US heating and cooling equipment shipments were up for the second straight month in March, according to the most recent data released from the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI). Total shipments in March were 2.03 million units, compared to 1.69 million units in February. While shipments were up month over month (MoM), they were down […]
Steel mill lead times continue to decline for hot rolled, galvanized, and Galvalume products, while cold rolled and plate ticked up slightly, according to SMU’s latest steel market survey data. Lead times took a downard turn in mid-April after climbing for nearly five months. SMU’s hot-rolled lead time is 4 to 8 weeks with an average of […]
I wrote on Tuesday that we’ve been seeing hot-rolled coil prices fall approximately $20-25 per ton per week since last month. I’ve heard anecdotally from some of you that those declines are accelerating, and that they’ll only pick up speed as more mills open July books. Others say that HRC prices could prove stickier than […]
Steel sheet buyers find mills more willing to negotiate lower spot pricing now than at any time since late November, according to SMU data. All the sheet products SMU tracks saw mills more willing to talk price this week. Plate bucked that trend. Every two weeks, SMU asks steel buyers whether domestic mills are willing to negotiate […]
A much-anticipated bleeding in US flat-rolled steel prices has begun. On the hot-rolled coil side, we’ve been losing approximately $20-25 per ton per week since mid-April. That’s a boo-boo. Steel might need a Band-Aid. Does it become a wound that needs a tourniquet? I ask that question because the high end of our HRC price […]
The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) declined for the second month in a row in April as office, hotel, and retail planning activity showed weakness, the latest data from the Dodge Construction Network (DCN) shows. The reading is at its lowest level in eight months. April’s DMI declined 5.1% to 180.9 from the revised March reading […]
The 21st century has shown technology transforming the auto industry. From hybrids to pure electric vehicles, even to hydrogen, popping the hood these days can be more microchip than sparkplug. Beyond that, there’s the interplay with AI. Think self-driving cars. One thing our current technology can’t do, though, (yet) is build the cars itself. That […]
First, the important stuff: May the fourth be with you! Second, steel market participants tell us that several domestic mills have become significantly more aggressive on prices of late. I’m not sure of a Star Wars analogy for that. Prices being slashed with light sabers? I’m open to suggestions. Let’s say it takes tens of […]
Our hot-rolled coil price slipped modestly again this week. That wasn’t a surprise given the trends we’ve outlined in our newsletters over the last few weeks – shorter lead times, increased domestic output, and mills more willing to negotiate lower prices. Declines often aren’t modest for long. Could we see bigger drops in two weeks […]
Automaker Stellantis, Chrysler’s European parent company, and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union are at odds over a proposed worker buyout program. “In response to today’s increasingly competitive global market conditions and the necessary shift to electrification, Stellantis is thoroughly reviewing its North American operations to improve efficiency, reduce cost, and protect the competitiveness of our […]
Feelings are running high with prices inflecting downward from historically high levels. I’ve had producers say that we’ve written too negatively about higher prices. I’ve also had consumers say that we’ve written too positively about higher prices. For the record: SMU doesn’t have a position on prices. We aim to report what’s happening in the market […]
The NexGen Metals Community held its first webinar on Wednesday, featuring special guest Philip K. Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association. The webinars provide an opportunity for NexGen members to get up close and personal with some well-known, highly experienced individuals in the steel industry. Bell generously shared 45 minutes of his time with […]
Sheet prices are coming down now. The question isn’t one about market direction anymore. Instead, the question is whether the declines will be “managed” by a more consolidated group of sheet mills or whether it will be more precipitous, akin to what we saw last fall. We won’t release full results of our steel market […]
We’ve written in SMU about “green” steel and whether steel consumers, including market-leading OEMs, will pay a premium for it. What about the potential for premiums in scrap too? Maybe not for green scrap. But what about for “prime grade” or prime-equivalent shredded scrap? Shred that transforms into prime – maybe we could call it […]
As the ISRI Convention and Expo this week in Nashville, Tenn., comes to a close, I’m sure everyone’s mind is on recycling. While green steel and sustainability have been buzzwords for some time now, evidence of change is growing. You may recall the announcement of an alliance between US Steel, Equinor, and Shell to establish a […]
