The seaborne freight market has been relatively flat in the past few weeks. The Baltic Dry Index was at 602 at the end of March but has been under 600 for most of April. As of Friday, April 24, it registered at 600. The BDI tracks dry-bulk rates based on vessel size and shipping route […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The IP index was reported as 105.22 for March, down by 0.64 from February. The three month moving average (3MMA) was 105.63, down by 0.34 from February. January was the highest value ever of the 3MMA at 106.11. The Y/Y growth rate […]
As we discussed at the beginning of the month April, Steel Market Update (SMU) will present our Future Steel Buyers Sentiment Index at the beginning of our Sentiment articles. Future Sentiment provides a better look at what steel buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are thinking regarding their company’s ability to be successful three […]
The graphic below shows published data for the growth of GDP, industrial production and consumer prices through the 1st Q of 2015. The GDP and industrial production portions of this graph are three month moving averages. GDP grew 7.3 percent y/y in both the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2014, declined to 7.0 percent in […]
The drop in galvanized steel pricing from the domestic mills is creating havoc at the HARDI wholesalers. As one of the wholesalers put it during the HARDI sponsored galvanized steel conference call Steel Market Update participated in earlier today, “Demand is still reasonable. My concern is that we will have a poor second half of […]
The following is the Chicago Federal Reserve statement followed by our own graphical analysis. The CFNAI is an excellent reality check for much of the economic analysis that we routinely provide at Steel Market Update. An explanation of the index is provided at the end of this piece. This is normally an article reserved for […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. reported high levels of steel import and customer inventory reduced shipments for first quarter resulting in a 44 percent drop in consolidated operating income compared to fourth quarter. SDI adjusted net income was $40 million for first quarter 2015 with $2 billion in net sales. The adjusted income excludes $17 million in […]
Global steel production in 12 months through March totaled 1.626 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.2 billion tonnes which yields a utilization for the 12 month period of 73.9 percent. China accounted for 50.3 percent of global production in March. Asia as a whole, including India, accounted for 68.3 percent of global production. Production […]
We have been receiving a number of inquiries regarding changing Executive level memberships and upgrading them to Premium level. This is something we can do for any company or individual at any point in time during the year. It does not have to wait until your membership is up for renewal. If you want to […]
Respondents in the April 2015 Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report found little to get excited about for the coming months. A third of participants in the monthly survey expect improved economic activity during the next three months but 58 percent forecast no change. Incoming orders are expected to remain steady during the period. […]
Starts in March rose by 14,000 to 926,000 after the revised decline of 164,000 in February. This data is seasonally adjusted by the Census department and the monthly numbers are annualized. The three month moving average, (3MMA) declined from 1,020,000 in February to 969,000 in March (Figure 1). The projection to 1.6 million in 2018 […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments increased in March by 321,400 tons to 3.507 million tons. Shipping days at 22 were 2 more than February. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments increased from 159,300 in February to 159,400 in March. In the twelve years since 2004, March shipments on average have been 1.2 […]
There has been a “calming” to the market although that has not stopped the slow trickle lower we are seeing in flat rolled steel pricing. We saw hot rolled break through the $440 level although we were told by steel buyers that were able to get those kind of numbers the last $5 per ton […]
US Steel Corp. President and CEO Mario Longhi is the recipient of the 2015 AIST Steelmaker of the Year Award. The annual award is presented by the Association for Iron and Steel Technology to notable leaders for their impact on the steel industry. The prestigious honor will be conferred at the AISTech 2015—Iron and Steel […]
This past week Steel Market Update publisher, John Packard, spoke to the financial community about the flat rolled steel industry. Most of the questions received during the Cowen & Company conference call were associated with demand for steel products. Since SMU just concluded our early April flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) late last week, […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has two Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices, current and future. We normally concentrate our initial comments on the current index, how buyers and sellers of steel feel about business conditions and their company’s ability to be successful in the current market. However, today and going forward, we will begin focusing on how […]
The Dodge Momentum Index, an initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning, slid 2.1 percent to 122.3 in March. The initial reports for project planning lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. In general, the trend has been upward for the past 12 months. The index has gained 12 percent in the first […]
We have an article in tonight’s Steel Market Update about a service center which installed a new piece of processing equipment. Earlier today we posted on our website blog an article about Olympic Steel naming Andrew Wolfort general manager of their Schaumburg plant. We are interested in keeping the industry informed of these kinds of […]
The Bureau of labor Statistics, (BLS) reported on Friday: “Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 126,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.5 percent. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade, while mining lost jobs. The change in total non-farm payroll employment for January […]
Steel import levels continue to increase at ports around the U.S. SMU spoke with several ports and all but one expects imports to grow, not decrease, in the coming months. Out on the West Coast, the Port of Los Angeles is still working through congestion brought about by the recent labor dispute and chassis issues. […]
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for January showed home price growth slowing from year ago levels. The National Home Price Index registered a 4.5 percent annual gain for the 12 months ending in January 2015 as compared to a 10.5 percent increase in January 2014. Month over month gains for the 10- and 20-city indexes […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. February data was released on April 1st. Construction Put in Place is based on spending work as it occurs, estimated for a given month from a sample of projects. In effect […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in this analysis is currently 36. Please refer to Table 1 for the view of the present situation and the quantitative measure of trends. Readers should […]
Last week a number of steel mill CEO’s testified before the U.S. Congress about the flood of steel imports and the need to protect the domestic steel industry. Separate from the CEO’s testimony, former Nucur CEO called for quotas to be implemented against foreign steel which he considered to be unfairly traded. Steel Market Update […]
NLMK USA shipped 489,000 tonnes of flat rolled steel products in Q4 2014 compared to 534,000 tonnes in the previous quarter, a drop of 9 percent q/q. Revenue for fourth quarter was $405 million, down from $445 million in Q3. EBITDA for the quarter was $19 million compared to $36 million in Q3 and $30 […]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the third estimate of Q4 2014 Annual Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts on Friday. The annualized growth rate in the third estimate of 4th quarter GDP was unchanged from the second estimate which was 2.2 percent but down from the first estimate which was 2.64 […]
So, why haven’t we released our program for the upcoming Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta on September 1 & 2, 2015? Well, we are waiting until we have all of our keynote speakers confirmed and committed. We believe we will have an exceptional program once again this year. As we have in the past, our […]
On a seasonally adjusted annual rate, light vehicle sales weakened in February to 16.2 million units, down from 16.7 million units in January but still up by 5.2 percent from February last year. The probable cause was inclement weather at the end of the month. Analysts had been expecting sales at a 16.7 million annual […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The IP index was reported as 105.8 for February a slight increase of 0.08 from January. The three month moving average (3MMA) was 105.87, down by 0.17 from January which was the highest value ever and the ninth straight month where the […]
The following is the Chicago Federal Reserve statement followed by our own graphical analysis. The CFNAI is an excellent reality check for much of the economic analysis that we routinely provide at Steel Market Update. An explanation of the index is provided at the end of this piece. This is normally an article reserved for […]