On Monday of this week, Steel Market Update began canvassing the markets as we conducted one of our flat rolled and plate steel market trends suveys. The vast majority of the responses were received early in the week and the results of those responses are presented below. However, SMU continued to speak directly to both […]
Steel Market Update sources and other trade press and are reporting that Cleveland-Cliffs is planning to immediately idle the hot strip mill at AK Steel’s Dearborn Works in Michigan for an indefinite period, possibly permanently, in response to the coronavirus crisis and other market pressures. Cleveland-Cliffs, parent of AK Steel, declined to comment, saying the […]
A strong beginning to the first quarter in Mexico supported shipments for Ternium S.A. as operations were locked down in South America due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company expects shipments to decrease about 30 percent in the second quarter and increase going forward in the second half of the year. “We don’t see a […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The USMCA will take effect on July 1 of this year, despite calls to push out its implementation due to the economic crisis from the coronavirus. USMCA repeals and replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took […]
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 […]
Nucor has resumed production at its Louisiana direct-reduced-iron plant, but its DRI facility in Trinidad remains closed. As company executives reported during their conference call on Tuesday, the Louisiana facility was brought safely back online after a brief pause earlier this month. “Our DRI plants give us a great deal of flexibility and are a […]
Nucor Corp.’s sales and shipments saw healthy increases in the first quarter, prior to the coronavirus crisis. The first quarter was still a profitable one for the steelmaker, but the company is expecting a loss in the second quarter as the economy struggles with the government restrictions to stop the spead of COVID-19. Nucor reported […]
John Packard is taking some time off. May could be a pivotal month for the U.S. economy and the steel industry. No reasonable person believes we will have the virus crisis behind us, but we should at least have more clarity on what lies ahead. States, to one degree or another, are loosening their restrictions […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and CME Group Commodities Research Analyst Gregor Spilker The CME Group recently launched a new steel futures contract which follows the U.S. hot-dipped galvanized (HDG) coil market. The U.S. Midwest Domestic Steel Premium (CRU) Futures is financially settled against the difference between U.S. Midwest hot-dipped galvanized coil (base) steel […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson The U.S. plate market has, up to this point, seen prices fall on a slow downward trend. Plate has not been as exposed to the automotive-led manufacturing shutdown, which had allowed prices to only slowly fall by $61 /s.ton since the late January cycle peak. Current prices, though, reflect […]
Durable goods orders plummeted 14.4 percent in March to $213.2 billion, said the U.S. Census Bureau in its latest report. The decrease followed three consecutive months of increase and was the largest monthly decline since August 2014. Transportation equipment led the decrease in March falling 41 percent to $51.2 billion. Commercial aircraft and parts plunged […]
Automotive assemblies in North America nosedived in March as vehicle manufacturers shut down their plants to protect their employees from the spread of the coronavirus. Most plants ceased operations in mid-March, so the data does not reflect a full month of shutdowns, thus the effect may be even more pronounced in April. Data from LMC […]
John Packard is taking some time off… We hope you are benefiting from our series of SMU Community Chats. The idea is to help us all feel connected by getting together once a week for a short visit with an industry expert—and in a way with each other. It’s a chance to learn something valuable […]
Companies are being affected to varying degrees by the coronavirus depending on their market and geography, so it’s no surprise their opinions range widely on how long it will take business to return to pre-COVID levels. Some hope for activity to rebound as soon as this summer, while others fear it won’t be until next […]
Automakers are facing numerous challenges as they prepare to reopen manufacturing impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Already facing lower sales this year, the pandemic has shut down vehicle production and dealer sales, disrupted supply chains and drained finances for U.S. vehicle manufacturers, with troubling implications for their steel suppliers. Bernard Swiecki, senior automotive analyst at […]
