Balance appears to be the word of the week, well at least for this past week while we were canvassing the flat rolled steel industry during our mid-July survey. Steel Market Update invited slightly more than 600 people representing approximately 590 companies to participate in our survey. Of those responding 44 percent were manufacturing companies […]
Preliminary steel import data was updated late last week by the US Department of Commerce, reporting total June imports at 3,585,781 net tons, down 11.1 percent over May levels and down 4.1 percent over April levels. Compared to the same month one year ago, total June 2014 steel imports are up 45.8 percent or 1,125,697 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from July 25th, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,883 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 12 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 8 to 1,562 rigs, gas rigs up 3 to 318 rigs, […]
Following the announcement of the sale of Severstal NA to AK Steel and Steel Dynamics, Severstal sent out a letter on Wednesday evening explaining the sale to their customers with assurance that the two mills would continue to run as scheduled over the next few months. A copy of the letter is below: Dear customer, […]
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was released on Wednesday morning showing an overall improvement in construction industry. The ABI score for June was 53.5, up from 52.6 in May. Note that the index is centered around 50, with scores above 50 indicating an aggregate increase in billings, and scores below 50 indicating a decline. “The […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S remained slightly negative this week for the sixth week in a row after being in positive territory for the prior ten weeks. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil […]
The steel market has been relatively quiet this week, according to one steel buyer we spoke to earlier today. Steel prices which we have been gathering both from our steel market analysis (survey) as well as through direct contact with buyers found flat rolled steel prices to be mostly unchanged from one week ago. There […]
Chinese steel trade data for June 2014 was released earlier this week, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in June were 74,570,000 metric tons, a decrease of 3.6 percent from the previous month but an increase of 19.7 percent from […]
For the week ending July 19, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,893,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.5 percent decrease over the previous week but a 2.2 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 78.7 […]
The world export price for hot rolled bands was at $506 per net ton ($558 per metric ton) according to data released by SteelBenchmarker this past week. The world hot rolled export price is up $2 per ton compared to the report produced in late-June.With an estimated $70 per ton added in order to get […]
According to Baker Hughes data from July 18th, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,871 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 4 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 9 to 1,554 rigs, gas rigs up 4 to 315 rigs, […]
Canadian shipments for all steel products in the month of June were 481,000 net tons, a decrease of 5.6 percent from the month before, but an increase of 6.0 percent from June 2013. Inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,391,100 tons, up 0.4 percent from last month but down 6.3 percent from […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S remained negative this week for the fifth week in a row after being in positive territory for the prior ten weeks. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) […]
Flat rolled steel prices have begun to firm, especially on hot rolled. Whether this is due to an adjustment of the psychology of the market related to the OCTG final determination by the US Department of Commerce or for some other reason we are not quite sure. However, as discussed in the article above, market […]
Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for May 2014 decreased 2.4 percent, to 358,326 units, down from 367,055 units shipped in May 2013. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 0.3 percent in May 2014, to 346,116 units, up from 345,077 units shipped in May 2013. For the year-to-date, […]
For the week ending July 12, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,903,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 2.7 percent increase over the previous week and a 2.8 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 79.1 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from July 11th, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,875 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 1 rig when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 1 to 1,563 rigs, gas rigs unchanged at 311 rigs, and […]
Total US Steel Exports in May were 1,035,608 net tons, down 4.1 percent over April tonnage and down 10.9 percent over May 2013 levels. Eighty Nine percent of May exports were to Canada and Mexico, receiving 559,231 and 363,325 tons respectively. Exports of plate cut lengths were 136,490 tons, up 6.0 percent over April and […]
Apparent steel supply for May was 10,321,747 net tons, the highest figure Steel Market Update has in its recorded history back to January 2010 (by no means a historical record). Steel Market Update calculates apparent steel supply by adding domestic shipments and finished US imports and subtracting total US exports. May supply represents a 1,262,877 […]
May ferrous scrap exports totaled 1,708,695 net tons (1,550,104 metric tons) with Turkey, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, and Egypt being the top five countries where scrap was sent. These countries accounted for 69.1 percent of all scrap exports. Total May ferrous scrap exports were 15.7 percent higher than previous month but 27.8 percent lower than the […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S was negative this week for the fourth week in a row after being in positive territory for the prior ten weeks. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) […]
For the week ending July 5, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,853,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.5 percent decrease over the previous week but a 0.5 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 77.0 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from July 3rd, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,874 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 1 rig when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 4 to 1,562 rigs, gas rigs down 3 to 311 rigs, […]
Chinese steel trade data for May 2014 was released late last week, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in May were 77,382,000 metric tons, a decrease of 7.2 percent from the previous month but an increase of 12.9 percent from […]
The Steel Market Update Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S was negative this week for the third week in a row after being in positive territory for the prior ten weeks. MoMo, a trailing indicator, is measured as a percentage and shows the relation of the current hot rolled coil (HRC) […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of May 2014. 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 steel production for the […]
The latest steel import census data has preliminary imports at 4,016,437 net tons in May, the highest tonnage levels seen since 2006. May represents a 7.4 percent increase over the previous month and an increase of 1,178,145 tons or 41.5 percent compared to May 2013. Foreign steel now represents 28 percent of the steel market. […]
Steel price inputs were mixed during the month of June. Shredded and heavy melt scrap prices declined $8 and $4 per ton respectively while busheling scrap prices increased by $3 per ton. Iron Ore prices increased for 62% Fe grades but decreased for 58% Fe. Zinc and Aluminum prices showed a slight increase of $0.0437 […]
We are moving deeper into a holiday week and, with the exception of US Steel, all is quiet on the western (and eastern for that matter) front. The US Steel announcement of a $25 per ton base price increase on spot flat rolled prices has created some interest within the steel community. However, we are […]
For the week ending June 28, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,863,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.9 percent decrease over the previous week but a 2.1 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 77.5 […]