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 […]
For the week ending April 4, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,600,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a 13.7 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.7 percent, down […]
The U.S. steel mills saw exports for steel products fall during the month of February. The U.S. Department of Commerce released new information late last week regarding the exports shipped out of the domestic steel mills to destinations outside the United States. Based on their data, exports totaled 878,459 net tons (note the data is […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to slide their slide this past week according to all of the steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled dropped to $460 per ton ($459 at CRU), down $10-$12 per ton depending on the index chosen. A number to keep in mind: $390 per ton. That […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce just released Final Census data regarding February 2015 total steel imports. The US DOC reported imports of foreign steel as being 3,711,541 net tons. What is interesting to us is the Final Census number is 127,975 tons more than what was presented as the Preliminary Census number on March 24th. […]
Based on the most recent license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (SIMA) on Tuesday of this week, steel imports appear to be trending toward the 3.6 million net ton level. This is less than what we saw earlier in the month when license data was trending toward a 3.8 million net ton […]
Last week Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Lower to Neutral. We believe that change is coming and the wholesale slide we have seen in flat rolled steel prices will come to an end. We have not yet come to the conclusion that prices will reverse direction, rather that prices on hot […]
Iron ore prices, which for a period of time had firmed up around $60 per dry metric ton, have been sliding lately with The Steel Index (TSI) reporting 62% Fe fines at $51.0/dmt CFR Tianjin Port, China earlier today. This is the lowest level reported by TSI since they began indexing iron ore prices back […]
Last week a number of steel mill CEO’s testified before the U.S. Congress about the flood of steel imports and the need to protect the domestic steel industry. Separate from the CEO’s testimony, former Nucur CEO called for quotas to be implemented against foreign steel which he considered to be unfairly traded. Steel Market Update […]
For the week ending March 28, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,628,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a 12.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.9 percent, down […]
Benchmark hot rolled pricing has tightened, according to the various flat rolled steel indices we follow. With SteelBenchmarker reporting this past week all four indexes were within a few dollars of one another with SMU and Platts at $470 per ton, CRU $1 higher at $471 and SteelBenchmarker $3 higher at $473 per ton. Our […]
The American Institute for International Steel issued the following report on February 2015 steel imports into the United States. Imports, which declined in February compared to January, are 23 percent higher than at this time last year and one of the major reasons why service center inventories are taking so long to adjust. The higher […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of February 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 […]
With the steel executives testifying before the U.S. Congress today about foreign steel imports we thought it might be interesting to ask Dan DiMicco former CEO of Nucor Steel about the subject. Mr. DiMicco responded to our request with the following: Where do I start???? First let me say this is Dan DiMicco responding not […]
Three steel industry executives met in Washington D.C. on Thursday at the Congressional Steel Caucus to discuss state of the US steel industry and the impact unfairly traded imports have had on jobs and manufacturing. Revisions to the “material injury” standards were proposed to add language that clearly defines indicators of injury and allows relief […]
The current downward cycle is getting a little “long in the tooth” (old) and there are signs that even with the short lead times and excessive inventories at the service centers the domestic steel mills are not chasing business but rather negotiating for specific pieces of business with known tonnages and want dates. The mills […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census data for February 2015 foreign steel imports into the United States. Based on the latest release imports for the month of February, 3,583,566 net tons were imported (note: the US DOC releases the data in metric tons and SMU converts to net tons for our readers). Foreign […]
March imports are trending toward another very large month. We expect that when the final numbers are released, the month will come in about 3.6 to 3.8 million net tons which would be in line with our 12 month moving average of 3.7 million net tons. Last March imports were 3.2 million net tons. Note […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a slight rise in production following 7 consecutive declining weeks previous to this data being released. For the week ending March 21, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,639,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.0 percent […]
Global steel production in 12 months through February totaled 1.628 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.2 billion tonnes which yields a utilization for the 12 month period of 74 percent. China accounted for 51 percent of global production in February. Asia as a whole, including India, accounted for 68.4 percent of global production. Production […]
Last week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-March flat rolled steel market survey. We invited approximately 600 companies to link to our questionnaire which covers a number of issues of importance for the industry. Last week’s industry participants consisted of 49 percent manufacturing companies, 37 percent service centers, 8 percent trading companies, 3 percent […]
This weeks Comparison Price Indices analysis saw flat rolled steel prices as continuing their 8 month slide. Benchmark hot rolled coil (or bands) moved Lower by an average of $7 per ton this past week. Of the four steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (including our own) the spread from low (SMU at $470) […]