The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of February 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 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 27th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,048 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 21 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 12 to 813 rigs, gas rigs down 9 to 233 rigs, and […]
The following information is from the United States Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs concerning an accident at US Steel Fairfield in September 2014. Steel Market Update spoke to the U.S. Department of Labor who told us that the press release was not unusually harsh and the Labor Department was going with “narrative releases” […]
The spread between world hot rolled export pricing and that of the domestic average here in the United States continues to be reduced from what we were measuring a couple of months ago. This analysis is based on our review of world export prices and the hot rolled index produced by SMU earlier this week. […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 31st week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a slight rise in production following 7 consecutive declining weeks previous to this data being released. For the week ending March 21, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,639,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.0 percent […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 20th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,069 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 56 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 41 to 825 rigs, gas rigs down 15 to 242 rigs, and […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 30th week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a continuation of the slowing of production at the domestic steel mills. For the week ending March 14, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,623,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.3 percent decrease over the previous […]
Below is the latest data issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through December 2014. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for January 2015 increased 11.2 percent, […]
The domestic steel mills are resorting to adjustments in supply as a weapon against the chronic short lead times which are helping to push flat rolled steel prices lower and lower. The heavy lifting is being done by the integrated steel mills, especially by U.S. Steel which has taken three blast furnaces down over the […]
The spread between world hot rolled export pricing and that of the domestic average here in the United States continues to be lower than what we were measuring a couple of months ago. This analysis is based on our review of world export prices and that of hot rolled index from this week. As the […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 29th week in a row. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) price […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of January 2015 was 10,378,392 net tons (9,415,130 metric tons). Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. January supply represents a 992,133 ton or 10.6 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. […]
January steel exports totaled 925,428 net tons (839,535 metric tons), down 0.4 percent over December and down 3.9 percent from January 2014. Total January figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA). Here is a breakdown of flat rolled and plate exports: Cut plate exports declined […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a slowing in production by the U.S. steelmakers. For the week ending March 7, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,645,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) released final foreign steel import census data late last week, showing final January tonnage at 4.39 million net tons (3.99 million metric tons). This is a 20.8 percent increase over December 2014 imports and 37.1 percent higher than January 2014 levels. Total January imports were the highest seen […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 6th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,192 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 75 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 64 to 922 rigs, gas rigs down 12 to 268 rigs, and […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 28th week in a row (6+ months!). MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a collapse in production by the U.S. steelmakers. For the week ending February 28, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,657,000 net tons of raw steel, a 3.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of January 2015. The monthly estimates are different than those produced showing the weekly raw steel production. The monthly estimates are based on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. 50 percent for the weekly estimates. Total […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 27th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,267 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The count is down 43 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 33 to 986 rigs, gas rigs down 9 to 280 rigs, and miscellaneous […]
The spread between world hot rolled export pricing and that of the domestic average here in the United States remains reasonable based on our analysis of steel pricing data from this week. As the spread narrows, the competitiveness of imported steel into the United States is reduced. Over time, if the trend continues, the domestic […]
This week the Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. is showing hot rolled coil price momentum continuing its downward trend for the 27th week in a row (6+ months!). MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil […]
Once a month, HARDI sponsors a galvanized steel conference call with the wholesalers who sell sheet and coil to the HVAC mechanical contractors. Steel Market Update (SMU) has participated in these informative discussions for a number of years and they are very useful in our understanding of the ebb and flow of both pricing and […]
With the reset of iron ore and ferrous scrap pricing there is an extraordinary amount of interest in trying to figure out the cost to produce a hot rolled coil at the domestic steel mills. This is a question Steel Market Update is asked on an almost weekly basis. We wrote about the subject recently […]
For the week ending February 21, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,716,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 2.5 percent decrease over the previous week and a 5.9 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 72.6 […]
President Obama vetoed the Keystone XL Pipeline bill passed by the U.S. Congress. We have a full story on the veto on our website blog. We are trying to put more and more general interest stories, press releases, etc. on our website blog as opposed to publishing everything in our newsletters. This way we hope […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 20th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,310 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 48 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 37 to 1,019 rigs, gas rigs down 11 to 289 rigs, […]
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) released their Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score for the month of January on Wednesday this week, reporting that the latest index is at a nine month low. The ABI score for January was 49.9, down 2.8 points from December’s score of 52.7. Note that the index is centered around […]