By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg Iron ore prices continued to climb in the past week as port stocks fell further and the market enters a period of weaker seaborne supply. On Tuesday, July 2, CRU assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $124 /t, up $7.50 /t w/w. Demand in China remains strong as […]
By CRU Analyst Erik Hedborg The iron ore price averaged $106 /t in June, which brings the 2019 year-to-date price as high as $90 /t. However, in the second half of the year, we see a few bearish factors that will contribute to prices being lower than they are today. Those factors include: • Demand contraction […]
U.S. steel imports saw a big drop in May, from unusually high levels in April, according to preliminary Census data. Total steel imports declined to less than 2.1 million tons in May from more than 3.3 million tons in the prior month. Imports were down significantly from April in all product categories except for Galvalume. […]
Iron ore mine Magnetation is back in the news. Last time we reported on the company, the Iron Range was a hotbed of investment. Magnetation had been rescued from bankruptcy by Tom Clarke of ERP Iron Ore who was also rekindling operations at Mesabi Metallics (formerly Essar Steel Minnesota) with Chippewa Capital Partners. ERP filed […]
The World Steel Association reports that total global crude steel production in May increased to 162.7 million metric tons (179.3 million short tons), an increase of 5.4 percent over May 2018. Leading the way was China with a 10 percent increase to 89.1 million metric tons (98.2 million short tons). Chinese production exceeded an annual […]
U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal USA are the latest steelmakers to announce a price increase. U.S. Steel informed customers today, June 26, that it has raised the base price for all new flat-rolled spot orders by $40 per ton ($2/cwt), effective immediately. Likewise, ArcelorMittal USA added $40 to the base price for its hot rolled, cold […]
There seem to be more questions than answers regarding the move by the domestic flat rolled steel mills to increase spot base pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. The move was taken as the low end of the benchmark hot rolled steel base pricing was dipping below $500 per ton. The […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices tumbled again this week. The question now: Is this the last drop we will see as the domestic steel mills have stepped forward and announced price increases to the tune of $40 per ton? Base prices for benchmark hot rolled were beginning to pass through the psychological $500 per […]
Hoping to put an end to declining flat rolled prices, a handful of steelmakers announced $40 per ton increases today, effective immediately on unconfirmed orders. The Nucor Sheet Mill Group was the first to announce that it is increasing base prices on new orders of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel by a minimum […]
As I expected, Nucor came out with a $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) price increase on flat rolled this afternoon. This is the first Nucor price increase since Feb. 20, 2019. Shortly after the Nucor announcement, USS/POSCO followed with an increase letter of their own and then NLMK USA put out a letter identifying the minimum […]
The market is keeping a close watch on capacity utilization by domestic steelmakers for signs the mills may be dialing back on their high production rates to better match supply with demand. While there was a small dip, mill utilization remained above the 80 percent level last week. The American Iron and Steel Institute reports […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive level members. For more information on upgrading to a Premium-level subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. The price of iron ore has surged as scrap has declined benefiting the EAF producers in the U.S. over the integrated mills. Table 1 summarizes the price changes through June […]
By Chris Houlden, CRU Research Manager CRU held its annual Steel Briefing in New York City on June 17. This Insight summarizes the key takeaways from papers presented by CRU North America market specialists Josh Spoores and Ryan McKinley. • Up to 20 Mt of new hot-rolling and over 8 Mt of steelmaking capacity could come […]
With steel prices at such surprisingly low levels, it’s only a matter of time before the domestic mills announce a price increase. The only point of debate is when. There’s clearly some disagreement over whether the market has found a bottom yet. Slightly more than half of the service center and OEM executives responding to […]
This analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of hot rolled coil into the district of entry and the source nation. We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about local import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s […]
The construction segment of the market is booming. This is what we heard from the HARDI steel conference call we participated in last week, and it is what we heard from many companies over the two days SMU was in New York City earlier this week. Whenever we travel, one of the things we always […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary All eyes are on this month’s G20 summit in Osaka for a resolution to ongoing trade tensions between the USA and China, and markets are braced for U.S. tariffs on a further $300 billion of Chinese goods if negotiations do not progress to the USA’s satisfaction. News that Trump […]
After a few weeks of dynamic price drops on all flat rolled and plate products, we saw prices moderate this week. Maybe a better way to put it is prices were flat to down slightly compared to one week ago when we saw major reductions in the spot numbers. Here is how we see prices […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg Iron ore prices have continued ascending in the past week as low port inventories in China have forced steelmakers to turn to seaborne cargoes. On Tuesday, June 18, CRU assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $108.00 /t, a $7.60 /t increase w/w. Seaborne supply has been particularly strong […]
Halfway through the month, imports of foreign steel into the United States are trending considerably higher in June, based on license data from the Commerce Department. If import licenses continue at the current rate, June steel imports could approach 3 million tons—up from an estimated 2.6 million tons in May and the 12-month average of […]
U.S. steel mill utilization inched up a half percent after four weeks of small declines to 81.1 percent in the week ending June 15. Raw steel production for the week totaled 1,887,000 net tons, a 4.0 percent increase from the same period last year, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute. Adjusted year-to-date production through June […]
SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look at Commerce Department license data to the very detailed look at volume by district of entry and source nation. The report you are reading now is designed to plug the gap between these two. Our intention is to report regional imports […]
SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look at Commerce Department license data to the very detailed look at volume by district of entry and source nation. The report you are reading now is designed to plug the gap between these two. Our intention is to report regional imports […]
SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look at Commerce Department license data to the very detailed look at volume by district of entry and source nation. The report you are reading now is designed to plug the gap between these two. Our intention is to report regional imports […]
SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look at Commerce Department license data to the very detailed look at volume by district of entry and source nation. The report you are reading now is designed to plug the gap between these two. Our intention is to report regional imports […]
SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look at licensed data to the very detailed look at volume by district of entry and source nation. The report you are reading now is designed to plug the gap between these two. Our intention is to report regional imports for six […]
This report examines the import share of sheet, plate, long and tubular products and 16 subcategories. Table 1 shows total supply to the market in three months through April and in 12 months through April for the four product groups and the 16 subcategories. Supply to the market is the total of domestic mill shipments […]
Total U.S. raw steel production in the month of April declined 4.3 percent to 8,109,241 net tons, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington. Although down over the prior month, the April production level remains strong in comparison to recent months. Also remember that the March production level was the highest seen in […]
U.S. steel exports in April totaled 602,652 net tons (546,717 metric tons), up 2.3 percent from March, but down 30.0 percent from levels one year ago. This is the fifth lowest monthly export level seen in Steel Market Update’s 10-year history, behind December 2018 at 519,099 tons, September 2018 at 584,858 tons, March 2019 at […]
April apparent steel supply was calculated at 9,662,760 net tons, according to data released earlier this week. Apparent steel supply is determined by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total U.S. steel exports. April apparent steel supply saw a 166,538 ton or 1.7 percent decrease compared to the same month […]