April 21, 2020 Dear Steel Market Update “Member”, Your business is important to Steel Market Update and our parent company The CRU Group. We know difficult times may lie ahead and we are here to support your business in any way we can. Steel Market Update began operations in August 2008. By the end of […]
Steel Buyers Sentiment remained in pessimistic territory in mid-April as steel demand was stifled by the government restrictions on commerce to control the spread of COVID-19. Future Buyers Sentiment was notably more optimistic, however, which suggests service center and manufacturing executives anticipate better days ahead. Steel Market Update asked steel buyers how they view their […]
Steel Buyers Sentiment remained in pessimistic territory in mid-April as steel demand was stifled by the government restrictions on commerce to control the spread of COVID-19. Future Buyers Sentiment was notably more optimistic, however, which suggests service center and manufacturing executives anticipate better days ahead. Steel Market Update asked steel buyers how they view their […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: I hope everyone had a peaceful and, above all, safe Easter and Passover holiday. If I missed any other celebrations over the last two weeks, I hope you will accept my apology and let me know about them. […]
Phil Raimondo, President & CEO of Behlen Manufacturing in Columbus, Neb., counts his state lucky for having less than a 1,000 people test positive for COVID-19. “Sometimes, with our businesses, we are frustrated with being a fly-over state, but with this virus, we are happy to be a fly-over state,” said Raimondo. Nebraska is one […]
Economic activity contracted “sharply and abruptly” last month, according to the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report. The report, covering activity through April 6, showed leisure and hospitality industries bearing the brunt of the decline. “All Districts reported highly uncertain outlooks among business contacts, with most expecting conditions to worsen in the next several months,” said […]
Extreme times require extreme measures and rigorous planning, as shown in the Cleveland-Cliffs business update on April 15. Cleveland-Cliffs claims that its liquidity is assured during the COVID-19 crisis even under “extreme stress test assumptions.” Liquidity in an extreme scenario, not including proceeds from additional financing, would reach a trough of $370 million in September […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary, from CRU’s Zinc Monitor As the Chinese market gradually emerges from its Covid-19 lockdown and businesses and individuals start to return to normal, acute outbreaks of the virus across the world mean that many countries are still operating under severe restrictions. Even as China attempts to reinvigorate domestic demand, […]
Housing starts plummeted 22.3 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,216,000, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Single-family starts declined 17.5 percent and multifamily starts of five units or more plunged 32 percent. “Single-family starts began an expected, virus-related decline in […]
The coronavirus is already changing my daily habits. I walk around with a small bottle of Purell (or similar) hand sanitizer in my pocket. I have a face mask in my car and I am no longer self-conscious about wearing it into a grocery store. Probably because everyone else is wearing a mask as well. […]
Cleveland-Cliffs will temporarily idle Northshore Mining in Minnesota and Tilden Mine in Michigan due to current market conditions. The iron ore supplier plans to work down current inventory from the operations to fulfill its commercial agreements with steel customers. Demand is down at U.S. steel mills, with several adjusting production due to closures in the […]
While other iron ore mining operations are temporarily shutting down due to the impact of the coronavirus on iron ore demand, Prairie River Minerals plans to start construction this month on a multimillion dollar ore processing plant in Minnesota. Prairie River bought the assets of bankrupt Magnetation in Coleraine and Keewatin for $1.9 million in […]
2020 is NOT 2008 all over again… I vividly remember 2008 and what happened to the steel industry beginning in September of that year. Why? Because Steel Market Update began as a company in August 2008 and I was scrambling to get members, while at the same time reporting on the destruction of demand and […]
AGC, April 10, 2020: With the covid-19 pandemic worsening by the week, an ever-increasing share of contractors are reporting cancellations of upcoming projects and shortages of equipment or materials, forcing nearly 40 percent of firms to lay off employees, according to an online survey released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Metallics Monitor The CRU metallics price indicator (CRUmpi) will be updated following the conclusion of trade in the U.S. However, we expect the indicator to move substantially lower following price decreases across every market we track. Metallics prices in nearly every market came under substantial pressure in […]
