Sales of existing homes slowed last month, reports the National Association of Realtors. Existing home sales slipped 3.6 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million, down from November’s revised rate of 5.78 million. Single-family home sales were down 2.6 percent, while condo sales fell 11.6 percent. Sales for 2017 totaled […]
The wheels are moving and things are happening that are going to affect the momentum behind this market. First, there are new price increase announcements being made, first out of California and now by ArcelorMittal USA, which has put new base prices into the market. Second, Big River Steel put their customers on allocation for […]
Steel Market Update forecast December 2017 flat rolled steel shipments from U.S. service centers would be 87,850 tons per day. The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported last week that sheet distributors shipped 87,805 tons per day. We missed being perfect by 45 tons per day. Receipts coming into the service centers has been harder […]
We have mentioned this elsewhere in today’s newsletter, but it bears repeating. The recent Section 201 decision by President Trump on residential washers and solar equipment may well be a blueprint for what we might see when the Section 232 decision is made on steel. The formula seems to be pointing toward some form of […]
Most steel buyers agree that prices are on the increase, it’s just a question of how high and how fast. About 92 percent of the respondents to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire concur that steel prices are heading higher, while the remainder say they see no clear price direction. Following are some of […]
Is demand strong enough to support the latest wave of mill price increases? The majority (53 percent) of respondents to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire say demand is unchanged, while 6 percent describe it as declining. Only 41 percent consider steel demand to be improving as the new year begins. Following are a […]
Service center shipments in December were stronger than the seasonal norm, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of Metals Service Center Institute data. Daily shipments in December were 11.8 percent lower than in November. On average since 2009, December shipments have decreased by 13.1 percent; therefore, these latest numbers were seasonally better than the […]
Future automotive trends reinforce the role of steel, says Greg Ludkovsky, vice president of global R&D for ArcelorMittal. In the following commentary, Ludkovsky contends that steel offers the optimal balance of strength, performance and mass reduction with the least impact on the environment compared to aluminum and other materials: While sales of battery electric vehicles […]
Construction workers in Texas will get an assist from the Associated General Contractors to deal with financial burdens resulting from Hurricane Harvey. The AGC Charities, the charitable arm of the association, is providing 83 construction workers in Texas with checks of $2,350 each to cover the costs of uninsured and uncompensated damages caused by the […]
If you received an email welcoming you to a free trial of Steel Market Update, please disregard. Somehow, that email was sent in error (I received one as well) and we believe it to be a glitch associated with the updated software we have on our website. Sorry for the confusion. I have been told […]
China’s steel production has continued to grow year over year, contradicting all the hoopla about production cuts, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of Chinese government data. Once each quarter, we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Many analysts don’t believe these self-serving Party […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update receive reports on imports with macro data broken down by product at the national level. SMU also provides reports that detail the import tonnage received by district of entry and source nation, available here on our website. This new report from SMU takes the analysis even further. Using U.S. […]
Current and future sentiment among flat rolled steel buyers has rarely been higher, according to the latest Steel Market Update Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. The index measures changes in buyers’ optimism levels, which offers insight into their likely decision-making. Nearly eight out of 10 respondents to SMU’s flat rolled steel questionnaire say their company’s chances […]
Mill lead times on flat rolled steel have extended in the past two weeks to levels not seen since the spring of 2017, according to the latest data from Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire. The average lead time for hot roll has hit four and a half weeks, while lead times for cold roll, […]
The mills are clearly trying to collect the price increases they announced on flat roll in December and January, but they appear to be experiencing only some success. About 40 percent of steel buyers responding to the latest Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire say they have found their mill suppliers unwilling to negotiate on […]
U.S. Department of Commerce data shows that new-home starts declined in December while building permit authorizations remained relatively flat. Housing starts dropped 8.2 percent in December from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,192,000. Compared to December 2016, starts were down 6.0 percent. Single-family housing starts were 11.8 percent below November’s […]
I was “chatting” (by email) with a financial analyst about a number of items earlier today. (How long will price momentum remain with the steel millls? Will a downturn in Chinese numbers creep into the U.S. market, etc.?) One of the items discussed was Section 232 and whether Trump will do anything that would actually […]
When Ford surprised the market by introducing an aluminum-bodied F-150 in 2014, cutting the pickup’s weight by a dramatic 700 pounds, many assumed its rivals would have to follow suit to keep pace with the fuel economy savings. Instead, they decided to wait and see if the truck would perform as promised and if it […]
The January import licenses are catching what one domestic mill callls, “Taiwanese January onslaught on Galvalume” as it trends toward 100,000+ net tons for the month (from less than 40,000 tons in December). This is what the mill had to say about pricing in general: “We keep moving our HR and CR up. Coated is […]
Over the past six months, Steel Market Update has been canvassing flat rolled steel service centers as we try to better understand the number of months of supply being held as of the end of each month. Steel distributors now hold three months (3.03 month’s supply) based on the responses we have received from our […]
Both the steel and aluminum sectors have made major strides in supplying automakers with new, strong-but-light materials to take weight out of vehicles and boost their miles per gallon while lowering harmful tailpipe emissions. But to meet the current federal requirements for 2025, which call for a fleetwide average of over 50 mpg, the auto […]
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 November 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 November 2017 decreased 3.4 percent, […]
As expected, Wilbur Ross and the U.S. Department of Commerce submitted the Section 232 report on steel on Thursday evening. The much-anticipated report, originally “due” back in June 2017 (at President Trump’s request), beat the technical timeline by a couple of days. The White House did not release the recommendations reported and does not have […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update receive reports on imports with macro data broken down by product on the national level. SMU also provides reports that detail the import tonnage received by district of entry and source nation. This new report from SMU takes the analysis even further. Using U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) data, […]
The tug-of-war between steel and aluminum for a greater share of the lucrative automotive materials market will be on full display beginning this week at the North American International Auto Show. The Detroit auto extravaganza will run from Jan. 13-28, showcasing the latest and greatest in automotive design as carmakers strive to wow consumers and […]
There was an interesting article in World Trade Today this afternoon regarding the expectations associated with the Section 232 investigation and the report that will be provided to President Trump by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the weekend or early next week. WTT reported, “While the final steel report is expected to be delivered to […]
Total construction expenditures have turned around and grew by 3.9 percent in three months through February year over year. The growth of total construction on a rolling 12-month basis year over year has been constant at 2.1 percent for each month December through February. On a rolling three-month year-over-year basis, the situation is much better […]
A favorable indicator of construction activity, the Dodge Momentum Index gained 3.6 percent in December for a reading of 153.9. The November index was revised downward to 148.6 from 149.5. The gain last month was due to an 8.5 percent jump in planning for institutional building projects. The commercial building index gained just 0.7 percent […]
We have had companies contact us already regarding when registration will open for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We will be working on the Steel Summit section of the website tomorrow (Wednesday) with the hope to open up registration for the Aug. 27-29, 2018, event on Friday of this week. We will also open […]
Did your business exceed its goals for 2017? If so, you are among the top one-third (32 percent) of companies responding to Steel Market Update’s latest flat roll market trends questionnaire. Last year was clearly a good one for most steel suppliers and buyers as another 46 percent reported meeting their business expectations despite the […]