ArcelorMittal USA warns that low capacity utilization of hot strip mills cannot continue. “It is not sustainable to operate multiple HSMs at low utilization rates when the same volume of steel could be produced by few HSMs at higher utilization rates,” writes CEO Andrew Harshaw, in the ArcelorMittal USA blog Raw. Harshaw notes record levels […]
Chevy is taking on the aluminum Ford F-150 with a series of ads sure to tickle consumers and annoy Ford marketers. The new ads for the Chevy Silverado poke fun at the F-150 while lauding the benefits of steel construction. The ads which are currently running in social media, point out the disadvantages of aluminum. […]
Mexican steelmakers are feeling the pressure from unfairly traded steel. In a joint statement on last week, Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA), De Acero, Tubacero and ArcelorMittal accused Russia, China and Turkey of dumping steel at prices below production costs. In a full page newspaper ad, the steel companies urged President Enrique Pena Nieto to […]
A little more than a week ago, Steel Market Update spoke at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner in Chicago. In the audience were a couple of scrap companies who told us the mills in the Chicago area (ArcelorMittal in particular) have come back into the market to buy scrap after a lengthy absence […]
The Department of Commerce said Wednesday that it will proceed on AD/CVD investigations of imports of corrosion-resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, Korea, and Taiwan. A petition to investigate the products was filed on June 3, 2015 by US Steel, Nucor, ArcelorMittal USA, AK Steel, Steel Dynamics, and California Steel Industries. The products covered […]
Steel Market Update reported in the Tuesday issue of our newsletter that negotiations have started between the USW (United Steelworkers Union) and ArcelorMittal. The issue was raised at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner where SMU publisher, John Packard, spoke last night. We have been anticipating that the posturing by the union and AM, […]
Steel Market Update has been asked if the domestic steel mills have made any moves to restart idled blast furnaces in order to increase production due to dumping suits, price increases and the anticipated stronger order book. People also want to know if ArcelorMittal and US Steel are building slab inventories in order to have […]
The USW negotiating committee for workers at ArcelorMittal USA met in Pittsburgh this week to begin working on new contracts. The current three year contracts will expire at 11:59 pm. EST, September 1, 2015. The master Basic Labor Contract covers employees at 12 ArcelorMittal USA facilities; three additional sites have contracts that will expire concurrent […]
Steel Market Update was analyzing data from our last flat rolled market survey just as the domestic mills began announcing price increases. We thought our readers might be interested in looking at the data with us and then guess as to whether the new price increases will “stick” or falter over time. In our opinion, […]
An executive with a large service center group penned us some thoughts about the market (prior to the SSAB plate price increase) on Wednesday of this past week. “I was surprised at the June import-rate figures, with the forecast/possibility of 3+ million tons. It doesn’t seem like imports are falling as fast as expected for […]
Nucor became the first domestic steel mill to announce a second round of flat rolled steel price increases. The Nucor announcement, which was for a $20 per ton price increase, affected hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized products produced by their mills. This is the second price increase on flat rolled products since the end […]
Earlier this week, World Steel Dynamics and their friends at AMM, hosted their Steel Success Strategies conference in New York City. Over the past 40 years the conference has become a magnet for those associated with the steel industry from around the world. Not everyone can afford to attend the conference which runs about $2300 […]
One of the key items Steel Market Update watches is the spread between world hot rolled export pricing and the HRC spot price average here in the United States. The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update in order to identify the spread between world hot rolled export prices as determined by SteelBenchmarker and domestic […]
The steel world (which is not as large as it used to be) is in New York City this week to attend (lobby call) the Steel Success Strategies Conference hosted by World Steel Dynamics and their AMM partners. It is the one place (other than SMU Steel Summit Conference – hint, hint) where one can […]
According to Investopedia, a subsidy is “a benefit given by the government to groups or individuals usually in the form of a cash payment or tax reduction. The subsidy is usually given to remove some type of burden and is often considered to be in the interest of the public.” The example accompanying the definition […]
