On Wednesday, Nucor Sheet Group announced a $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) price increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steels. The base price increase was to take effect immediately and was the second $30 per ton increase announced since the beginning of the New Year. Since October 21, 2016 Nucor has made six price […]
Licensed data for February was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on March 7th. 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 short tons. Total rolled […]
Flat rolled steel prices firmed a little with benchmark hot rolled up $10 and cold rolled the same. Galvanized price average remained the same and Galvalume was up $5 per ton. We heard from a number of steel buyers that they were waiting to see what was going to happen with scrap prices (expectation was […]
Scrap prices moved higher as scrap dealers and the domestic steel mills finished their March negotiations. With prime grades of scrap settling at about twice the $30 per gross ton originally thought a couple weeks ago, the sheet mills have got a decision to make. Do they take prices up or have they raised prices […]
For the week ending March 4, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,760,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.6 percent decrease over the previous week but a 3.8 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
On Friday of last week Nucor Plate Mill Group announced a $30 per ton price increase on carbon and alloy plate and $50 per ton on heat-treated plate. The increase was to be effective immediately. Today, ArcelorMittal USA also followed the Nucor lead with an increase of their own. A Nucor plate customer told SMU […]
We are continuing our investigation to quantify the players in the global steel trade of both hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC). In our first report published in February we provided an overview for both products. Later last month we published a report describing the major players in the export and import […]
Is it Buy American or not? That seems to be the question of the day. President Trump signed an executive order clearing the way for the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, adding in a memorandum to the Commerce Department that the steel pipe used in construction will have to be made […]
Flat rolled steel prices rose this past week on every item with the exception of the SteelBenchmarker hot rolled index. Steel Market Update (SMU) saw benchmark hot rolled as up $25 per ton to $625 per ton. Platts moved up $5 per ton to $630 per ton and SteelBenchmarker, who reports prices twice per month, […]
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data for January showing steel imports were just shy 2.8 million net tons for the month (2,769,215 tons). The February license data, which was also updated through the last day of February was down slightly from the January levels at 2,614,907 net tons. Of interest […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final U.S. raw steel production estimates for the month of January 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 […]
Flat rolled steel prices are starting to react to the price increase announcements made last week. We saw a large bump in the hot rolled price average while cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume increases were a tad muted in comparison. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU Range is $610-$640 […]
For the week ending February 25, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,770,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.2 percent increase over the previous week and a 3.6 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
A number of steel mills increased flat rolled steel prices, or provided price guidance higher than what was being collected in the spot markets, this past week. Steel buyers are telling SMU that there is a good chance the erosion of steel prices will cease because of these moves by the domestic steel mills. Steel […]
President Donald Trump says the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines must be built from American manufactured steel. After playing with semantics for weeks, the President has now issued a mandate that will require the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines to use steel pipe manufactured in the U.S., according to a report by CNBC on […]
The Global steel industry is on a roll with the y/y growth in the three month moving average (3MMA) of production increasing from negative 5.5 percent in January last year to positive 6.0 percent in January this year. Production in the month of January was 136,514,000 metric tons with a capacity utilization of 69.2 percent. […]
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. On Monday Nucor began the flat rolled steel price increase announcement train as they, and just about every other flat rolled mill in the United States, came out with a $30 per ton increase. Steel buyers, however, were confused as to where spot base prices were […]
February 2017 steel import licenses are suggesting that foreign steel imports will be markedly higher than February 2016. Last year the U.S. imported 2.2 million tons of foreign steel. Right now, based on import licenses collected through February 21, 2017, the trend is for imports to reach 2.6 to 2.7 million net tons. This would […]
We had three price announcements and at least one verbal announcement on flat rolled steel since the week began. Everyone is wondering if the other steel mills will follow and what will the base prices be when the dust settles? Based on what we have been hearing from steel buyers today, the suggested minimum base […]
Three mills have made price increase announcements of $30 per ton on all flat rolled products produced by those mills. The three mills are Nucor, NLMK USA and USS/POSCO (UPI) on the West Coast. On Monday morning Nucor made it official and was the first mill to announced a $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) price increase […]
For the week ending February 18, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,766,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.6 percent increase over the previous week and a 3.3 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Employees at a zinc processing facility in Quebec have gone on strike raising concerns for metal producers that use the alloy in galvanized steel. CEZinc, in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec is co-owned by Glencore and Noranda Income fund. Employees say the company demanded major pension concessions, despite an over-funded pension plan, and has rebuffed union suggestions for […]
A large flat rolled steel service center shot me a note late on Friday advising a steel mill had told them earlier in the day to expect a $40 per ton price increase as soon as Monday of this week. At the same time the customer was told if scrap prices in March increase by […]
This is the second in a series of new reports on global trade of hot rolled and cold rolled products. In the future these articles (the first one was published on Tuesday, February 14th) will be part of our Premium level products and will be published in our Premium supplemental newsletter. If you would like […]
Flat rolled steel spot prices have recently given back some of the gains made since the first price announcements were announced by U.S. steel mills in late October. In the past 13 weeks flat rolled prices increased by $160 per ton or more depending on product and the starting point for any specific steel buyer. […]
We believe that miss-information (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 […]
Flat rolled prices held their own this week and remained at, or very near, last week’s levels. At the moment we are seeing the mills as willing to negotiate prices on some items but, at the same time we are see some strengthening as scrap prices have firmed up over the past week and may […]
The following article is the opinion of John Packard, Publisher, Steel Market Update. I haven’t gone back and reviewed the records as to how many times flat rolled steel prices moved higher after a quick run up followed by a stable to slightly down market for a couple of weeks. Probably less than the fingers […]
For the week ending February 11, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,738,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.9 percent increase over the previous week and a 1.7 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Iron ore has seen a huge spike in pricing, soaring $5.61 to $92.23 per tonne on Tuesday, Feb. 14 for a 30 month high. Iron ore stockpiles are up at ports but not the high grade ore that is being sought by Chinese steelmakers. Efforts to reduce pollution and curb overcapacity has led to the […]