U.S. consumer confidence slipped again in February following a downward revision in January, reported The Conference Board. The slight erosion in the headline index was the second straight decline following a small recovery in late 2021 that saw gains from September through December. Though results are mixed, the shift in momentum is worth noting. Sentiment towards […]
Editor’s note: SMU contributor Bryan Tice is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and the firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. Before joining Metal Edge Partners, Bryan held a variety of commercial […]
You don’t need SMU pontificating about how the Russia-Ukraine conflict marks the end of the post-WWII order. Suffice it to say the world we woke up to today is vastly different from the one we reported on in our last edition. We’re also getting used to thinking about things we haven’t had to think about […]
For those of you who don’t pay attention to such things, today’s date is 2/22/22…. On Monday, Cleveland-Cliffs announced on their website their intention of indefinitely idling the #4 blast furnace at Indiana Harbor, and a $50 per ton ($2.50/cwt) price increase on orders slated for production in April 2022. Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves spoke […]
Prices for steel sheet have fallen across the board since September of last year. But the pace of declines for hot-rolled coil has been much faster than for galvanized products. The result: Spreads between HRC prices and galv base prices – which have been at record levels since late last year – continue to widen. […]
Prices for steel sheet have fallen across the board since September of last year. But the pace of declines for hot-rolled coil has been much faster than for galvanized products. The result: Spreads between HRC prices and galv base prices – which have been at record levels since late last year – continue to widen. […]
The Tampa Steel Conference has wrapped up, and I thank all of you who attended and who took the time to catch up with me on stage or along the sidelines. Below are five themes that I took away from the event. If I were to sum it up in a sentence, it’s this: Steel […]
Ferrous scrap has been described as “the new precious metal,” as mills all over the world invest in scrap-fed electric arc furnaces as a means of lowering harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, prime scrap may prove to be even more rare and prized than most realize. In the United States alone, producers will add 5.3 […]
U.S. Steel Corp. is beginning a search for a new chief financial officer after the resignation this week of Senior Vice President and CFO Christine S. Breves, who will continue to serve as Executive Vice President-Business Transformation while the company seeks her permanent replacement. “Christie’s deep knowledge of the industry, leadership and superb insight have […]
Spot market prices are moving and moving very quickly. One of the service centers I communicated with today said, “I’ve not seen a market downturn quite like this one (nor the upside either), and it’s making the discovery of legit pricing quite difficult. I will say, the one constant I keep hearing is that the […]
Ternium plans to invest $1 billion to expand the operations of its Pesquería flat steel facility in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The news came during the steelmaker’s fourth-quarter conference call on Wednesday, Feb. 16, when the Latin American steel group’s chief executive officer, Máximo Vedoya, confirmed the company was in the final stage of studying an […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. “finished the year strong with record financial performance across nearly every metric,” CEO Jim Hoffman said during the service center’s earnings call on Thursday. Reliance reported record annual gross profits of $4.49 billion on record annual sales of $14.09 billion for full-year 2021. The fourth quarter was also the best […]
Steel mill lead times, which have shortened to near historical averages, are about as low as they will go and now register only minor movements up or down from week to week, based on Steel Market Update’s surveys of the market. Likewise, SMU’s data on negotiations between mills and buyers has reached a similar steady […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. might shut a blast furnace this year, the company’s top executive said. “When we make a move, we make a move. … You might see a blast furnace going down for good still in 2022,” Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said during a fireside chat at the Tampa Steel Conference this […]
Industry analyst Paul Lowrey is “bullish on the short-term outlook for steel,” but his goal as a presenter during the Tampa Steel Conference this week was “to get some of you to think differently about what is going on.” Lowrey, founder of Pittsburgh-based Steel Research Associates, is a contrarian when it comes to the common […]
Ternium reported net earnings of $1.136 billion in the fourth quarter 2021, down from $1.366 billion in the prior quarter, but a 31.4% boost from $865 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. The steelmaker achieved record profitability for the full year ended Dec. 31, 2021, with earnings totaling $4.367 billion, more than a five-fold […]
