FCA and Peugeot announced a $48 billion merger on Thursday that will make the combined company the fourth largest automaker in the world. The 50/50 merger will have combined revenues of nearly $190 billion and annual unit sales of about 8.6 million vehicles. Together the company will employ roughly 410,000 employees. Peugeot parent PSA Group […]
This report is designed to be a big picture summary of data we have reported in detail during the month. It summarizes 36 data streams that describe the state of the steel market and provide forward guidance for steel buyers and sellers. See the end of this piece for an explanation of the Key Indicators […]
The United Auto Workers and Ford Motor Co. have announced a tentative agreement just three days after talks began in “earnest” on Monday. “Our national negotiators elected by their local unions have voted to recommend to the UAW-Ford National Council the proposed tentative agreement,” said UAW Vice President Rory Gamble. “Our negotiating team worked diligently […]
The Associated General Contractors of America are calling for comprehensive immigration reform and additional workforce funding to address a shortage of qualified labor. Despite the widespread job gains, AGC’s latest survey found 80 percent of contractors say hourly craftworker positions remain difficult to fill. Construction employment grew in 244, or 68 percent, out of 358 […]
Home prices rose in August but at a slowing pace, says S&P Dow Jones Indices. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported a 3.2 percent annual gain compared to 3.1 percent in July. An annual gain of 1.5 percent was reported for the 10-City Composite compared to 1.6 percent in July. […]
London, Brexit, new election, split country. As I was standing in line to enter the House of Lords, the gentleman to my left began discussing how Brexit has severed parties and even families. No longer can British families talk about their government openly. I heard the theme on many occasions as I traveled about London […]
United Auto Workers have moved on to negotiations with Ford now that a new labor agreement has been approved at General Motors. Preliminary negotiations have been ongoing since July 15, but talks have now ramped up as the UAW-Ford team puts together a final contract for the 55,000 Ford union workers. Rory Gamble, UAW-Ford vice […]
John Packard is traveling… While it’s too early to tell how the market will fully react to last week’s price increase announcements by the flat rolled mills, change is clearly afoot, based on the findings from SMU’s canvass of the market over the past two days. How high will prices go, and for how long? […]
Steel Market Update’s Current and Future Buyers Sentiment Indexes inched up a few points this week, but remain near their lowest levels in six years. The goal of SMU’s Buyers Sentiment Index is to measure how buyers and sellers of steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful today (Current Sentiment Index), as well […]
Steel Market Update’s negotiations data showed just a hint of tightening in price talks between the mills and their customers this past week, perhaps in anticipation of the $40 price increase on flat rolled steel announced by the mills on Thursday and Friday. The data, gathered by SMU prior to the price increase announcements, shows […]
Mill lead times for flat rolled products continued to shorten slightly over the past few weeks. The average lead time for hot rolled is now down to three and a half weeks, cold rolled is less than five and a half weeks and coated steels are just six weeks. Plate lead times remain around four […]
United Auto Workers at General Motors approved a labor deal on Friday ending a 40-day strike that disrupted operations for GM and its suppliers. About 57 percent of GM’s 49,000 union workers voted in favor of ratifying the new four-year agreement. “General Motors members have spoken,” said Terry Dittes, UAW Vice President and Director of […]
John Packard is traveling… To almost no one’s surprise, the mills raised flat rolled prices by $40 a ton on Thursday and Friday in the hope of reversing the slide that has taken hot rolled as low as $470 a ton. Seven out of 10 steel buyers responding to SMU’s questionnaire last week said they […]
ArcelorMittal USA announced a $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) price increase today, which is in line with our expectations that an increase was inevitable based on comments from service centers and manufacturing companies responding to our flat rolled steel market trends questionnaires over the past few weeks. By the end of the day, NLMK USA had […]
Total North American light vehicle assemblies were down by 3.0 percent year over year in three months through August. This report is based on data from LMC Automotive for automotive assemblies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The breakdown of assemblies is “Personal” (cars for personal use) and “Commercial” (light vehicles less than 6.0 tonnes […]
