$630’s – and the rest of the indexes we follow on a regular basis and ourselves (SMU) who […]

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released final census data for the month of November and preliminary census data for the month of December. Based on that data, SMU forecast 2012 imports will be 17 percent higher than what was imported one year earlier. A large portion of those tons were imported by domestic […]

I spent part of an afternoon with one of our customers the other day. When I was selling steel this was a common occurrence. Now my schedule and time constraints make it much more difficult and that is one of the things I miss from my steel sales days. One of the questions this individual […]

Written by: Sandy Williams Iron ore buyers have been watching with concern the path of Cyclone Narelle as it approaches the western shore of Australia. The west and northwest region contains 93 percent of Australia’s iron ore mines. In past years cyclones and flooding have disrupted mine operations for coal and iron ore sending steel […]

Based on the raw steel capability adjustment which was made by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) as of the beginning of this year, SMU is adjusting the way we will present our visual data to our readers. We will begin to compare weekly production against the “revised” weekly production number from the comparable […]

SMU has been asked about the status of the negotiations regarding the sale of the ThyssenKrupp Steel Americas assets. This includes ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and their sister facility in Brazil which produces slabs – CSA. We understand the due diligence process continues and a number of mills have been through both facilities. Based on SMU […]

Steel Market Update received a surprise the other day when Construction Management Degree (www.ConstructionManagementDegree.com), a website dedicated as an online resource for students looking to expand their education within the management segment of the construction industry, recognized SMU as one of the top 100 construction-related websites online. The list was compiled as a service to […]

Written by: Sandy Williams ArcelorMittal announced Wednesday that it will offer common stock and mandatorily convertible subordinated notes (MCNs) for an expected amount of $3.5 billion in an effort to reduce indebtedness. The company expects the sale of stock and notes, along with other initiatives, to enable ArcelorMittal to reduce its current debt to $17 […]

Written by: Brett Linton Utilizing a trailing average hot rolled coil (HRC) price, the SMU Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. fell to exactly 0 percent this week after eight consecutive weeks of positive momentum readings. MoMo is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12 […]