Southeast Texas, including Houston, is considered one of the most affordable large housing markets in the nation, said Svenja Gudel, chief economist at Zillow. That may change in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. “Housing has historically been affordable in the area because it’s relatively easy to build homes there. Unfortunately, a lot of those homes […]
A note to service centers: SMU is working on a new prime flat rolled distributor inventory index and trends analysis. If your company is interested in participating or if you have any questions, please send me a note: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com The hurricane saga continues, and I want to take a moment to wish those who have […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Indicator has been “stuck” in Neutral for a number of weeks as steel buyers and steel mills wrestle with the direction of flat rolled steel prices going forward. Steel buyers are beginning to say the next move in flat rolled steel prices may well be lower, rather than […]
What happens to all those autos ruined by the double whammy of hurricanes in the South? Cox Automotive estimates 300,000 to 500,000 cars were damaged by Hurricane Harvey. Auto-market researcher Black Book puts the total in Texas closer to one million. And millions more could be added to the toll after Hurricane Irma is tallied. […]
Below is the latest data released by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through July 2017. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for July 2017 decreased 8.4 percent, […]
Our SMU team has been pretty lucky as those of us who live in Florida did not suffer significant damage to our homes. The Florida residents ended up escaping and being essentially unaffected by Hurricane Irma. However, Brett lives in Georgia and he lost power yesterday as a large tree took out the power line […]
Steel buyers and sellers report that most mills are still open to price discussions, even after recent price increase announcements, based on responses from Steel Market Update’s latest flat rolled market trends questionnaire. Over the course of the past week, SMU canvassed active participants in the manufacturing and service center segments of the flat rolled […]
Flat rolled lead times, the amount of time it takes for the steel mills to produce an order if placed today, have shortened ever so slightly in the past month, according to data collected by Steel Market Update (SMU) from manufacturers and steel service centers earlier this week. Viewed over a longer time frame, lead […]
The saga continues as we endeavor to escape the wrath of Hurricane Irma. After leaving Hobe Sound, we settled in Gainesville on the campus of the University of Florida. As the hurricane track began to move a little further west, we decided to do the same and headed into the western panhandle of Florida. That […]
Both current and future sentiment showed a slight improvement in the latest SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, based on data gathered in early September. The index measures how buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful both in the current market environment, as well as three to six […]
Three out of four steel buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire believe the hurricane and flooding in Houston will have a significant impact on the steel industry, at least for the short term. Following are some insightful comments: · “It will have an impact. It will be negative in the short-term, […]
U.S. automakers sold 1.48 million vehicles in August, a 1.9 percent drop from a year ago. A portion of that decline was the loss of an estimated 20,000 sales from the Houston area during the last week of August. Houston is the ninth-largest vehicle market in the U.S., and sales are expected to rebound as […]
I want to recognize the Steel Market Update writers who have been doing stellar work through a grueling work schedule. Last week, it was our conference where we had all hands on deck in order to make sure the conference ran smoothly. This week and this coming weekend (and probably all of next week), the […]
The growth of total construction spending is slowing, though still positive year over year. July data for construction put in place (CPIP) was released by the Department of Commerce on Friday. Total construction still shows positive growth, but slowed to 0.9 percent year over year in the latest three months of data. Privately funded projects […]
My final thoughts are going to be extremely brief this evening as I live close to the Atlantic Ocean in south Florida and there is a category 5 hurricane thinking about heading our way. So, we are in preparation mode and will move north and wait to see if it veers further west and into […]
Half of the 36 Key Steel Market Indicators released in August are historically positive, while only 19 percent are negative, and the balance fall within the normal range, in Steel Market Update’s view. Along with May, when the data was about the same, this is the best outlook since we began our analysis in January […]
Over the past three days, Steel Market Update (SMU) had all hands on deck for our 7th SMU Steel Summit Conference. The conference was once again held at the Georgia International Convention Center next to the Atlanta International Airport. We had record attendance with 661 executives registered compared to 434 last year. There were 309 […]
Good evening from Atlanta, site of our 7th SMU Steel Summit Conference. We announced this morning that attendance for this conference is a new record. We are pleased to announce we registered 661 manufacturing, steel and industry executives for this year’s conference, breaking last year’s 434 record. Our “Pre-Summit” Conference program on Monday attracted approximately […]
It’s the night before the start of our 7th SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. We are prepared and ready to go, but our thoughts and prayers are with those trapped in Houston and the surrounding communities in Texas. There are a great many people registered for our conference who are coming from the areas […]
Sales of new homes tumbled 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 and were 8.9 percent below the July 2016 estimate of 627,000. Median sales price was $313,700, compared to $310,800 in June, and at the highest July level ever. Average sales price was $371,200, down from $379,500 the previous month. Sales […]
Existing home sales slid 1.3 percent in July, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. The seasonally adjusted annual rate dropped to 5.44 million from the downwardly revised June total of 5.51 million for the lowest level of the year. The decline in sales was steepest for condominiums and co-ops, falling 4.8 percent […]
I am now in Atlanta and the workload and my focus, and that of Ray Culley, Brett Linton and Diana, are all on organizing every minute of the SMU Steel Market Update program, which begins at 2 PM ET on Monday. There are always a few hiccups along the way… something to make your day […]
In Steel Market Update’s (SMU) latest flat rolled steel market analysis, manufacturing companies and steel service centers are sending mixed messages regarding how flat rolled steel distributors are treating their spot end customers. Twenty-one percent of the manufacturing companies responding to last week’s flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire reported service centers were lowering prices, […]
Over the last few weeks, the price of zinc has risen to over $1.41 per pound on the London Metal Exchange, and I thought it was time for an update on a series of articles I’ve written on the actual metallic cost of coating steel with zinc. To do the calculation, I use a spreadsheet […]
Light vehicle assemblies in NAFTA declined sharply in July, according to data from Ward’s Automotive. Economy.com reported that U.S. vehicle sales totaled fewer than 17 million units at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) in July for the fifth consecutive month. Sales were 16.76 million units annualized in July, down 5.9 percent on a year-ago […]
I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. We are trying to accommodate everyone who wants to attend our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference even though we are technically sold out. We did manage to loosen up a few seats and those were gobbled up the moment we let people know they were […]
No one was surprised when major U.S. steel mills announced a $30 per ton price hike on flat rolled and plate this week. The price hikes were widely expected. But a majority (58 percent) of respondents to SMU’s latest flat roll market trends questionnaire will be surprised if the higher prices stick. Some predict the […]
Despite the ongoing delay in Washington, six of 10 respondents to SMU’s latest flat roll market trends questionnaire believe the Trump administration will eventually put new restrictions on foreign steel imports based on Section 232 national security concerns. Even more, 74 percent, believe the slowdown in the Section 232 decision is opening the door to […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Service Center Inventories Apparent Excess/Deficit forecast provided last month showed that the deficit in inventories being held by flat rolled distributors would shrink. We have worked with the MSCI carbon flat rolled shipment and inventory data and our model indicates the deficit did indeed shrink and is very close to […]
Tomorrow is the full eclipse of the sun in many areas of the country. Where I live in southern Florida, the sun will be 81 percent covered. About four hours drive north of here will be in the high 90 percent range. If you are lucky enough to be in an area where a total […]