The question being asked is once the sale of the ThyssenKrupp Steel USA plant in Calvert, Alabama is closed and ownership transfers to the ArcelorMittal (AM) and Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metals Corporation (NSSMC) joint venture what impact will it have on the flat rolled steel markets? My opinion is the immediate impact will mostly be […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained positive this week for the 7th week in a row after 4 consecutive weeks of being in negative territory. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12-week average spot price […]
For those of you who logged into the website and read the newsletter online – you will already know that our SMU Price Ranges & Indices article has an interactive graphic at the end of the article. Those of you reading the newsletter in your inbox will not be able to see or interact with […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to be firm to strengthening according to the steel indices followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled coil hovered around $670 per ton on all the indexes with the exception of Platts which moved their number up $5 per ton to $680 per ton. Steel Orbis did not see […]
Steel Market Update will publish our second Premium Supplement Newsletter on Monday. Included will be our SMU Key Market Indicators and forecast, September imports by product, port and country and articles related to our most recent steel market analysis not available elsewhere. If you are interested in upgrading one of your memberships to the Premium […]
Last week I discussed how Steel Mills calculate thickness and width extras. This week we will look at Mill coating extras for Galvanized and Galvalume coated steel coil. I am going to refer again to US Steel’s published list of price extras which you can find on their website. Other mills tend to have similar […]
The total number of Key Market Indicators considered at present is thirty six. The present situation of eleven of the indicators based on historical standards was positive on November 21st the same as on October 31st but there were two changes. We changed the situation of demand for commercial and industrial bank loans from green […]
Lead times shrunk on three of the four flat rolled products followed by Steel Market Update. We saw hot rolled lead times fall back to 4.0 weeks from 4.36 weeks reported at the beginning of November. We also saw cold rolled lead times retreat to 6.0 weeks from 6.39 weeks and Galvalume shrunk to 6.22 […]
I appreciate all of you who took the time to respond to my question regarding CRU and our continuing to publish CRU numbers in our CPI (Comparison Price Indices). There were enough respondents who wanted us to continue so we have bit the bullet and renewed our relationship with CRU for another year. The majority […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel products continue to be optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market environment, however at lower levels than what we had been seeing over the past few months. The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index was measured this week at +33 down […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained positive this week for the 6th week in a row after 4 consecutive weeks of being in negative territory. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12-week average spot price […]
Based on Steel Market Update proprietary analysis of the recently released MSCI shipment and inventory data, we have determined that the Apparent Deficit of flat rolled steel for October now totals 361,000 tons. This is a reduction of 21,000 tons compared to the end of September. At the end of October 2012, service centers had […]
I have a question for our members – I have just received the new bill for what it will cost me to publish the CRU indices in our Sunday night comparison of various indexes. Before I agree to pay what I believe to be an excessive amount for the right to publish their numbers I […]
We saw all of the indices capturing higher flat rolled steel prices this past week. Benchmark hot rolled range from $665 to a high of $675 per ton as price assessments rose from $5 to $15 per ton compared to the prior week. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator continues to point toward higher prices over […]
We have had a number of inquiries (and a couple of payments) from our existing members wanting to upgrade to Premium Level. If this is something you are considering please contact our office. If you are a single member we will prorate from your existing membership. If you are a corporate member pricing will depend […]
Light vehicle (autos + light trucks) production surged in October, up 13.5 percent, the rolling 3 months production was up by 13.1 percent. Year over year production was up by 8.3 percent in total and the Detroit 3 made up some ground being up 10.1 percent. Light vehicle production has now exceeded the pre-recession level […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained positive this week for the fifth week in a row after four consecutive weeks of being in negative territory. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12-week average spot price as […]
We are working into the night to get all of our existing members into the new website. Transition is always a fun project and our company has grown over the past 5+ years. So, this project has been a real challenge for us to complete. There are bound to be bugs in the system. Sometimes […]
As of 8 PM ET on Tuesday evening – here is where we are regarding the launch of our new website. We are integrating the PayPal system into the new site and the design team is reworking the Events section and the way we will take payments for our workshops, conferences, etc. These last two items […]
All of the indices continue to show strength at the domestic steel mills as prices remained relatively steady to rising this past week. Even with the minor drop in hot rolled and galvanized by our own index which we attribute to just the way the data fell this past week. Steel Market Update continues to […]
Service centers are attempting to collect higher flat rolled spot steel prices from their end user customers and each other. Steel Market Update has seen a dramatic rise in the percentage of service centers raising spot prices to their customers during the last 30 days. Based on responses from service centers the percentage of distributors […]
Based on the SMU steel market survey which was concluded this past week, less than 50 percent of 2014 flat rolled steel contracts have been settled. When asked if negotiations with the domestic steel mills had resulted in at least having contract pricing in place for the 1st Quarter 2014, 34 percent of manufacturing companies […]
What a week we have in store for us (and you) this week. John Temples and I will be traveling to a domestic steel mill where we will meet two of our instructors we use for Steel 101 and we will conduct two one-day workshops for approximately 50 people. This is a custom program specifically […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel who participated in our latest review of the steel industry continued to be optimistic regarding their company’s ability to be successful in the current market environment. The latest Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index was measured at +40 during the first full week of November. The […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) concluded our early November research on the flat rolled steel market earlier today. One of the areas we queried was if those responding to our questionnaire believe that the domestic mills will raise flat rolled steel prices within the first two weeks of November. With 72 percent of the respondents responding […]
According to our latest steel market survey results, lead times have begun to move out on all of the flat rolled products scrutinized by Steel Market Update. Hot rolled lead times extended from 4.07 weeks to 4.36 weeks, cold rolled moved from 6.10 weeks to 6.38 weeks, galvanized moved from 6.26 weeks to 6.39 weeks […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained positive this week for the 4th week in a row after 4 consecutive weeks of being in negative territory. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12-week average spot price […]
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We continue to slave away on the combination of our new website as well as the work needed to conclude a special steel training workshop we are doing with a domestic steel mill next week. Our next Steel 101 workshop is available for registration on our existing (and soon new) website or you can contact […]
The Department of Commerce economic data is running late and in the case of CPIP the September data will be released along with October on December 2nd. We now have August data released almost a month late. Normally, this would be a Premium Level analysis only. Since the reports are running behind we decided to […]