For the week ending October 15, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,590,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.3 percent increase over the previous week but a 2.4 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.0 percent, up […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their decline this past week according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Two of the indexes (SMU & Platts) had benchmark hot rolled prices piercing the $500 per ton ($25.00/cwt) level in the spot markets in the United States and Canada. SteelBenchmarker did report prices but still […]
The conversation has begun regarding when flat rolled steel prices will end their slide and reverse course. Flat rolled steel prices have been in a steep decline since mid-June 2016 when benchmark hot rolled prices peaked at $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt, SMU index average) FOB domestic mill. Since then steel prices have retreated $145 per […]
Trading company sources have been telling SMU to expect foreign flat rolled steel prices, especially light gauge galvanized prices, to rise in the coming weeks. Traders are advising SMU that slab and hot band substrate prices have been rising around the world thus increasing the cost for many conversion mills to produce cold rolled and […]
Nucor Plate Mill Group began advising their customers on Tuesday of their intention to raise carbon and alloy plate as well as heat-treated plate prices. The mill advised their customers in an emailed letter with the following (reaction to the increase comes after the Nucor letter below): October 11, 2016 To our Valued Customers, Effective […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to move lower as benchmark hot rolled broke through $500 per ton and is now averaging $490 per ton. We were relatively conservative in our range this week as we did capture at least one order placed for moderate tonnage at $440 per ton and we are hearing that the […]
We believe that misinformation 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 now publishing monthly […]
For the week ending October 8, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,585,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.6 percent decrease over the previous week and a 2.7 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 66.8 percent, down […]
The following report on steel exports is from the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS). We thought our readers would enjoy looking at exports from a different perspective: Falls Church, VA. October 11, 2016. Steel exports jumped 10 percent from July to August, nearly returning to their level of a year earlier. The 812,011 net […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their swoon this past week, according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled declined by $10 per ton ($.50/cwt) on our own HRC index average and $15 per ton ($.75/cwt) over at Platts. Both indexes have hot rolled averaging $500 per ton and the expectation […]
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 August 2016 was 9,115,482 net tons and the percentage of imports was 26.2 percent of the market. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished […]
August steel exports totaled 812,010 net tons (736,644 metric tons), up 10.0 percent over July but down 1.7 percent from August 2015. This is the highest export level seen since August 2015, while last month we saw exports at a 7 month low (738,096 tons). Total August figures are above the thee month moving average […]
Final approval was received from a federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday to wind down operations at Magnetation’s iron ore plant in Grand Rapids, MN and pellet plant in Reynolds, IN. “Now, our focus shifts to safely shutting down the Pellet Plant and Plant 4 in order to preserve their value for a potential buyer of […]
Licensed data for September was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on October 4th. 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 […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) reported final census data regarding foreign steel imports for the month of August and revised new license data regarding the month of September. The DOC reported August imports of 3,055,600 net tons and September license data has the month below 3.0 million tons to approximately 2.8 million tons. The […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their swan dive with hot rolled and cold rolled moving $10 per ton lower and galvanized/Galvalume moving lower by $20 per ton. For the first time in quite awhile SMU picked up information regarding HRC offers down to $460 per ton (with tons). Most buyers, however, were reporting $480 to […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final U.S. raw steel production estimates for the month of August 2016. 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 […]
For the week ending October 1, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,611,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.4 percent increase over the previous week but a 4.5 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.9 percent, up […]
Flat rolled steel prices took a nose dive this past week according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. We saw large double digit drops in hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and plate. Benchmark hot rolled continues its march toward sub-$500 per ton averages. We lowered our average by $15 per ton […]
Every Tuesday Steel Market Update publishes our flat rolled steel price ranges and index averages. Throughout the week we analyze information gathered from steel buyers from around the country. At times we spot a trend developing but don’t have enough price points to justify fully adjusting either the lower or upper end of our range. […]
In light of the recent circumvention complaint against China/Vietnam we thought our readers would be interested in learning what countries have been in the top ten exporters of galvanized steel to the United States beginning in 2008 through July 2016. Canada has consistently been a major supplier of galvanized to the U.S. market. SMU thinks […]
The number of active steel buyers has definitely slowed over the past few weeks. Buyers are holding back as business has slowed for some, inventory levels are OK (and in some situations rising) and lead times are pulling back making the need to buy less urgent. When taking into consideration lead times, we are also […]
For the week ending September 24, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,605,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a 4.9 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.6 percent, down […]
On Monday of this week the US Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data for August foreign steel imports. Based on the latest data August came in a smidgen below 3.0 million net tons. The DOC has August foreign steel imports as totaling 2,988,724 net tons. This is 277,325 tons fewer than the month of […]
Production in the month of August at 134,125,000 metric tons was up by 0.2 percent from July and the three month moving average (3MMA), that we prefer as a measure, was down by 0.13 from July. Capacity is 2.35 billion tonnes per year and the 3MMA of capacity utilization in August was 68.8 percent. Figure […]
Two of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update (actually one index followed and our own) saw flat rolled steel market prices differently this past week. Our indices were relatively calm this past week having moved dramatically the previous week. Platts indices were all down by double digits and, in the case of hot rolled […]
License requests for steel coming from foreign sources are continuing at a pace where steel imports for the month of September will exceed 3 million tons. On Tuesday the U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest license data. The data is indicating a rising trend in total foreign steel imports (all products), hot rolled, cold […]
After making a big move this past week, spot flat rolled steel prices out of the domestic steel mills remained range bound with only minor adjustments as steel buyers try to digest what they need to do next. Steel buyers have been telling Steel Market Update that there is a disparity between the mini mills […]
Late on Thursday evening we received the following letters to the editor, both from executives with flat rolled steel service centers: Great articles tonight, full of very useful info. There was a lot of space dedicated to HR imports, spreads to domestic, etc. With HR having been in excess for some time, it’s not surprising […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to fall by double digits this past week on all of the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. As the pace of the slide has accelerated the spread between the indexes have increased. We have seen this same phenomena in the past which is caused by the differences in […]