President Trump’s move to greatly ease automotive emissions targets may impact the environment, for better or worse, but likely not steel suppliers to the auto industry. The Trump administration has finalized its Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021-2026, following through on the president’s promise to reverse the Obama-era rules that he […]
BlueScope Steel says it will delay the North Star BlueScope expansion under way in Ohio for six months to minimize cash expenses as part of its strategy to maintain financial health during the COVID-19 crisis. The full scope of the project will resume when conditions improve. BlueScope Managing Director and CEO Mark Vassella said, “We […]
Tubular steel producer Vallourec said Monday that it will lay off more than 900 employees at its U.S. plants due to a significant drop in activity by its oil and gas customers. The layoffs will be implemented in the coming weeks across all plants and support functions and impact over one-third of Vallourec’s workforce and contractor […]
Layoffs are rapidly increasing at construction firms, says a new survey by the Associated General Contractors of America. Twenty-seven percent of firms surveyed by AGC this week reported layoffs as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, contrasting with government data for March showing construction employment declining by 29,000 as of mid-month. “The March employment data […]
Steel Market Update’s monthly analysis of Key Market Indicators has done a good job of anticipating the ups and downs of the steel market in the past, but the economic data currently available seriously lags the impact of the coronavirus on the economy. Only 3 of 36 indicators in this month’s report have even begun […]
The employment situation in the U.S. is a disaster. The current economic situation is so extraordinarily dire that historical data and trend analysis is almost irrelevant except to illustrate the severity of the situation we are all experiencing. Net job creation in March was negative 701,000 and January was revised down by 59,000, according to […]
We’re all saturated with news of the employment disaster caused by the coronavirus, but to look at the long-term picture graphically is still shocking. Figure 1 shows the three-month moving average (3MMA) of the number of jobs created or lost through April since 2005 as the brown bars and the total number employed as the […]
The U.S. lost a net 701,000 jobs in March as the economy struggled with the coronavirus, and the labor situation is expected to be much worse in April. The brunt of March’s employment decline was felt by service industries. In the coming months, manufacturing and construction jobs will suffer more as well. Table 1 breaks […]
More than 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs in April, including 18.1 million in service industries and 2.4 million in goods-producing industries such as manufacturing and construction, according to data just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest job losses came on top of 870,000 lost in March, following a gain of 230,000 […]
Schnitzer Steel Industries, a metals recycler and long products producer, posted revenue of $439 million for the second quarter of FY 2020. Net income was $4.5 million for the quarter, improving from a $7 million loss in Q1 but down significantly from income of $13 million in Q2 2019. Autos and Metals Recycling achieved operating […]
The Dodge Momentum Index slipped slightly in March, retreating 0.6 percent to a reading of 146.5. The momentum index is a monthly measure of the initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. In March, the commercial component of the […]
Steel Buyers Sentiment—how steel executives view their prospects for success—has continued to deteriorate as the market struggles with the coronavirus restrictions. Current sentiment dipped into pessimistic territory to a reading of -8 this week, the lowest level since November 2010. It is also the first time we have entered the pessimistic portion of our index […]
Infrastructure is finally getting some attention again, despite and because of the cornavirus. Congress and the White House are calling for an infrastructure bill to be included in the fourth COVID-19 relief package. “With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill,” Trump […]
Today we took our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled steel to Lower from Neutral. We are clearly seeing an erosion in pricing, which is expected to continue over the near term. The economy is heading into recession. Key indicators are pointing toward a slowdown in construction as states and local municipalities mandate construction projects […]
Today we took our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled steel to Lower from Neutral. We are clearly seeing an erosion in pricing, which is expected to continue over the near term. The economy is heading into recession. Key indicators are pointing toward a slowdown in construction as states and local municipalities mandate construction projects […]