The industry is abuzz with all kinds of speculation as to how the Section 232 investigation will impact traders and steel buyers. Another Section 232 was announced and should have been signed by President Trump today covering aluminum. I was texting with one of the steel mills this morning about their access to aluminum for […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States turned negative this week after being in positive territory for the previous eight weeks. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week average price as […]
Both manufacturing companies and service centers are reporting distributor spot prices as being in a state of transition. The percentage of manufacturing companies reporting service centers as raising spot flat rolled steel prices has dropped from 50 percent at the beginning of April to 19 percent. At the same time 19 percent of the manufacturing […]
The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index reached a 32 month high in February. The Index reported a 5.8 percent annual increase in prices, up from 5.6 percent in January. The 20-City Composite reported a year-over-year gain of 5.9 percent, compared to 5.7 percent the previous month. Seattle, Portland and Dallas reported the highest […]
New home sales reached an 8-month high as the spring season brought out new buyers. Sales of new single-family homes rose 5.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 621,000 in March. The rate is 15.6 percent above the March 2016 estimate, according to the US Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban […]
Steel Market Update has been working on trying to get a better understanding of the pipe and tube business. We had a conversation with Barry Zekelman, Chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, the largest privately held pipe and tube manufacturer in the country. Our initial conversation was about foreign steel imports and how they were […]
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-April flat rolled steel market trends analysis. Over the course of the week we invited 670 individuals representing approximately 650 companies to participate in our survey. The breakout of the participants was a little different than what we have been seeing over the course of a number […]
US vehicle sales averaged 17.3 million units, SAAR (seasonally adjusted annual rate) per month in the first quarter, down from 18.1 million in Q4 2016. March sales were much lower than expected with an annualized rate of 16.63 million units, down 0.3 percent year on year. Light-truck sales fell from 11 million annualized units in […]
Since Thursday, when President Donald Trump signed his executive order calling for an analysis of the steel industry from a “national security” perspective, I have been swamped with emails and phone calls questioning what is going on and what do I think about the chances of something happening that will impact the amount of foreign […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index continues at very optimistic levels for those involved in the flat rolled steel industry in the United States and Canada. At the same time, our index is no longer making new high’s either as a single data point or on our three-month moving average (3MMA). SMU […]
Over the course of the last four days Steel Market Update (SMU) has been conducting our mid-April flat rolled steel market trends analysis. We finished earlier this afternoon and we are providing the results of some of our findings to our readers this evening. Lead times, which is the length of time it takes to […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel associated with manufacturing companies and service centers are reporting the steel mills as being more willing to negotiate flat rolled steel spot prices. Based on the responses from those taking our survey, 59 percent reported the domestic steel mills as willing to negotiate hot rolled prices, 76 percent […]
The following service center inventories data is based on the assumption that the MSCI data as presented is accurate on carbon flat rolled. From the MSCI data we apply a proprietary formula/model from which we can determine if flat rolled distributors are in an over-inventoried (excess) or under-inventories (deficit) situation. The importance of understanding the […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the eighth consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory for a single week. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the […]
Steel Market Update has been proactively writing about our expectations for Executive Orders and their impact on foreign steel imports. It is clear that the steel lobby has the ear of the president and this has to be quite frustrating to the same companies he is trying to convince to come back to the United […]
Below is the latest data release issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through February 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 February 2017 increased 5.5 […]
Housing starts fell 6.8 percent in March, dropping further than expected. The rate was the biggest decline in three years but still 9.2 percent higher than the rate in March 2016. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of […]
We managed to squeeze in an extra day off for our crew due to the Easter Holiday. So, if you were looking for a newsletter on Sunday evening – sorry, we skipped a day. But, we are making up for it today with an issue that if you printed it you could use as a […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the seventh consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory for a single week. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the […]
First, a reminder that Friday is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter Sunday. Our office will be open for part of Good Friday since I have been traveling extensively and I have a need to catch up. Sunday is a holiday and we will not publish an issue on Sunday evening. The next time we […]
We had a number of companies share foreign import numbers with us as we traveled about the market reaching out to buyers regarding their domestic purchases and the offers coming out of the domestic steel mills. On cold rolled we heard Russia offers delivered to Houston at $33.25/cwt, Turkey at $35.35/cwt and Vietnam $35.15/cwt. I […]
On Friday Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our flat rolled steel Price Momentum Indicator to Neutral from Higher. The key reason behind our decision to move our indicator is “indecision” in the marketplace. More about that in a moment. The current market cycle began on October 21, 2016 when the domestic mills were able to […]
The Dodge Momentum Index gained 0.9 percent in March to register 144.4. The March reading is the sixth consecutive monthly increase and has been driven mostly by new projects in institutional building. The index is a monthly measure of the initial report for nonresidential buildings in planning and leads construction spending for buildings by a […]
February data for construction put in place (CPIP) was released by the Department of Commerce on Monday March 3rd 2017. Once again this was not such a great report. Total construction is still growing though more slowly. Private construction has picked up the pace in the last three months but state and local construction is […]
For those who missed my comment earlier, Acero Junction hot strip mill is rolling at close to full right now. Our sources are advising us that the mill is running about 50,000 tons of HRC. They have prime slabs on the floor and incoming from Brazil (one of the reasons why semi-finished imports continue to […]
Steel Market Update is reporting today a new record high was achieved in our Current Steel Buyers Sentiment Index 3-month moving average (3MMA). Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to be very optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in the existing market environment. As a single data point, Sentiment was measured […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) just concluded our early April flat rolled steel market trends analysis. A portion of that study is focused on steel mill lead times as we look to see if there are any changes in the trend which could affect flat rolled steel price negotiations. Lead times remained constant compared to what […]
As with steel mill lead times discussed earlier in this newsletter, those responding to our flat rolled market trends questionnaire reported the steel mills as modestly willing to negotiate all but Galvalume flat rolled steel pricing. Thirty-eight percent of our respondents reported the domestic mills as willing to negotiate hot rolled pricing. This is 9 […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the sixth consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory for a single week. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the […]
I had a question from one of our readers regarding capacity utilization rates and if the Big River Steel tonnage is part of the AISI calculation. I have not spoken directly to the AISI on the subject (as of yet) but, I do know that Big River Steel is not a member of the AISI… […]