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 […]
When we speak with the domestic steel mills one of the things we hear from them is that their order books have improved over the last three weeks. The weekly raw steel production report provided by the AISI is also catching this change in ordering and production patterns. For the week ending April 25, 2015, […]
Steel Market Update reviews the weekly steel import license data as reported by the US Department of Commerce. License data can be quite volatile and we only use the reports as a way of evaluating any changes in tonnage or product trends. The closer we get to the end of the month the better the […]
Service centers and wholesalers are making no bones about it – it is time for the steel mills to raise steel prices. A good example was comments made by incoming Reliance Steel & Aluminum CEO, Gregg Mollins during last week’s earnings conference call: ” I think personally we expect a price increase in the not […]
The slippage in flat rolled steel prices continued this past week but we are seeing signs that the end to the slide “may” be close. Hot rolled prices dropped $3 (SMU) to $5 (Platts and CRU) per ton with only $1 separating the indexes from one another. We normally see the indexes tightening up the […]
On Friday of this past week the U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) reported Preliminary License Data for steel imports into the United States. March steel imports (all products) were reported to be 3,587,949 net tons. This is down from the 3.7 million tons reported for February and below both the twelve month and three […]
With Nucor CEO John Ferriola commenting today about the surge in steel plate imports over the last two months into the United States, Steel Market Update thought we would do a piece showing plate imports over the last few years and how they compare to recent levels. The monthly average import rate of plate in […]
We saw a mixed market for flat rolled steel prices this past week with some items moving lower and one (cold rolled) slightly higher than what we reported one week ago. Steel Market Update, which continues to have our Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral, saw the lower end of hot rolled as being $5 per […]
As much as the steel industry would like to see foreign steel imports shrinking so far in April, that is not the case. Based on steel import license data through Tuesday, April 23rd, imports are on pace to come close to repeating March’s 3.7 million tons. At this point in time Steel Market Update believes […]
Global steel production in 12 months through March totaled 1.626 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.2 billion tonnes which yields a utilization for the 12 month period of 73.9 percent. China accounted for 50.3 percent of global production in March. Asia as a whole, including India, accounted for 68.3 percent of global production. Production […]
For the week ending April 18, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,655,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.1 percent increase over the previous week but a 10.1 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 70.0 percent, up […]
It certainly doesn’t matter that Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Indicator is pointing at Neutral, flat rolled steel prices have continued to fall and last week was no exception. Benchmark hot rolled pricing (prior to any extras being added) dropped on all four indexes followed by SMU. Our own index dropped to $447.50 per […]
The US Department of Commerce issued final results on anti-dumping duty order on certain circular welded non-alloy steel pipe from Mexico on Monday, April 13, 2015. The DOC determined a weighted-average margin of 7.33 percent for steel pipe products from Productos Laminados for the period November 1, 2012 through October 31, 2013. In December of […]
On Tuesday, April 14, China announced it will terminate antidumping and countervailing duty tariffs on grain-oriented electrical steel exports from the U.S. U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH), who have been leaders in pushing for fair trade practices, applauded the decision. “This announcement is great news for Ohio steel producers like AK […]
There has been a “calming” to the market although that has not stopped the slow trickle lower we are seeing in flat rolled steel pricing. We saw hot rolled break through the $440 level although we were told by steel buyers that were able to get those kind of numbers the last $5 per ton […]
Based on the first two weeks of steel import license data collected by the US Department of Commerce, total steel imports coming into the U.S. during the month of April continue to trend well over 3.0 million tons. We are still early in the month and our opinion is the import number should be slightly […]
One of the questions asked during the flat rolled steel market analysis we conduct twice per month is regarding the spread between domestic and foreign steel pricing. When spreads are large, as they were for most of calendar year 2014, then you can expect a surge in imported steel. As the spread subsides the need […]
For the week ending April 11, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,621,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.3 percent increase over the previous week but a 12.0 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.6 percent, up […]
The pace of the flat rolled steel price slide slowed this past week, based on an analysis of the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. As the pace slows, the spread between indexes also tends to get tighter due to fewer variations in the data collected. Looking at benchmark hot rolled, Steel Market […]
Licensed data for March was updated on April 7th 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 February 2015 is 8,968,831 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. February supply […]
US Steel has revised their galvanized coating extras to those being used prior to October 1, 2014 when the last change was made. The new extras are lower than those used this past year. Here are the new extras being charged: The change in extras came as a surprise to some within the industry as […]
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 two months of this year exports were 2,026,675 for an annual rate of 12,161,050 tonnes. Figure 1 shows that the monthly average declined for three consecutive years, 2012 through 2014 and […]
Prices eased off the hectic pace we have been watching and reporting on over the past few months. Benchmark hot rolled pricing remained the same as what we reported this past week at $460 per ton average. We are watching the lower end of the range carefully to see if the domestic mills will attempt […]