Today the U.S. Department of Commerce released foreign steel import license data for the month of October. Based on the license data imports for October will be approximately three million net tons. This is essentially unchanged from the 3,050,618 net tons reported as Preliminary Census Data for September. As you can see by the table […]
Commodities prices are a mixed bag. The price of iron ore is falling, but zinc is at a 10-year high. In this report, we examine the latest prices for iron ore, scrap, coking coal and zinc. On Oct. 25, commodities analyst Andrew Hecht wrote: “President Xi is likely to consolidate his power and take greater […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Oct. 28 totaled 1,739,000 net tons, a 5.1 percent increase from the same period last year, and up 0.5 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 74.6 percent, down from 74.3 percent the prior week and 70.8 percent the prior […]
Flat rolled steel prices were seen as bouncing higher, according to the Platts steel indices. Platts had hot rolled up $22 per ton to $613.75 (we rounded it to $614), while SteelBenchmarker was down $10 to $600 per ton. Steel Market Update reported HRC down $5 to $580 per ton. We saw a similar change […]
Steel imports into the U.S. increased by nearly 20 percent in the first nine months of the year, giving imports an estimated 28 percent share of the U.S. steel market—much to the ire of domestic steelmakers. Citing preliminary Census Bureau data, the American Iron and Steel Institute on Wednesday reported that steel imports year to […]
When Steel Market Update (SMU) began talking to our ferrous scrap sources over the past couple of days, we got a variety of opinions as to where prices will go for the month of November. From the East Coast we heard sideways was the most likely direction with a little “slightly stronger” for prime grades […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Director of Risk Management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel import prices (delivered to USA ports) and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil prices (FOB Domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and […]
It has only been one week since ArcelorMittal USA increased flat rolled steel prices. As the week progressed, it became obvious that steel mills were reacting to the price announcements in different ways. We heard from steel buyers that some mills withdrew open quoted pricing and repriced at new levels at least $40 per ton […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) found steel buyers receptive to speaking their minds on how various steel mills are responding to the price increase announcements made last week. It appears mills with shorter lead times are perhaps a little more receptive to waiving part or all of the increases. Other mills have better order books and […]
The trend for foreign steel imports into the United States continues to be right at 3 million net tons for the month of October. The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) updated license data collected for the month of October through today, Oct. 24. We take the license data for the first 24 days of the […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Oct. 21 totaled 1,731,000 net tons, a 4.6 percent increase from the same period last year, but down 0.7 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 74.3 percent, down from 74.8 percent the prior week and 70.8 percent the prior […]
Many of the domestic steel mills raised prices on Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week. ArcelorMittal USA lead the way by announcing specific “minimum” base prices on hot rolled ($625 per ton), and cold rolled and galvanized steels ($825 per ton each). The other mills all announced $40 per ton price increases (which to […]
Cleveland Cliffs posted net income of $53 million in the third quarter that included an $89 million loss after paying down debt and a $32 million gain from discontinued operations. Debt was reduced to $1.7 billion compared to $2.2 billion in Q3 2016. “We are very pleased with our accomplishments so far this year, in […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel It has been a very active trading week in HR futures along all portions of the curve as over 83,000 ST […]
ArcelorMittal USA began advising their customers late this evening of their intention to raise flat rolled steel base prices. In an internal memo sent to the ArcelorMittal commercial team the mill advised, “All new opportunities for hot rolled, cold rolled and coated sheet products that require delivery in the 4th Quarter of 2017 should be […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their slow slog south (prices are moving lower). The pace has not accelerated, but there are questions as to whether some of the mills are cutting “quiet” deals in order to fill their fourth-quarter order book without giving the steel away. One service center put it to us this way: […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) provided license data through Oct. 17 (today) regarding the amount of foreign steel slated to come into the United States during the month of October. Based on the license data, the trend is for yet another 3 million net ton (or higher) month. There are some significant changes to […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Oct. 14 totaled 1,744,000 net tons, a 5.4 percent increase from the same period last year, and up 0.2 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 74.8 percent, up from 74.7 percent the prior week and 70.8 percent the prior […]
One of the questions we get regularly is what are steel buyers and sellers of steel saying about their business (demand) and inventory levels? Over this past week, Steel Market Update spoke with quite a few companies and asked them how they were seeing business and if their company was building flat rolled or steel […]
The pace of the slide affecting flat rolled and plate steel prices quickened this past week. Steel Market Update (SMU) analyzed the price movements reported by Platts, SteelBenchmarker and SMU and found that almost every product was lower by the end of the week than it was the previous week. Benchmark hot rolled broke through […]
The expectation has been for a huge swing lower in the amount of flat rolled foreign steel imports coming into the United States in October. The industry is waiting for the combination of the drying up of the surge of orders placed to “beat” any Section 232 duty and the impact of higher world steel […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel import prices (delivered to USA ports) and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil prices (FOB Domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and […]
Zinc prices continue their rally that began in early 2016, taking the metal’s price to a 10-year high and raising the cost of producing galvanized steel and other products. Zinc prices have managed to breach the psychological ceiling of $3,000 per metric ton, which stalled rallies in November 2016 and February 2017. Breaking this ceiling […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel As the HR index retreated to $598/ST[$29.90/cwt] this week, we saw further price declines of the nearby futures while the medium to longer-term […]
This Steel Market Update analysis of sheet and plate imports by district of entry and source through August 2017 includes both coiled and cut-to-length plate for the first time. We believe that misinformation (or a lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage […]
Some key price levels have been left in the dust when it comes to flat rolled and plate prices. On Friday of this past week, Steel Market Update (SMU) reduced the lower end of the range on hot rolled and our average dropped below $600 per ton. This week our HRC took a hit on […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Oct. 7 totaled 1,741,000 net tons, a 5.2 percent increase from the same period last year, and up 2.1 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 74.7 percent, up from 73.2 percent the prior week and 70.8 percent the prior year, […]
On Tuesday of this past week, Steel Market Update (SMU) advised our readers that our range on hot rolled pricing was $580-$630 per ton with an average of $605 per ton ($30.25/cwt). As the week progressed, we received more information that has caused us to drop the lower end of our range to $560 per […]
The negotiations for ferrous scrap were pretty “easy,” according to one ferrous scrap analyst who told Steel Market Update on Friday that virtually every market in the United States was down $30 per gross ton on heavy melt and shred and other obsolete grades, while prime grades such as bundles and #1 busheling dropped $40 […]