Has the domestic hot band pricing rally run its course? Data and market sentiment seem to suggest as much, and prices could indeed be heading down. Hot-rolled coil just slipped for the first time since late November, according to SMU’s latest check of the market. I’m certainly not willing to speculate what will happen next, […]
Flat Rolled = 52.7 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 41.0 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled US service center flat-rolled steel inventories rose in March with a slowing daily shipping rate. At the end of March, service centers carried 52.7 shipping days of flat-rolled steel supply, according to SMU data, compared to 52.2 shipping […]
Not since World War II has North America been at the center of a metals manufacturing investment boom. Three new aluminum rolling mills are coming up out of the ground as testament to over $6 billion in new investments to secure domestic aluminum supply. It has been over 80 years since the last metals manufacturing […]
US heating and cooling equipment shipments were up in February, according to recently released data from the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI). Total shipments in February were 1.69 million units, compared to 1.65 million in January. While shipments were up month-over-month (MoM), they were down 8% year-over-year (YoY). On a 12-month moving average (12MMA) […]
Russian mining and steel company Metalloinvest has been added to the US sanctions list. On April 12, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed the sanctions targeting the vast holdings of one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, Alisher Usmanov, including Moscow-based Metalloinvest and its parent company USM Holdings. The measures are meant […]
The Global Steel Climate Council (GSCC) has released a statement ahead of this month’s G7 climate meetings. GSCC said that the International Energy Association (IEA) has indicated that a concise carbon emissions measurement standard for the steel industry is imperative for achieving global climate goals. G7 leaders were encouraged by the IEA to focus on […]
The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) dropped 8.6% in March to 183.7 from the revised February reading of 201.0, according to data and analytics from the Dodge Construction Network (DCN). Also last month, the commercial component of the DMI fell 6.6%, and the institutional component slumped 12.9% in the same comparison. “We are predicting the Dodge Momentum Index […]
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) imports remain attractive, even as US price gains have slowed, according to SMU’s latest foreign vs. domestic price analysis. And while domestic tags continue to inch higher, they remain well behind the targeted base price of $1,300 per ton ($65 per cwt) for HRC issued by Cleveland-Cliffs back on April 3. The price […]
Buyers of most sheet products are finding mills much more willing to talk price this week, while this number fell to 0% for plate buyers, according to SMU data. With mixed results across the products SMU surveys, galvanized products showed the biggest gain, increasing 24 percentage points to 57% of buyers saying mills were willing to […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. this week provided an early look into its first-quarter earnings – which the company will disclose in full detail on April 23. Q1 steel shipments, revenues, and adjusted EBITDA are all expected to be higher than the prior quarter, the steelmaker said in a news release. At the same time, despite higher shipments, […]
Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau has confirmed a planned outage at its mill in Whitby, Ontario. “Gerdau confirms a planned outage in its Whitby, Ontario mill. Rolling operations will undergo routine annual maintenance, lasting two weeks. The melt shop will experience a longer outage, beginning in late April and lasting approximately six weeks,” a spokesperson for the […]
Turkish scrap import prices fell in the last week of March as buying activity remained low and domestic supply improved, according to analysis from the CRU Group. CRU’s assessed Turkish scrap price for HMS1/2 80:20 is $443 per metric ton CFR, down by $17 week-on-week (WoW) and $7 month-on-month (MoM). Turkish buyers are taking a […]
Fresh off another rate hike from the Fed, US macro data came in mixed during the month of March. The final update for GDP in Q4 2022 showed 2.6% growth, which was down slightly month over month and below expectations. Consumer spending has also been revised down consistently over each update on the Q4 figures. […]
Both SMU’s Steel Current and Future Buyers Sentiment Indices have increased from two weeks ago, according to SMU’s most recent survey data. The Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices measure how steel buyers feel about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market, as well as three to six months down the road. Every other […]
The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the Analysis tab and look under the “Survey Results” section for “Latest Survey Results.” Historical survey results are also available in the Survey Results section under “Survey Results History.” If you need help […]