For the week ending May 27, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,753,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.7 percent increase over the previous week and a 1.2 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Flat rolled steel prices dropped last week as all three of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) reported lower pricing. Benchmark hot rolled prices dropped by double digits last week with SMU and Platts at $595 per ton as the week ended and SteelBenchmarker dropping $12 per ton to $611 per ton. The […]
Production in the month of April was 142,080,000 metric tons, down from up from 143,469,000 tons in March. Capacity utilization at 73.6 percent was up from 71.9. The three month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer to use were 137,479,000 and 72.0 percent respectively. Capacity is 2.35 billion tonnes per year. Figure 1 shows monthly […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been contacted by end users, distributors and steel mills regarding an article published by another trade publication on Galvalume. The article, which was published on Thursday, May 18, 2017, quoted Keith Medick, president and CEO of Union Corrugating Company, as he made the point that there is not enough light […]
“There’s been further erosion with EAF’s dropping spot to $570-$580, not necessarily tied to volume,” is what one large service center told us this afternoon. “[I am] afraid this market at risk of bigger drops than was anticipated.” Flat rolled price averages were lower across all products followed by Steel Market Update with the exception […]
For the week ending May 20, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,741,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.8 percent increase over the previous week and a 0.5 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) reported foreign steel import license data earlier today. May licenses continue at a 3.6 million net ton pace which is quite disturbing (and probably not well timed based on the Section 232 hearing happening on Wednesday). However, almost one-third of the imports are attached directly to the steel mills […]
Zinc prices continue to rise, reaching a two week high of $2,644 per tonne on Monday, May 22 on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Analysts attribute the increase to China’s regional crackdown on the steel industry as it seeks to bring mills in line with emission standards, as well as mine closures that are creating […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to slip lower this past week according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled prices slipped $5 per ton on both Platts and our own index. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices as they only produce prices twice per week. The hot rolled average is quickly […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) reported foreign steel import license data earlier this week. Based on the daily rate and projecting it over the course of the entire month of May we are anticipating another 3.0 million net ton month. As of the 17th of May the trend is for imports to be close […]
Earlier today, Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral to Lower. Flat rolled prices have been slowly dropping for more than a month and it does not appear there is anything that is going to stop the leak from continuing, at least not over the next 30 days. Flat rolled steel […]
For the week ending May 13, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,728,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.5 percent decrease over the previous week and a 0.2 percent decrease over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Hot rolled prices have been dropping over the past few weeks and that trend continued with all three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update reporting lower hot rolled coil price averages last week. Steel Market Update’s (SMU) own index saw HRC prices as being down $15 per ton ($0.75/cwt) to $610 per ton ($30.50/cwt). […]
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 latest license data was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system of the US Commerce Department on May 2nd and closed out the April data. 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 […]
We saw mixed results this week with two products moving lower (hot rolled and galvanized), two remained the same (cold rolled and Galvalume), and plate prices rose a modest $5 per ton. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $580-$640 per ton ($29.00/cwt-$32.00/cwt) with an average of […]
Lately, Steel Market Update (SMU) has been hearing the word “risk” bantered about by many within the steel industry. In Steel Market Update’s opinion, how one perceives the risks associated with buy and sell decisions is one of the factors determining the direction of flat rolled steel prices. which at this time are moving lower. […]
Last week Steel Market Update completed our early May flat rolled steel market trends analysis. During the process, we asked manufacturing companies and service centers to comment on the status of the service center spot market pricing. We found agreement within both camps that steel distributors have been transitioning from a market where they were […]
For the week ending May 6, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,737,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.7 percent decrease over the previous week but a 0.3 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
March 2017 steel exports totaled 948,606 net tons (860,562 metric tons), up 14.6 percent over February and up 22.4 percent from March 2016. This is the highest export level seen since November 2014 when 953,828 tons of steel were exported out of the US. The total March export figure is above the three month moving […]
According to the latest data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of March 2017 was 9,300,718 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports, then subtracting total US steel exports. This is […]
Last week we saw adjustments to the indices that brought the Steel Market Update and Platts numbers closer to one another. Hot rolled is now averaging $625 per ton ($31.25/cwt) on both SMU and Platts (SteelBenchmarker did not provide numbers last week as they only publish their indices twice per month). The spread between the […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce recently released Final Census Data for March 2017 foreign steel imports. The month officially came in at 3.4 million net tons. This is a huge month. What is probably worrying the steel mills is the license data for April is indicating there will be another boom month for imports as […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final U.S. raw steel production estimates for the month of March 2017. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on over 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent […]
From Steel Market Update perspective the past week was fairly quiet and we did not find any huge changes in prices from what we had reported one week ago. We have a flat rolled steel market trends survey in process right now and a portion of our indices are based on the approximately 100 companies […]
The following data is from the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS): Falls Church, VA. May 1, 2017. Steel imports spiked by nearly a quarter in March, and were almost a third higher than they were a year earlier. March imports increased 24.7 percent from February to 3.4 million net tons, 30.5 percent higher than […]
For the week ending April 29, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,750,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.0 percent increase over the previous week and a 3.1 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Steel prices were down across the board this past week according to the indexes followed by Steel Market Update. The biggest drops were on our own indices as we saw large moves in hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel with a smaller move in Galvalume. Our plate prices were up slightly as we continue […]
Essar Steel Minnesota was awarded to billionaire Tom Clarke for $550 million at an auction on Wednesday. Clarke’s group Chippewa Capital Partners, which previously purchased Magnetation, plans to merge Essar Steel Minnesota, now called Mesabi Metallics, with Magnetation and finish the $1.9 taconite pellet plant at the Essar site. Clarke told the Star Tribune that Chippewa […]
Cliffs Natural Resources continues to shore up its balance sheet and focus on reducing its debt. A $72 million debt extinguishment/restructuring charge resulted in a net loss of $30 million for the quarter. Debt was reduced by $550 million during Q1 resulting in total debt at the end of the quarter of $1.6 billion. First […]