March was the month that saw the bottom to the flat rolled steel pricing cycle and signs of the first bounce as prices began moving higher. We are finding our monthly analysis of pricing fascinating as many become consumed by the weekly numbers and forget the bigger picture. Weekly gyrations many times equal little change […]
For the week ending March 29, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,820,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 3.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a 0.4 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated steel capacity utilization rate is […]
Imports of foreign steel increased during the month of February compared to the prior month. Steel Market Update carefully monitors total steel imports, slab imports, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume imports as well as plate (coiled and sheet) and oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The U.S. Government recently released preliminary census data for […]
When markets start to move each steel index will pick up the information in different ways. It is important to understand each index methodology, how often the markets are canvassed and how deep the reporting resources are. CRU indices are based on actual verifiable transactions from both steel mills and buyers. Platts takes into consideration […]
Imports of foreign steel increased during the month of February compared to the prior month. Steel Market Update carefully monitors total steel imports, slab imports, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume imports as well as plate (coiled and sheet) and oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The U.S. Government recently released preliminary census data for […]
We are beginning to see a new push away from a fragmented steel mill supply base as closures of capacity coupled with the recent acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA by ArcelorMittal/Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metals Corporation (AM/NS Calvert) are reducing the number of players and the tons in the game. Over the past two years we […]
With the expected steel price hikes finally coming to fruition the futures market has reacted strongly as offers were lifted and bids take a step up. After months of a down trending physical market sentiment has taken a clear turn to bullishness. The nearby months (March and April) traded to lows around $615 last week […]
Spot iron ore prices in China have been in a state of fluctuation having come down from $122.60/dmt at the beginning of the year to the current level of $111.80/dmt on 62% Fe. The economic slow down in China and the over abundance of ore inventories in China coupled with banks cracking down on iron […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of February 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 […]
Reasons: The first reason being the limited number of buyers who admitted they had actually placed any tonnage since the flat rolled price increases were announced. Second, was the vast difference between northern fully integrated mills, mini-mills and conversion mill spot pricing. We need to remember all three groups are part of our index and […]
Usually the news about price increase announcements is regarding the ability of the steel mills to collect all, or a portion, of the announced flat rolled price increases. With the latest announcements made last week led by ArcelorMittal on Monday and then followed by the rest of the industry as the week progressed, the question […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Preliminary Census Data for February 2014 steel imports into the United States. Total steel imports (all products) were reported to be 3,250,176 net tons which is an increase of 30 percent year over year and well above both the 12 month and 3 month moving average. As you can […]
Regular Steel Market Update readers know we project steel imports into the United States for the current month based on the revised weekly license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Based on data released earlier today, imports are now forecast to exceed 3.5 million tons (3,629,548 tons) which, if correct, would be the […]
For the week ending March 22, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,885,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, the highest production level since early-August 2013. This week’s production is a 3.2 percent increase over the previous week and a 3.2 percent increase over the same […]
Has the flat rolled steel price turn already begun? According to Platts it has, as they moved both hot rolled pricing and cold rolled pricing higher on their index during the later part of the week. Both CRU and SMU reported flat rolled steel prices earlier in the week as either flat or lower than […]
Early indications are for April ferrous scrap prices in the Midwest to rise once we enter the next round of steel mill negotiations with their scrap suppliers. Steel Market Update (SMU) scrap sources are pegging the potential increase at $10 to $15 per gross ton. Other industry sources have it as moving even higher. Scrap […]
In our Thursday evening issue, we published an article regarding recent price increase announcements out of Nucor, California Steel Industries (CSI), and AK Steel. We incorrectly stated the increase out of CSI as $40.00/cwt for all products, when it was really a $40 per ton increase. We apologize for the error. The image below is […]
Yesterday (Wednesday the 19th) Nucor announced a price increase on their new orders and listed base prices of $33.00/cwt on hot rolled, $39.50/cwt on cold rolled, and $39.50/cwt on galvanized. These are the same levels that ArcelorMittal, NLMK USA, and Severstal announced earlier in the week. California Steel Industries (CSI) also announced an increase on […]
The following article on hot rolled futures (HRC), #1 busheling futures (BUS) as well as information regarding the iron ore spot pricing and futures trading in China is written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk, LLC and the instructor for Steel Market Update’s Managing Price Risk workshop series. Our new: Managing Price Risk 2: […]
As our regular readers know, Steel Market Update projects imports of foreign flat rolled sheet, plate and oil country tubular goods (OCTG) as well as semi-finished (mostly slabs) steels for the month in progress. The projection is based on U.S. Department of Commerce license data which can be misleading and our projection should also be […]
Global Steel Production in February declined by 11.7 million tonnes, normal for that month based on a reduced number of operating days. February steel production was 125 million tonnes, an increase of 0.6 percent from February last year. Capacity utilization on a rolling three month basis through February was 75.9 percent (Figure 1). The annualized […]
Ferrous scrap exports totaled 898,156 metric tons (990,046 net tons or NT) for the month of January, a 42.7 percent decrease in exports from December 2013. This is a 41.4 percent decrease over the same month last year when tonnage was 1,689,288 NT. Global exports haven’t been this low since January of 2006 when they […]
The steel market, in particular the steel service center market, has been anticipating a flat rolled price increase announcement for the past few weeks. The fact that it was ArcelorMittal USA leading the way should not come as a surprise. The mills that have few to no spot tons to sell are AK Steel, US […]
Late on Monday afternoon, ArcelorMittal moved to raise spot flat rolled steel pricing. In an email to their customers, AM reported that, “Inventories on sheet products appear to be in balance of slightly lean compared to our second quarter consumption forecast. As a result, we are quite surprised by the recent erosion in pricing that […]
In an email sent late in the afternoon on Monday, March 17th, ArcelorMittal USA announced a price increase on all of their new flat rolled orders, with specific base prices at $33.00 for hot rolled, $39.50 for cold rolled, and $39.50 for galvanized. The mill justified their increase by stating “Despite the recent drop in […]
There are always reasons behind the domestic steel mills’ attempt to push flat rolled steel prices. One of the reasons, and the one we believe is being exercised by those mills who have already made price announcements, is prices have moved too low too fast. Based on Steel Market Update data, benchmark hot rolled coil […]
For the week ending March 15, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,828,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.7 percent decrease over the previous week but a 0.1 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.0 […]
The spread (variance) between World export prices for hot rolled coil compared to the average for hot rolled coil prices east of the Mississippi based on the Steel Market Update HRC index is shrinking. World export hot rolled coil (HRC) price is currently $505 per net ton FOB the port of export. When freight, loading […]
The following article on the financial, hot rolled coil futures, busheling scrap futures and iron ore markets is written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk 1 and 2 instructor. Financial Markets: Today was not a good one, a repeat of last week when the market retraced on the back […]
January prepainted flat rolled steel imports increased over both the previous month and the same month one year prior. The four prepainted products tracked by Steel Market Update rose a combined 18,188 net tons (NT) or 86.6 percent over the previous month and were up 16,236 NT or 70.7 percent over January 2013 tonnage. In […]