One of our main Asian contacts provided SMU with a brief glimpse as to what is happening in China this week: No major changes in Ore prices until after the New Year… Waiting to see if the Chinese Government makes any Regulation changes after New Year. You know this is a normal SAGA around this […]
Flat rolled steel service centers and wholesalers sell material into what is called the “spot” market. The spot market is where a service center customer buys material at whatever price the market will bear in order to fill a short term need. Over the years Steel Market Update has found that when flat rolled steel […]
NLMK USA will re-start production on their #2 galvanizing line at Sharon Coatings in late January. “We should start coating steel late January. The demand for our products is solid, especially for the coated products and restarting line 2 will allow us to better service the light gage requirements of both service center and OEM […]
Earlier this week the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) released end of October shipment and inventories data for the U.S. steel service centers. Total steel shipments (all products) were 3,073,400 net tons which was 8.6 percent lower than October 2015 levels. The distributors shipped 146,400 tons per day which was an improvement over the 145,000 […]
October service center daily shipments improved 1.0 percent from September which is better than it seems because since 2009 on average, October has declined by 2.3 percent. Carbon steel shipments increased by 29,700 tons, the number of shipping days was unchanged at 21 and tons/day shipments increased by 1,400 tons. Intake and shipments In October […]
Canadian shipments for all steel products in the month of October were 356,600 net tons, a decrease of 3.8 percent from the month before and a decrease of 6.1 percent from October 2015. Inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,080,600 tons, down 3.2 percent from last month and down 11.2 percent from […]
On Tuesday of this week Steel Market Update (SMU) and one of our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshops toured the Big River Steel facility in Osceola, Arkansas. We conducted the classroom portion of our program in Memphis and then drove to the mill for our tour and then we moved […]
The following analysis of the steel markets in China is from Beijing Metal Import & Export Co.,Ltd and is being reproduced by Steel Market Update with permission: Today is Monday, Please allow us to update China steel market (Nov 07 – Nov 13, 2016) as usual as following: In past week, market and non-market factors […]
Once per month HARDI* wholesalers conduct a galvanized steel conference call so they can better understand what is happening in the broader markets as they deal with steel pricing, demand and inventory issues. The HARDI monthly call was held on Wednesday, November 9, just one day after the presidential election. Not surprisingly, the future of […]
ArcelorMittal posted net income of $680 million for third quarter 2016. Steel shipments totaled 20.3 million tonnes, down from 22.1 million tonnes in second quarter and 21.1 million tonnes in Q3 2015. Crude steel production in the NAFTA segment decreased 1.8 percent sequentially to 5.6 million tonnes in third quarter. The NAFTA segment includes the […]
(ArcelorMittal press release, 8 November 2016) – ArcelorMittal is expanding its global portfolio of automotive steels by introducing a new generation of advanced high strength steels (AHSS). These innovative steels include the launch of new press hardenable steels (PHS) Ductibor® 1000 and Usibor® 2000 – both of which are already available for OEM qualification testing […]
Inventories, and whether they are too tight right now, have been a topic of discussion lately. Eddie Lehner, CEO of Ryerson Holdings commented on this during the Ryerson earnings call last week. In his prepared remarks Lehner said, “Notwithstanding, the decline of CRU carbon sheet prices from a peak late in the second quarter of […]
Ryerson Holding Co., a processor and distributor of metals in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and China, reported net income of $8.2 million for third quarter. Sales for the quarter totaled $735.1 million, essentially unchanged from second quarter. Shipments fell 5.0 percent sequentially and 2.4 percent year-over-year to 480,000 tons. The lower volume was partially offset […]
Olympic Steel CEO Michael Siegal believes the election is affecting demand and said service center inventories are particularly low as a result. Olympic Steel executives on the earnings call noted that shipments were better in October than in September but fourth quarter is expected to be slow. Said Siegal, “As you know the fourth quarter […]
US Steel has been at the forefront of initiating trade cases and working to strengthen enforcement laws. During the US Steel earnings call, CEO Mario Longhi made the following comments on trade. “We are pleased with the progress we have made so far on the trade front, but much more work needs to be done […]
