Flat rolled and plate steel prices were essentially flat this past week as both Steel Market Update and Platts saw hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steel prices remaining the same as the previous week. With Section 232 being put on the back burner, the flood of foreign steel imports (prompted by the original […]
Total imports of rolled steel increased by 16.9 percent, and sheet products by 18.4 percent, in the three months through July, compared with the prior three months, according to final license data for July released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Aug. 1. The three-month moving average (3MMA) of the total volume of rolled product […]
Steel Market Update has seen a bit of a yo-yo effect to flat rolled and plate steel prices over the past few weeks. Since the word got out that the Section 232 decision would not be announced any time soon, the market has taken a step back to evaluate where prices will go from here. […]
Domestic raw steel production totaled 1,769,000 net tons in the week ending July 29, down 0.2 percent from the previous week, but up 6.1 percent from the same period last year, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington. The mill capability utilization rate for the July 29 week was 75.9 percent, down from 76.1 […]
Flat rolled steel price averages rose on all three indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) this past week. Hot rolled has become the “hottest” product recently, according to steel buyers contacted by SMU during the week. Benchmark HRC rose to $625 per ton on Platts, as well as our own index. SteelBenchmarker, which only […]
Foreign steel imports continue to trend well over the 3.0 million net tons mark as steel buyers placed heavy tonnage once the Section 232 investigation was announced in March (March orders = June/July delivery). The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released preliminary census for June and license data for July earlier this evening. According to […]
The following is a press release on steel exports from the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) on July 27 2017: Falls Church, VA. July 27, 2017. Steel exports swelled 17.3 percent from April to May – and were up 25.2 percent from a year earlier – to surpass 1 million net tons. More than […]
Cliffs Natural Resources is psyched to begin construction on its HBI facility. The company is currently in discussions with potential financial partners that align with Cliffs’ strategy for growth. CEO Lorenzo Goncalves says a financial partner for a $700 million private investment is not necessary to move the project forward, but would be nice to […]
Steel buyers reported the domestic steel mills as being somewhat more receptive to moving prices early this week compared to where they were at the end of this past week. The result being we did see prices rising on all sheet products. One mill told us earlier today about their coated products order book, “Hanging […]
U.S. raw steel production totaled 1,773,000 net tons in the week ending July 22, up 0.6 percent from the previous week and an increase of 6.4 percent from the same period last year. The mill capability utilization rate was 76.1 percent, up from 75.6 percent in the prior week and 71.3 percent a year ago, […]
Global steel production in the three months through June set another record and once again China was the driver, reports the World Steel Association, with the following analysis by SMU. World steel production in the month of June totaled 141,046,000 metric tons, down from 143,204,000 tons in May. Capacity utilization was 73.0 percent, up from […]
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) completed our mid-July flat rolled market trends analysis. We invited 650 steel executives to participate. Of those responding, 48 percent were service centers, 41 percent were manufacturing companies, and 8 percent were trading companies, with steel mills and toll processors accounting for 4 percent each. One of the questions […]
The week ending July 21 was another mixed week for flat rolled steel and plate prices. Steel Market Update (SMU) steel price indices saw two products as being higher, two lower and one unchanged. Platts had two higher and one lower. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this week as they only report twice per month. […]
On Wednesday, Nucor became the first flat rolled mill east of the Rockies to increase spot prices on hot rolled, HRP&O, cold rolled and galvanized steels. Nucor Sheet Mill Group sent out a letter to their customers advising that effective immediately they were taking pricing up by a minimum of $25 per ton ($1.25/cwt). On […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released new foreign steel import license data on July 18. The trend for July is for steel imports to remain quite high, in the mid 3-million-net-ton range. We expect imports to be lower than June’s 3.9 million net tons, but above the 12-month and 3-month moving averages. Finished steel […]
As the steel industry waits for clarity on Section 232 we got another week where flat rolled steel prices came in with mixed results. We saw some of the items indexed have their averages rise while others fell. In reality it doesn’t appear that there is a lot pushing prices in one direction or another […]
U.S. raw steel production hit 1,763,000 net tons in the week ending July 15, up 1.7 percent from the previous week and up 5.8 percent from the same week last year. Mill capacity utilization for the July 15 week averaged 75.6 percent, up from 74.3 percent the prior week and 71.3 percent the prior year. […]
Flat rolled prices were mixed this past week. Early last week we were collecting information from steel buyers who were advising Steel Market Update that steel mill lead times were short and there were still holes in the order books at many of the domestic mills. As the week progressed we found, especially after the […]
We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of entry is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide a negotiating advantage for our premium subscribers. We are […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released license data for the month of June as well as the first 11 days of July. The bottom line is imports of foreign steel into the U.S. continue to be worrisome (to the domestic steel mills) and the early trend is for July 2017 to be another three […]
The market has become “quiet” over the past week and our sources (steel buyers) are providing mixed messages, which is showing up especially in our galvanized index whose average was down $25 per ton today. The GI number was impacted by cheap pricing being reported on commodity grade galvanized with one GI buyer telling us, […]
Rising steel prices, some in anticipation of Section 232 trade action, are blurring the line between prime and secondary steel, report service center executives familiar with secondary steel products. Grand Steel Products, Wixom, Mich., sells both prime steel and secondary—material that did not meet the specifications of its initial customer but is still suitable for […]
U.S. steel mills managed to export just over one million net tons in May, according to just-released data by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Exports increased by 150,000 tons over April 2017 and were 203,000 tons greater than what was exported during May 2016. May 2017 is the first month to exceed one million tons […]
Domestic raw steel production was 1,733,000 net tons in the week ending July 8, up 0.9 percent from the previous week and 4.0 percent from the same week in 2016, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) in Washington. Mill capacity utilization in the July 8 week was 74.3 percent, up from 73.6 percent […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed with SMU seeing increases in hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized (.060″ G90) and Galvalume. SMU took plate prices down $15 per ton. Platts saw prices as stable on all but cold rolled, which they saw down $5 per ton compared to the prior week. We had a shortened week […]
Total raw steel production for the month of May was 7,606,893 net tons, with 5,168,112 tons produced by electric arc furnaces (EAF) and 2,438,781 tons produced by blast furnaces. May raw steel production was 231,724 tons or 3.1 percent higher than the previous month, but 86,653 tons or 1.1 percent lower than the same month last […]
Steel Market Update saw modest improvements in flat rolled steel prices mostly associated with reductions of the discounts found at the lower end of the ranges. There are a number of mills that are waiting to see what happens with the Section 232 investigation before announcing new prices or opening their order books for the next […]
The final license data for June was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system of the U.S. Commerce Department on July 5. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in […]
Domestic raw steel production totaled 1,717,000 net tons in the week ending July 1, off 0.7 percent from the previous week and down 1.5 percent from the same week in 2016. The mill capacity utilization rate was 73.6 percent, down from 74.2 percent the prior week and 74.5 percent the same time last year, reports […]
Flat rolled steel prices inched higher this past week on the indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU). We saw just about everyone take benchmark hot rolled prices higher by $5 per ton. SMU took our HRC average from $600 to $605, Platts took theirs from $605 to $610 and SteelBenchmarker took theirs from $603 […]