One of our readers asked us earlier this week what the average price for hot rolled has been so far this calendar year according to the Steel Market Update HRC index. The answer to that question is $665.30 per ton through this current week. The average of all of the hot rolled indexes followed on […]
Production in August on a tons per day basis was 4.342 million tonnes, down from 4.424 in July. This was the second month since February when production was <4.5 million metric tons per day. This is a seasonal effect, since January 2008 on average, August production has declined by 1.76 percent from July. This year […]
The hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market has been very flat in terms of pricing over the past few weeks with the Q4 trading around $645, Q1 $650 and calendar 2015 around $645. All prices are very flat down the curve, indicating a slight decrease in pricing from current spot levels. Overall, good volumes have […]
In the week ending September 13, 2014, domestic raw steel production was 1,882,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 78.2 percent. Production was 1,875,000 net tons in the week ending September 13, 2013, while the capability utilization then was 78.3 percent. The current week production represents a 0.4 percent increase from the same […]
The following report was prepared by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk, LLC which is a company specializing in hot rolled, ferrous scrap and other “futures” contracts or financial derivatives. Today he discusses the broader financial markets, hot rolled steel futures (HRC), iron ore and ferrous scrap futures (BUS) trading on the CME. Andre Marshall […]
Apparent supply is defined as domestic mill shipments to domestic locations plus imports. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce with analysis by SMU. The three month moving average (3MMA) of the total tonnage of sheet and strip supply in the period May through July was 4,942,917 tons, up […]
Flat rolled steel prices moved lower this past week according to the various steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update. The largest movement was seen in cold rolled prices but hot rolled prices and Galvalume prices also fell during the past week. The one item which did not see erosion was galvanized prices which […]
For months there have been rumors circulating in the marketplace that the domestic steel industry was contemplating filing dumping suits against the Chinese on cold rolled and potentially a number of Asian countries on galvanized and/or Galvalume products. To date there have not been suits filed and the foreign steel continues to arrive at ever-greater […]
The supply of sheet products had strong positive growth in the 3 months period May – July year over year (y/y) led by cold rolled which was up by 19.4 percent, (Table 1). In total on this basis sheet products were up by 14.8 percent. The sources of this analysis are the Commerce Department trade […]
In the first seven months of 2014, total ferrous steel scrap exports totaled 8,828,815 metric tons, down by 20.6 percent from the same period in 2013. In the single month of July exports were 1,248,330 tons, down from June’s volume of 1,270,041 tons. May had by far the highest tonnage of the year, the July […]
The following is a “hypothetical” calculation of the spread between world hot rolled export prices and domestic (USA & Canada) hot rolled prices. Actual HRC price spreads can vary based on freight costs, trader margins and other factors. SMU compares the world export price with adders for freight, handling, trader margin, etc., against the spot […]
As we look at our price indices for the week of September 8th we want to take a moment to advise our galvanized customers that we are revising our .060 G90 benchmark index to account for the change in zinc coating extras. After reviewing the changes made by the domestic steel mills we have decided […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) decided to show you an analysis of the various galvanized steel coating extras in a slightly different way. We wanted to show you the mills who extras vary from one another and those who are using extras which are produced by another mill (such as USS or Nucor). We want to […]
Apparent steel supply for July was 10,588,648 net tons, the highest figure Steel Market Update has in its recorded history back to January 2010. Steel Market Update calculates apparent steel supply by adding domestic shipments and finished US imports and subtracting total US exports. July supply represents a 1,383,999 ton or 15.0 percent increase compared […]
On Monday Steel Market Update received information from one of our trading sources in Asia regarding the iron ore situation and price offers for export on rebars (debars), hot rolled (Europe) and plate (Europe). Ore Port Stocks at 110.95 Million MTS on Friday and an increase of 320,000mts week on week. Many large State Owned […]
For the week ending September 6, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,885,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 1.5 percent decrease over the previous week but a 0.5 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 78.4 […]
Scrap dealers were a little surprised by the end of this past week as ferrous scrap prices remained stable instead of rising $10 per ton as many had anticipated. Steel Market Update wanted to understand what happened that resulted in a sideways market and here is what we learned from one of our East Coast […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to slip lower as the various indexes watched by Steel Market Update begin to come to a consensus as the spreads between the indexes shrink. Platts dropped their benchmark hot rolled price by $5 per ton and CRU by $2 per ton. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this week as […]
Are foreign steel prices too low or are US steel prices too high? That is a question faced by trade litigation attorneys Robert Schagrin and Lewis Leibowitz at the recent SMU Steel Summit conference in Atlanta. There is a $300 delta between China and US prices and a $200 delta between Europe and the US […]
Iron ore spot pricing CFR Tianjin port, China was reported by The Steel Index on Friday morning to be $83.6/dmt for 62% Fe fines. During the past week, iron ore pricing has dropped $4.30/dmt or about 5 percent. Over the past 4 weeks, spot pricing has dropped $12.1/dmt or, 12.6 percent. To put this into […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released final census data for July steel imports this past week. Total imports were 3,858,692 net tons which was 247,387 tons greater than what we saw during the month of June. License data is pointing toward a slightly lower total volume for total steel imports during the month of August. […]
AIIS, Falls Church, VA. September 5, 2014 — Steel exports continued to trend downward in July, slipping 3.3 percent to just over 1 million net tons. While exports to Canada were virtually unchanged from June to July at 536,892 net tons, and the amount of steel sent to Mexico increased 7.4 percent to 366,732 net […]
Flat rolled steel prices remained holiday bound and buyers are waiting to see if there is any movement based on the latest lead times and needs that the domestic mills might have. With the combination of the Labor Day holiday on Monday of this week, coupled with inventories starting to rise at service centers (according […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to slip this past week according to our analysis of the various flat rolled price indexes we follow on a regular basis. The benchmark hot rolled average dropped $6 per ton to $671 per ton with SMU being the lowest at $665 and SteelBenchmarker the highest at $677 per ton. […]
For the week ending August 30, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,913,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 1.0 percent decrease over the previous week but a 3.0 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 79.5 […]
The following is a “hypothetical” calculation of the spread between world hot rolled export prices and domestic (USA & Canada) hot rolled prices. Actual HRC price spreads can vary based on freight costs, trader margins and other factors. SMU compares the world export price with adders for freight, handling, trader margin, etc., against the spot […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of July 2014. This estimation is different than the weekly raw steel production as it is based on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. 50 percent for the weekly estimates. Total raw steel production for the […]
According to The Steel Index (TSI) spot 62% Fe iron ore fines pricing dropped below $88/dmt and are now at the lowest level recorded since October 2009. TSI reported 62% Fe fines this morning as being $87.30 per dry metric ton (dmt). Iron ore has been sliding since mid-August 2013 when 62% Fe fines where […]
Buyers of galvanized steel know that one of the most critical pieces of building pricing is adding the cost charge by the steel mill to apply zinc to steel. If you have had a chance to explore the ‘Resources‘ section of the Steel Market Update website, you may have come across our Steel Mill section […]
Based on our conversations with steel buyers and analysis of the data we received from steel mills, service centers and end users, we saw some slippage in flat rolled steel prices this week. Not enough to change our position (Neutral) on the market. But, there was enough to make us sit up and take notice. […]