Ford, Toyota and Honda continued to see production disruptions at various factories due to ongoing protests by anti-vaxxers blocking the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest international border crossing in North America. The auto industry has struggled to get parts over the U.S.-Canada border as the protest by truck drivers at the bridge had entered its fifth […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. could join other steel producers in adding electric-arc furnace (EAF) capacity, the company’s top executive said. The Cleveland-based steelmaker is considering that because the cost of relining a blast furnace – and investing in the supply chains needed to feed it – are roughly the same as those for of building a new EAF. […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. posted a near-record profit in the fourth quarter and predicted that the good times would continue to roll into 2022 thanks to fixed-price contracts resetting at higher numbers. That prediction comes largely because automakers, which typically buy steel on contract terms, were forced to limit production in 2021 because of the global chip […]
General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda and Stellantis have all been forced to temporarily halt production at assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada due to truckers that are blocking critical roadways in protest of COVID vaccine mandates. Detroit-based GM, the largest of the “Big Three” automakers in the U.S., was forced to cancel two production shifts […]
North American auto assemblies expanded in January after falling to 2021’s second lowest monthly total in December. January’s production total was up 12.6% sequentially, but down 4.1% from the same month last year. Supply-chain and microchip limitations continue to impact the automotive sector despite broad production improvements across North American automakers. As a result, assembly […]
Ferrous scrap prices declined again in February after an unexpectedly big drop in January. Prime scrap traded down $35/GT in most regions, while obsolete grades traded sideways, sources tell Steel Market Update. That puts the February price for busheling at around $525-535/GT, shred at $470-480/GT and HMS at $430-440/GT. “Tepid demand is being offset by […]
SMU contributor Tim Stevenson is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Tim’s previous role, he was a Director at Cargill Risk Management, and […]
By Trade Attorney Lewis Leibowitz The White House released a long-awaited decision on the future of special safeguard remedies for the solar industry on Friday. The decision may provide a glimpse into the trade philosophy of the Biden administration. First, a bit of background. The Trump-era tariffs began in January 2018 with decisions under the […]
By Greg Wittbecker, Advisor, CRU Group Nucor and Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) chose to acquire major metal recycling companies just before the Global Financial Crisis. SDI purchased Omnisource for slightly more than $1 billion in November 2007. Nucor followed suit with its $1.4 billion takeover of The David J. Joseph Co. in March 2008. The […]
Steel buyers remain a surprisingly bullish bunch despite rapidly declining steel prices as well as worries about COVID and the broader economy, . Steel Market Update’s survey this week asked service center and manufacturing executives if they are optimistic or pessimistic about their prospects in the first half of 2022. About 64% considered themselves optimists versus […]
Algoma Steel Group Inc. has awarded GE Gas Power (GE) the contract to upgrade its natural gas combined cycle power plant to support the power requirements of the steelmaker’s new electric arc furnace (EAF). The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based steelmaker said the upgrade, which includes the installation of two gas turbine packages, is expected to […]
U.S. Steel isn’t letting current lower prices get it down after a record year in ’21 and in anticipation of more good times rolling into ‘22. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said it had expected the first quarter would be weaker but that such weakness would to be temporary. “Supply chain issues will ease, inflationary pressures will […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor, Jan. 26 Steel sheet prices in the U.S. sank by about 9% w/w as they continued to fall towards the global average. CRU’s weekly HR coil assessment in the U.S. was $126 /s.ton lower than the prior week, and high inventory levels relative to […]
Calling 2021 “the safest and most profitable year in the company’s history,” Nucor executives sounded “a consistent drumbeat on demand” in their outlook for 2022 during their fourth-quarter conference call with analysts and investors today. The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker posted record earnings of $6.83 billion in 2021 on sales of $36.5 billion. Sixteen of its […]