Steel imports in October accelerated from September but were down by one-third from year ago levels, according to the latest import data analysis from the American Institute for International Steel. The press release from AIIS follows. Falls Church, VA. December 1, 2015. Steel imports increased in October, following two months of sharp declines. The United […]
All eyes are looking ahead to after the Thanksgiving Holidays. As lead times approach the New Year (for hot rolled coil, most coated products are already well into 1st Quarter 2016) and customers think of restocking/preparing for 2016 business levels, this tends to be prime time for the domestic mills to announce price increases. To […]
For the week ending November 21, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,562,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a 15.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 65.3 percent, down […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of October 2015. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the […]
Flat rolled steel and plate prices continued to slide this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. SMU saw prices as being sideways on hot rolled, down $10 on cold rolled, down $5 on galvanized and down $10 on Galvalume. Both CRU ($376) and Platts ($375) dropped their averages […]
The Department of Commerce announced on Wednesday the initiation of AD and CVD investigations of imports of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from Pakistan. AD investigations were initiated on imports of the same products from Oman, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. The products in question are welded carbon-quality steel pipe and tube, of […]
Global steel production in 12 months through October totaled 1.609 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.3 billion tonnes. Production in the month of October was 133,640 tonnes up from 130,998 in September or 2.0 percent, however on a tons/day basis production was 4.311 million tonnes, down from 4.367 in September and from 4.518 in April […]
Magnetation LLC announced it may temporarily idle its Plant 2 facility in Bovey, Minn. A WARN notice has been issued to employees of the facility. If the production curtailment is followed through, the closure will take place on or after January 31, 2016. “While any operating curtailment is unfortunate, we must balance our current production […]
Flat rolled steel prices moved sideways to slightly lower this week, an improvement from the almost straight-line dive we have been reporting for the last couple of months. Our benchmark hot rolled index remained the same as the week prior at $380 per ton ($19.00/cwt) but we did pick up some minor movement at the […]
For the week ending November 14, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,601,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.1 percent decrease over the previous week and a 13.7 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.0 percent, down […]
Late Tuesday afternoon the U.S. Department of Commerce released import license data through the 17th of the month. Based on the licenses received during the first 17 days of the month, November is trending toward a similar month, September, at approximately 2.8 million net tons. Remember, this is only a trend based on the license […]
Cliffs Natural Resources announced today that it will temporarily idle iron ore production at its Northshore Mining operation in Minnesota. Pellet production will cease Dec. 1 and continue through Q1 2016. Existing customer demand will be satisfied from current inventory. The adjustment in production is due to dumping of foreign steel that has negatively impacted […]
Flat rolled and plate prices continued to erode this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. With the exception of SteelBenchmarker (who tends to be behind the other indexes due to it only collecting market price intelligence twice per month), all of the indexes are showing hot rolled prices […]
The following article is one produced for our Premium level members as we look to delve deeper into the overall steel industry picture in the United States. You can learn more about becoming a Premium member either online or by contacting our office: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an […]
Earlier this week, Steel Market Update adjusted our benchmark hot rolled coil (HRC) index to reflect the average pricing we have been seeing as of the beginning of this week. We reported our average as being $380 per ton ($19.00/cwt) which also happens to be the lowest hot rolled price seen during the height of […]
The following article is one that is produced for our Premium level members once we release the latest Imports by Product, Port & Country data into our website. In this article we want to give you a little feel for the data. Once you start reviewing imports by port you can begin to ask questions […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their months long swoon as steel buyers confided in Steel Market Update that lower prices/offers are available for those who actually have tonnage to sell. One service center executive told us today, “We are getting offers for HR at around the $360NT price. I see a lot of material still […]
According to the latest data released from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of September 2015 was 8,543,021 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. September supply […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released import license data this afternoon. Steel Market Update reviews the data and compares it against previous months’ data at the same point in time during the month. What we are concentrating on are the four flat rolled items involved in the ongoing trade cases (AD/CVD). We are seeing a […]
For the week ending November 7, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,618,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a 12.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.7 percent, down […]
In the first nine months of this year bulk scrap exports were 9,968,048 tonnes for an annual rate of 13,290,731 tonnes, down by 13.8 percent from the first nine months of last year. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages (3MMA) for 2015 and on the annual monthly average […]
The various flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update are falling in line and reporting hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and plate prices the same. We find this interesting as the various steel price collection techniques are slightly different from one another. Could this be a harbinger that flat rolled prices are close […]
Two dams at the Sarmarco Mineracao SA iron mine, jointly owned by BHP Billiton Ltd and Vale SA, ruptured on Thursday, triggering a mudslide that engulfed the village of Bento Rodgrigues. The flow was estimated to be eight kilometers long and 2.5 meters deep. The dams held tailings, mining waste, from ore operations. Samarco issued […]
September steel exports totaled 811,582 net tons (736,256 metric tons), down 1.8 percent over August and down 21.5 percent from September 2014. Total September figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA, average of July 2015 through September 2015 figures) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA, average of October 2014 through September […]
License data for October was updated on November 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. At SMU we perform a detailed analysis of this data, an explanation of our methodology is given at the end of this write up. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of October were […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported total foreign steel imports for the month of September 2015 were 2,834,240 net tons. This represents a 227,141 net ton reduction from the 3,061,381 net tons that arrived on U.S. shores during the month of August. The September tonnage was below both the twelve month and three month moving […]
Based on the most recent import license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, October import licenses totaled 3,399,248 net tons. We anticipate when the final census numbers are released for the month of October total steel imports will be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4 million tons (net tons not metric tons). Imports of […]
We found flat rolled prices so far this week at about the same levels seen one week ago. Our hot rolled average remained at $390 per ton ($19.50/cwt) with both the upper and lower parts of our range at the same levels seen one week ago. The lower end of the cold rolled price range […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of September 2015. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the […]
For the week ending October 31, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,641,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.6 percent decrease over the previous week and a 10.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.6 percent, down […]