Category: SMU

US raw steel production rose again last week, climbing to the highest weekly output recorded since last September, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

The American Iron and Steel Institute has tapped four members for its board.

Nucor halted a four-week decline in its spot price for hot-rolled coil this week, maintaining its weekly consumer spot price (CSP) at $870/st.

With higher tariff rates on steel and aluminum set to go into effect on Wednesday, June 4, a new round of chaos across the supply chain is likely in store. Expect a significant impact on manufacturers and metal fabricators. But even before the latest round of Trump-tariff whiplash on Friday evening, there was a lot of interesting data coming out of SMU's steel-market survey.

Timna Tanners, managing director of equity research for Wolfe Research, will be the featured speaker on the next SMU Community Chat. Timna has coined Sheet Storm, Galv Galore, and Rebarmageddon. Her forecasts and insights are always though provoking. And she’s not afraid to speak her mind. So it's no surprise that she's one of our most popular guests!

The price premium of galvanized coil over hot-rolled (HR) coil has narrowed over the past two months, resuming the downward trend seen for most of the last year. As of May 27, the spread between these two products is at one of its lowest levels in nearly two years.

Highlights from the week and things to keep an eye on.

SMU’s latest steel buyers market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Past survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]

After reaching multi-month lows in mid-May, SMU’s Buyers’ Sentiment Indices modestly recovered in our latest survey.

CRU analysts discuss how downward pressure on the US premium has persisted due to weakness in key consuming sectors, while concerns over zinc supply have been largely alleviated for the time being.

A short tour of key dates in the Nippon/USS deal, and what the future might hold.

We’re just 88 days out from North America’s largest gathering of the flat-rolled steel industry.

Mill lead times shrunk this week for all of the sheet products tracked by SMU and held steady on plate, according to buyers responding to our latest market survey.

Most of the surveyed US and Canadian metalforming manufacturers expect general economic activity to remain steady over the next three months.

“Unless the administration actually gets serious about levelling the playing field… for consumers of steel, then everything they've done on the steel side is useless."

Domestic hot-rolled coil prices moved lower again, maintaining the downward move seen in eight of the last 10 weeks.

Most steel buyers responding to our latest market survey report that domestic mills are willing to talk price to secure new orders. Mill negotiability has continued to rise across all sheet and plate products we track, now at some of the highest levels recorded since late 2024.

SunCoke Energy has purchased Phoenix Global, a metals and mining services company, for $325 million.

The US mills have managed to reduce pig iron prices to correspond with the sharp declines in domestic scrap prices in May.

I sort of expected big news last Friday and over the long, Memorial Day weekend. Because that's become more the norm than the exception for steel this year. Sure enough, Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday afternoon that he had given his blessing to a “partnership” between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel. And then over the weekend we had market moving new on tariffs, this time involving the EU.

Total US mill output rebounded last week to the highest rate recorded since last September, according to raw production figures released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

Sheet and plate prices marginally declined again this week for the second consecutive week, pausing the strong downward trend seen from April through early May.

Oil and gas drilling activity declined in both the US and Canada this week, according to Baker Hughes.

We're going to have to wait a bit longer for the final outcome of the Nippon/USS deal.

Steel Market Update will be taking time off in observance of Memorial Day.

Global raw steel production dipped from March to April, according to the latest release from the World Steel Association.

Here are highlights of what’s happened and a few things to keep an eye on this upcoming week.

According to our latest analysis, prices for four of the seven steelmaking raw materials we track increased from April to May. However, select materials saw a collective 1% decline month over month and are down 4% compared to three months ago.

Metallus shuffles the management deck with new appointments.

One cause of this was increased competitiveness from imports that have put pressure on some domestic producers.