New home sales remained relatively stable in September, slipping only 0.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 701,000. The August rate was revised downward to 706,000. “New home sales inched down in September, but the ongoing trend remains positive as builders increase their production,” said Greg Ugalde, chairman of the National Association of […]
The official economic statistics out of China show a decline in GDP to a level slightly lower than the depths of the global recession in 2009. China’s share of global steel production was 55.9 percent in August. Once each quarter we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed […]
Over the past couple of weeks, Steel Market Update has been suggesting flat rolled steel prices were at a bottom and the domestic steel mills would soon announce price increases. Today, ArcelorMittal USA began advising customers of their intention to raise prices by $40 per ton. By the end of the workday, NLMK USA had […]
Existing home sales fell 2.2. percent from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million in September, says the National Association of Realtors. The decline followed two consecutive months of gain. Sales in the Midwest fell the hardest but all four regions saw declines. Higher home prices due to insufficient inventory was partially to […]
There was much discussion at the NASA conference and in the wake of the conference regarding scrap pricing and where prices are headed for the month of November. The discussion on scrap has been a moving target over the past week or two. We checked with some of our sources earlier this month and we […]
Except for a brief uptick this summer, steel prices have been on the decline since March and breached the $500 per ton level in mid-October—a psychological line in the sand that leaves steel buyers wondering: Have prices hit bottom? Is it time to replenish inventories? Flat rolled steel prices took a steep dive last month, […]
Construction jobs increased in 39 states and the District of Columbia between September 2018 and September 2019, while construction employment increased in 28 states from August to September, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of the latest Labor Department data. “Although evidence is mounting that the overall economy is slowing, […]
Another hectic week for me as I travel to Chicago on Monday and Tuesday. I will be in the office on Wednesday, Thursday and part of the day on Friday before flying to London where I will be visiting CRU offices on Oct. 28, participating in the CRU Breakfast at the British Museum on the […]
Except for a brief uptick this summer, steel prices have been on the decline since March and breached the $500 per ton level this month—a psychological line in the sand that leaves steel buyers wondering how much further prices can slide. Steel Market Update estimates the average price for hot rolled is now down to […]
The United Auto Workers and General Motors reportedly reached a tentative four-year labor agreement on Tuesday, but it remains unclear how quickly operations will resume and how long before the automotive supply chain gets back to normal. The union has been on strike since Sept. 16, resulting in 30 facility closures and layoffs at GM plants […]
Housing starts fell 9.4 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,256,000, well below the August revised rate of 1,386,000 due mostly to a large decline in the multifamily sector. Single-family housing rose 0.3 percent from August, while units in buildings of five units or more plummeted 28.3 percent. All four regions […]
I have been in Pittsburgh these past two days attending the Metalcon show. I will return to my office on Friday afternoon. I spoke with a service center who is a large supplier to General Motors Tier One and Tier Two. GM built inventory going into the strike and continued to take shipments for one […]
Steel Market Update has to admit 2019 has been an unusual year as we have seen two “dead cat bounces” already and we may be about to live through a third in the coming weeks. Why do we believe flat rolled prices are about to reverse course? Because of the data we have been gathering […]
Steel Market Update’s analysis of flat rolled and plate inventories and shipments for the month of September: Flat Rolled = 49.9 Shipping Days of Supply Plate Steels = 52.1 Shipping Days of Supply (48.2 adjusted) Flat Rolled Service center inventories of flat-rolled steel dropped significantly in September, which the decrease in on-order volumes in August […]
I thought John Ferriola’s comments at the World Steel Association would be of interest to our readers. Joe Innace of Platts interviewed Nucor’s Ferriola and reported him saying, “The rest of this year will be pretty flat. Going into next year, it’s really a crapshoot.” He told Platts Nucor’s downstream businesses have seen prices drop, […]