California Steel Industries (CSI) and U.S. Steel Posco (UPI) became the first domestic mills to raise flat rolled steel prices as they opened their order books for the month of January 2014. CSI was the first to release their letter informing their customers that “due to changing market conditions” the mill was increasing their transaction […]
For the week ending November 2, 2013, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,833,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.9 percent increase over the previous week and a 7.4 increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.5 percent, up […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported estimated raw steel production at 1,817,000 net tons for the week ending October 26th, 2013. During October, production peaked to a high of 1,873,000 net tons in the week ending October 5th, and dipped to a low of 1,817,000 net tons in the final week ending October […]
The inputs which affect steel prices increased slightly during the month of September with the exception of shredded scrap and 58% Fe Iron Ore prices. Busheling and HMS scrap prices increased by $3 to $5 per ton in the Midwest. Iron ore spot pricing – which is measured out of China – showed one product […]
As we entered the month of October, flat rolled prices had been trending sideways for a number of weeks. On October 1st Steel Market Update measured benchmark hot rolled coil with an average of $635 per ton which was actually down slightly from the $640 recorded at the end of September. However, the mills had […]
The month of September ended with a bang as NLMK USA became the first mill to announce new flat rolled price increases. As we moved into the first few days of October the other domestic mills followed the NLMK lead – although none of the mills followed the base price levels suggested in the NLMK […]
The combination of higher spot prices for flat rolled steel and adjustments to contract negotiations has caused some steel buyers to seek alternatives to their normal domestic source of supply. Steel Market Update is beginning to get confirmations from both manufacturing companies and service centers of larger foreign tonnage purchases being made for 1st and […]
A certain level of frustration appears to be hitting the service centers in both the spot and contract markets. In the spot market we have heard from a number of service centers that their attempts to raise spot steel prices are being met with a certain level of disbelief as end users evaluate how to […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce is trying to catch up on the steel import licensing data after being affected by the government shutdown orchestrated by our representatives in Washington, D.C. The US DOC released Preliminary Census Data for September imports late last week. Imports continue to be at a high level although slightly lower than […]
Apparent steel supply for August 2013 was up 1.62 percent compared to the same month one year ago. This is primarily due to higher total steel imports and higher semi-finished steel imports for this year. The net trade surplus from imports versus exports was 1,730,960 net tons in August of this year, up from 1,502,420 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from November 1st, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,742 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 4 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 19 to 1,376 rigs, gas rigs down 16 to 360 rigs, […]
Apparent steel supply for August 2013 was up slightly compared to the same month one year ago by 1.62 percent. This is primarily due to higher total imports and higher semi-finished imports for this year. The net trade from imports and exports was a surplus of 1,730,960 net tons in August of this year, up […]
According to Baker Hughes data from November 1st, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,742 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 4 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 19 to 1,376 rigs, gas rigs down 16 to 360 rigs, […]
Based on recently released data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, exports of steel rose slightly during the month of August to 1,147,411 net tons (all products). This represents an increase of 60,102 tons compared to the exports shipped during the month of July which totaled 1,087,309 tons. August exports of hot rolled totaled 86,065 […]
The rumor mill is in high gear as being fanned by the various steel industry periodicals. In the most recent edition of breaking industry news Steel Business Briefing and Platts McGraw Hill Financial reported a U.S. mill as being ready to suspend price talks if a deal is announced for ThyssenKrupp Steel USA. The article […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to rise over this past week. With the exception of Galvalume all of our averages increased by $5 per ton compared to this time last week. The domestic mills continue to be quite firm in their pricing stance and negotiations are limited (but not impossible). The market expects another round […]
The 3 month moving average (3MMA) of imports of the combined tonnage of billets, blooms and slabs through September reached the highest level since February last year. We use the 3MMA to avoid getting too wrapped up in a single months numbers which can be a fruitless exercise. On the same basis flat rolled products […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released final August import numbers late last week. August steel imports rose by 368,606 net tons to 2,878,367 net tons due to higher slab, OCTG, cold rolled and hot-dipped galvanized imports. Slab imports were up by 140,252 tons over the prior month to 657,659 tons total. However, this was expected […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The Industrial Production (IP) index was reported as 100.04 for September, up by 5.7 percent from the 99.47 result in August. This was the first month >100 since February 2008. The three month moving average (3MMA) increased by 2.5 percent year over […]
For the week ending October 26, 2013, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,817,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.0 percent decrease over the previous week but a 7.4 increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 75.8 percent, down […]
Just about all of the steel indices monitored by Steel Market Update have benchmark hot rolled coil at, or very close to, $660 per ton ($33.00/cwt) as of this past week. Prices have risen by approximately $5 to $10 per ton during the week. The short term trend is for prices to remain firm and […]
According to Baker Hughes data from October 25th, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,738 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 1 rig when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 4 to 1,357 rigs, gas rigs up 4 to 376 rigs, […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of September 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 […]
The combination of higher spot prices and adjustments to contract negotiations has caused some buyers of flat rolled steel to seek alternatives to their normal domestic source of supply. Steel Market Update is beginning to get confirmations from both manufacturing companies and service centers of larger foreign tonnage purchases being made for 1st and early […]
The domestic steel mills continued to put pressure on spot market pricing which resulted in another small increase in our flat rolled price assessments for this week. We continue to hear from buyers that prices are only somewhat negotiable ($10-$30 per ton off of the price announcement levels). This is somewhat of a change from […]
During our HARDI steel conference call held earlier today (see article above) one of the wholesalers asked the question how many times have we seen galvanized base prices at, or above, $40.00/cwt? We thought it was a legitimate question and was one we could easily answer using our own galvanized base price indices. So, SMU […]
For the week ending October 19, 2013, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,835,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.6 percent decrease over the previous week but a 8.5 increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.6 percent, down […]
The domestic mills pushing for customers to switch to Platts indices may shudder when they realize that Platts benchmark hot rolled coil index is the lowest of the five followed by Steel Market Update.Even so, all of the indices are now within $6 per ton of each other. The average price for hot rolled, using […]
According to Baker Hughes data from October 18th, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,739 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 4 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 6 to 1,361 rigs, gas rigs up 3 to 372 rigs, […]
One of the questions posed to the approximately 600 companies invited to participate in our mid-October flat rolled steel survey was if they believed if any or all of the announced flat rolled price increases would be collected by November 1st. A large majority of almost two-thirds – 64.8 percent – responded that at least […]