The “not if but when” question has been settled as the long awaited trade case filing on galvanized steel finally occurred on Wednesday. Six domestic steel mills submitted a petition to the Department of Commerce asking for the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on certain corrosion-resistant steel products from China, the Republic of Korea, […]
Steel Market Update will have a number of articles in today’s issue of our newsletter about the corrosion resistant trade cases filed yesterday by six U.S. steel mills. We will discuss what has to be proved, the timetable that a case goes through at both the Department of Commerce (DOC) and the International Trade Commission […]
Steel Market Update has written numerous articles about the corrosion resistant trade case filed by six domestic steel mills against five foreign countries. The petition which called for anti-dumping and countervailing duty action will now go through the proper channels at the US Department of Commerce (anti-dumping) and the International Trade Commission (countervailing duty). There […]
I was pleased to hear from a number of our readers who had used the search function at the top right hand side of our website in order to find old articles that we had written on the subject of dumping suits and the process that the suit has to go through. I used the […]
The world’s steel producers managed to pump out 1.665 billion metric tons of steel (1.84 billion net tons) during 2014 according to the World Steel Association (WSA) which released their 2014 data book earlier today. According to the WSA, the United States was the third largest steel producing country behind China and Japan. This is […]
Steel Market Update sources: mill, service center and others are advising us that anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) trade cases on coated products will be filed yet this week. We have heard that the filing could come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3rd) or on Thursday of this week. Any trade filing on coated […]
Construction of Essar Steel’s Minnesota taconite operation is accelerating now that the project is fully financed. The $1.9 billion project near Nashwauk involves the construction of a taconite plant with a total annual production capacity of 7.0 million tons of iron ore pellets. The pellets will be initially sent to Essar Steel Algoma and to […]
Today SMU is not only going to discuss where flat rolled steel prices were this past week based on our analysis of steel pricing from our steel index as well as CRU, Platts and SteelBenchmarker, we are also going to discuss price momentum which our SMU Price Momentum Indicator currently points to higher prices over […]
ArcelorMittal Dofasco has been fined CAN $130,000 (US $104,379) after pleading guilty to two separate safety violations. On September 6, 2012, four workers were a changing a tuyere (a pipe/nozzle that blows air into the furnace) and blow pipe assembly on the #3 Blast Furnace. One of the workers fell off a tow motor used […]
Based on channel checks with our scrap sources, we are hearing that many of the steel mills have been actively buying as much scrap as possible during the month of May. The extra tonnage being added to the early May tons are being purchased at higher prices. Prices are up as much as $10 to […]
Steel Market Update participated in the monthly galvanized steel conference call sponsored by HARDI for their wholesalers who supply sheet and coils to the HVAC mechanical contractors. The focus of the conference call is to discuss how the wholesalers see demand and market forces which impact galvanized steel supply and prices. This was the first […]
AM/NS Calvert will be producing Ultra High Tensile Strength Cold-rolled and Coated steel sheets with high formability by the end of 2016. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), which is a joint partner with ArcelorMittal in the Calvert operations, says the materials of up to 1.2 gigpascals (GPa) tensile strength will be used for […]
There are going to be two main themes which SMU and other steel periodicals will be writing about over the coming months (between now and our Steel Summit Conference at the beginning of September). The two themes are: anti-dumping suits on light flat rolled products and union contract negotiations between U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal USA […]
A quick reminder that this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend and Steel Market Update will not publish our Sunday evening issue. The next time we will publish will be on Tuesday evening (unless something happens which warrants your immediate attention). For those of you in the United States enjoy your Memorial Day Holiday Weekend with […]
An electrical fire Friday at ArcelorMittal Weirton in West Virginia sent eight employees to the hospital. A transformer at the Weirton strip steel operation malfunctioned causing adjacent electrical equipment to catch fire said ArcelorMittal spokesperson Mary Beth Holford. The fire was extinguished quickly and employees working the area were evacuated as a precaution. Several employees […]