Steel Market Update (SMU) began our most recent survey on Monday morning of this past week. Shortly after our survey began the domestic mills announced price increases. As the week progressed more announcements were made. None-the-less, our survey respondents did not seem to believe flat rolled steel prices will rise over the next few weeks. […]
During the past few surveys, Steel Market Update has been asking if the additional tonnage being brought on-stream by U.S. Steel (Lake Erie), ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (building back slab inventory) and AK Steel would cause an imbalance in supply-demand ratios. Almost everyone within the industry has been of the opinion that the extra supply would […]
According to Baker Hughes data from October 4th, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,756 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 12 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 10 to 1,372 rigs, gas rigs up 2 to 378 rigs, […]
After weeks and months of a sideways market, the recent mill price hike announcements have been the spark the futures market needed to ignite trading activity. Over 8,000 tons have traded the past few days as the potential for the physical market to move higher has squeezed shorts causing them to cover and for speculators […]
TSI Iron Ore: Market Quiet During Chinese Golden Week… Iron ore prices have remained steady over the past week as the Chinese have been off for their Golden Week holiday. Demand while steady appears to be seen as fragile by many. The market remains in backwardation with prices down the curve continuing to trade at a […]
With the new pricing announcements we have gotten quite a mix bag of responses regarding flat rolled steel spot prices for this week. We have taken into consideration transactions, our survey results to date and offers which have been presented to buyers so far this week. By the time we went to publish we had […]
For the week ending September 28, 2013, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,852,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.3 percent decrease over the previous week but a 5.8 increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 77.3 percent, down […]
With the exception of SteelBenchmarker, which is only published twice per month, benchmark hot rolled pricing was between $640-$645 per ton (Steel Orbis did not report prices to SMU this week). Platts, which is being mentioned by some mills as replacing the CRU indices for future price adjustments, did take their hot rolled and cold […]
Over the past week we have been receiving a number of calls and emails regarding both John Anton’s (IHS Global Insight) forecast for higher steel prices as we move into 2014 and Andre Marshall’s (Crunch Risk, LLC) hot rolled futures article where he points out that the market fundamentals will force flat rolled steel prices […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has received a large number of comments and inquiries regarding the subject of contract negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their end user and service center customers. Here are some samples: “I think the bucket deals are gone and the 6 percent deals are gone. I think the mills are […]
This week the domestic steel mills and their scrap suppliers will be locked in negotiations to determine the price of ferrous scrap used in the EAF’s and BOF’s to make steel. Steel Market Update sources have been advising that the October scrap market looks to be down $10 per gross ton before firming later in […]
When I last wrote two weeks back the SP 500 had failed to break down as expected and technicals suggested we were headed to 1775 as next long term target. Well within one week of that report the SP 500 hit 1730 from that Sep 12th 1685 area. This rally was in large part due […]
The headline you are seeing both here and in other trade publications is total steel imports are up 13.9 percent in August based on just released Preliminary Census Data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Total imports rose from 2,520,506 net tons in July to 2,870,266 net tons in August. When looking at flat rolled, […]
The shipping industry is set for a profitable year for the first time since 2010 according to the September 25 MID-SHIP Report. Freight rates are continuing to rise and demand for large size ships is finally beginning to outpace supply. The industry has faced a supply glut partially due to shipyards offering vessels at low […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of August 2013. 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 […]
One of our service center contacts told Steel Market Update recently, “The ending of indexed pricing for many is just around the corner which is a major positive but hearing little of this from SMU. [The] mills still trying to make something – they cannot continue to withstand the losses they have incurred. In fact, […]
For the week ending September 21, 2013, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,877,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.8 percent increase over the previous week and a 7.2 increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 78.3 percent, up […]
According to Baker Hughes data from September 20th, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,761 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 7 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 8 to 1,369 rigs, gas rigs down 15 to 386 rigs, […]
Ocean Freight Ocean freight rates, as reported by the Baltic Exchange, have rebounded strongly in the last few months driven mainly by the cape-size component. The composite Baltic Dry Index has risen by 152 percent from its 2013 low point in February an increase from 737 to 1860 (Figure 1). The Capesize component has risen […]
Prices this week are slightly lower over what we saw last week. For all of the companies below, prices fell or remained steady for all four products followed. We saw slight movement from $10 per ton lower or no change at all. Benchmark hot rolled prices range from $635 to $645 per ton (average $640.50 […]
TSI Iron Ore: Prices Wobble in Signs Market is Cooling… Iron ore prices have softened over the past couple of weeks, but are still holding the recent range above $130 per ton. Mixed news out of China regarding steel demand has cooled off buying for the time being as the market has failed to break […]
The Futures market has continued to be characterized by limit trading and a touch softer pricing. The lack of volatility in the physical market over the past few months has not given futures traders an impetus to put on (or close out) positions. Overall, the market has been quite boring with the expectations that better […]
We noticed a little slippage in flat rolled steel prices over the past week. As one steel executive put it to SMU this afternoon, “Prices are in retreat – only at a snail’s pace.” One of our manufacturing sources told us that they had seen prices slip over the past two weeks, “We have seen […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The IP index (industrial production) was reported as 99.36 for August, up from 98.96 in July. This was an increase of 0.4 percent and moved the 3MMA up by 0.17 percent. Growth of the 3MMA was 2.0 percent year over year reversing […]
Other metallic coated (mainly Galvalume) imports July 2013 and YTD by source and port of entry. This is the fourth of an expanded series of analyses, exclusive to the Steel Market Update that is designed to provide a much more comprehensive view of actual flat rolled steel volume by product. This will enable a steel […]
For the week ending September 14, 2013, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,843,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.5 percent decrease over the previous week but a 5.3 increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.9 percent, down […]
None of the indexes watched by Steel Market Update (SMU) on a regular basis saw flat rolled steel prices rising this past week. We saw very modest movement lower ($1-$5 per ton) or no change. Benchmark hot rolled prices range from $645 to $652.50 per ton (average $648.90 per ton). We have discussed this issue […]
Hot dipped galvanized imports July and YTD 2013 by source and port of entry: This is one of an expanded series of analyses, exclusive to the Steel Market Update that is designed to provide a much more comprehensive view of actual volume by product. This will enable a steel buyer or manager to see exactly […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission determined on September 12 to continue trade restraints on welded large diameter pipe from Japan following a second five-year sunset review. The dumping margin is set at 30.80 pct. It was determined that revoking the existing antidumping duty order “would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material […]
According to Baker Hughes data from September 13th, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,768 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 1 rig when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 4 to 1,361 rigs, gas rigs up 7 to 401 rigs, […]