For the week ending June 20, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,726,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.2 percent decrease over the previous week and a 8.6 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 73.0 percent, down […]
Hot rolled coil prices appear to be stuck in the $462 to $465 range. We have seen very little movement on HRC since the move made after the first price increase announcement back on April 28th. Cold rolled, which SMU saw as being up $10 this past week, went nowhere according to Platts and CRU […]
Attorney Larry Friedman noted the “hockey stick” graphs when looking at the five countries listed as defendants in the coated steel antidumping petition. We wanted to take a new look at the five countries and the total galvanized and Galvalume shipments made during 2012, 2013 and 2014 and how 2013 and 2014 compared with the […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to introduce a new contributing writer on the HRC Futures and other futures markets. Spencer Johnson is a Risk Management Consultant with FCStone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer will […]
Coated steels continued to be the strongest products on the heals of AD/CVD suits having been filed on the products along with the new price increase announcements by the domestic mills. We heard from a number of galvanized buyers that the offers out of the steel mills all begin with a three (as in $30.00/cwt […]
We are starting to see signs that the June import numbers could be significantly below those of April and May which were both at 3.5 million net tons. The daily import license rate for June is at 109,662 tons per day and if the actual imports were to come in at that rate the month […]
Metalico, Inc., a U.S. scrap metal processor, has been sold to Chinese investment firm Total Merchant Limited for approximately $105 million. In an announcement on Tuesday, Metalico said it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Total Merchant and expects to close the transaction by August 31, 2015, subject to shareholder approval and customary closing […]
For the week ending June 13, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,747,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.5 percent increase over the previous week but a 7.5 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 73.9 percent, up […]
With the price increase announcements and the filing of a trade case against coated products we saw galvanized and Galvalume prices move higher by double digits this past week. Galvanized increased by $15 per ton according to SMU and $16 per ton according to CRU. Galvalume prices moved higher by $10 per ton. When looking […]
An executive with a large service center group penned us some thoughts about the market (prior to the SSAB plate price increase) on Wednesday of this past week. “I was surprised at the June import-rate figures, with the forecast/possibility of 3+ million tons. It doesn’t seem like imports are falling as fast as expected for […]
Nucor became the first domestic steel mill to announce a second round of flat rolled steel price increases. The Nucor announcement, which was for a $20 per ton price increase, affected hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized products produced by their mills. This is the second price increase on flat rolled products since the end […]
SSAB Americas sent a letter to their customers today advising that they are taking plate prices higher by $25 per ton. Here is the content of the SSAB letter: To Our Valued Customers: Please be advised that effective immediately SSAB Americas is raising the transaction price for all non-contract As-Rolled Mill Plate, Cut-To-Length Plate >72”, […]
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: We continue to be the best […]
Licensed data for May was updated on June 9th 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 […]
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has initiated investigations into alleged dumping and subsidizing of certain hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate originating in or exported from the Republic of India (India) and the Russian Federation (Russia). The investigation follows a complaint filed on April 20, 2015 by Essar Steel Algoma claiming […]
One of the key items Steel Market Update watches is the spread between world hot rolled export pricing and the HRC spot price average here in the United States. The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update in order to identify the spread between world hot rolled export prices as determined by SteelBenchmarker and domestic […]
Last week anti-dumping suits were filed against corrosion resistant products (mostly galvanized and Galvalume) and we did see some tightening as the domestic mills try to move prices anywhere from $10 to $20 per ton on new spot offers. We are still early in the process with many buyers either not needing to buy or […]
OK, everyone is looking for signs from the steel gods to see if (or when) foreign steel imports would begin to back off from the record high levels seen every month this year. So, we will tempt fate and show our readers a small sign. The US Department of Commerce released license data this afternoon […]
In the first four months of this year bulk scrap exports were 4,421,000 tons for an annual rate of 13,263,000 tons tonnes, down by 7.2 percent from the first four months of last year. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages for 2015 and on the twelve month monthly […]
Twice per month Steel Market Update asks both manufacturing companies and service centers/wholesalers to weigh in on the subject of service center spot price offers. In the survey concluded on Thursday of this past week, with most responses having been locked in prior to the dumping suit announcement, we found manufacturers reporting mixed results. Thirty-eight […]
For the week ending June 6, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,722,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.3 percent increase over the previous week but an 8.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 72.8 percent, up […]
Flat rolled steel prices have stabilized over the past couple of weeks, according to our analysis of the various steel indexes we follow on a regular basis. The expectation is with the increase in scrap prices and the filing of the anti-dumping suit against China, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Italy will bring a new […]
Ferrous scrap prices rose in June as obsolete flows continue to be weaker than normal and the domestic mills have come back into the market. The strength of the market has come as a surprise to dealers and mills alike. Number 1 Heavy Melt (HMS) ranged from $230 to $265 per gross ton with the […]
Exports of steel out of the United States to the rest of the world fell in April according to the latest data released by the US Department of Commerce. In a press release the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) reported U.S. steel exports fell 8.5 percent in April after making a slight gain in […]
The US Department of Commerce release Final Census Data regarding April steel imports which were reported to be 3,501,337 net tons in total, down 3.2 percent over March data and down 6.3 percent over the level seen one year ago. Semi-finished (blooms, billets, and slabs) imports recovered 118,000 tons from the four year low we […]
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 April 2015 was 9,212,032 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. April supply […]
The “not if but when” question has been settled as the long awaited trade case filing on galvanized steel finally occurred on Wednesday. Six domestic steel mills submitted a petition to the Department of Commerce asking for the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on certain corrosion-resistant steel products from China, the Republic of Korea, […]
The following article was the first of a two part series of articles on how the anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) systems work regarding any steel trade case that might be filed. Since we now have a filing on corrosion resistant steels (galvanized, aluminized and Galvalume) we thought that our readers would be interested […]
The article below was originally published on March 19, 2014 (SMU Volume 10, Issue 34) and it deals with the questions that we are sure many of you are asking yourselves this morning, how does the anti-dumping and countervailing duty systems work especially the timeline for action by the Department of Commerce and the International […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) wants to provide as much detail as possible regarding imports of coated steels into the United States. In particular, we are focusing on galvanized and Galvalume imports from China, India, Taiwan, South Korea and Italy. Galvanized: When looking at the data for 2012, 2013, 2014 and the first 4 months 2015, […]