Forty-seven percent of manufacturing companies responding to last week’s steel survey reported demand as showing improvement over the next three months based on current order flows. During the survey, we asked the entire group being questioned, which consisted of manufacturing companies (44 percent), service centers (40 percent), steel mills (5 percent), trading companies (5 percent), […]
Manufacturing companies reported a slight uptick in service center spot prices – prices service centers are attempting to sell non-contract items to manufacturing companies on the open market – during the first week of January. Of the manufacturing companies responding to our survey, 25 percent – or a gain of 8 percentage points from the […]
Platts may be providing a hint as to what we will see coming from the other indices as we enter a full week. SMU did see weakness in our steel survey but we have decided not to make any adjustments in our index until Tuesday evening since last week was 1) a short week and, […]
After months of uncertainty related to governmental policies and the fiscal cliff negotiations (or lack thereof) combined with normal end of the year seasonal factors, steel buyers and sellers finished 2012 in the Optimistic range of the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment index. During the first week of 2013 those same buyers and sellers were slightly […]
Our Fiscal Cliff article does not tell the whole story – read Andre Marshall’s HRC Futures article to get more details – there are new taxes (or old taxes come back to live again) which most, if not all, U.S. citizens will pay. The question is how will the impact on our individual paychecks affect […]
Written by: Sandy Williams As you all know, Congress approved legislation on Tuesday to avert the fiscal cliff crisis. Here is a summary of that legislation as published in the Chicago Tribune. Reuters, January 2, 2013—The U.S. House of Representatives approved a Senate bill on Tuesday night to avert $600 billion in automatic tax increases […]
Written by: Sandy Williams The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI rating increased to 50.2 in December from 49.6 last month according to data released in a composite index produced by JPMorgan and Markit in association with ISM and IFPSM. It is the first time the index has been above the neutral mark of 50.0 since […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Construction spending in November decreased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $866.0 billion, down 0.3 percent from the revised October estimate of $868.2 billion according to data released by the Department of Commerce on Wednesday. “Preliminary data from the Census Bureau for November shows overall construction spending slipped 0.3 percent […]
Written by: Sandy Williams ArcelorMittal will sell a 15 percent interest in ArcelorMittal Mines Canada to a consortium led by POSCO and China Steel Corporation for $1.1 billion. The deal will be completed over the first and second quarters of 2013. “We are committed to growing ArcelorMittal’s mining business,” said Peter Kukielski, Chief Executive of […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their estimated raw steel production data for the week ending December 29, 2012. According to AISI estimates the U.S. steel industry produced 1,827,000 net tons of raw steel last week. This represents a decrease of 0.7 percent compared to the week earlier and is 1.9 percent lower […]
Written by: Sandy Williams U.S. automakers had a banner year in 2012. When all the totals are in, analysts expect annual sales to top 14.5 million, the best performance in five years. A variety of factors contribute to the boom in car sales including lower interest rates, less unemployment, and an average car age of […]
Written by: Sophia Fain Worthington Industries, Inc. reported net sales of $622.6 million, up 10 percent from the previous year as well as net earnings up almost $20 million from 2Q12 to $31.8 million for the 2Q13 ended November 30, 2012. “We had strong performances from most of our businesses in the second quarter, with […]
The Institute for Supply Management increased its manufacturing purchasing managers’ index to 50.7 in December from 49.5 in November. A rating above 50 indicates an expansion in activity. The ISM uptick comes in tandem with Markit data, also released on Wednesday, that put the Markit US PMI rating at 54.0 in December—a jump from 52.8 […]
Utilizing a trailing average hot rolled coil (HRC) price, the SMU Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained above 0% for the eighth week after eight consecutive weeks of negative momentum readings. MoMo is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12 week average spot price […]
Written by: Brett Linton The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of November 2012. This estimation is different than the weekly raw steel production as it is based on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. 50 percent for the weekly estimates. Total raw […]
Financial Markets Who knew it was so easy, all the Republicans had to do was to agree to over $600 bln in tax increases, kick the can down the road on spending cuts by 2-3 months and voila!; No Fiscal Cliff! And with that the markets were off. The SP has gained 60 points in […]
We have begun our first steel market survey for the New Year. Early results are showing December business conditions as having been less than what was expected by both manufacturing companies and the distributors who service those businesses. After two days of collection, our preliminary results are showing 41 percent of the manufacturing companies as […]
We are looking forward to 2013. This year will be a year of growth and change at Steel Market Update. Over my steel career I learned it was necessary to keep pace with the changes occurring within the industry. Better yet, if you could lead the changes then you have an edge up on the […]
BALTIMORE, Md., January 1, 2013 – MoveTran, LLC will begin operations to provide transloading and logistical services for steel coil, aluminum, pipe, tube and other types of products in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions. MoveTran recently acquired a 206,700-square-foot warehouse that offers customers rail and truck access as well as easy transport for transatlantic shipments […]
According to Baker Hughes data from December 28th, 2012, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,763 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This number represents a decrease of 11 rigs from last week. Compared to last year the 1,763 count is a decrease of 244 rigs. Canadian rigs decreased by […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their estimated raw steel production data for the week ending December 22, 2012. According to AISI estimates the U.S. steel industry produced 1,840,000 net tons of raw steel last week. This represents an increase of 0.7 percent compared to the week earlier but is 1.2 percent lower […]
Of the 33,512,516 net tons of total imports projected by Steel Market Update to be received into the United States during calendar year 2012 some 7,584,955 net tons are forecast to be semi-finished. Semi-finished products include slabs, billets and blooms – however, the vast majority of them are slabs being imported by the domestic steel […]
Based on total projected imports of 33,512,516 net tons for calendar year 2012, imports for this year will be at the highest level since the recession began. The last year imports exceeded what we are projecting based on US DOC license data through December, was 2006 when the U.S. received 45,273,023 net tons. Based on […]
Hot rolled coil average $655 per ton according to Steel Market Update (SMU) monthly average price assessments. SMU was $1 off the CRU ($656 per ton) monthly settlements against the CME HRC contract once all the numbers had been crunched. For those who are unaware, SMU publishes our indices on Tuesdays prior to the CRU […]
The month of December was best illustrated by the SMU Price Momentum Indicator which spent the entire month stuck in Neutral as flat rolled spot prices essentially moved sideways through the month. Whether using our index or the CRU price assessments, the monthly average on hot rolled was very close to where prices were measured […]
Most of the month of December was spent treading water as flat rolled prices essentially ended the month where they began as the market searched for a clear direction. The discussion for the entire month had been the same as what it has been over the past twenty-four hours – the fiscal cliff and the […]
The most recent price increase announcement out of the domestic steel mills was made late last week by AK Steel. A copy of the announcement is below. Steel Market Update finds it interesting and advises our members to be careful since AK Steel has continued to be “reasonable” regarding price negotiations for orders being placed […]