The Association of Steel Distributors honored Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves as its Steel Executive of the Year. The honor was bestowed on Goncalves at a dinner earlier this week in conjunction with the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association conference in Miami. The award is designed to recognize individuals who have demonstrated the ability […]
The war in Eastern Europe is hitting close to home for some steel buyers. Steel Market Update’s survey this week asked readers: How might the Russian invasion of Ukraine impact your business? Roughly three out of four of the service center and manufacturing executives who responded said they fear at least some fallout from the […]
In a letter to customers this week, Cleveland-Cliffs said it does not expect the geopolitical fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to directly impact the company’s operations. “While we continue to monitor the situation closely, we have not identified any specific elevated risk to our operations at this time,” the company stated. Cliffs said it will continue […]
The fog of war. That’s what we’re all dealing with now. Even in steel as realization grows that the war in Ukraine will have consequences here in North America too. The exact contours are still uncertain. We know that pig iron prices are up sharply, and that concerns about shortages are mounting – not just […]
U.S. Steel Corp. is investing $60 million at Gary Works to give the Indiana mill the capability to produce up to 500,000 tons of pig iron annually and provide a critical raw material for the steelmaker’s electric arc furnaces. Once complete in the first half of 2023, pig iron production at Gary will provide nearly […]
If you look at Steel Market Update’s headlines from the past week, it’s not difficult to see a common thread. There’s change in the wind. Cleveland-Cliffs and Nucor both announced $50-per-ton increases in sheet prices. Scrap experts forecast substantial jumps in both prime and obsolete scrap prices in March. Prices for other steelmaking raw materials […]
Nucor has joined Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. in increasing base prices for steel sheet by at least $50 per ton ($2.50 per cwt). The move is effective with all new orders, the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker said in a letter to customers on Friday, Feb. 25. “We reserve the right to review and re-quote any offers that are […]
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 […]
JSW Steel (USA) and JSW Ohio’s lawsuit claiming Nucor, U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs conspired to stifle competition by denying semifinished steel slab to the company has been dismissed. The lawsuit, filed on June 8, 2021, in federal court in Houson, alleged that three of the largest American steelmakers formed a cartel and conspired to cause […]
Sheet prices fell hard again this week. Our average hot-rolled coil number now stands at $1,020 per ton ($51/cwt), down $60 per ton from last week and marking the lowest point for HRC prices since January 2021. Large buyers reported deals in the mid-$900s. Another notable trend: Prices for coated products led the way downward […]
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 […]
Distributors who sell galvanized steel products to the construction and HVAC sectors see Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s announcement of a price increase this week as a positive sign the market’s slide may be nearing a bottom. The Cleveland-based steelmaker notified customers this week that it is shutting down a blast furnace and will raise prices for April […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will indefinitely idle the No. 4 blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor steelmaking campus in northwest Indiana. The Cleveland-based steelmaker also announced that it was raising prices for April orders of carbon hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated flat-rolled steel by at least $50 per ton ($2.50 per cwt). Cliffs will transfer hot metal production […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
On the price front, we’re below $1,200 per ton ($60 per cwt) for hot-rolled coil the first time in almost exactly a year, which had me going back and checking some of the headlines we had a year ago. A recurring theme is that just about everything that happened last year is happening in reverse […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is expected to take an approximately 80-90 day planned outage on the No. 5 blast furnace at its Cleveland Works starting in mid to late March, according to market participants. The outage is expected to last until roughly mid-June. It is not expected to impact customers because the Cleveland-based steelmaker can stock slabs […]
Were it not for persistently strong steel demand, the plunging steel prices would be an unmitigated disaster. About 70% of the service center and manufacturing execs responding to SMU’s survey a week ago described demand for their products as stable. Another 20% even said they see demand improving. Just 10% have registered declines in demand […]
Cleveland-Cliffs’ Ashland Works, once the lifeblood of four-generations of residents in the Kentucky community, is now a pile of rubble. The steel mill had operated for the better part of 100 years on the Ohio River. Its Amanda blast furnace was decomissioned in 2015. And the entire mill was permanently closed in 2019, shortly before Cleveland-Cliffs acquired […]
Majestic Steel USA Inc. has hired Sean Madigan as Vice President of Sales, Manufacturing. Madigan joins Majestic from Nucor, where he served as the Sales and Marketing Manager for Nucor Steel Arkansas. Madigan’s experience with Nucor was integral to the startup of the company’s new coating line, and he will continue to be a critical part of the […]
In two weeks, we will be in Tampa, Fla., to celebrate the 33rd edition of the Tampa Steel Conference. The long-range forecast is for sunny skies and 70-degree temperatures. We expect 400+ steel, manufacturing, mill, trading company, port, and logistics companies at this year’s conference. This will be the highest in-person attended Tampa Steel Conference […]
For those of you who participate in our bi-weekly steel market analysis questionnaires, or if you are a Premium level member, the results from the last few weeks would suggest service centers are at a point where they will support new price increases by the domestic steel mills. We collect data from manufacturing companies and […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has commissioned the hot strip mill at its $1.9 billion steelmaking complex in Sinton, Texas, the company’s top executive said. “Both coating lines are running well. The hot strip mill has been commissioned using purchased slabs. The last component is the caster, which is in the home stretch,” SDI President and […]
Selling secondary steel isn’t what it used to be in a market niche that seems to be getting smaller. The secondary market has always been about relationships and matching customers’ needs to the nonprime material that becomes available. And in the current environment, there’s even more wheeling and dealing, sources told me this week. “It’s a […]
Happy New Year! The first major live and in-person steel event is just six short weeks away as we prepare to host the industry at the Tampa Steel Conference. Steel Market Update will once again be working with Port Tampa Bay as we host the 33rdedition of the Tampa Steel Conference. The 2022 TSC will […]
The first major live and in-person steel event is just six short weeks away as we prepare to host the industry at the Tampa Steel Conference. Steel Market Update will once again be working with Port Tampa Bay as we host the 33rdedition of the Tampa Steel Conference. The 2022 TSC will be held on […]
BlueScope Steel has closed its $240 million deal for ferrous scrap recycler MetalX. With the transaction complete, MetalX will operate under the name BlueScope Recycling and Materials. BlueScope announced the deal in early November and closed it on Dec. 17, according to a statement released earlier this week. MetalX is the leading scrap supplier to […]