With early voting underway, record breaking mail-in ballots, and a final voting date a mere 14 days away, it is safe to say that much is riding on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. With two candidates who share little common ground in a bitter election battle, it’s clear that a shift in presidential administration will […]
By CRU Multi-Commodity Analysts Zanna Aleksahhina and Will Young Over the summer and into Q3 2020 commodity prices staged a remarkable recovery from Q2 lows and in October many prices are comfortably above where they started the year. Given that the major economies are still struggling to control the spread of Covid-19, underlying demand is […]
Prices of aluminum, steel’s rival material, may get a boost from a new Commerce Department ruling that accuses 18 countries of dumping common alloy aluminum sheet imports on the U.S. market. In a preliminary determination announced on Friday, Commerce ruled that aluminum sheet from the following countries has been sold at less than fair value […]
By CRU China CEO John Johnson and CRU Senior Consultant Ashley Wang from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor On Sept. 22, in a statement to the United Nations General Assembly, President Xi Jinping announced to world leaders that China “aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060”. The part of this statement concerning CO2 was brief […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The turmoil in this country continues. The election is now 30 days away. The president has COVID-19; the debates may not continue. And, our economy continues to suffer from the pandemic and the economic impact of disease and […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Each week seems to bring new surprises, economically and politically. I was struck by the monthly trade report and question from readers—I thought I’d pull them together and try to respond. The August trade report was released last […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Tariffs are coming at us from every direction, it seems like. Tariffs are taxes, as we hear a lot. Some taxes are predictable, but those on China, steel, aluminum, washing machines and solar panels tend to be vastly […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The election may already have been decided, but we can’t know that until election night and perhaps not even then. While we wait for those results, I want to take the time to explore a reader’s question I’ve […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Chris Asgill, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service China has banned steel scrap imports for the past year as part of its solid waste management policies that affect imports on a wide range of metal scrap and plastic waste. Recently, policymakers announced that a review on these policies will be sped […]
Looking at the month-on-month changes in steelmaking raw materials costs, the prices of iron ore, pig iron and zinc have continued to experience noticeable gains, a pattern seen since the beginning of Q3 2020. As expected, scrap prices have bounced back after the downturn seen in the summer months, providing support to higher finished steel […]
From one of our SMU readers to John Packard, President & CEO of Steel Market Update, “Welcome back… Regarding steel, wow. What a difference a month (or, a month and half) makes!” A second reader told us, “Market pricing and lead-times have moved aggressively…and rapidly. Many are finding themselves too late to the party.” It […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors. David has over 20 years of financial market trading experience and has been active in the ferrous futures space for eight years. David earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in economics, statistics and analytical finance. […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: For international trade and politics, it’s hard to beat the past week. We saw numerous developments in the trade field—I’ll discuss a few of them: (1) an avalanche of lawsuits challenging the “Section 301” tariffs against $200 billion […]
Importers of steel and aluminum who have been critical of the Commerce Department’s handling of Section 232 exclusion requests have found an ally in the Government Accountability Office. In a report released Tuesday, the GAO called for Commerce to improve and speed up the process it uses to review tariff exclusion requests. The report noted […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on upgrading to a Premium-level subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Following is an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Producer Price Index data. The PPI is a family of indexes that measure the average change over time in the prices received […]
The U.S. has reversed its position on imposing tariffs on Canadian aluminum imports. The U.S Trade Representative said in a statement on Sept. 15, “After consultations with the Canadian government, the United States has determined that trade in non-alloyed, unwrought aluminum is likely to normalize in the last four months of 2020, with imports declining sharply […]
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the millions of people on the West Coast who are suffering the threat and devastation of historic forest fires. The loss of life and property is staggering. And the blow to business and commerce in the region has yet to be measured. Face masks are doing double duty […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors. David has over 20 years of financial market trading experience and has been active in the ferrous futures space for eight years. David earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in economics, statistics and analytical finance. […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: A number of readers have asked for particulars on the recent actions on steel trade between the United States, Brazil and Mexico. The numbers are available in some detail now. I will try to explain these for the […]
Among steelmaking raw materials, the prices of iron ore, pig iron and zinc have seen big gains in the past three months. Scrap prices have been challenged, but saw some improvement in August, notably in the coastal regions, and are expected to rise in September, lending support to higher finished steel prices. Table 1 summarizes […]
The SMU Steel Summit 2020 was off to a strong start on Day 1 covering a wide variety of topics from new capacity to international trade. SMU President John Packard officially opened the conference on Monday leading a panel discussion about the steel industry in Mexico, the Middle East, Turkey and China. Ternium CEO Maximo Vedoya […]
First, the link to the SMU Steel Summit Virtual Conference platform is www.smusteelsummit2020.com From there you enter your email address and the password which was sent to you. Here is what you can expect to happen on Monday, Aug. 24. There will be people available live on the site to assist you (green button in […]
First, the link to the SMU Steel Summit Virtual Conference platform is www.smusteelsummit2020.com From there you enter your email address and the password which was sent to you. If you have not yet registered for the conference please click here or go to www.smusteelsummit.com Here is what you can expect to happen on Monday, Aug. […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Time was we looked with great interest at the deliberations of the party platform committees to see who was the most influential—young vs. old, moderates vs. conservatives vs. progressives, etc. In this year of the pandemic, the entire […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The nation and the world saw a greater than normal number of presidential announcements in the past week. I debated Philip Bell, the president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, on issues related to Section 232 at the SMU […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service U.S. sheet steel prices hit their lowest point of the year on Aug. 12 and are slated to rise as steel consumption has been increasing. Steel mill capacity utilization reached 61.5 percent in the week ended Aug. 15, up from 60.4 percent the […]
If you have been waiting for a price drop on an imported Korean LG or Samsung washing machine, you may be waiting a bit longer. The U.S. International Trade Commission is considering extending safeguard tariffs and quotas on imports of large residential washers, including those two popular brands. Whirlpool is asking that its foreign competitors continue […]
Philip Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, and Washington trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz will square off next week at the SMU Steel Summit 2020 to offer their viewpoints on steel trade. The Steel Manufacturers Association recently added its name to a letter penned to the House rules committee in support of an amendment that […]
We have passed through 700 registered attendees for this year’s SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference. Activity has been high and we are confident we will reach our 800+ registered attendee goal. We will be the largest steel conference (live or virtual) in North America this calendar year. Those who have seen our platform are excited. […]
We have passed through 700 registered attendees for this year’s SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference. Activity has been high and we are confident we will reach our 800+ registered attendee goal. We will be the largest steel conference (live or virtual) in North America this calendar year. Those who have seen our platform are excited. […]