US Steel reported third quarter net earnings of $51 million compared to a Q2 loss of $46 million and Q3 2015 net loss of $173 million. Net sales in third quarter increased to $2.7 billion, with $114 million in sales coming from the flat-rolled segment and $81 million from US Steel Europe. Sales benefited from […]
US Steel Corp announced today that it has agreed to terms proposed with Bedrock Industries Group for the sale and transition of ownership of US Steel Canada. The transaction is subject to customary court approvals. US Steel Canada has been in Companies Creditor Arrangement Act (CCAA) proceedings since Sept. 16, 2014. Under terms of the […]
The following “letter to the editor” was prompted by comments made by Lourenco Goncalves CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources during his earnings conference call with analysts and reported on by Steel Market Update (and others). The comments below were made by an executive at a domestic steel service center in response to Mr. Goncalves: I’m […]
After already publishing the article below on our website for our members, we received a note from our primary Chinese price source advising us that prices rose in China today by approximately $61 per metric ton. We were told, “Price on 2.5mm [.0985″] is USD450/mt fob st. lsd. A lot of buyers did not cover […]
The NLMK Group reports combines results for its Foreign Rolled Products Segment which includes NLMK USA and six strip and plate production sites in Europe, including NLMK Dansteel in Denmark. NLMK USA is comprised of NLMK Pennsylvania, NLMK Indiana and Sharon Coating. The segment saw Q3 sales decline to 541,000 tonnes, down 18 percent from […]
SSAB Americas, recorded a third quarter operating loss of SEK 73 million ($8.1 million) compared to a profit of SEK 162 million ($18 million) in Q2 2016. The loss was due mainly to the maintenance outage at Montpelier in the third quarter, higher variable costs, lower volumes and lower capacity utilization which was somewhat offset […]
Thyssenkrupp AG is in negotiations to sell its Brazilian steel plant Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico (CSA) to Ternium SA. According to the Wall Street Journal, talks are at an advanced stage but may hit a stumbling block over price for the Brazilian operations. Thyssenkrupp spent $6.8 billion to build CSA but it is currently valued […]
AK Steel’s efforts to focus on higher value products, cut costs and reduce exposure to commodity products has resulted in a net income of $50.9 million and the company’s best third quarter since 2008. Adjusted EBITDA margins improved to 10.8 percent from 7 percent a year ago. “De-emphasizing commodity products and introducing new products, such […]
Essar Global has teamed up with Cargill Inc. to make a bid for US Steel Canada, according to the Globe and Mail. Essar’s bid was rebuffed by USSC in June of 2016 and again as the entity Ontario Steel in August, despite the backing of the United Steelworkers. Bedrock Industries is the current favorite for […]
Essar Steel Algoma has filed a legal proceeding against Essar Global Fund and its affiliates charging that the Essar Group has engaged in a course of conduct that consistently preferred the interests of the Essar Group and, in particular, Essar Global Fund, to those of Algoma and its stakeholders. This conduct, charges Algoma, includes the […]
The final three holdouts in the Standard Iron Works v. ArcelorMittal et al. antitrust litigation have come to a settlement. Steel Dynamics, Nucor and SSAB have agreed to settle price-fixing claims for a combined total of $30 million. Steel Dynamics issued an announcement on Tuesday that it will pay $4.6 million in the class action […]
Steel Dynamics reported higher flat rolled prices resulted in an 11 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter. Net earnings were $284 million on net sales of $2.1 billion. Adjusted net income, including a $5 million litigation settlement charge, was $157 million for the quarter. SDI steel production was at 85 percent capacity in […]
Nucor Corporation reported net earnings of $270 million for third quarter, up from 233.8 million in Q2 and 227.1 in Q3 2015. Consolidated net sales in third quarter increased 1 percent to $4.29 billion from the previous quarter and 2 percent from a year ago. Average sales price per ton increased 11 percent QoQ. Tons […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported sales of $2.19 billion, down 0.8 percent from Q2 and down 4.4 percent from Q3 2015. Tons sold were down 4.9 percent from the previous quarter to 1,445,500 tons with average selling price per ton up 4.4 percent, sequentially. Reliance was able to maintain during most of the quarter the […]
EVRAZ North America increased third quarter crude steel production 5.7 percent to prepare for scheduled maintenance outages at its Regina and Pueblo mills. Regina will be out for three weeks for upgrades to the steelmaking and rolling mills while Pueblo is scheduled for a two week maintenance outage. Flat rolled production dropped 25.7 percent in […]