Written by: Peter Wright The housing market is important to steel producers and processors for a number of reasons, some of which are not obvious. Not a lot of steel is consumed in wood framed houses but housing starts also lead sales of appliances and other steel items. Starts also positively affect ancillary non-residential construction […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Steel shipments will be flat in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2012 said Steel Dynamics in its first quarter 2013 earnings guidance. Galvanized sheet volume is projected to decrease but be offset by increases in long product shipments, including SBQ, standard railroad rail and wide flange products. […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Voestalpine will invest 550 million euro ($718 million) for construction of a DRI plant in San Patricio County near Corpus Christi, TX. The facility will be cable of producing 2 million metric tons of DRI and HBI (hot briquetted iron) annually. A start-up date in early 2016 is projected. Half […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Nucor is expecting shares to drop by half in the first quarter of 2013, falling to $0.20 to $0.25 per diluted share from $0.43 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2012 and $0.45 per diluted share in first quarter 2012. Weak performance in sheet steel offset by improved profitability […]
Written by: Peter Wright Net job creation in January exceeded expectations with a headline value of 236,000. Built into this number is data that can validate, (or not) other statistics of interest to steel producers and processors. The big picture is 1,966,000 jobs have been created in the last 12 months and we are tracking […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Steel Dynamics announced that John Nolan, Vice President and General Manager of the Company’s Structural and Rail Division, has been appointed to the newly created corporate level position of President-Product Development. Nolan will be responsible for identification, development and innovation of new products for the automotive, construction and rail markets. Nolan, […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Klockner and Co. is undergoing a major restructuring program to shrink its European line to a profitable core by eliminating 60 sites, 40 of which have already been sold or closed. Klockner EBITDA before restructuring was €139 million in 2012 (down from €227 million in 2011) and €62 million after restructuring. […]
SMU asked those taking this week’s steel survey if the latest price announcement stood a better chance of having at least some of the increase being collected than the one announced six weeks prior. We presented the percentages in our last issue of Steel Market Update (SMU 3/6) and now we would like to provide […]
Written by: Damon Sun, Daido International The Far East and Asian markets are in a definite flux versus the USA market. I will preface my explanation with, the ferrous scrap markets in Asia increased in February first while the USA scrap markets were down in February. With that in mind, the scrap markets in North […]
“No demand- it is like raising ticket prices to see a last place team.” – Service Center Domestic mill price increases have a way of touching the nerve of the steel community. Whenever there is a price increase announcement and Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts our next steel market survey – we tend to gather […]
Written by: Peter Wright The Commerce Department releases construction expenditure data on the first working day of each month, referred to as “Construction put in place” or CPIP. This data has to be sub divided because sectors do not move synchronously. They are affected by supply / demand fundamentals and sources of financing. CPIP is […]
Written by: Peter Wright Key Market Indicators This chart is a work in progress and is designed to give a snapshot of the steel market on a specific date, which in this case is February 28th 2013. The chart is organized vertically to describe the primary indicators of the general economy, of proprietary Steel Market […]
Question is can TK get two or more mills in a bidding war? Our sources advise SMU that the binding bids for the ThyssenKrupp Americas plants (Calvert, Alabama and CSA in Brazil) – the ones which truly count – are to be submitted by the end of this week. There are a number of prospective […]
Written by: Sandy Williams >New residential housing starts slowed in January as winter gripped the U.S. Housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 890,000 in January, according data released by the Department of Commerce. The January figure was 8.5 percent below the December revised annual rate of 973,000, although 23.6 percent above […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Reliance Steel reported an 18 percent drop in net income of $80.4 million in fourth quarter 2012. Net income for the year rose 17.4 percent year over year to 403.5 million. Sales of $1.89 billion for the fourth quarter were 7.1 percent lower than a year ago and down 8.1 percent […]
