North Star Bluescope Steel reported underlying EBITDA in the first half of FY 2017 of $180.2 million, an increase of 178 percent from 1H FY 2016 . Sales revenue was US$ 598.7 million. The mill operated at 100 percent capacity in the first half and benefited from lower conversion costs, particularly in utilities. Shipments for […]
As mentioned in an earlier article, steel buyers need to be aware of the potential for a new round of price increase announcements out of the domestic mills. The drop in scrap prices in the first few days of February followed by a sharp rise between now and then have the mills a bit on […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported sales of $2.06 billion in fourth quarter, up 1.7 percent from fourth quarter 2015 and down 5.7 percent from Q3 2016. Tons sold at 1,365,000 were down 1.1 percent from Q4 2015 and down 5.6 percent from third quarter. Average selling price per ton sold was $1,500, essentially the same […]
Steel buyers are telling Steel Market Update that there are a few steel mills “looking for orders” and that flat rolled steel prices are “somewhat negotiable with tons” but, otherwise, the steel mills are doing a good job of holding the line on prices. We have seen a couple of drops in pricing due to […]
The following article is the opinion of Steel Market Update (SMU) founder and publisher, John Packard. There is a new kid in town, his/her name is Big River Steel. No other steel mills like BRS because they are taking market share and, well, everyone wants to keep all of their toys. Big River Steel Arkansas […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been struggling to get a clear view of the current market situation as we attempt to identify which direction we see flat rolled steel prices going from here. We have been receiving mixed messages over the past two weeks and we have been advising our readers to remain vigilant and […]
February 1, 2017 (Osceola, Arkansas) – Big River Steel today announced that it has established a new production record in terms of tons of steel produced by a SMS group supplied flat-rolled mini mill during the first full month of operation. With over 63,000 tons of hot rolled steel produced in January, Big River Steel’s […]
The following article has been revised as of 1-25-2017. Net income/loss was incorrectly reported. SMU apologizes for the confusion. AK Steel reported a net loss of $62.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to net loss of 145.4 million in Q4 2015. Sales totaled $1.42 billion with an average selling price of $998 […]
I got a note from one of my Asian trading sources yesterday explaining the reason for some of the price volatility seen in the Chinese markets earlier this week. He told us, “We see Ore at below USD50/mt in 2017. Reasons being that China is shutting down capacity big time, probably about 150 million MTS […]
Ferrous scrap price negotiations for January were slow to develop but by late Thursday and into Friday prices firmed and deals between the domestic steel mills and the scrap dealers were getting done. The two largest scrap buyers, David J Joseph (Nucor) and Omnisource (Steel Dynamics), entered the market late during the week at $30 […]
Today’s issue is our 150th Executive newsletter (Volume 11, Issue 150). We averaged 11.4 articles per issue so we published 1718 articles. On top of that we published 51 Premium newsletters which average 2.5 articles per issue for another 124 articles. We have produced thousands of graphics, many of which our readers are able to […]
Big River Steel announced that operations have begun at its melt shop and hot strip mill. The first hot rolled coil was purchased by Zekelman Industries and will be sent to Atlas Tube in nearby Blytheville, Arkansas. The coil was purchased for $100,000 with the entire amount jointly contributed by Big River and Zekelman Industries […]
There are a number of players in the market that are overly concerned (in my opinion) about the restart of the USS Granite City hot strip mill (they are not yet restarting the two idled blast furnaces so they are not adding any new raw steel production into the market) and Mingo Junction (reported to […]
On Tuesday of this week Steel Market Update (SMU) and one of our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshops toured the Big River Steel facility in Osceola, Arkansas. We conducted the classroom portion of our program in Memphis and then drove to the mill for our tour and then we moved […]
Good evening from Memphis, Tennessee and Ocseola, Arkansas home of Big River Steel. Earlier today our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop held our class on the steel making and rolling process. The morning session was then followed by a trip to Osceola and a tour of the brand new (so […]
I am about to embark on a two-week trip which includes stops in Memphis (and Big River Steel in Arkansas), Las Vegas (FabTech and ASD annual meeting), San Diego and then on to Los Angeles to have Thanksgiving with my daughter and the rest of our family. I will be in the office early tomorrow […]
On Wednesday of this week I participated in the monthly HARDI conference call (see article in tonight’s newsletter). During the call one of the executives from an east coast HVAC wholesaler told the group that he didn’t believe prices could or would move much higher from here. I disagreed with him. One of the justifications […]
We continue to watch flat rolled steel prices as anytime the mills announce a price increase it takes time to develop the “target” price. You have to remember that there is a range of prices – not everyone was paying $470 per ton for hot rolled coil before the price increase announcements were made. Some […]
Nucor Corporation reported net earnings of $270 million for third quarter, up from 233.8 million in Q2 and 227.1 in Q3 2015. Consolidated net sales in third quarter increased 1 percent to $4.29 billion from the previous quarter and 2 percent from a year ago. Average sales price per ton increased 11 percent QoQ. Tons […]
The conversation has begun regarding when flat rolled steel prices will end their slide and reverse course. Flat rolled steel prices have been in a steep decline since mid-June 2016 when benchmark hot rolled prices peaked at $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt, SMU index average) FOB domestic mill. Since then steel prices have retreated $145 per […]
When we last left you Hurricane Matthew was just beginning to approach the east coast of Florida as a category 4 storm. I was a little concerned about our office building and our home. I am pleased to tell you that the storm took a little jog to the east as it left the Bahamas. […]
This area of the Steel Market Update newsletter is reserved for me to be able to provide my thoughts/opinions on a variety of subjects and our readers clearly know where these comments are coming from. I have been asked on a number of occasions to comment on “rumors” of a domestic mill flat rolled price […]
I got a note from Eddie Lehner, the CEO of Ryerson who attended our Steel Summit Conference for the first time this year. He dropped me a note today about our conference, “The SMU Conference is flat out worth attending. An unusual combination of candor, depth and subject matter relevance throughout the steel value chain […]
With the Wheatland Tube filing of a complaint against China using the ENFORCE Act we are about to enter the next stage of trade complaints. The Wheatland complaint is for circumvention of duties that already exist against Chinese products, so it will be interesting how quickly this first test case takes and will Customs and […]
Nucor Steel Arkansas is planning a $230 million expansion at its Blytheville steel plant according to the Blytheville Courier News. Nucor Controller Mark DiGirolamo addressed the Blytheville City Council’s Finance and Purchasing Committee on Wednesday to seek a bond from the city to finance construction of a cold mill at the plant. According to the […]
Much has been made about the number of shutdowns there will be at various steel mills due to planned maintenance outages. Steel Market Update has been working with a number of our buyer sources to come up with a tentative schedule of the various projects due in the 4th Quarter 2016. This is our “best […]
I spent a great deal of time on two projects: flat rolled pricing and steel mill maintenance schedules. I want to thank those companies who worked with me over the past few working days to be able to provide what I think is better data (both in pricing and in the schedules) than what has […]
Today we remember those who lost their lives in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and those aboard United Airlines flight 93 which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Although it was a time of devastation and despair it was also a time when the world united behind the United States and the global fight against […]
Mark Bula, the Commercial Director for Big River Steel made it official at our 6th Steel Summit Conference proclaiming Big River Steel as “open for business.” Bula, who was speaking on a panel on Innovation and the future of the steel industry, reported that the mill will begin producing their first hot rolled coil for […]
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Steel Market Update conducted our 6th Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was the largest for us with 428 steel executives participating. I will let a few of the comments I got this morning speak for themselves: “Great conference John. Very well put together…..best one […]