Tomorrow night is Christmas Eve and so I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about the steel industry. My words tonight are aimed at the heart as I wish each of you a wonderful holiday and a happy, healthy New Year. From all of us here at Steel Market Update. John […]
So, we have our service center inventories at 2.5 months of supply, down slightly from the 2.6 months we got from our distributor data suppliers the previous month. This is not from our survey; we decided to put that data aside as it was suspect – it had both buyers and sellers contributing to the […]
Continual controversy over trade and tariffs, volatile steel prices and unrest on Wall Street have clearly left many in the industry anxious and pessimistic about the year to come. Only about 20 percent of the steel executives who responded to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire expect 2019 to be a solid growth year […]
The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index ended the year on a “down” note as our Current Sentiment Index, as measured this week as a single data point, was the lowest reading we have seen over the past two years. When viewed as a three-month-moving average, which helps smooth out the data and provide a clearer […]
Mill lead times suggest that demand for flat rolled steel products continues to bounce along the bottom as the year comes to a close, with no clear direction yet for the first quarter. Lead times for steel delivery are a measure of demand at the mill level—the shorter the lead time, the less busy the […]
With steel prices continuing to decline, steel buyers remain in a strong negotiating position. Twice each month Steel Market Update canvasses the flat rolled and plate steel markets to gauge whether the steel mills are willing to work with their steel buying customers and negotiate steel pricing for orders placed this week. At least nine […]
Rising housing affordability issues continue to hinder single-family construction even as total housing starts increased in November, reports the National Association of Home Builders. According to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Commerce Department, overall housing starts rose 3.2 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual […]
Through October 2018, of the total cold rolled sheet and strip imports into the U.S., only 2.8 percent was strip, while 44.3 percent of the CR sheet imports were >1 to 3mm thick and 49.8 percent was full hard. Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update receive reports on imports broken down into district of entry […]
Net job creation in November totaled 155,000 positions. This was a correction from the very strong result in October, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data. Table 1 breaks total U.S. employment down into service and goods-producing industries and then into private and government employees. Most of […]
This report examines the import share of sheet, plate, long and tubular products and 16 subcategories through October. Table 1 shows total supply to the market in three months through October and in 12 months through October for the four product groups and the 16 subcategories. Supply to the market is the total of domestic […]
We are quickly sliding toward the Christmas Holiday and the New Year. I guess this means I will need to do some shopping (and shipping) over the next 24 hours or lose my good standing as a father… Over the next couple of publications, we will write about this year through the rear-view mirror. 2018 […]
It seems like forever since I have been in the office for a full week. Well, this week is one of the rare occasions. A little home time as we run up to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. A note about our publication schedule as we will be taking some time off between Christmas […]
JSW Ohio tried to run their EAF and caster today, but found they needed a couple of small fixes. The goal is now to melt their first heat and cast their first slab tomorrow (Friday). We continue to watch this closely as there will be an impact on the market once the mill has been […]
A couple of comments regarding possible price increase announcements as we go into first-quarter 2019 made today as I canvassed the flat rolled and plate steel markets pricing. “Mills appear to be much more sanguine on prices than I’ve seen in a while. I’m hearing them say that once all of the mills are done […]
Flat rolled steel service centers who responded to last week’s SMU flat rolled and plate steel market trends questionnaire are reporting in increasing numbers their service center as lowering spot prices to their customers. One month ago (early November) only 32 percent of the flat rolled distributors were reporting lower spot pricing to their customers. […]
The latest jobs report from the Department of Labor showed fewer jobs were added in November than expected. The U.S. economy added 155,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7 percent. Economists expected the report to come in at about 190,000 jobs for the month. The three-month average was 170,000. Construction employment increased […]
Total heating and cooling equipment shipments in October rose 10.2 percent compared to one year ago, according to data released by the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) on Wednesday. Aside from the 5.1 percent slip in September, total monthly equipment shipments on a year-over-year basis had increased every month since October 2016. Residential and […]
JSW Ohio (former Mingo Junction mill) has been struggling to get their existing electric arc furnace (EAF) up and running. It was supposed to have fired up last week, but we were told there is an issue with the oxygen, and the new ETA first heat date is Monday or Tuesday of this week. I […]
About 60 percent of respondents to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire feel their chances for success are good, if not excellent, given the current business conditions and their views of the next three to six months. Nearly all the rest consider their prospects only fair. Uncertainty on the trade and economic fronts, and perhaps […]
Lead times for spot orders of hot rolled and cold rolled steels appear to have bottomed and extended a bit in early December. Lead times on HR and CR have not been this long since September, but are well below the levels seen when prices were spiking earlier this year. Lead times for steel delivery […]
Twice per month Steel Market Update canvasses the flat rolled and plate steel markets as we look to identify key market metrics. One of those is whether the steel mills are working with their steel buying customers and are they willing to negotiate steel pricing for orders placed this week for delivery based on existing […]
Construction in the United States is experiencing strong growth led by nonresidential building and infrastructure expenditures, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of the latest Commerce Department Construction Put in Place data. On Dec. 3, Commerce released CPIP expenditures data for October. The growth of total construction on a rolling 12-month basis year over year […]
It has been a busy week for Steel Market Update. I spoke at the HARDI annual conference in Austin, Texas, on Sunday and I was in Atlanta on Tuesday evening and Wednesday working with our web developers. I am in the office on Friday. Next week I will be in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday through […]
Dropping sedans from its lineup proved to be a smart move for Fiat Chrysler. Sales in November jumped 17 percent as sales of the Ram pickup surged 42 percent and sales of SUV models gained 20 percent or more. “The market continues to abandon cars, with no end in sight,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher […]
I took our coated numbers down pretty hard this week. I had been collecting lower numbers over the past few weeks. However, they would pop up sporadically. Come and go for no reason other than a mill decided that the order was too good to pass up, that it fit a hole or that at […]
It has been a beautiful weekend in Austin, Texas, where I spoke earlier today (Sunday) at the annual HARDI conference. I spoke at the steel council, which consists of HVAC wholesalers who sell galvanized sheet/coil products, manufacturers supplying the wholesalers and a couple of service centers who sell galvanized sheet and coil to the wholesalers. […]
Returns from Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire show a growing percentage of manufacturing companies reporting service center spot pricing on flat rolled products as being lower than what they saw at the beginning of November. Seventy-three percent of the manufacturing respondents reported seeing slipping spot prices this past week. This is an increase of […]
Sales of new single-family homes dropped 8.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 544,000 from an upwardly revised September estimate of 597,000 units, according to the latest data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. October sales were at the lowest sales pace since December 2016 […]
We had a great webinar on Wednesday, despite some technical glitches. I am looking forward to making webinars a standard practice for Steel Market Update. We do not yet have a date/subject set up for the next webinar. I am traveling this weekend and early next week. I will be speaking on Sunday morning in […]
General Motors announced Thursday that it will stop production at five North American assembly plants by the end of 2019, alarming workers and suppliers. The closings include Detroit-Hamtramck, Warren Transmission and Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, Oshawa Assembly in Ontario and Baltimore Operations in Maryland. It will be the first closure for GM since 2010. The […]