The Nexteer Automotive strike was called off after just one day. A second tentative agreement was reached on Tuesday night, Dec. 8 and workers at UAW Local 699 were told to resume their scheduled shifts. The first tentative contract was rejected by an overwhelming majority of workers at the company which produces steering and driveline […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price MoMo Index for hot rolled steel in the United States was negative (indicating lower prices) for the 17th consecutive week. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current U.S. hot rolled coil (HRC) price movements against the previous 12-week average spot price […]
I expect the other domestic mills to go along with price increases of their own – whether they choose to announce the move may depend on what they feel is in their best interest. I would anticipate that Nucor will come out with their own announcement. US Steel and ArcelorMittal are in the process of […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been analyzing service center spot pricing based on reports from manufacturing and distribution respondents to our flat rolled steel market questionnaire. SMU canvassed the market last week and we believe that the results suggests an uptick in spot pricing will come soon. Manufacturing companies responding to our survey had 90 […]
The following article was written by Mario Briccetti of Briccetti & Associates, a Supply Chain consulting firm, and is also one of our instructors for Steel 101 as well as our Sales Training Workshop. Recently, in my series of articles, I have written about the coating cost of galvanized and Galvalume on flat rolled steel. […]
The Dodge Momentum Index dropped 3.7 percent to 119.9 in the November report from Dodge Data and Analytics. The index spiked in July and September but lost construction planning momentum in October and November. The index is now more consistent with the “gentle upward trend in planning activity that began in 2012” says Dodge. Commercial […]
A strike is in effect for 3,200 UAW workers at Nexteer Automotive after 97 percent of the membership voted against a tentative agreement on Sunday. The union and Nexteer exchanged proposals on Monday but could not come to a compromise before the 11:59 p.m. deadline. Nexteer expressed frustration over the decision to strike after negotiating […]
I will have a detailed report regarding the HARDI annual conference in Thursday evening’s issue. However, the news is good for those involved in the construction industries with Alan Beaulieu, Chief Economist for HARDI and co-founder of the Institute for Trend Research, proclaiming 2016 will be better than 2015 and 2017 will be even better […]
On Friday of this past week Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Lower to Neutral. This move is being made as we are seeing more evidence of the domestic steel mills taking a stand and either raising spot prices (especially on coated steels) or refusing to go any lower. As one […]
This morning, Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Lower to Neutral. This move is being made as we are seeing more evidence of the domestic steel mills taking a stand and either raising spot prices (especially on coated steels) or are refusing to go any lower. As one steel buyer put […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. October data was released on Tuesday December 1st. Construction Put in Place is based on spending work as it occurs, estimated for a given month from a sample of projects. In […]
I am in Orlando attending the HARDI annual conference. I will be addressing their sheet metal committee a little later in the week. Also here is Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trend Research (ITR). I look forward to hearing Alan speak both here and at the end of August 2016 when he will once […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index continued its long slide as buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are less optimistic this week regarding their company’s ability to be successful both in the existing (Current) market as well as three to six months into the future (Future). Respondents to our queries regarding Sentiment […]
The following lead times are averages generated out of the flat rolled steel market analysis we conducted beginning on Monday of this week. Actual mill lead times will vary from mill to mill and we always recommend that buyers speak to their mill representatives in order to obtain the most up to date lead times […]
Much like lead times, domestic mill spot price negotiations have been mired in the muck and not able to get any momentum going back to the spring of this year. Those responding to this week’s flat rolled steel market analysis are almost unanimous in their description of the willingness of the domestic mills to discuss […]
U.S. auto sales reached 1.32 million vehicles in November, a 1.4 percent increase. The seasonally adjusted annual rate according to WardsAuto, was 18.12 million vehicles, the third consecutive month above a SAAR of 18 million units. WardsAuto estimates that December sales will have to reach 1.7 million units to get a fourth consecutive month at […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price MoMo Index for hot rolled steel in the United States was negative (indicating lower prices) for the 17th consecutive week. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current U.S. hot rolled coil (HRC) price movements against the previous 12-week average spot price […]
Tonight I thought I would present a question posed to me within the past couple of days and ask for your input in answering the question. How would you respond to this? Has the steel industry in the US stopped following laws of economics or are we living the great delusion of “ok” demand? Consider […]
The month of November saw a continuation of lower flat rolled steel prices, Momentum and Sentiment as buyers and sellers struggle to find a bottom to what has become an extended slide going back to May 2015. November benchmark hot rolled prices (SMU average) Dropped $15 per ton during the course of the month and […]
As part of your Premium level service, Steel Market Update (SMU) analyzes the service center shipment and inventory data and provides a short term forecast for carbon flat rolled steel shipments, inventories and how they will impact pricing over the next four months. This is done through a proprietary model and the results provided are […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in this analysis is currently 36. Please refer to Table 1 for the view of the present situation and the quantitative measure of trends. Readers should […]
I thought it would be nice to send out our Premium newsletter to all of our readers today since we did not publish over the weekend due to the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the United States. We are conducting our early December flat rolled steel market analysis this week. This means those who participate in […]
For our U.S. customers, welcome back from the Thanksgiving Holiday. We are a little more than three weeks from our next break for the Christmas and New Year Holidays. Then we plow into 2016 and my gut tells me by then things may begin to change. We still have our SMU Price Momentum Indicator pointing […]
In October, vehicle sales had another small gain from September’s post-recession high of almost 18.2 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. This followed the August rate of 17.8 million units. Both at the time were the best pace since July 2005, when incentives caused sales to surge. Sales in October were 10 percent […]
Existing home sales fell 3.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. The decline followed a spurt in sales to a rate of 5.55 million in September. Home sales were up 3.9 percent on a year over year basis and are expected to […]
Tonight’s issue should have plenty of “meat on the bone” for everyone to read and re-read over the Thanksgiving Holidays. Due to the Holidays we will not publish our Thursday and Sunday evening issues. Our next full issue will be Tuesday, December 1st. However, as always, if news breaks that we feel needs your attention […]
Last week Steel Market Update conducted our mid-November flat rolled steel market analysis. We invited slightly less than 600 individuals representing more than 550 companies to participate. Of those responding 44 percent were connected to manufacturing companies, 41 percent with service centers/wholesalers, 7 percent with trading companies, 4 percent with steel mills, 3 percent with […]
It used to be that labor unions fought to keep automobile production in the United States. Soon, the biggest “domestic” auto makers will be companies like Honda and Toyota as two of the Big 3 head to Mexico. The UAW labor negotiations concluded Friday with the ratification of agreements with Ford and GM. Part of […]
The UAW announced on Friday the ratification of new four-year agreements with both GM and Ford. The GM contract ratification was on hold after the skilled trade membership voted against the tentative agreement despite an overall majority vote for the agreement. Discussions with GM regarding concerns of the skilled trades membership resulted in changes that […]
This week is Thanksgiving (Thursday) and we are one month away from the Christmas Holidays as well. Here is what our publishing schedule will look like over the next five weeks or so. We will publish on Tuesday of this week and then we will not publish again until the following Tuesday, December 1st. We […]