We have been advised by our developers that they think they have solved the mobile issues which were impacting our members ability to read the newsletter on their smart phones. I personally have an iPhone and was having problems reading the newsletter (image was being cut off). As of yesterday this was rectified – although […]
In the steel business and particularly in the painted steel business, a fair amount of non-prime or secondary flat rolled sheet and coil product is produced. Non-prime painted steel is generated either because the steel substrate is substandard or because there is a problem in the painting process. A small sample of steel problems are: […]
Genzink Steel, located in Holland, Mich., has promoted John Maxson to chief executive officer. Maxson has served as chief operating officer of the Genzink family-owned company for the past ten years. The announcement was made by Board Chairman Ken Genzink, son of founder Donald Genzink. Maxson said the company will focus on developing more rigorous […]
We are finally back to a full “normal” week and we should be able to gather much better market intelligence as we begin our next flat rolled market analysis with our survey invitations going out at 8 AM ET on Monday morning. Most buyers should be back in their offices on Monday so we anticipate […]
The Commerce Department compiles their information based on the source of financing. These categories are, private, state + local and federal. There are a huge number of sub categories in the private and state + local construction expenditure categories, not so many in federal where expenditures are minimal. At Steel Market Update we combine these […]
SMU Price Momentum Indicator ended the month of December where it began, indicating higher flat rolled steel prices over the next 30 days. The domestic steel mills did not disappoint as they raised base price levels to $35.00/cwt on hot rolled and $40.50/cwt on cold rolled and coated (plus extras, FOB mill) for the mills […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained positive this week for the 12th 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 (HRC) price weighed against the previous 12-week average spot […]
Happy New Year to our members and those viewing our steel industry newsletter for the first time. We wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. We are quite bullish on the North American flat rolled steel industry for the first six months of 2014. Not every segment is clicking on all cylinders – […]
This past week we saw little movement in pricing on most flat rolled steel products due to the Holidays and a general lack of new orders flowing through the system. Benchmark hot rolled is in a fairly tight range at $667 on the low side (CRU) to $675 on the high side (Platts/Steelbenchmarker). The hot […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained positive this week for the 11th 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 (HRC) price weighed against the previous 12-week average spot […]
Just like in steel, paint companies and coil coaters work best with customers with whom they have a relationship, companies who clearly understand their needs and are consistent in their tonnages as well as the way they conduct their business. In order to establish this kind of a relationship a buyer should understand the […]
Although Steel Market Update, Inc. is only “officially” 5.5 years old we are actually moving into our 9th year of publishing when the calendar changes to 2014. The first 2.5 years of continuous publication came during my tenure as an agent for Winner Steel along with my association with a couple of trading companies during […]
On Monday, December 16th we began collecting data for our last Steel Market Update flat rolled steel market analysis. The way the system works is over the years Steel Market Update (SMU) has vetted a number of companies (many of whom John Packard did business with in the past). Our current list has approximately 600 […]
Finally the first data on housing starts since August! Total starts in November shot up to 1,091,000, (annualized), the highest since February 2008. Both single and multi family starts were the strongest since H1 2008. The three month moving average of starts was also very encouraging. At the present rate of increase, single family could […]
Manufacturing companies are beginning to report a fracture within the service center ranks. In our latest steel market analysis conducted last week, 12 percent of the manufacturers reported decreasing spot flat rolled prices from their service center suppliers. This is up from 4 percent measured at the beginning of December which was up from zero […]
Last week Steel Market Update invited approximately 600 companies to participate in our mid-December 2013 flat rolled steel market survey. Of the companies responding this past week, 49 percent were manufacturing companies, 39 percent were service centers/wholesalers, 4 percent trading companies, 3 percent steel mills, 3 percent toll processors and 2 percent suppliers to the […]
Steel Market Update continues to expand and one of the areas we are looking to expand into is the world of plate. As we enter the New Year we will begin indexing discreet plate pricing as we do hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. We also are changing our CPI (Comparison Price Indices) […]
Of the three main ways of procuring prepainted flat rolled steel described in my last article, buying from a service center is the simplest. Service Centers will quote a price that can be compared apples to apples against one other. In addition a good Service Center can consult on the correct specifications and will also […]
We will slowly begin adding plate articles and pricing commentary to our Executive Newsletter as we enter the new year. We believe this is a natural product for us to follow. If you company is a buyer of plate and you would like to help contribute to our knowledge base we would greatly appreciate it. […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index was reported this week to be +37 which is 2 points lower than our last reading made during the first week of December. Nonetheless, SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment is well within the optimistic range of our index where it has been for 24 consecutive months. Sentiment […]
Lead times continue to be longer than normal with hot rolled averaging more than 4 weeks (4.23 weeks), cold rolled exceeding 6 weeks (6.04 weeks), galvanized at 6.51 weeks and Galvalume averaging 6.83 weeks. All of the flat rolled steel lead times measured this week are extended compared to last year during the middle of […]
In a rolling 12 months through November, light vehicle production (automotive) in NAFTA reached 16,093,000 units, a level not seen since May 2003. In three months through November production was up by 9.4 percent year over year. Light trucks, which include crossovers, are surging faster than cars, the year over year growth rates were 15.4 […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained positive this week for the 10th 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 (HRC) price weighed against the previous 12-week average spot […]
A note about our Steel Market Update newsletter publication schedule for the remainder of the year and into the first few days of 2014. Our Executive Newsletter (this one) will be published on Sunday, December 22nd and then we won’t publish again until Sunday, December 29th. This can change based on what is happening in […]
Steel Market Update continues to enhance our proprietary service center inventory model which we call SMU Apparent Excess/Deficit. We are now forecasting service center inventories using our model and, for that reason, in the future we will move this data into the Premium Level within our website. Using our model shipments, shipments were up year-over-year […]
Detroit automaker GM and Ford are going into an expansion mode that will add nearly 6000 new US auto industry jobs in 2014. GM plans to invest $1.3 billion at five US plants in 2014 that will create or retain about 1000 jobs said retiring GM CEO Dan Akerson in his remarks on Monday to […]
For those of you going to New York City for the AHR Expo – I will be attending on Tuesday, January 21st and Wednesday, January 22nd. If you would like to meet with me while I am in New York, please shoot me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and I will do my best to work you […]
The spread between the various indices followed by Steel Market Update narrowed this past week with only $5 separating the indexes on benchmark hot rolled coil pricing. Platts dropped $5 per ton and met Steel Market Update at $675 per ton while all of the other indices came in at $670 per ton. Cold rolled […]
In recent years coil coated painted steel (where a full coil of steel is painted on a continuous coil coating line) has been replacing post-painted steel (where steel parts formed bare are then painted one-by-one). It seems unlikely at first glance that painted coil coated steel can been formed into finished parts (like roof panels […]
The marketplace is buzzing as to why the mills east of the Rockies have not yet made a price increase announcement. Someone mentioned to me last week that ArcelorMittal could not push prices higher without attracting attention to themselves due to the announced purchase of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA. AM does not want to be accused […]