What comes first, the chicken or the egg? We all want our businesses to return to “normal.” We want all employees back to work, getting paychecks, buying products, and living happy, healthy lives. On Wednesday, we hosted one of our SMU Community Chat Webinars. Our featured speaker was Bernard Swiecki of the Center for Automotive […]
What comes first, the chicken or the egg? We all want our businesses to return to “normal.” We want all employees back to work, getting paychecks, buying products, and living happy, healthy lives. On Wednesday, we hosted one of our SMU Community Chat Webinars. Our featured speaker was Bernard Swiecki of the Center for Automotive […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum said demand remains healthy, especially in construction, despite impacts from the COVID-19 crisis. The company posted net sales of $2.57 billion for the first quarter of 2020, a 13 percent decrease year-over-year due to lower metal prices. Net income was $61.7 million, down from $190.1 million in the same quarter last […]
The following are my opinions. You’ve got to be an optimist to be in the steel industry. I have made that statement often over the course of my steel career. When I first started in the steel business with Rolled Steel Corporation in Skokie, Ill., in 1977 I used to joke, “the only people who […]
By John Packard and Tim Triplett Steel Market Update has been asked: How does the COVID-19 pandemic compare to the Great Recession, in terms of its impact on the steel market? The full effect of the coronavirus crisis on the U.S. economy and steel demand is still to play out, of course, but some comparisons […]
“The SDI team shines in moments of challenge,” said Steel Dynamics President and CEO Mark Millett. First-quarter results support that confidence as the company reported strong earnings for January-March despite the coronavirus pandemic. First-quarter net sales totaled $2.6 billion and net income $187 million, an improvement from Q4 2019 for both metrics. Selling price per ton […]
ArcelorMittal USA has idled the C blast furnace at Burns Harbor for a scheduled outage. “The company is currently in a quiet period in advance of Q1 2020 earnings and therefore we are unable to provide further details about the duration of the outage at this time,” said a company spokesperson. According to sources at […]
Let’s talk automotive! Steel Market Update is pleased to host our weekly SMU Community Chat Webinar on Wednesday morning, April 22, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (10 CT, 9 MT, 8 PT). This week SMU President & CEO John Packard will go one-on-one with Bernard Swiecki, Director of the Automotive Communities Partnership and Assistant Director […]
April 21, 2020 Dear Steel Market Update “Member”, Your business is important to Steel Market Update and our parent company The CRU Group. We know difficult times may lie ahead and we are here to support your business in any way we can. Steel Market Update began operations in August 2008. By the end of […]
Last week, Steel Market Update conducted an analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel markets as we reached out to more than 500 individuals uniquely qualified to provide insights into these markets. What we found is an almost universal picture of a steel economy in a tailspin. Through our steel survey, SMU has seen […]
Last week, Steel Market Update conducted an analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel markets as we reached out to more than 500 individuals uniquely qualified to provide insights into these markets. What we found is an almost universal picture of a steel economy in a tailspin. Through our steel survey, SMU has seen […]
Phil Raimondo, President & CEO of Behlen Manufacturing in Columbus, Neb., counts his state lucky for having less than a 1,000 people test positive for COVID-19. “Sometimes, with our businesses, we are frustrated with being a fly-over state, but with this virus, we are happy to be a fly-over state,” said Raimondo. Nebraska is one […]
Let’s talk automotive! Steel Market Update is pleased to host our weekly SMU Community Chat Webinar on Wednesday morning, April 22, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (10 CT, 9 MT, 8 PT). This week SMU President & CEO John Packard will go one-on-one with Bernard Swiecki, Director of the Automotive Communities Partnership and Assistant Director […]
Let’s talk automotive! Steel Market Update is pleased to host our weekly SMU Community Chat Webinar on Wednesday morning, April 22, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (10 CT, 9 MT, 8 PT). This week SMU President & CEO John Packard will go one-on-one with Bernard Swiecki, Director of the Automotive Communities Partnership and Assistant Director […]
Extreme times require extreme measures and rigorous planning, as shown in the Cleveland-Cliffs business update on April 15. Cleveland-Cliffs claims that its liquidity is assured during the COVID-19 crisis even under “extreme stress test assumptions.” Liquidity in an extreme scenario, not including proceeds from additional financing, would reach a trough of $370 million in September […]