A few weeks back Steel Market Update published an article on World Export Price vs. Domestic HRC Pricing. Here is an update with a comparison of current prices. The latest SMU HR price was at $635 per net ton (NT) average, and using the world export price as reported by SteelBenchmarker plus $70 per ton […]
Hot rolled prices continue to be the weakest of the flat rolled products with most buyers reporting $640 as readily available and we heard of only one mill (with limited to no spot tons available) holding firm at $660 (and we expect collecting few to no spot orders at that price level). Cold rolled continues […]
This is the fourth week in February and our third forecast regarding foreign imports into the United States. What Steel Market Update does each week (except the first week of the month) is to review the U.S. Department of Commerce import license data and then, based on the most recent numbers, project import levels by […]
For the week ending February 22, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,831,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.8 percent decrease over the previous week and a 2.3 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.3 […]
Iron ore inventories in China are bloated with 100.91 million metric tons of ore now sitting at the 40 major ports in China. This number has grown since the 86 million metric tons reported prior to the beginning of the Chinese New Year in January. This growth continues despite a slowdown in the Chinese steel […]
The following article was written by David Phelps, the recently retired director of the American Institute for International Steel and now a contributing writer for Steel Market Update. You can find more information about Mr. Phelps in the About Us section of our website. On February 18th, the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration shocked […]
The following article was written by steel industry consultant and contributor to Steel Market Update, Paul Lowrey. Mr. Lowrey owns a consulting company called Steel Research Associated, LLC which works with steel mills and large distributors or manufacturing companies involved with steel and steel products. More information about Mr. Lowrey can be found in the […]
The following article was written by Peter Brebach who is the owner of Iron Angels of Colorado a company which specializes in imports of pipe and tube and other steel products. You can find more information on Mr. Brebach on our website in the About Us section. Everybody I talked to was surprised by the […]
A Nebraska court ruled Wednesday that a law passed in 2011 improperly allowed Gov. Dave Heineman to give TransCanada eminent domain power to advance the Keystone XL pipeline project in Nebraska. The decision regarding eminent domain should have been made by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, ruled Lancaster Judge Stephanie Stacy. The 2011 law was […]
For the week ending February 15, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,845,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.3 percent increase over the previous week but a 1.6 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 77.0 […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed compared to this time last week. The combination of our survey coupled with direct channel checks found hot rolled and galvanized prices slightly weaker while cold rolled and Galvalume prices remained the same as last week. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator continues to reference prices as moving lower over […]
As we mentioned last week, Steel Market Update will provide our members weekly steel import forecasts based on license data provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce (beginning with the second week of the month). We advise our members to spend a few minutes and read David Phelps article about the import license data and […]
Galvanized steel buyers need to be aware that zinc prices have been rising since the beginning of February. The metal is close to its one year high but still has a ways to go before reaching the level at which the domestic mills last raised coating extras on galvanized steels. Zinc has been trading around […]
Scrap exports closed out the year of 2103 at 18,470,000 tons, down by 2,888,702 tonnes or 13.5 percent from 2012. Turkey alone was down by 1,169,000 and the Far East as a whole was down by 942,000 tonnes or 9.9 percent. Figure 1 shows the three month moving average of total exports and of the […]
We have posted the latest imports by product, port and country in the Premium section of the website. The most recent data is through the end of 2013. Some of the highlights include totals for hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and “other metallic coated” which is primarily Galvalume. This report provided information which can help […]
During the month of January, Steel Market Update provided steel import forecasts for the month of January based on the weekly license data provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce. As we have explained previously, license data can be quite misleading compared to the final Census numbers. However, we did receive a number of emails […]
One of the questions Steel Market Update is asked, is can we compare domestic hot rolled pricing vs. world export price? The spread, which we have seen referenced as high as $150 per ton in other publications, can be somewhat deceiving if not evaluated properly. The world export prices on hot rolled coil (HRC) as […]
Prepainted flat rolled imports were mixed in December over November, with imports increasing for prepainted galvanized and electro-galvanized but decreasing for prepainted cold rolled and Galvalume. Overall, the four prepainted products tracked by SMU fell a combined 1,216 net tons (NT) or 5.5 percent over the previous month. Compared to the same month one year […]
The US Department of Commerce said it will maintain anti-dumping and countervailing duties on oil country tubular goods (OCTG) imported from China, in announcement made earlier this week. The recent decision closed loopholes in the 2009 AD/CV duties imposed by the International Trade Commission, which allowed pipe made in China but finished in other countries […]
Perhaps one of my steel sources described the current environment surrounding the flat rolled steel industry best when they said, “Welcome to the Charles Dickens version of the steel industry – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the season of hope, it was the winter of despair…’ […]
Apparent steel supply for December was 8,662,212 net tons (NT), a 4.14 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This was due to a slight increase in domestic shipments and a decrease in exports. The net trade balance from the difference between imports and exports was a surplus of 1,635,411 net tons […]
December 2013 U.S. exports for all steel products fell 7.2 percent over November to 871,384 net tons (NT). Compared to December of the previous year when total exports were 969,783 NT, December 2014 exports were down over 10.1 percent. December tonnage was below both the 3 and 12 month moving average (MMA). The primary countries […]
Shipments of sheet and strip products in 2013 as a whole were 49,608,408 tons, a decrease of 1.7 percent from the total for 2012. Shipments in Q4 averaged 4,100,162 tons / month, a decrease of 2 percent from Q3 but an increase of 3.7 percent from Q4 last year. Comparing YTD shipments for 2013 to […]
For the week ending February 8, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,839,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 1.9 percent increase over the previous week but a 1.9 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.8 […]
The various indexes we follow on a regular basis all had prices on benchmark hot rolled moving lower this past week. Platts took the biggest leap moving from $675 to $660 in one week. SMU dropped $5 per ton to $660. Plate prices rose at Platts but dropped with CRU. The result is we are […]
Our market survey captured lower prices in hot rolled and cold rolled this week compared to last. Galvanized and Galvalume prices were unchanged. Here is how we are seeing prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU Range is $640-$680 per ton ($32.00/cwt- $34.00/cwt) with an average of $660 per ton ($33.00/cwt) FOB mill, east of […]
Imports of total flat rolled products increased in January to 990,803 tons from 852,840 in December. Total long products increased from 412,848 to 552,093 tons. Total sheet products as a sub set of flat rolled increased from 677,510 to 775,337 tons. Semi finished declined from 604,558 to 532.813 tons. An analysis of the 3 month […]
Using December license data, total 2013 imports are projected to have been 32,146,101 net tons (NT). This is a decrease of 4.0 percent from the 33,474,544 NT imported in 2012, however when compared to 2011 figures, 2013 total imports were up 12.7 percent. Looking back to 2007, prior to the recessionary period and where trade […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of December 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 […]
During the month of January we saw scrap prices rise $5 to $16 per gross ton compared to December 2013 pricing. Iron ore prices dropped on both 62% Fe and 58% Fe (spot prices are based on Chinese spot sales). Zinc and aluminum prices used to coat galvanized, Galvalume, Galfan, aluminized, ZAM both dropped by […]