Tag: AK Steel

Unless you've been under a rock, you know by know that Nucor's published HR price for this week is $760 per short ton, down $65/st from the company’s $825/st a week ago. I could use more colorful words. But I think it’s safe to say that most of the market was not expecting this. For starters, US sheet mills never announce price decreases. (OK, not never. It has come to my attention that Severstal North America rescinded a price increase back on Feb. 14, 2012. And it caused quite the ruckus.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. “To govern is to choose.” Those words, reportedly first uttered by the late French Premier Pierre Mendes-France in the 1950s, resonate vividly in our time. It means that choices have consequences and that priorities must be set based on goals. Interested parties, in and out of government, raise their voices in […]

Cleveland Cliffs executives didn’t mince words when opening its Q4’23 earnings call.

JSW Steel USA is expanding the rail infrastructure at its Mingo Junction mill, thanks in part to a grant from the state of Ohio.

You could make a case that Nov. 1 was April Fool’s Day for steel – or at least for the widespread rumor that Cliffs would announce a $10-billion deal for U.S. Steel on that date. I’m not going to endorse any precise date or price tag. But I’d be surprised if a deal – or […]

On the company’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts on Tuesday, Oct. 24, Cleveland-Cliffs executives were careful not to disclose anything about their talks with U.S. Steel on a potential acquisition.

This week could be a big one for steel, or at least for the steel rumor mill. For starters, there is renewed speculation that an announcement about the U.S. Steel sales process could be in the works. The rumor mill is also churning fast when it comes to the duration of the UAW strike and […]

I learned a lot at Steel Summit this year. More than I can do justice to in one column. Below are four things that have stayed with me after the conference closed on Wednesday afternoon. Another, as I highlighted earlier this week, was electricity – who gets it, and which energy sources we use. 1. […]

I planned to write this column about some of the big themes we’ll be discussing at Steel Summit. That plan changed when U.S. Steel announced on Sunday afternoon that it was conducting a formal review of a sale of all or part of the company after receiving multiple unsolicited offers. It changed yet again when Cleveland-Cliffs said its offer for U.S. Steel had been rejected.

For starters, thanks to Barry Zekelman, chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, for taking time for a Community Chat on Wednesday. Zekelman was, as always, sharp on steel. He also caught my attention and some of yours when he said he was interested in buying a steel mill.

For starters, thanks to Barry Zekelman, chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, for taking time for a Community Chat on Wednesday. Zekelman was, as always, sharp on steel. He also caught my attention and some of yours when he said he was interested in buying a steel mill. “I’ve dreamed of owning a steel mill […]

Cleveland-Cliffs swung to a profit in the second quarter after losing money in the first.

Cleveland-Cliffs swung to a profit in the second quarter after losing money in the first. The Cleveland-based steelmaker and iron ore miner predicted that the good times would continue to roll into the second half on what is said was continued strength in automotive demand. “While the performance of our automotive clients continues to improve, […]

Thomas Carlisle Graham passed away on July 3, 2023, in Naples, Fla., at the age of 96. He is survived by his devoted wife of 75 years, Irene Wallace Graham, and four children – Susan Scheessele, Naples, Fla.; Thomas Graham Jr., Mason, Ohio; John Graham, Bloomington, Ind.; and Sara Balough, Los Angeles. Tom was born […]

Cleveland-Cliffs swung to a loss in the fourth quarter of 2022 but predicted better times ahead in 2023. Cliffs chairman, president, and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said that optimism comes because the economy in general is on a much better footing in 2023 than had been feared in late 2022, when hot-rolled coil prices fell into […]

There had been some debate around whether mills would announce another price hike before the holidays. That debate is settled. Cleveland-Cliffs, one of four major sheet producers in the US, aims to increase spot prices by $50/ton, and has set a target minimum base price for HRC at $750/ton. In the style of the former […]

The flat rolled steel market can be a challenging environment to manage risk. Much like a boxer, you must engage in various strategies to protect yourself. When the hits start coming, fancy footwork may not be enough. Steel Market Update (SMU) caught up with David Feldstein, owner of Rock Trading Advisors, and got some insight […]

The news about AD/CVD orders being removed from Brazil on Friday was notable in that it bucked, in a small way, the trend toward regionalism and protectionism that we’ve seen growing since at least 2014. I noted in my initial writeup – as did Lewis Leibowitz in his deeper dive – that the market impact […]

It looks like domestic mills are trying to establish a floor at around $800 per ton ($40 per cwt). They’ve arrived there by different means. And whether they’ll be successful remains to be seen. Suffice it to say that some mills that were very, very aggressive in July and August in the spot market aren’t […]

It’s time to forecast 2023, and I’d like to throw out one radical possibility – or at least one worth thinking about. What if there are no black swans? I know, that possibility is so remote that it’s almost laughable. We haven’t had many normal years since 2018. That year gave us the shock of […]

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s chairman, president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves joined Steel Market Update senior editor Michael Cowden in the first fireside chat of this year’s SMU Steel Summit conference Monday afternoon in Atlanta. The Cliffs executive educated and entertained conference attendees with the unreserved honesty and candidness he has become well-known for in his long-term career […]

We had a big development this week with London-listed Russian steelmaker Evraz Plc announcing plans to sell its North American operations. A move like this has been rumored for some time. We’ve heard versions of it going back to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February. Still, it was something of a shock to […]

We’ve updated our prices, and it’s another week of declines for hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized flat-rolled steel. That’s not new. But this might be: Hot-rolled prices had been falling at a modestly faster pace than galvanized prices base prices. That was not the case this week. HR is down $35 per ton ($1.75 per cwt) […]

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. plans to have the No. 5 blast furnace at its Cleveland Works back up and running at full capacity in August, company executives said on a second quarter earnings conference call on Friday, July 22. Along with a furnace reline, the company took advantage of the downtime to perform other important repairs and […]

Severstal is no longer shipping “anything” to the United States, a company spokeswoman said. The Russian steelmaker instead intends to “continue working with our partners who are not tied with obligations to US,” she said in an email to Steel Market Update. The comments come after the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets […]

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has changed how it supplies the automotive industry in response to chip and parts shortages that have thrown a wrench into automaker production forecasts, the company’s top executive said. “We no longer adopt their forecast as the final truth, like it was historically,” Cliffs chairman, president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said. How did […]

Who wants to be in the hot-rolled coil business anymore? I ask that only partly in jest. It’s not that no one wants to make spot HRC anymore. It’s just that not many companies seem to want to make it their bread and butter. Nucor spending $3 billion for a garage door company and looking […]

A previously shuttered iron ore concentrate facility on the Mesabi Iron Range might be coming back to life under the newly-formed MagIron LLC. The Plant 4 concentrator near Grand Rapids, Minn., formerly owned by Magnetation and once rescued from bankruptcy by ERP Iron Ore – which subsequently filed for bankruptcy itself – has been acquired by former […]

Flack Global Metals (FGM) adds Jennifer Betts as Sr. Vice President of Business Development. Betts will drive FMG’s business and development strategy to expand the company’s physical metals sales growth as well as its broad range of price risk management services offered Flack Metal Bank (FMB). “Jen brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to […]

PAO Sevestal is no longer selling steel to the European Union. The Russian steelmaker did not acknowledge – as has been widely reported – that the move was in response to EU sanctions. “Severstal states that it is experiencing some difficulties in relations with its EU clients, and as a result is redirecting volumes to […]