Economist Alan Beaulieu struck a cautionary tone in the forecast he offered to attendees of SMU’s Steel Summit last week. The pace and rate of rise in steel demand and production will level off in 2022, he predicted, after skyrocketing due to pent-up demand and government stimulus following last year’s COVID-driven disruptions. “The massive buildup […]
Steel Market Update will conduct our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop, a virtual event, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 5-6, 2021. This workshop was conducted in person for many years and has trained more than 1,000 individuals within the steel industry. We took the workshop into our virtual platform […]
By CRU Principal Analyst James Campbell, from CRU’s Steel Long Products Monitor Long product prices have fallen in most regions this month as demand was lower than expected. Part of the weakness was seasonal, but parts of Asia were also affected by further outbreaks of Covid-19. Except for the USA, the tight supply seen in […]
The shortage of qualified workers and supply chain disruptions continue to be a drag on the U.S. construction sector, said economist Ken Simonson, who predicted continued volatility for nonresidential building in the year ahead. Speaking to the crowd of steel executives at SMU’s Steel Summit Tuesday in Atlanta, the Associated General Contractors of America’s chief economist […]
Here’s the Steel Summit program for Wednesday, Aug. 25, at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta: 7 a.m. – Doors open at GICC. All day beverage sponsored by Felux and pastries sponsored by Ratner Steel 8:20-8:30 a.m. – Opening Remarks by SMU President and CEO John Packard 8:30-9:30 a.m. – Steel […]
After 12 months of planning, countless hours of discussions about our agenda, whether we would be virtual, live or both, and agonizing over how to best conduct a safe live event not knowing what direction the pandemic would be taking – the bottom line is it’s showtime. The weather forecast is for no rain on […]
Veteran metals and mining analyst Timna Tanners will join boutique investment firm Wolfe Research LLC as a managing director. Tanners gained fame and notoriety as an equity research analyst at Bank of America (BoA) for her Steelmageddon® hypothesis – which posited that the collision of older integrated capacity and new electric arc furnace (EAF) capacity would […]
Eric Daniel, director of supply chain for the NIM Group, is the recipient of the 2021 NexGen Leadership Award. Daniel was recognized in a ceremony Tuesday by Phil Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, which sponsors the award. The NexGen Leadership Award is designed to recognize talented young executives, age 35 or younger, who […]
The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members. After logging in at SteelMarketUpdate.com, visit the Analysis tab and look under the “Survey Results” section for “Latest Survey Results.” The historical survey results presentations also are available in the Survey Results section for “Survey Results History.” If you […]
As of this morning, there are 882 executives registered to attend the SMU Steel Summit Conference in person and 130 virtual registrations for a total of 1,012. We anticipate the final numbers to remain close to 900 in-person attendees (includes speakers) and 130-200 virtual attendees. This will end up being either our largest or the […]
One Week to Go… There is now but one week to go before the doors open at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta for the 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference on August 23. This year the conference will be unique as it will be a “hybrid” event. By this I mean we will […]
There are now two weeks to go before the start of the 2021 SMU Steel Market Update Conference, which will begin at 9 a.m. ET at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) on Aug. 23. I do not have an update on the registrations since Thursday of last week when we had more than 950 […]
Just because all major U.S.-based steel mills have reported quarterly results doesn’t mean that earnings season is over. Results from mills based abroad are coming in. And those of you still paying attention to earnings might have noticed a change in tone between when Steel Dynamics kicked things off on July 19 and when Evraz […]
The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members. After logging in at SteelMarketUpdate.com, visit the Analysis tab and look under the “Survey Results” section for “Latest Survey Results.” The historical survey results presentations also are available in the Survey Results section for “Survey Results History.” If you […]
Steel prices have moved steadily and predictably upward week after week for the past year. But Steel Market Update’s check of the market on Monday and Tuesday delivered some mixed signals for the first time since August of 2020. Hot rolled coil prices moved up again by another $30 per ton, falling just short of […]
