Sales of existing homes declined 1.7 percent in June after gaining traction in May. Sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.27 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. Compared to May, sales declined in the South (-3.4 percent) and West (-3.5 percent) and improved slightly in the Northeast (+1.5 percent) and […]
It has been an interesting last four weeks with now three price increase announcements having been made by most of the steel mills. With this latest announcement, I am hearing from buyers the mills are pushing to get orders in “before the increases take effect.” A way of pushing the increases off for a few […]
Steel Market Update has been analyzing service center inventories for two years now. With our acquisition by the CRU Group, we expanded the breadth and depth of our coverage. Our new Service Center Inventories Index will be rolled out to the public at the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta at the end of […]
United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers opened 2019 contract talks last week with ceremonial handshakes. Negotiations, however, have the potential to become contentious as auto workers seek a bigger share of company profits. “We invested in you, now it’s your turn to invest in us,” said United Auto Workers President Gary Jones at […]
Construction employment continued to climb in June said the Associated General Contractors of America in its latest analysis of Labor Department data. Construction employment increased in 30 states from May to June while 42 states added jobs between June 2018 and June 2019. Association officials said worker shortage remains a concern for the industry. “Construction […]
Tomorrow we will begin our mid-July flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis. This means we will have more information regarding pricing (Tuesday), lead times and negotiations (Thursday) and Sentiment and service center spot (Thursday or Sunday) along with other information developed through our questionnaire. If you would like to be included as a […]
Housing starts declined slightly in June as single-family starts failed to offset a decline in multi-family construction. Starts in June dropped just under 1 percent from the revised May rate to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,253,000. Single-family housing starts rose 3.5 percent from May to a SAAR of 847,000, while construction of apartment […]
A note about the Oct. 8-9 Steel 101 workshop in Cincinnati. The workshop is about 50 percent filled as of today and we do expect this workshop will be sold out prior to the event. We will be visiting the Nucor Gallatin steel mill in Ghent, Ky. Excluding transportation to and from the hotel from […]
In Sunday’s issue of Steel Market Update, we adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled from Neutral to Higher. One of the justifications for that move was the Service Center Spot data we were collecting last week. In our analysis, we found a change in pricing mentality, not a 180 degree change, but a […]
Most of my day today was spent communicating with steel buyers and a few steel mills to see where prices are being offered on the spot market by the mills, and where transactions were occurring. As I went through this process, I also collect comments about whether increases are “sticking’ and if the industry believes […]
Steel Market Update has moved our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled products from Neutral to Higher. We continue to reference plate Price Momentum at Lower. This move is being made after the domestic steel mills, led by Nucor, announced two rounds of $40 per ton price increases over the past two weeks. SMU is […]
Industry optimism, as measured by Steel Market Update’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, continues to waver in the face of uncertain demand in some sectors and steel prices that are at an important tipping point. The mills have announced price increases totaling $80 per ton in the past two weeks. If they succeed in reversing the […]
Heating and cooling equipment shipments were just over two million units in May, down 2.4 percent compared to one year ago, according to data recently released by the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI). This is the second consecutive month that total monthly equipment shipments have declined on a year-over-year basis since September 2018. Residential […]
We should get a better handle and read on the market, and the strength of the market over the next one to two weeks. The Fourth of July Holiday is over, people are returning to work and decisions are going to have to be made regarding purchases for September through fourth quarter. As you can […]
Steel price negotiations have tightened considerably as the mills have begun to hold firm in support of two $40 per ton price increases announced in the past two weeks. Note that Steel Market Update began gathering the data below on Monday, just prior to the latest mill price increase announcements on Tuesday and Wednesday. In […]
Lead times for steel delivery have moved out a bit in the past two weeks, lending support to recent mill price increases. The average lead time for hot rolled has moved up to nearly four weeks, cold rolled to nearly six weeks, and coated steels to more than six weeks. Plate lead times are bucking […]
Construction employment increased by 224,000 jobs, or 3.2 percent, in the last 12 months and by 21,000 jobs in June, said the Associated General Contractors of America in its latest analysis of government data. Most job creation occurred in the nonresidential construction sector in June and in the past year. Non-residential contractors added 14,900 jobs […]
I am carefully watching flat rolled and plate lead times, the ongoing negotiations and tone of the discussions between buyers and sellers of steel, as well as industry sentiment and how service centers are handling their spot pricing into their customers. We are seeing some signs of momentum shifting on some products (especially coated), but […]
The Dodge Momentum Index improved in June, rising 4.0 percent to 146.1 from a revised reading of 140.5 in May. The monthly index measures the first report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which has been shown to lead construction spending by a full year. Initiation of planning for institutional building projects jumped 6.1 percent, […]
Welcome back from the Fourth of July Holiday (at least here in the United States). Steel Market Update gave our employees a couple of days off as we prepare for the next big push all the way to Atlanta and the SMU Steel Summit Conference on Aug. 26-28. A few minutes after I told those […]
Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive-level subscribers. For more information on upgrading to a Premium-level membership, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Private construction contracted in the three-month period including March, April and May, but state and locally funded work, including infrastructure, continued to boom. The Construction Put in Place (CPIP) expenditures […]
A note this morning from one of my scrap friends: “Btw, we are not getting too excited just yet, the scrap market is clearly beginning to bottom a bit. Should strengthen a little in August.” I am getting mixed messages on lead times, but I think the consensus is lead times have moved out […]
Construction is among the industries suffering the most from a shortage of skilled labor, yet the Trump administration excluded construction from its proposal to expand apprenticeship programs, angering the Associated General Contractors of America. “At a time when the vast majority of construction firms report having a hard time finding qualified workers to hire, it […]
Steel Market Update’s analysis of the Key Market Indicators shows a slight improvement in both our view of the present situation and in the trend of the indicators in June. This report is designed to be a big picture summary of data on which we have reported in detail during the month. In it we […]
This week I will be working with steel buyers (and steel mills) to see how the price increase on flat rolled is being received. As is normal when lead times are short and price announcements are made, many mills held pricing through the end of last week for those who had outstanding quotes or needed […]
Home price gains continued to weaken in April, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices. The National Home Price NSA index gained 3.5 percent year-over-year compared to 3.7 percent the previous month. The 20-City composite was nearly flat with March, down 0.1 percent to post a 2.5 percent gain. Annual growth has slowed in […]
I am being asked for my opinion regarding the price increase announcements, and specifically if the increases will “stick”? The announcements are not a surprise to me as some of our data was showing service center spot pricing in the area of “capitulation” (more than 75 percent of the service centers dropping spot prices to […]
Sales of new single-family homes in May slipped 7.8 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 626,000. Sales were down 3.7 percent from May 2018, said the latest report from Commerce. The median price for new homes sold last month was $308,000 and the average price $377,200. Inventory, estimated at 333,000 homes […]
The day started slow, but it seems to have picked up steam after the Nucor announcement. As expected, most of the mills have followed the Nucor lead with NLMK putting specific base prices into the market. The guidance being given in the NLMK announcement is hot rolled at a $560 per ton ($28.00/cwt) minimum base […]
Industry optimism, as measured by Steel Market Update’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, remains in tepid territory despite slight upticks in both the Current and Future Index readings this week. This is the first time since early April that the indexes have not shown another decline, perhaps signaling some sort of emotional bottom. But weak steel […]