Global steel production in 12 months through April totaled 1.624 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.2 billion tonnes which yields a utilization for the 12 month period of 73.8 percent. China accounted for 50.9 percent of global production in April. Asia as a whole, including India, accounted for 68.4 percent. Production in April on […]
For the week ending May 16, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,705,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.4 percent increase over the previous week but an 8.3 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 72.1 percent, up […]
First, a quick note to our readers that follow the Steel Market Update (SMU) indices closely, after speaking with dozens of steel buyers of hot rolled products at the Metal Industry Dinner (Boy Scout Dinner) in Chicago we adjusted the lower end of our range to $440 per ton. This resulted in our HRC average […]
The European Commission has begun an anti-dumping investigation on imports of cold rolled coils from China and Russia. Eurofer, the EU steel association, lodged a complaint on April 1, 2015 on behalf of EU steel producers of CRC. According to the EU Official Journal, Eurofer presented evidence “alleging that imports of certain cold-rolled flat steel […]
Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an important look at the overall trade picture and its effect on demand at the mill level. Figure 1 shows that net sheet product imports on a three month moving average (3MMA) basis in March continue to be almost double that which existed before the […]
The market has continued to firm as steel buyers return to the market and lead times slowly begin to extend. We are also seeing a return to the more traditional spreads between hot rolled base prices and those of cold rolled and coated. The normal spread has been $100 to $120 per ton depending on […]
As we review steel import license data for the first time during the month of May we want to remind our readers not to read too much into the numbers. At this point in the month, we are trying to compare the second week of the month of May against the four previous months to […]
Earlier today Nucor announced a price increase of $25 per ton on carbon and alloy plate as well as heat treated plate products. The increase was to be effective “immediately.” Our sources are advising of at least one other plate mill that was telling their customers that they would be following the Nucor lead and […]
For the week ending May 9, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,665,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a 10.5 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 70.4 percent, down […]
In the twelve months of 2014, scrap exports totaled 15,308,000 tonnes, down by 17.1 percent from the same period in 2013. In the first three months of this year exports were 3,254,765 for an annual rate of 13,019,060 tonnes. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages for 2015 and […]
Flat rolled prices have begun to climb out of the hole which has been almost a year in making. Steel Market Update and Platts both saw benchmark hot rolled prices as being up $10 per ton this past week while CRU had HRC up $1 per ton. The HRC average of the three reporting indexes […]
Will Domestic Price Increases Create Opportunities for Foreign Steel? Over the past few months domestic steel prices have become competitive against foreign steel imports. With the price announcements SMU wondered if the increases would widen the spread, thus creating an opportunity for more foreign steel to come to the U.S. During last week’s flat rolled […]
Iron ore was the topic for keynote speaker Lourenco Goncalves at the AISTech 2015 Presidents Award Breakfast in Cleveland on May 5. Goncalves, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cliffs Natural Resources, received the AIST William T. Hogan, S.J. Lecture Award in recognition of individual outstanding leadership to the iron and steel industry. Goncalves […]
March steel exports totaled 896,027 net tons (812,863 metric tons), up 2.0 percent over February but down 13.8 percent from March 2014. Total March figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA, average of January 2015 through March 2015 figures) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA, average of April 2014 through March […]
Licensed data for April was updated on May 5th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU 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 available to our […]
According to the latest data released from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of March 2015 is 9,575,903 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. March supply […]
Late last week I asked the vice president of one of the steel mills which had announced price increases if they were indeed collecting higher prices and we received a one word response “Yep.” Earlier today we spoke with a conversion mill about the status of their pricing and they provided a more descriptive look […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Final Census Data for the month of March. The final total of foreign steel imported into the United States during the month was 3,615,960 net tons. This is a very small decrease from the 3.7 million tons received during the month of February but is well below the 3.9 […]
For the week ending May 2, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,712,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.3 percent increase over the previous week but a 7.0 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 72.4 percent, up […]
Magnetation, an iron ore concentrate and pellet producer, announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it undergoes reorganization. The company has received a commitment for $135 million in debtor-in-possession financing from certain holders of Senior Secured Notes that will support the business while it reorganizes. Magnetation said it will continue to pay […]
On May 1, Nucor Corp. and SSAB Americas filed a joint request asking the Department of Commerce to find that Chinese producers of cut-to-length (CTL) steel plate are circumventing the antidumping order on CTL plate from China. According to documents submitted to the DOC, Chinese plate producers are adding small amounts of alloys, such as […]
All of the domestic steel mills located east of the Rockies (except U.S. Steel) made flat rolled price increase announcements this past week. The first steel index to note an upward move in pricing was Platts where by the end of this past week had taken their hot rolled index up $5 per ton from […]
Despite significant decreases in iron ore, steel, and metallurgical coal pricing, Cliffs Natural Resources, Inc. was able to achieve revenue of $446 million (excluding North American Coal) with adjusted EBITDA of $94 million. US iron ore shipments of 2.9 million tons were less than the 4 million anticipated, but in the US iron ore business […]
During the latest slew of earnings conference calls by the domestic steel mills, analysts were relentless in their pursuit of information regarding trade cases which would conceivably impact the flow of imported steel into the United States. The steel mill CEO’s and other mill executives associated with the conference calls were more than willing to […]
There are always two sides to any story. The domestic steel mill view is the influx of foreign steel is due to illegal dumping by the companies or countries exporting steel to the United States. The manufacturing companies who are benefiting from the lower priced imports (and their impact on domestic steel prices) have a […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of March 2015. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the […]
The March AIIS imports report shows steel imports falling for the second month in a row. Imports from South Korea rebounded 16.6 percent from February. The AISI report in its entirety follows: Falls Church, VA. April 29, 2015. Steel imports fell for the second straight month in March – and the fourth of the last […]
Late on Monday, ArcelorMittal sales people began informing their customers by email of their intention to raise flat rolled steel prices by $20 per ton ($1.00/cwt). The increase was to be effective with orders taken for June production and beyond. In an email seen by Steel Market Update, ArcelorMittal explained their reasoning for taking prices […]
Late last week one of the smaller mills (North Star Bluescope) not known to cold rolled and galvanized buyers since they only produce hot rolled coils, began moving spot prices higher. One of NS customers advised us toward the end of the week that the mill was looking for $465 per ton ($23.25/cwt) for new […]
The domestic mills were beginning to make moves late last week to increase steel prices. Those efforts accelerated earlier today with the announcements out of ArcelorMittal USA (internal memo), Nucor (verbal & later in a letter to their customers), NLMK USA (letter to customers). These moves have, at least temporarily, halted the slide in flat […]