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 […]
Steel Market Update nailed (for lack of a better term…) our service center apparent excess shipment forecast which we provided to our Premium level members this past month. Based on an expectation that flat rolled carbon steel shipments would be up by 2 percent over total shipments for December 2013, we predicted shipments would be […]
I was conversing with a consulting friend who reported to me that steel prices are taking a beating in Europe. He referenced hot rolled prices being offered out of Russia into Europe for 365 to 375 euros. He also reported that the sales of the Italian steel mill, ILVA would not succeed and the mill […]
The government of Canada has invoked a rarely used rule under the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act to bar companies from complying with the requirement that only U.S. steel be used in the rebuilding of the Prince Rupert ferry terminal in British Columbia. Funding for updating of the Prince Rupert Ferry Terminal is coming primarily from […]
Timing, determination and a compelling story are critical when it comes to developing new business. As anyone who has ever made a cold call to a new prospect knows, in this age of voice mail and email messaging it can be very difficult to get past the electronic gatekeepers who have replaced, in many cases, […]
I am in Charleston, South Carolina for our Steel 101 workshop. We have a great group here with representatives from manufacturing, service centers, steel mills and the financial community. The employees at Nucor Berkeley were very receptive to our visit. The mill provided a number of metallurgists so we were able to tour the mill […]
The following article is a continuation of our Steel Buyers Basics series written by Mario Briccetti. Mario is Principal of Briccetti & Associates, a Supply Chain consulting firm, and can be reached at Mario@mbriccetti.com. Briccetti wrote the following article as part of our Steel Buyers Basics series of articles, many of which can be found […]
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 October 2014. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for November 2014 increased 3.9 percent, […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 16th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,676 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 74 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 55 to 1,366 rigs, gas rigs down 19 to 310 rigs, […]
While speaking with a couple of the secondary flat rolled steel distributors this past week, we got into a discussion about the advanced high strength steels (AHSS) and what impact they were having on the secondary market. A number of service centers pointed out that the product was fine for flat parts or those with […]
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 21st week in a row and is at the lowest level recorded since mid-October 2012. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of […]
The Dodge Momentum Index, a monthly measure of initial reports for nonresidential building projects in planning, rose 4.0 percent from a revised 123.8 in November to 128.7 in December. The reading is the highest since February 2009 and an increase of 17 percent year over year. “The increases seen in the Index in 2014 are […]
I am looking forward to traveling to South Carolina for our next Steel 101 workshop which is at the beginning of next week. I would like to recognize and thank Nucor and their Berkeley facility for allowing us to tour their flat rolled (sheet) and beam mills. This is the first time I personally will […]
.One of the subjects of conversation I had with a number of buyers is what do the domestic steel mills need to do to break the foreign import cycle? There are some who believe that the steel mills will be best served by letting the prices drift down to the point where the spread between […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 9th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,750 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 61 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 61 to 1,421 rigs, gas rigs up 1 to 329 rigs, […]
I thought the “Letter to the Editor” which we shared earlier in this issue was quite telling. The New Year is shaping up to be different than the past couple of years. With the drop in input costs and the weak global steel market (and strong U.S. dollar) 2015 could end up being a very […]
The first measurement of our Steel Buyers Sentiment Index in the New Year provided us some mixed results. Current Sentiment, which is how steel buyers and sellers feel about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market environment, was measured at +54. This is well within the optimistic range of our Index but […]
Domestic steel mill lead times continue to slide (shrink) on all flat rolled products with the exception of Galvalume. Based on the results of this weeks flat rolled steel market analysis, hot rolled lead times averaged 3.19 weeks, down one half a week compared to the beginning of December and one week shorter than what […]
The previous article about steel mill lead times being one week shorter than what we saw one year ago set the stage for what we are seeing when it comes to mill negotiations. Our survey respondents almost unanimously reported the domestic mills as willing to negotiate pricing on all flat rolled products. We had 97 […]
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 20th week in a row and is at the lowest level recorded since mid-March 2014. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of […]
Steel buyers seem to be unanimous in their opinion of the current steel environment which I heard countless times today termed as “crazy.” Hot rolled buyers are telling SMU that the offers are starting in the $560-$580 range with the caveat “let’s talk” should the buyer actually have some decent tonnage to place. We have […]
US automotive sales were positive across the board in December. Total sales for 2014 showed a vigorous auto industry aided by low gas prices, a recovering economy and higher employment. Total sales were reported to be 16,522,000 light vehicles. In the Big Three Detroit manufacturers, General Motors was up 19.3 percent in December and Fiat […]