The pace of the drop in flat rolled steel prices slowed this past week. From our perspective, we saw hot rolled prices as down $5 per ton, cold rolled and galvanized as flat and Galvalume up $5 per ton compared to the previous week. All of the reporting steel indexes (SMU, CRU & Platts) followed […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) released final foreign steel import census data late last week, showing final January tonnage at 4.39 million net tons (3.99 million metric tons). This is a 20.8 percent increase over December 2014 imports and 37.1 percent higher than January 2014 levels. Total January imports were the highest seen […]
Licensed data for February was updated on March 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. Steel Market Update 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 published in […]
The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Well, at least that is what the rest of the world is seeing when it comes to steel. The Russian steel mills have become the benefactors of the drop in the value of the Russian currency (the ruble). Steel Market Update has learned the Russian ruble lost […]
Warning: You can drown reaching for the bottom…! Steel Market Update (SMU) is learning that the ferrous scrap deals which were done earlier this week in Detroit and in northern Ohio were done at sideways pricing on obsolete grades (such as heavy melt and shredded scrap) while primes grades (Busheling/bundles) dropped $20 per ton. However, […]
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. Our next Managing Price Risk II workshop will be held in Chicago at the end of April – […]
Steel Market Update hot rolled average pricing broke through $500 this week as we saw HRC prices as being $5 per ton lower than one week ago. When looking at the market as a whole we are seeing a slowdown or flattening of the downward price movement. Cold rolled saw the spread between the high […]
Every week the US Department of Commerce (US DOC) releases steel import license data for those months that have not had Preliminary Census or Final Census data announced. The latest license data was released this afternoon covering the month of February through today. Since we are so early into the month of March SIMA did […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a collapse in production by the U.S. steelmakers. For the week ending February 28, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,657,000 net tons of raw steel, a 3.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a […]
The USW reported that U.S. refinery negotiations will resume on March 4. Talks stalled on Feb 20 prompting the USW to enlarge the strike, adding three refineries co-owned by Shell Oil to the walkout. Currently 6,550 workers are now on strike at 15 plants. “We can confirm that Shell and USW have agreed to speak […]
After negotiations were completed for February scrap pricing, the word being spread around the industry was to expect another drop in March, perhaps down $20 on most grades. However, the weather got brutal during the month and we are hearing that many dealers will not be able to complete deliveries on obsolete grades of ferrous […]
Virtually all flat rolled steel products indexed by the steel indices followed by Steel Market Update saw steel pricing decline by double digits and, in most cases, the erosion in pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and coated was at least $20 per ton ($1.00/cwt). First an observation, as we watch the weekly price […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of January 2015. The monthly estimates are different than those produced showing the weekly raw steel production. The monthly estimates are based on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. 50 percent for the weekly estimates. Total […]
We made a mistake in our most recent issue when we referenced $440 as being the low for hot rolled back in June 2009. That was actually the low for the galvanized base price (noted in the HARDI article in that same issue). The low for hot rolled in June 2009 was $380 per ton […]
The spread between world hot rolled export pricing and that of the domestic average here in the United States remains reasonable based on our analysis of steel pricing data from this week. As the spread narrows, the competitiveness of imported steel into the United States is reduced. Over time, if the trend continues, the domestic […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest steel import licensing data for February as well as the Preliminary Census Data for the month of January 2015. January imports are being reported as being 4,250,041 net tons (3.9 million metric tons). This is up 32.6 percent compared to one year ago. Hot rolled imports, even […]
Hot rolled prices continued lower this week with the CRU down $9 to $508/ton with HRC futures following suit. Q2 has been trading around $510/ton with March trading as low as $503/ton – $13 lower than the week prior. The second half of 2015 is reasonably higher with Q3 and Q4 both trading around $535/ton. […]
Global steel production in 2014 totaled 1.627 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.2 billion tonnes which yields an average utilization for the year of 74 percent. China accounted for 51 percent of global production in 2014. Asia as a whole, including India, accounted for almost 70 percent of global production. Production in January on […]
We are seeing the benchmark hot rolled coil average as sitting right on the critical $500 per ton mark this week. Most steel buyers with whom we speak are of the opinion that hot rolled coil will drop below $500 per ton within the next week or two. The question then becomes how far down […]
For the week ending February 21, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,716,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 2.5 percent decrease over the previous week and a 5.9 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 72.6 […]
Magnetation LLC announced it will indefinitely idle its Plant 1 in Keewatin, Minn., due to iron ore prices that have fallen more than fifty percent in the past 18 months. Forty-one hourly and eight salaried employees will be affected the closure which will occur by the end of March. “Due to the unprecedented collapse in […]
For the first time in many weeks, Steel Market Update, Platts and CRU hot rolled price indices are almost the same. SMU and Platts see HRC prices as averaging $515 per ton while CRU is two dollars higher at $517 per ton. Cold rolled prices did not meet the same fate as Platts sees CRC […]
The following article about the Asian ferrous scrap markets comes to us from one of our contributing writers, Damon Sun of Daido International. Firstly, I believe we are at the bottom or near bottom of the current scrap market. The latest bulk scrap sales into Far East Asia were at $249 per metric ton CFR […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest import licensing data for the license requests received through the 18th of February. Steel Market Update (SMU) then compares the daily tonnage rate against the previous four months and the daily license rate being reported during the 3rd week of that particular month. Based on that analysis, […]
There appears to be a lot of uncertainty in the ferrous scrap and pig iron markets as we move into the second half of February and start taking a peak into what March scrap and pig iron pricing may look like. One of our pig iron sources advised SMU that many of the Brazilian pig […]
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. We are working on adding new futures workshops in the coming months. If interested please email us at: […]
We received a very mixed bag when it came to hot rolled pricing this week. Our range expanded from the $490-$530 we reported last week to $480-$550 this week. Our HR average actually rose by $5 compared to one week ago. We are not ready to announce prices as having “bottomed,” as one renegade mill […]
Steel Market Update saw an interesting report on the impact of lower scrap prices to the steel industry. The report was produced by metals and mining analysts, Timna Tanners of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Research for her clients. A question Steel Market Update receives on a regular basis is what is the marginal cost […]
For the week ending February 14th, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,760,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.5 percent decrease over the previous week and a 3.5 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 74.4 […]
Steel Market Update recently attended the Port of Tampa Steel Conference in Tampa, Florida. When speaking with the service centers and traders it was apparent that we are in a period of time when buyers do not trust that the price today will be any good tomorrow. Our Comparison Price Indices report accentuates the issues […]