Category: SMU

There was consensus that steel prices would crash on the UAW strike and then rebound just as sharply once the union and the “Big Three” automakers reached tentative deals.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including steel prices, demand, inventories, imports, the UAW strike, and what people were talking about in the market.

Sheet prices are getting back into very lofty territory. That’s assuming you can find spot tons available for the balance of 2023 – and some of you say you can’t.

The decline in imports from August to September was more pronounced than license applications suggested earlier this month.

The first rule of Steel 101 is that you’re free to talk about Steel 101. We actually encourage it. Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, SMU’s Steel 101 was held in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

With the aluminum industry assembled in Nashville, Tenn., for the Aluminum USA 2023 conference, word was breaking of a tentative deal between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Ford.

The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members.

I wrote on Sunday that it could be a busy week for steel. It has been.

Mill lead times for flat-rolled products pushed out this week once again across the board.

Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” could be the theme song for the sheet market over the last month. A UAW strike? Shake it off. The lowest ABI since December 2020? Shake it off. A potentially widening conflict in the Middle East? Shake it off. Sheet prices have been rising since late September, and hot-rolled coil […]

South Korea and Brazil will not be maxing out their allowable quotas on hot-rolled sheet shipments to the US for 2023, according to government data analyzed by SMU.

This week could be a big one for steel, or at least for the steel rumor mill. For starters, there is renewed speculation that an announcement about the U.S. Steel sales process could be in the works. The rumor mill is also churning fast when it comes to the duration of the UAW strike and […]

US sheet mills launched a coordinated push to increase sheet prices for the first time since June.

Much effort has been made in examining the supply chain of commodities related to electrification: everything from copper to aluminum to critical battery materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt. One overlooked material, however, is electrical steel.

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) reading from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Deltek showed a decline in September.

If you think prices will continue to rise, you might point to longer lead times and stable order entry.

Global steel demand will reach 1.81 million metric tons in 2023, a 1.8% year-on-year boost, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) said in its updated Short Range Outlook report.

US service center flat-rolled steel inventories declined for a second month as shipping rates picked up in September.

Steel Market Update’s Steel Demand Index remains in contraction territory despite repeated improvements since mid-September, according to our latest survey data.

SMU’s latest survey data are out, and they reflect a consensus among steel buyers that sheet prices have bottomed out and might rebound. Lead times continue to extend. Fewer sheet and plate mills are willing to negotiate lower spot prices. And 70% of survey respondents think prices have already bottomed out or will later this […]

The LME aluminum 3-month price was stable on the morning of Oct. 13, trading at $2,201 per tonne at that time.

The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the Pricing and Analysis tab and look under the “Survey Results” section for “Latest Survey Results.” Historical survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, […]

The pig iron trade is an important element to the US steel and foundry industry.

The sheet market appears poised for a rebound if you’re looking at the indicators we typically track.

This week’s survey showed steel mill lead times extending across all product lines tracked by SMU.

The steel industry has faced intensified volatility in recent years as companies have navigated supply chain disruptions, economic uncertainty, and increasing customer demands.

Sheet prices remain on an upward trend. Many of you expect that to remain the case - assuming that the UAW strike doesn’t drag on much longer.

A service center executive recently told me that the best way to make a fool of yourself was to try to predict what flat-rolled steel prices were going to do. He hadn’t expected that hot-rolled coil prices would rebound from less than $600 per ton ($30 per cwt) for some larger buyers to potentially more […]

A slowdown in US steel imports has yet to be seen, as total import licenses in September were about even with August’s import levels.

The US steel market appears to have gone from despairing over the possibility of spot HRC prices slipping into the $500s per ton to worrying about spot availability – and in just a matter of 2-3 weeks.