The year 2020 started out strong for the construction industry, but the latest annual employment figures show the impact of the pandemic. Canceled or postponed construction projects were reflected in new government data on construction employment analyzed by the Associated General Contractors of America. Construction jobs fell in 39 states between August 2019 and August […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service A combination of increased seasonal demand, low service center inventories, unplanned outages, spike in scrap prices and government restrictions on Brazilian slab imports have added fuel to the usual seasonal uptick and turned it into a surge. After reaching a bottom in mid-August, […]
Housing starts fell 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million in August due to declines in multi-family construction. Single-family housing starts rose 4.1 percent from July’s annual rate, but multi-family starts plunged more than 20 percent, according to data from U.S. Housing and Urban Development and the Commerce Department. Building permits […]
Demand and pricing improved late in the third quarter, said Nucor in earnings guidance issued Thursday. Continued resiliency of the nonresidential construction market has resulted in a strong performance for Nucor’s downstream products. Steel segment earnings are expected to be similar to second quarter. Nonresidential construction is also benefiting Nucor’s bar and structural mills, but market conditions […]
Some leading pipe and tube producers are increasing prices by $50 per ton due to increased demand from construction and automotive-related industries, as well as higher raw material costs. On Monday, Nucor Tubular Products announced an immediate $50 increase on all new orders for HSS, pipe, mechanical and piling products. Atlas Tube followed suit on […]
Iowa farmers are complaining that tariffs are causing opportunists to raise steel prices for materials needed to rebuild following the devastating derecho storm that damaged farms last month. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) penned a letter to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross asking that Section 232 tariffs be […]
By CRU Analyst Kevin Bai, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor Domestic sheet prices in China continued to reach new highs for the year alongside further improvement in underlying sheet demand in combination with limited supply. Domestic CR coil prices went up by RMB290 /t to RMB4720 /t and HDG sheet by RMB140 /t to […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth, from CRU’s Steel Raw Materials and Steel Costs CRU price and cost forecasts suggest that the steel sector generally will return close to steady-state, or “through-cycle,” levels of profitability over the five-year forecast period. However, as our analysis highlights, steady-state profitability of individual steel mills has varied widely in […]
Employment in manufacturing and construction is recovering much more slowly than in the overall economy. The net change in employed persons was negative 20.8 million in April. Each month since then has had positive growth, but the recovery slowed in July and August. We have created a new summary chart for August to track the overall […]
The net change in employed persons in September was 661,000. Employment gains have slowed each month since June when 4.8 million jobs were recovered. The baseline against which future comparisons will be made is February 2020, the all-time high for nonfarm employment. Figure 1 shows the total number of people employed in the nonfarm economy. […]
Through October, manufacturing has added 742,000 jobs and construction 789,000 since the pandemic-driven crash in April. The baseline against which future comparisons are made in this analysis is February 2020, the all-time high for nonfarm employment. Figure 1 shows the total number of people employed in the nonfarm economy. Table 1 is designed on rolling […]
Mills raised plate prices by an additional $40-50 per ton ($2-2.50/cwt) on Monday and Tuesday, the second increase in the past five weeks and the fourth round of increases since May. Plate prices have lagged the increases in flat rolled as plate demand is more dependent on the infrastructure, commercial construction and energy markets, which […]
By CRU Research Analyst Eduardo Tinti, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The iron ore price rose further last week and is now approaching the $130 /dmt mark as demand from Chinese steel mills remains strong and seaborne supply declined w/w. On Tuesday, Sept. 8, CRU assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $128.0 /dmt, […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Metallics Monitor The CRU metallics price indicator (CRUmpi) rose by 9.9 percent m/m in September to 225.5. Rising steel demand internationally in combination with tighter markets has driven relatively large price increases in every market we assess. Market sentiment is bullish for October and, barring any […]
Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on upgrading to a Premium-level membership, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Nonfarm employment is improving, but made back less than half the losses seen in the two months of March and April in the four-month period from May through August. The August jobs […]
The September jobs report was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday and failed to meet the consensus expectation. September’s net gain was 661,000. The average monthly gain in the four months May through August was 2.7 million. In the September data, the July gain was revised up by 27,000 and August […]
The economy added 638,000 jobs in October, exceeding consensus expectations, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Expectations were for a gain of 600,000. In the October data, the August gain was revised up by 4,000 and September was revised up by 15,000. Of the job losses in March and April, 10,090,000 are still unemployed. Figure […]
The Dodge Momentum Index increased for a second consecutive month, climbing 1.8 percent in August to 126.5. The commercial component of the index increased 3.3 percent while the institutional component dipped 1.2 percent lower. The index is a monthly measure of the first report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which has been shown to […]
Economic activity increased modestly in most of the U.S. in August but remained well below pre-COVID-19 levels, said the Federal Reserve in its latest Beige Book publication. “Continued uncertainty and volatility related to the pandemic, and its negative effect on consumer and business activity, was a theme echoed across the country,” said the Fed in […]
Industry sentiment, as measured by Steel Market Update, has improved to relatively healthy levels even higher than this time last year prior to the pandemic. Both the Current and Future Steel Buyers Sentiment Indexes have jumped by 20 points or more in the past month, suggesting buyers are feeling better about the market’s recovery. SMU […]
Steel prices gained momentum in August as demand improved and the mills announced a new round of price increases. As of last week, Steel Market Update’s hot rolled price average had risen to $485 per ton, up $45 in just two weeks from the mid-month low, and has since topped the $500 mark. Scrap prices were flat […]
Construction spending slid in July for both public and private nonresidential construction, says the Associated General Contractors of America in their latest analysis of government data. The decline contrasted a surge in construction spending for new homes in July. “The dichotomy between slumping nonresidential projects—both public and private—and robust homebuilding seems sure to widen as […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Raw Materials Monitor The iron ore price has risen again in the past week as offloading activities have continued while demand from China’s steel mills has been robust. On Tuesday, Sept. 1, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $124.5 /dmt, up by $1.5 /dmt […]
Six months of adversity was not what Leon Topalian expected when he took over the reigns of Nucor in January. But a pandemic that devastated the economy, caused demand and pricing to plummet and put the very lives of employees in jeopardy was a formidable challenge to overcome. “I’m not sure I’ve seen before in […]
How much has the market recovered from the depths of the pandemic? If steel prices are an indicator, we’ve made some progress. But is the bump we’ve seen in the past several weeks just a temporary blip or a sign that the upturn in steel demand is real and sustainable? Service center and OEM executives […]
The SMU Steel Summit 2020 was off to a strong start on Day 1 covering a wide variety of topics from new capacity to international trade. SMU President John Packard officially opened the conference on Monday leading a panel discussion about the steel industry in Mexico, the Middle East, Turkey and China. Ternium CEO Maximo Vedoya […]
After knocking it out of the park during the first day of our conference, we are going to shift into cruise mode as we hit on the economy and the major end-use segments affecting the industry. We have two “new” mill CEO’s joining our conference for the first time. The Nucor and U.S. Steel exec’s […]
After knocking it out of the park during the first day of our conference, we are going to shift into cruise mode as we hit on the economy and the major end-use segments affecting the industry. We have two “new” mill CEO’s joining our conference for the first time. The Nucor and U.S. Steel exec’s […]
Industry sentiment has improved in the past two weeks, as measured by Steel Market Update. SMU’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Indexes took a dip in July but rebounded in the latest check of the market for reasons that are not entirely clear. Respondents bemoan the persistent uncertainty, but business is good in certain sectors. SMU asks […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The nation and the world saw a greater than normal number of presidential announcements in the past week. I debated Philip Bell, the president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, on issues related to Section 232 at the SMU […]