Final February steel import data was recently released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, putting the total monthly import level at 2.4 million net tons, down 30.1 percent compared to January’s 3.5 million ton high. The February figure is below both the three-month moving average (3MMA) and the 12-month moving average (12MMA). When removing the […]
Steel buyers continue to express concerns about hot rolled, cold rolled and plate steels. We have seen weakness in those products over the past week to two weeks. Galvanized and Galvalume have had more staying power, however buyers are not rushing to fill their inventories at today’s pricing. There is a wait-and-see attitude regarding future […]
Steel mill utilization has declined by a percentage point in the past two weeks but remains near a healthy 82 percent, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute. U.S. raw steel production for the week ending April 20 decreased by 0.6 percent from the previous week to 1,903,000 net tons, while the mill capability utilization […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg Demand for steelmaking raw materials has improved in April. Chinese steel prices have jumped on rising seasonal demand, particularly from the construction sector. Steel production in the country has also picked up, as indicated by the blast furnace (BF) utilization rate displayed in CRU’s Coking Coal and Iron Ore Dashboards. This has […]
Flat rolled steel prices saw a little more weakening this week, and steel buyers are concerned that more erosion in prices could be coming in the next few months. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $640-$700 per ton ($32.00/cwt-$35.00/cwt) with an average of $670 per ton […]
Steel mill utilization around 82 to 83 percent appears to be the norm for 2019. U.S. raw steel production for the week ending April 13 decreased by 0.7 percent from the previous week to 1,915,000 net tons, while the mill capability utilization rate inched down a half percentage point to 82.3 percent. The week’s production […]
Updated steel import license data was released Tuesday evening, reporting new March license data up slightly over last week to 2.79 million tons, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. These figures would be above the three-month moving average (3MMA, through final January data), but below the 12-month moving average (12MMA). When removing the semi-finished […]
The Russians are coming—to Kentucky. Russian aluminum producer United Co. Rusal plans to invest $200 million in a $1.7 billion rolling mill being built by start-up company Braidy Industries in Ashland, Ky. The investment will give Rusal a 40 percent stake in the project and a significant presence in the U.S. automotive and aerospace aluminum […]
Total raw steel production for the month of February fell to 7,667,664 net tons, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington. This is the lowest monthly production level seen since April 2018 when it was 7,630,135 tons. Broken down by production method, 5,305,123 tons (69.2 percent) were produced by electric arc furnaces (EAFs) […]
It took a couple of years, dozens of trade suits, a Section 301 investigation, Changes to the Country of Origin, the Section 232 tariffs and finally a pull-back in domestic pricing to dramatically reduce the amount of foreign steel tonnage coming into the U.S. market. This reduction will not be short-lived. It will continue for […]
We saw weakness in a number of the products we index this week. We are not seeing a collapse of the market, and as we discuss in another article in tonight’s issue, there are regional and product differences. The various products are not working in concert right now. We moved our Price Momentum Indicators on […]
A surprising two out of three respondents to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire last week said they are not concerned about the direction of steel prices, at least in the short term, though some question the staying-power of current demand. Steel Market Update asked: “Foreign steel imports are dropping and the domestic mills are […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending April 6 increased by 0.8 percent from the previous week to 1,928,000 net tons, while the mill capability utilization rate inched up by about a half percentage point to 82.8 percent. The week’s production represented a 7.9 percent increase from the same period last year, reported the […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released updated import license data on Tuesday evening, with new March license estimates up slightly to 2.76 million tons. These latest figures would be above the three-month moving average (3MMA, through final January data), but below the 12-month moving average (12MMA). When removing the semi-finished (mostly slabs) licenses from the […]