Looking for Signs One year ago, benchmark hot rolled prices bottomed at $440 per ton ($22.00/cwt). Since then, steel prices have been on a tear with spot hot rolled more than four times higher at nearly $1,900 per ton ($95.00/cwt). The net result from this 52-week march higher is the way steel buyers view the […]
There are three weeks left before the start of the 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference at 9 a.m. on Aug. 23. The amount of effort and thought being put into this one event is monumental. The pandemic, and the resistance by some Americans to being vaccinated, has provided new challenges this year as we make our […]
There are three weeks left before the start of the 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference at 9 a.m. on Aug. 22. Even so, our virtual platform opened this morning which allows registered attendees to interact with one another directly through the platform. We have 900+ registered executives from manufacturing, steel distribution, steel mills, trading companies, toll […]
ArcelorMittal Dofasco plans to spend Canadian $1.77 billion ($1.41 billion U.S.) to install a new direct-reduced iron (DRI) plant and electric arc furnace (EAF) at its steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario. The subsidiary of multinational steelmaker ArcelorMittal SA said the project hinges on support from the Canadian government, which has agreed to contribute C$400 million […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has proposed a major investment at its Heartland Division flat-rolled steel processing operations in Terre Haute, Ind., company President and CEO Mark Millett told Steel Market Update. The cost of the planned expansion – a 390,000-square-foot addition that would increase the facility’s footprint by 50% – is estimated at $231 million and would include enhancements to […]
We talk a lot about the price of steel going up. We don’t talk as much about spreads between hot-rolled coil and prime scrap – which are going up just as fast if not faster. And if you’ve listened to earnings calls over the last two weeks, you know that steel mills and industry analysts […]
On Monday, Aug. 2, Steel Market Update will open the 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference platform to all fully registered attendees. The platform, which was used to conduct last year’s conference and is being used for our virtual workshops, is replacing the App we have used in the past. Our virtual platform will enhance the conference […]
Steel lobbying groups cheered a procedural move advancing a bipartisan infrastructure bill through the Senate. The 67-32 vote does not mean the bill has passed. But it clears a key hurdle on the way toward turning a potentially $1 trillion bill, including $550 billion on steel-intensive infrastructure, into law. Congress – both the House and the Senate – have […]
2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference – Revised Agenda as of July 27, 2021 The 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 23-25. The convention center is conveniently located next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The center and the hotels surrounding the convention center are on […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to announce that Bernard Swiecki of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) will be the featured speaker for our next SMU Community Chat Webinar on Wednesday, July 28, at 11 a.m. ET. Swiecki serves as director of research at CAR as well as director of the Automotive Communities Partnership (ACP). He […]
The latest SMU Market Survey results are now available on our website to all Premium members. After logging in at SteelMarketUpdate.com, visit the Analysis tab and look under the “Survey Results” section for “Latest Survey Results.” The historical survey results presentations also are available in the Survey Results section for “Survey Results History.” If you […]
Flat-rolled steel prices continue to shoot upward – with no signs of the summer doldrums, the chip shortage or fears of a correction blunting their momentum. U.S hot-rolled rolled coil prices now stand at $1,850 per ton ($92.50 per cwt), up $30 per ton from a week ago. Cold-rolled coil and galvanized base prices notched similar […]
Mark Millett, CEO of Steel Dynamics, had some interesting comments in this morning’s earnings conference call with analysts. Based on his comments, the domestic steel industry is capable of producing 90-95 million tons of steel annually. The demand for steel is closer to 120 million tons; in extremely strong markets in the past it has […]
Steel Market Update does not forecast steel prices. That’s a fact that can sometimes get lost in all the pricing data we publish. Please don’t let the good news and happy headlines you’ve been reading in SMU every week make you complacent. It’s convenient to listen to the many readers quoted in this newsletter who […]
One of the products developed by Steel Market Update over the past four years is our flat rolled and plate steel service center inventories and shipment analysis. I discussed it briefly in Thursday’s newsletter, but I want to go into more detail as I believe it is a report that many of you will want […]