There has been a “calming” to the market although that has not stopped the slow trickle lower we are seeing in flat rolled steel pricing. We saw hot rolled break through the $440 level although we were told by steel buyers that were able to get those kind of numbers the last $5 per ton […]
Based on the first two weeks of steel import license data collected by the US Department of Commerce, total steel imports coming into the U.S. during the month of April continue to trend well over 3.0 million tons. We are still early in the month and our opinion is the import number should be slightly […]
One of the questions asked during the flat rolled steel market analysis we conduct twice per month is regarding the spread between domestic and foreign steel pricing. When spreads are large, as they were for most of calendar year 2014, then you can expect a surge in imported steel. As the spread subsides the need […]
For the week ending April 11, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,621,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.3 percent increase over the previous week but a 12.0 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.6 percent, up […]
The pace of the flat rolled steel price slide slowed this past week, based on an analysis of the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. As the pace slows, the spread between indexes also tends to get tighter due to fewer variations in the data collected. Looking at benchmark hot rolled, Steel Market […]
Licensed data for March was updated on April 7th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is available to our […]
According to the latest data released from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of February 2015 is 8,968,831 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. February supply […]
US Steel has revised their galvanized coating extras to those being used prior to October 1, 2014 when the last change was made. The new extras are lower than those used this past year. Here are the new extras being charged: The change in extras came as a surprise to some within the industry as […]
In the twelve months of 2014, scrap exports totaled 15,308,000 tonnes, down by 17.1 percent from the same period in 2013. In the first two months of this year exports were 2,026,675 for an annual rate of 12,161,050 tonnes. Figure 1 shows that the monthly average declined for three consecutive years, 2012 through 2014 and […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial markets: Last 2084.50 on the June contract […]
Prices eased off the hectic pace we have been watching and reporting on over the past few months. Benchmark hot rolled pricing remained the same as what we reported this past week at $460 per ton average. We are watching the lower end of the range carefully to see if the domestic mills will attempt […]
Our scrap sources are advising Steel Market Update that the scrap markets in the Midwest have been slow to settle with only a few deals done as of Tuesday morning. The expectation by those involved in the Midwest ferrous scrap markets is that the transactions will be completed over the next day or two. Most […]
For the week ending April 4, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,600,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a 13.7 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.7 percent, down […]
The U.S. steel mills saw exports for steel products fall during the month of February. The U.S. Department of Commerce released new information late last week regarding the exports shipped out of the domestic steel mills to destinations outside the United States. Based on their data, exports totaled 878,459 net tons (note the data is […]
Schnitzer Steel Industries plans a “cost reduction, capacity reduction and productivity initiative” to improve its financial performance by $60 million annually by the end of 2016. In addition, the Auto Parts and Metals Recycling Business will be consolidated into a single division by the end of FY 2015. “In the face of steep declines in […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to slide their slide this past week according to all of the steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled dropped to $460 per ton ($459 at CRU), down $10-$12 per ton depending on the index chosen. A number to keep in mind: $390 per ton. That […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets On the S&P 500, we are […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce just released Final Census data regarding February 2015 total steel imports. The US DOC reported imports of foreign steel as being 3,711,541 net tons. What is interesting to us is the Final Census number is 127,975 tons more than what was presented as the Preliminary Census number on March 24th. […]
Based on the most recent license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (SIMA) on Tuesday of this week, steel imports appear to be trending toward the 3.6 million net ton level. This is less than what we saw earlier in the month when license data was trending toward a 3.8 million net ton […]
Last week Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Lower to Neutral. We believe that change is coming and the wholesale slide we have seen in flat rolled steel prices will come to an end. We have not yet come to the conclusion that prices will reverse direction, rather that prices on hot […]
Iron ore prices, which for a period of time had firmed up around $60 per dry metric ton, have been sliding lately with The Steel Index (TSI) reporting 62% Fe fines at $51.0/dmt CFR Tianjin Port, China earlier today. This is the lowest level reported by TSI since they began indexing iron ore prices back […]
Last week a number of steel mill CEO’s testified before the U.S. Congress about the flood of steel imports and the need to protect the domestic steel industry. Separate from the CEO’s testimony, former Nucur CEO called for quotas to be implemented against foreign steel which he considered to be unfairly traded. Steel Market Update […]
For the week ending March 28, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,628,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a 12.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.9 percent, down […]
Benchmark hot rolled pricing has tightened, according to the various flat rolled steel indices we follow. With SteelBenchmarker reporting this past week all four indexes were within a few dollars of one another with SMU and Platts at $470 per ton, CRU $1 higher at $471 and SteelBenchmarker $3 higher at $473 per ton. Our […]
The American Institute for International Steel issued the following report on February 2015 steel imports into the United States. Imports, which declined in February compared to January, are 23 percent higher than at this time last year and one of the major reasons why service center inventories are taking so long to adjust. The higher […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of February 2015. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the […]
With the steel executives testifying before the U.S. Congress today about foreign steel imports we thought it might be interesting to ask Dan DiMicco former CEO of Nucor Steel about the subject. Mr. DiMicco responded to our request with the following: Where do I start???? First let me say this is Dan DiMicco responding not […]
There is no joy in Mudville in the middle of March, the scrap market is dead and no mills are looking to add to their inventories. For that matter the dealers have very little to offer as the weather has yet to clear up north and the big move lower in scrap prices in February […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets The S&P is in an interesting […]
The spread between world hot rolled export pricing and that of the domestic average here in the United States continues to be reduced from what we were measuring a couple of months ago. This analysis is based on our review of world export prices and the hot rolled index produced by SMU earlier this week. […]