The market is moving very quickly now as issues of supply begin to raise their ugly heads. The issues at California Steel Industries (CSI) have spooked the market and steel mills are abondoning the process of announcing price increases prior to raising prices. In reality, prices have already gone up $50 per ton from the […]
We had another week of “up” pricing as everyone tries to grapple with the impact of Section 232 tariffs. One thing does appear to be a certainty – the laws of supply and demand are now clearly in the hands of the U.S. government. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: […]
Steel buyers are confiding in Steel Market Update advising us of the “craziness” that is going on in the market as both buyers and steel mills react to both the “known” and “unknown.” The known are the issues at California Steel, which has been advising some customers to expect they will get only 50 percent […]
California Steel Industries (CSI) surprised customers with a whopping $120 per ton price increase on all its flat rolled products on Monday, the same day that its main West Coast competitor USS-POSCO (UPI) informed customers that its April order book is now closed. In its Feb. 26 letter to customers, CSI announced that it’s April […]
Preliminary steel import data was updated Tuesday afternoon showing 2.88 million net tons of imports for the month of January, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This is down from last week’s estimate of 3.08 million tons, but up 17.3 percent over December 2017 data. Preliminary data has been averaging 30,000 to 40,000 tons […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Feb. 24 totaled 1,783,000 net tons, a 0.7 percent increase from the same period last year, but up 1.8 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 76.5 percent, up from 75.1 percent the prior week, reports the American Iron and […]
We saw mixed results depending on which index you are following. SMU believes the variance is due to quotes vs. actual orders and the fact that many buyers who are reporting prices may not have actually bought flat rolled steel products in the spot market (from mills) over the past week. We are well aware […]
U.S. steel exports in December totaled 751,977 net tons (682,183 metric tons), down 14.8 percent from November, but up 3.5 percent from December 2016. Total exports have averaged around 885,000 tons over the last few months after reaching a 2.5-year high in May (1,006,087 tons). The total December export figure is below the three-month moving […]
Foreign steel import licenses picked up over the past week and the February trend moved up to 2.5 million net tons from the low 2-million-ton level suggested last week. The trend is very similar to what we saw during the month of December when the U.S. imported 2,450,286 net tons. Our focus, however, is on […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of December 2017 showed a decline month-over-month and also year-over-year to 8,501,642 net tons, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting […]
Total rolled steel imports declined by 15.0 percent, and sheet products by 17.3 percent, in the three months through January compared to the prior three-month period, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of federal Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data. This month’s SMU report was delayed as we performed a major revamp of […]
Scrap, iron ore and zinc prices advanced in February, while the price of coking coal has declined by $4 per ton since mid-January. To put the raw materials analysis into perspective, Figure 1 shows the spread between Chicago #1 busheling and hot rolled coil ex works Indiana through Feb. 9, both in dollars per net […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices remain strong, and many buyers are eixpecting prices to move higher from here. Hot rolled, which has been on a tear for a number of weeks, took a breather remaining at $745 per ton as an average. Other products, however, did move higher expanding the spread, which in the […]
Tom Clarke is trying to make friends on the Iron Range. Clarke, owner of iron ore facilities Magnetation and Mesabi Metallics, sent letters to all the United Steelworker locals in the Iron Range pledging to unionize Mesabi Metallics and not to displace any other iron ore operations with his own. The Duluth News Tribune reports […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Feb. 17 totaled 1,751,000 net tons, a 1.1 percent decrease from the same period last year, but up 0.8 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 75.1 percent, up from 74.5 percent the prior week, reports the American Iron and […]
Flat rolled steel prices had a mixed week as benchmark hot rolled came close to $750 per ton for the first time since Jan. 17, 2012. We are seeing a shrinking of the spread between spot base prices for hot rolled and those of cold rolled and coated steels. Hot rolled prices rose on all […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices have been on the rise and are expected to continue climbing in the coming weeks. Yesterday, Nucor announced a new $50 per ton ($2.50/cwt) base price increase on plate. Steel Market Update anticipates flat rolled sheet prices will soon follow. With the latest Nucor announcement on plate the total […]
Steel prices continue their march higher, and we are seeing a very strong market on hot rolled coil right now. With the strength of HRC, we are seeing a return to more normal price spreads between hot rolled, cold rolled and coated base pricing. Prices appear to be heading to even loftier levels with steel […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Feb. 10 totaled 1,737,000 net tons, a 1.9 percent decrease from the same period last year, and down 0.6 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 74.5 percent, down from 75.0 percent the prior week, reports the American Iron and […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data through the first 13 days of February that “suggests” foreign steel imports could be at the lowest levels seens in many years. The trend is for imports to barely exceed 2 million net tons, almost one-third lower than the 3 million tons that were reported for January. […]
This analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled products into the district of entry and the source country. We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about regional import volumes are often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis is to describe in detail what is going on in a […]
Total rolled steel imports declined by 15 percent in the three months through January compared to the previous three-month period, August through October. Sheet product imports declined by 17.3 percent on the same basis, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of U.S. Department of Commerce data released Feb. 6. The data is reported within the […]
Both manufacturing companies and flat rolled steel service centers reported near unanimous support for higher spot pricing. In the process, it is Steel Market Update’s opinion the higher flat rolled and plate spot prices provided by the distributors also support the most recent steel price increase announcements by the flat rolled steel mills. Last week, […]
According to at least one steel index, hot rolled prices surged higher this past week. Steel Market Update saw the markets as being higher with coated making the largest weekly move. When it came to benchmark hot rolled, Platts moved their pricing up by $28 per ton (actually $27.50 but we rounded to $28) as […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released the final accounting for December 2017 imports, which came in at 2,450,286 net tons. For the calendar year, foreign steel imports rose by 15 percent compared to 2016. Total steel imports rose to 37,999,383 net tons. Steel Market Update is providing our readers with a detailed analysis of selected […]
Steel prices continued to head into “lofty” levels with hot rolled, the strongest product, moving up another $10 per ton this week. Cold rolled bucked the trend as its average remained the same as one week ago. Galvanized and Galvalume prices were also seen as higher this week. Plate prices were mixed with our average […]
U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Feb. 3 totaled 1,747,000 net tons, a 0.2 percent decrease from the same period last year, but up 1.6 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate for the week averaged 75.0 percent, down from 73.8 percent the prior week, reports the American Iron and […]
Hot rolled, cold rolled and plate prices increased last week, according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled prices, which recently passed through the $700 per ton barrier, reached $715 per ton on the SMU index and $718 per ton ($717.75) on Platts. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices last week […]
It is not enough to know a steel mill’s base price. When doing a comparison of galvanized transaction pricing, a steel buyer must understand the extras being added to the base price as well as freight and other considerations that could impact the total delivered cost to your facility. During our Steel 101 workshop we […]
The flat rolled and plate steel mills were busy this week announcing new rounds of price increases. Steel buyers who spoke with Steel Market Update today reported offer prices as being much higher than their most recent transaction pricing. For that reason, we have included a note about what was being reported as the latest […]