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 […]
Is the newly initiated Section 232 the Black Swan event that will remove steel supply from the market and tip the balance of supply/demand in favor of the domestic steel mills, thus pushing prices to levels not seen since 2008? There should not be any doubt that the make-up of the Trump Administration, coupled with […]
Galvalume imports through the first three months 2017 total 292,843 net tons. If this pace continues throughout the calendar year imports of “other metallic” products (with the majority being Galvalume) could exceed 1.1 million tons despite the antidumping and countervailing duty suits. As you can see by the table below, there has been steady growth […]
We have an unusual market. What Steel Market Update is seeing is confidence by most of the steel mills. They feel there may be some minor adjustments in spot pricing as a few mills jockey to maintain their order books. At the same time, most steel buyers are being supportive of the price levels we […]
For the week ending April 22, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,715,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.4 percent decrease over the previous week but a 1.0 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released import license data for April as well as Preliminary Census Data for the month of March. The Preliminary Census Data will be finalized in about a week’s time and usually there are only minimal revisions. March foreign steel imports are being reported as being 3.4 million net tons. This […]
Steel Market Update is including the following MetalMiner article about zinc for a number of reasons. The run-up in zinc spot pricing late last year and early this year created a situation where the domestic North American steel mills felt they had no choice but to increase the coating extras used when putting zinc onto […]
Production in the month of March was 144,953,000 metric tons, up from 127,227,000 tons in February. Capacity utilization at 74.0 percent was up from 70.3 in February. The three month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer to use were 136,737,000 and 71.2 percent respectively. Production in February was severely influenced by the short month. Capacity […]
There has been much discussion about the impact of foreign steel on the U.S. economy and specifically how it impacts the steel industry and steel prices. Most in the steel industry believe foreign steel to be a cancer on world trading while others see it as a way of taking wealth from one country and […]
Flat rolled spot prices are slipping based on an analysis of the Steel Market Update (SMU) and Platts flat rolled steel indexes. We found lower average pricing on hot rolled and cold rolled this week with no movement in galvanized and Galvalume. SMU had plate prices down $20 per ton while Platts kept plate prices […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been going through the import data as presented by the U.S. Department of Commerce going back to 2009 (Great Recession) and looking at the market as we came out of the Great Recession. In 2009, 2010 and 2011 galvanized imports were 1 to 1.5 million net tons. In 2012 and […]
Earlier today, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order requesting the U.S. Department of Commerce conduct an investigation under the Section 232 statutes (national security) to see if steel and imports of foreign steel are important to National Security interests of the United States. “We’re going to use American steel, we’re going to use American […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest update on foreign steel import license request on Tuesday evening. The data suggest that April will be similar to that of March where license data is at 3.5 million net tons. Both March and the April trend a well above both the 12 month and 3 month […]
The debate these days seems to be centered around how much inventory is really out there, how much is incoming (especially from foreign sources) and how much flat rolled will buyers need to buy come this summer? Earlier today I asked a small steel mill if they believed the low coated inventories (1.65 months) according […]
For the week ending April 15, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,740,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.2 percent increase over the previous week and a 2.5 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
We saw mixed results this past week regarding flat rolled steel spot prices in North America. Steel Market Update (SMU) only moved one index (hot rolled +$10) while all of the other products remained the same as the prior week. SteelBenchmarker, which only produces pricing twice per month, reported hot rolled and cold rolled prices […]
The following is a press release on steel exports from the American Institute for International Steel with updates from AIIS on 4/18/2017: Falls Church, VA. April 17, 2017. Steel exports rose slightly from January to February to total 827,559 net tons. February exports were 1.1 percent higher than in January and 6.2 percent higher than […]
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 […]