By CRU North America Analyst Ryan McKinley U.S. long product prices have come under downward pressure, driven primarily by persistently high inventory levels. This inventory build-up has been compounded by an increase in import levels in March relative to the prior month, and consistently wet weather in many regions of the U.S. has delayed any […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data for foreign steel coming into the United States. Based on the data received and reported through April 2, March imports are expected to come in slightly higher than February at 2.6-2.7 million net tons. When removing the semi-finished (mostly slabs) licenses from the data, the finished steel […]
January apparent steel supply was calculated at 9,902,993 net tons, according to data released late last week. Apparent steel supply is determined by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total U.S. steel exports. This is the highest level seen since March 2018 when apparent supply was 9,935,479 tons. January apparent […]
Year over year, total rolled product imports in March were down by 11.2 percent, measured as a three-month moving average (3MMA). This early look at March’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license data (see explanation below). Beginning in January 2018, we expanded this import analysis to include all major steel sectors: sheet, plate, […]
Raw materials prices have lacked direction in the last month. Table 1 summarizes the price changes through March of the five materials considered in this analysis. It reports the month / month, 3 months / 3 months and 12 months / 12 months changes and tells us that iron ore and pig iron declined in […]
U.S. steel exports in January totaled 636,566 net tons (577,484 metric tons), up 22.6 percent from December, but down 23.4 percent from levels one year ago. Although up over the previous month, keep in mind that total exports for December 2018 were at a 16+ year low. The total January export figure is above the […]
Hot-Rolled Coil Price Volatility: Buckle Up As a Steel Market Update member company as well as those on a free trial, you are invited to join CRU and CME for a free steel webinar on hot rolled coil prices on Thursday, April 18. U.S. Midwest HR coil price volatility has increased markedly in recent months […]
By Chris Houlden, CRU Research Manager, Steel CRU has a long-established and proud history of serving the market with its U.S. Midwest HR coil price or “The CRU” as it has become known. Independent market research, including that concluded very recently, has again established that The CRU is used in the determination of the vast […]
By Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg Iron ore price volatility continued in the past week as Vale’s lower guidance and Rio Tinto’s damaged port caused supply fears across the market. On Tuesday, April 2, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $88.70 /t, a $3.30 /t rise week-on-week. The supply side news has been […]
On Tuesday of this week, Steel Market Update published a hot rolled price range of $650-$720 per ton, with an average of $685 per ton. The lower end of our range dropped $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) while the upper end of our range remained the same. Our Price Momentum Indicator on hot rolled remained unchanged […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores In the U.S., plate prices rose $16 /s.ton after falling by $34 /s.ton last week. Prices here started to fall back from their high levels in February, though mills announced a $40 s/.ton price increase, which at best may only stabilize prices at this lower level unless seasonal demand […]
Since hitting an eight-year low in December of just 1,893,568 tons, imports of steel into the United States have been up and down, according to Commerce Department data. Final January imports jumped to 3,478,865 net tons, up 83.7 percent over December—a nearly 1.6 million ton increase. Then in February, based on license data for the […]
Hot rolled is the weakest product and our HRC average priced dropped due to lower prices collected out of two minimills. We understand one mill is offering even lower numbers for large tonnage, but we did not include that in our numbers for this evening as we want to speak directly with the mill to […]
Hot rolled prices were up $5 per ton this past week to $690 per ton. The averages continue to be negatively impacted by a couple of aggressive mills. We saw a little erosion on cold rolled and the lower end of the galvanized range. Galvalume was unchanged. Plate steel prices saw the gains measured last […]
Production at U.S. steel mills continued at levels not seen in years, inching up slightly in the week ending March 23 to an average capability utilization rate of 83.1 percent. Domestic raw steel production for the week totaled 1,934,000 net tons, up 0.2 percent from the prior week and up 5.9 percent from the same […]
The U.S. steel industry produced approximately 24 million tons of steel in the first quarter of 2019, a 6.7 percent increase from the same period last year. Mill utilization averaged 81.8 percent, up more than 5 percentage points from the 76.6 percent in 2018. U.S. raw steel production for the week ending March 30 dipped […]