I have been speaking with a number of service centers involved in the secondary side of the steel industry. Although early in my investigation, I am learning that no one really knows how the huge drop in scrap prices will ultimately affect the secondary markets. Usually there is a relationship between secondary steel prices and […]
In Thursday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update we advised that our SMU Pricing Momentum Indicator continues to point to lower steel pricing over the next 30 days. One of our service center readers pointed out two reasons why he believes pricing will move lower when he wrote us, “Prices here are falling due to […]
I remember one time I became so irate with a customer that I literally was standing on my desk and screaming at him on the phone. It may have made me feel better for a couple of minutes but it didn’t do much to enhance the customer’s experience with the company I represented. Nor did […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 6th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,456 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 87 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 83 to 1,140 rigs, gas rigs down 5 to 314 rigs, […]
Just a quick note to let everyone know I will be in Tampa later this week for the Port of Tampa Steel Conference. I will be reporting on what I learned in Thursday evening’s edition of Steel Market Update. I want to take a moment to welcome our newest members and to remind them that […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are less optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market conditions than what we saw just two weeks ago. The buyers and sellers who participated in this week’s flat rolled steel market analysis reported concerns regarding falling steel prices, bloated inventories and shrinking margins. […]
Flat rolled steel mills saw their lead times shorten according to the buyers and sellers of steel responding to this week’s market analysis. Weakening lead times are one of the keys which is impacting flat rolled and scrap prices – both down big over the past few weeks. Hot rolled lead times average 2.79 weeks, […]
It doesn’t get any clearer than this. Based on the results of the respondents to this week’s flat rolled market questionnaire, the domestic steel mills are willing to negotiate pricing on all flat rolled products: hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume (zinc-aluminum). Hot rolled came in with 95 percent of our respondents reporting the […]
Earlier this week Steel Market Update suggested that perhaps we are getting close to that time when it is necessary to have a dialogue/debate as to when and at what level will flat rolled steel prices bottom. As of Tuesday of this week, Steel Market Update range for benchmark hot rolled coil was $520 to […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. indicates hot rolled coil price momentum continued its downward trend for the 24th 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 movements against the […]
For some reason, we made an error when setting up this newsletter yesterday evening that stopped it from being published. We apologize for the delay in getting it to you. Earlier this week ferrous scrap pricing in Detroit settled at down $100 per gross ton on prime grades of scrap such as #1 busheling and […]
The following article is normally produced just for our Premium level members. We are sharing the information today with all of our readers. The article is written by Peter Wright, consultant to Steel Market Update, Gerdau and the State of Wyoming. Peter, who is a metallurgist as well as market specialist, is also one of […]
January auto sales set monthly records for automotive manufacturers. The Detroit big three made double digit gains for the month as did the top three Japanese manufacturers. Light trucks and SUVs led the stellar sales for the month. Ford’s F-series pickup had the best January sales volume since 2004. A CNBC analyst said, “F-150 has […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) ferrous scrap sources are advising us that the scrap market pricing have not settled yet. It seems that every periodical wants to fan the flames of scrap price collapsing (and we do our share as well I suppose) before the final numbers are locked in. Keep that in mind when evaluating […]
SMU Price Momentum Indicator has been stuck pointing lower for a number of months, ended the month of January as it did at the end of November and December. We saw SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index improve by +1 point in January over the month of December. However, when looking at Sentiment based on a […]
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 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 30th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,543 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 90 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 94 to 1,223 rigs, gas rigs up 3 to 319 rigs, […]
It is Super Bowl Sunday in America and not many eyes will be focused on our newsletter until sometime on Monday morning. Like you, we at Steel Market Update are watching the game, and perhaps more importantly the commercials (and the halftime show…). Congratulations to the New England Patriots for winning the game and to […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. indicates hot rolled coil price momentum continued its downward trend for the 23rd week in a row and is at the lowest level recorded since May 2011. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of […]
From time to time you might find that our emailed newsletter gets put into your SPAM folder or even blocked within your system. Many SPAM programs look for key words such as the word used when you borrow funds to acquire a home (starts with an “m”). Another word that can fire up the SPAM […]
In another article in tonight’s newsletter we report on the production statistics based on AISI data. Essentially, production is up a couple of percent while at the same time, in another article, we report on foreign steel imports which are up 38 percent. I don’t know if the domestic steel mills will file dumping suits […]
One of the questions asked during last week’s Steel Market Update (SMU) flat rolled steel market survey was, where do you think benchmark hot rolled prices will bottom in the current cycle? Last week HRC average was $570 per ton (survey began before our index average adjusted to $560 per ton). The responses ranged from […]
The following article is part of our “Truth About Selling Steel” series and was written by John Packard, Founder and Publisher of Steel Market Update. Prior to founding SMU Packard sold flat rolled steel for 31 years: When I look back at my 31 year career selling flat rolled steel around North and South America, […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 23rd, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,633 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 43 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 49 to 1,317 rigs, gas rigs up 6 to 316 rigs, […]
First, a correction or clarification from an article done last week about US Steel idling one of their tin plate mills. We understand that USS has tin mill operations in Gary as part of the Gary Works, they also have a plant in Portage, IN which is part of the old National Steel facility and […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to be optimistic about their company’s chances of being successful in both the current market conditions as well as three to six months into the future. However, there have been some clouds building as our 3MMA has been trending lower over the past four months. We have […]
According to the respondents to this week’s flat rolled steel market survey, the domestic steel mills are willing to negotiate prices on new orders for all flat rolled steel products. As you can see by the graphic below, ever since the beginning of the 4th Quarter 2014 the domestic steel mills have been willing to […]
Domestic flat rolled steel mill lead times continued to shrink based on the responses received in our most recent steel market survey. Steel Market Update conducted our mid-January flat rolled steel market analysis this week. We invited over 600 companies to participate in the survey and, based on the average of the responses received, lead […]
Starts in December rose to an annual rate 1,089,000 from 1,043,000 in November. The three month moving average, (3MMA) rose to 1,075,000, (Figure 1). This was the fourth consecutive month that the 3MMA of starts exceeded a million units. The year / year growth rate of the 3MMA of total starts in December was 4.8 […]
December was another strong month for light vehicle sales at 16.9 million units and following the very strong November result of 17.2 million units (annualized). This was the second best result since August. In 2014 as a whole sales were 16.5 million units, up from 15.6 million in 2013 and the best sales result since […]