Written by: Sandy Williams The American Institute of Architects (AIA) released their Architects Billing Index (ABI) which is a leading economic indicator of construction activity. The Architecture Billings Index rose in January to54.2, up from a seasonally adjusted 51.2 in December and the strongest growth since November 2007. The ABI reflects the approximate nine to […]
The HARDI wholesalers who participate in the distribution of galvanized steel into the HVAC industry held their monthly conference call this morning to discuss the steel market. At the time of the last call held in late January, AK Steel had just announced a $40 per ton price increase and the HARDI members were waiting […]
Written by: Sandy Williams The Arkansas Senate and House questioned a panel of economic development and finance officials last week on plans for the $1.1 billion Big River Steel project in Osceola, Ark. The meetings were a preliminary step in legislature approval of a $125 million bond issue for the proposed steel plant. The state’s […]
Written by: Sandy Williams John Deere earnings set a record in the first quarter of 2013, topping out at $650 million with a spectacular rise in earnings per share of 27 percent. John Deere net sales of the worldwide equipment operations rose 11 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to $6.793 billion. John Deere […]
Written by: John Packard & Sandy Williams “Clear preference for cash” ThyssenKrupp AG officials declined to talk about the Steel Americas sale during their 1st Quarter 2013 earnings conference call, but CFO Guido Kerkhoff said he can say that the company has a “clear preference for cash” and that the bidders understand that message. The […]
Written by: Brad Clark, Director of Steel Trading, Kataman Metals It appears that the market finally capitulated this week with the physical market taking a turn south as recent price hikes seem to have failed. After a couple of weeks with consumers, distributors, producers of coils eyeing each other up to see who will blink […]
Written by: John Packard Steel Market Update did not move our Price Momentum Indicator out of Neutral where we have been “stuck” for the past 10 – now going on 11 weeks. The market lacks clear direction – or maybe a better way to view it is the market lacks personality. This is perhaps best […]
Written by: Peter Wright The Economic Outlook for 2013 CBO expects that economic activity will expand slowly this year, with real GDP growing by just 1.4 percent. That slow growth reflects a combination of ongoing improvement in underlying economic factors and fiscal tightening that has already begun or is scheduled to occur—including the expiration of […]
Written by: Sandy Williams U.S. Steel announced today that Patrick J. Mullarkey has been named the new plant manager of Fairfield Tubular Operations in Birmingham, Ala. Mullarkey will succeed Dennis Quirk who has retired following 36 years of service. “Dennis has served our company well during times of critical change with his extensive and varied […]
Dear Editor, Once again, both Nucor and US Steel in their quarterly earnings calls partially blamed imports for their less than stellar results, and frankly, this is getting old. For the record, it is NOT illegal to import steel into the United States. It might be illegal if those imports were dumped (meaning sold below […]
Written by: Sandy Williams U.S. Steel celebrated the start-up of a new battery of environmentally friendly coke ovens at its Clairton plant on Thursday. The $500 million improvement project replaces three 50 year old coke ovens with new technology designed to significantly reduce emissions and improve the region’s air quality. The C Battery construction was […]
Written by: Peter Wright Raw steel production in 2012 was 97.8 million tons, up by 3.5 million tons from 2011. Steel mill shipments direct to the construction industry in 2012 were 15.6 million tons, (Figure 1). Shipments from service centers and converters to the construction industry are not classified but by proportion are about 12 […]
Written by: John Packard & Sandy Williams Steel Market Update is adding more strength to our newsletter and website team. Peter Wright will be joining SMU in a writing/analysis capacity with special emphasis on the development of steel and economic indicators which will be of value in forecasting future steel needs in both the flat […]
Written by: Brad Clark, Director of Steel Trading, Kataman Metals Settlement prices have barely moved this week as the recent price hikes have done little to inspire the futures market. After a couple of month of sideways movements in the physical market the last couple of weeks have seen the market take a steep turn […]
As if the south is not already flooded with flat rolled steel mills, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe and Big River Steel CEO John Correnti announced earlier today that if the bonds are approved by the Arkansas legislature a new $1 billion steel mill will be built in Arkansas. Details were lacking regarding the type of […]