A little more than two weeks have passed since Steel Market Update adjusted our forward looking Price Momentum Indicator from “Lower” to “Neutral.” Looking back on the historical trend for flat rolled steel Price Momentum you have to go back a year before you would see our Price Momentum Indicator pointing toward “Higher” flat rolled […]
For those of you who are interested the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) shipment and inventory data is scheduled to be released tomorrow (Wednesday). We will have a full report for our Executive members in Thursday’s issue and our Apparent Excess and Price Forecast and another more detailed report for our Premium level members later […]
This past week Steel Market Update publisher, John Packard, spoke to the financial community about the flat rolled steel industry. Most of the questions received during the Cowen & Company conference call were associated with demand for steel products. Since SMU just concluded our early April flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) late last week, […]
According to Baker Hughes data from April 2nd, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 988 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back in late-August 2009 at 968 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 40 rigs when […]
Below is the latest data issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through February 2015. 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 2015 increased 5.4 percent, […]
During my conference call with Cowen & Company and their customers last week I mentioned that I thought we could see a domestic mill price increase by the middle of May. My reasoning is inventories should begin to drop at the service center level and many of the end users want to tie up steel […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has two Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices, current and future. We normally concentrate our initial comments on the current index, how buyers and sellers of steel feel about business conditions and their company’s ability to be successful in the current market. However, today and going forward, we will begin focusing on how […]
This week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early April flat rolled steel market survey. Based on the results of our inquiries we learned that domestic mill lead times continue to be quite short and well below the lead times seen one year ago. However, when looking at last year’s lead times, we must remember […]
According to our survey respondents not much has changed when it comes to how willing steel mills are to negotiate hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steel pricing. Lead times continue to remain short and order books weak. This has created a situation whereby steel mills have to be competitively priced in order to […]
The Dodge Momentum Index, an initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning, slid 2.1 percent to 122.3 in March. The initial reports for project planning lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. In general, the trend has been upward for the past 12 months. The index has gained 12 percent in the first […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 33rd week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
We have an article in tonight’s Steel Market Update about a service center which installed a new piece of processing equipment. Earlier today we posted on our website blog an article about Olympic Steel naming Andrew Wolfort general manager of their Schaumburg plant. We are interested in keeping the industry informed of these kinds of […]
According to Baker Hughes data from April 2nd, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,028 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 20 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 11 to 802 rigs, gas rigs down 11 to 222 rigs, and […]
SurveyMonkey.com handles our flat rolled steel market analysis (surveys) and sends out invitations twice per month. They have made some changes to the way they send out the surveys and the way you access the questionnaire. If you normally get a invitation and have not seen it please check your SPAM folder as it is […]
The final sales tally for US automakers in March was 1,537,820 units according to WardsAuto data, just above the forecast of 1.52 million and exceeding 1.252 million units in February. The increase pushed the SAAR for 2015 to 17.05 million. Fiat Chrysler sales rose in March but Ford and General Motors failed to surpass year […]
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for January showed home price growth slowing from year ago levels. The National Home Price Index registered a 4.5 percent annual gain for the 12 months ending in January 2015 as compared to a 10.5 percent increase in January 2014. Month over month gains for the 10- and 20-city indexes […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 32nd week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. February data was released on April 1st. Construction Put in Place is based on spending work as it occurs, estimated for a given month from a sample of projects. In effect […]
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 […]
A reminder to our readers that we will not be publishing our Steel Market Update newsletter on Sunday due to the Easter Holiday. We will go back to our normal publishing schedule on Tuesday, April 7th. Our offices will be open on Friday and Monday and we can be reached at: 800-432-3475 or by email: […]
A note to those interested in attending our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop in May. The workshop is about 50 percent fully registered at this time. The location is Merriville, Indiana just outside of Chicago. Our mill tour will be of the NLMK Indiana electric arc furnace (EAF) plant which […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 27th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,048 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 21 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 12 to 813 rigs, gas rigs down 9 to 233 rigs, and […]
This will be an interesting week as we watch to see how the negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their suppliers end. Expectations are mixed. Late last week we received a note from one of the larger scrap companies in the U.S. They told us, “Generally speaking, obsolete scrap flows have remained tepid in […]
Earlier today, Steel Market Update adjusted our SMU Price Momentum Indicator from “Lower” to “Neutral.” Since November 16, 2014 the SMU Price Momentum Indicator has been pointing toward “Lower” steel prices. Prior to November 16th we had a period of time where our Momentum Indicator vacillated between Neutral and Lower going back to May 2014. […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 31st week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
So, why haven’t we released our program for the upcoming Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta on September 1 & 2, 2015? Well, we are waiting until we have all of our keynote speakers confirmed and committed. We believe we will have an exceptional program once again this year. As we have in the past, our […]
On a seasonally adjusted annual rate, light vehicle sales weakened in February to 16.2 million units, down from 16.7 million units in January but still up by 5.2 percent from February last year. The probable cause was inclement weather at the end of the month. Analysts had been expecting sales at a 16.7 million annual […]
Sales rose for both existing and new homes in February. However, buyers are facing availability issues and escalating pricing. The National Association of Realtors reported existing home sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million in February from 4.82 million in January. Sales were 4.7 percent higher than a year ago. Tight […]
Last week a number of the large Chinese steel mills who have offices in the United States met to discuss the pressures being placed on the Chinese mills by both the Chinese central government and the U.S. government to control (reduce) the amount of steel being exported to the United States. SMU heard over the […]
One of the most import keys being watched by buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are the steel mill lead times on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products. Lead times, which are the amount of time it takes to get material produced once a purchase order is placed, have been running “short” […]