Is it Buy American or not? That seems to be the question of the day. President Trump signed an executive order clearing the way for the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, adding in a memorandum to the Commerce Department that the steel pipe used in construction will have to be made […]
Flat rolled steel prices rose this past week on every item with the exception of the SteelBenchmarker hot rolled index. Steel Market Update (SMU) saw benchmark hot rolled as up $25 per ton to $625 per ton. Platts moved up $5 per ton to $630 per ton and SteelBenchmarker, who reports prices twice per month, […]
We are still early in the negotiation process for ferrous scrap pricing for the month of February. The expectation is for much higher than originally thought (sideways to +$30) a couple of weeks ago. SMU scrap sources are advising the Detroit market settled today at up $40 per gross ton on obsolete and shred grades […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil prices. We want our readers to note that we have made a decision to replace SteelBenchmarker as the primary data provider of foreign hot rolled coil prices. We […]
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 HR futures trading has been very muted this week following last weeks high volumes that resulted from the mill price increase […]
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data for January showing steel imports were just shy 2.8 million net tons for the month (2,769,215 tons). The February license data, which was also updated through the last day of February was down slightly from the January levels at 2,614,907 net tons. Of interest […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final U.S. raw steel production estimates for the month of January 2017. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on over 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent […]
Flat rolled steel prices are starting to react to the price increase announcements made last week. We saw a large bump in the hot rolled price average while cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume increases were a tad muted in comparison. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU Range is $610-$640 […]
For the week ending February 25, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,770,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.2 percent increase over the previous week and a 3.6 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
The rumors about March ferrous scrap prices have been flying ever since prices rebounded early in February from the initial down $10-$30 per gross ton we saw in the early negotiations. As the month of February continued scrap prices rebounded and, in some cases, returned to levels seen in January. As we prepared for March […]
A number of steel mills increased flat rolled steel prices, or provided price guidance higher than what was being collected in the spot markets, this past week. Steel buyers are telling SMU that there is a good chance the erosion of steel prices will cease because of these moves by the domestic steel mills. Steel […]
President Donald Trump says the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines must be built from American manufactured steel. After playing with semantics for weeks, the President has now issued a mandate that will require the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines to use steel pipe manufactured in the U.S., according to a report by CNBC on […]
The Global steel industry is on a roll with the y/y growth in the three month moving average (3MMA) of production increasing from negative 5.5 percent in January last year to positive 6.0 percent in January this year. Production in the month of January was 136,514,000 metric tons with a capacity utilization of 69.2 percent. […]
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. On Monday Nucor began the flat rolled steel price increase announcement train as they, and just about every other flat rolled mill in the United States, came out with a $30 per ton increase. Steel buyers, however, were confused as to where spot base prices were […]
February 2017 steel import licenses are suggesting that foreign steel imports will be markedly higher than February 2016. Last year the U.S. imported 2.2 million tons of foreign steel. Right now, based on import licenses collected through February 21, 2017, the trend is for imports to reach 2.6 to 2.7 million net tons. This would […]
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 coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing Futures […]
We had three price announcements and at least one verbal announcement on flat rolled steel since the week began. Everyone is wondering if the other steel mills will follow and what will the base prices be when the dust settles? Based on what we have been hearing from steel buyers today, the suggested minimum base […]
Three mills have made price increase announcements of $30 per ton on all flat rolled products produced by those mills. The three mills are Nucor, NLMK USA and USS/POSCO (UPI) on the West Coast. On Monday morning Nucor made it official and was the first mill to announced a $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) price increase […]
For the week ending February 18, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,766,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.6 percent increase over the previous week and a 3.3 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Employees at a zinc processing facility in Quebec have gone on strike raising concerns for metal producers that use the alloy in galvanized steel. CEZinc, in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec is co-owned by Glencore and Noranda Income fund. Employees say the company demanded major pension concessions, despite an over-funded pension plan, and has rebuffed union suggestions for […]
A large flat rolled steel service center shot me a note late on Friday advising a steel mill had told them earlier in the day to expect a $40 per ton price increase as soon as Monday of this week. At the same time the customer was told if scrap prices in March increase by […]
This is the second in a series of new reports on global trade of hot rolled and cold rolled products. In the future these articles (the first one was published on Tuesday, February 14th) will be part of our Premium level products and will be published in our Premium supplemental newsletter. If you would like […]
Flat rolled steel spot prices have recently given back some of the gains made since the first price announcements were announced by U.S. steel mills in late October. In the past 13 weeks flat rolled prices increased by $160 per ton or more depending on product and the starting point for any specific steel buyer. […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil prices. We want our readers to note that we have made a decision to replace SteelBenchmarker as the primary data provider of foreign hot rolled coil prices. We […]
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 coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing Futures […]
We believe that miss-information (or lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of entry is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide a negotiating advantage for our premium subscribers. We are […]
Flat rolled prices held their own this week and remained at, or very near, last week’s levels. At the moment we are seeing the mills as willing to negotiate prices on some items but, at the same time we are see some strengthening as scrap prices have firmed up over the past week and may […]
The following article is the opinion of John Packard, Publisher, Steel Market Update. I haven’t gone back and reviewed the records as to how many times flat rolled steel prices moved higher after a quick run up followed by a stable to slightly down market for a couple of weeks. Probably less than the fingers […]
For the week ending February 11, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,738,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.9 percent increase over the previous week and a 1.7 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Iron ore has seen a huge spike in pricing, soaring $5.61 to $92.23 per tonne on Tuesday, Feb. 14 for a 30 month high. Iron ore stockpiles are up at ports but not the high grade ore that is being sought by Chinese steelmakers. Efforts to reduce pollution and curb overcapacity has led to the […]