It’s official: North Star BlueScope in Delta, Ohio, will be getting a new EAF. Australian parent BlueScope Steel announced the expansion during its FY 2019 earnings presentation. The $700 million investment will add a third electric arc furnace and second caster at the facility, boosting annual capacity by 850,000 metric tons (936,949 net tons). Commissioning […]
ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor has the honor of providing the steel for the first U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carrier to be built in more than 35 years. Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding held a ceremony at its shipyard to celebrate cutting the first sheet of steel to be used in the construction of the vessel for Interlake Steamship […]
Housing starts in July dipped 4.0 percent from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,184,000, but were 0.6 percent higher than a year ago, reports the U.S. Department of Commerce. Single-family housing starts gained 1.3 percent from the previous month, while starts for buildings with five units or more fell 17.2 percent. “Despite […]
Construction jobs are plentiful but the industry says more workers are needed. The number of new jobs available indicates there is a need for new federal investments in career and technical education programs, along with immigration reform, said the Associated General Contractors of America.. Forty states added construction jobs between July 2018 and July 2019, […]
The following editorial is by Allan Golombek, a Senior Director at the White House Writers Group, and was published on Aug. 12, 2019 by RealClearMarkets. The steel industry should have listened to the founder of Nucor. In 1986, Ken Iverson pointed out that protectionist measures to save the American steel industry had not had the desired […]
Electric arc furnace minimills may have a cost advantage in steel production today, but there are still 19 traditional blast furnaces going strong in the United States. Blast furnaces dominate about three-fourths of global steelmaking, but only three steel producers in the U.S. currently are using BF or basic oxygen furnace technology: U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal […]
Job creation slowed in July but is still healthy and in its 10th year of uninterrupted expansion, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In July, 16,000 jobs were created in manufacturing industries and 4,000 in construction activities. About 148,000 jobs were created in the private sector, while […]
The rate of job creation in the U.S. in 2019 is slowing, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Net job creation in July declined to 164,000 from a downwardly revised 193,000 in June. June was revised down by 31,000 and May down by 10,000. Rising […]
Nearly 1,000 executives are registered with just two weeks to go before the start of the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We continue to see strong interest in this year’s event, which will be held in Atlanta on Aug. 26-28. Once again, the Georgia International Convention Center will be the home of this, our 9th […]
Steel prices are up, but the same cannot be said for industry optimism. Following a brief uptick shortly after the mill price increases were announced last month, Steel Market Update’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Index has ticked back down. Steel buyers’ comments suggest that concerns about the economy, steel demand and the staying power of the higher […]
Russel Metals, Inc., Canada’s second largest metals distributor, reported revenues of $937 million in the second quarter. Net income totaled $31 million, about half the $66 million the company earned in the same quarter last year (figures are in Canadian dollars). The company’s gross margins in this year’s second quarter averaged 18.8 percent, well below […]
A leading index for nonresidential construction is continuing a downward trend that started in mid-2018. The Dodge Momentum Index fell 4.6 percent last month to a reading of 138.9. The index by Dodge Data & Analytics is a measure of the first report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead […]
Declining steel prices and inventory destocking contributed to a guidance miss for Ryerson Holding Corp. Although shipments increased 0.6 percent to 623,000 tons quarter-to-quarter, net sales fell 2.1 percent to $2.1 billion. Net income was $16.4 million, down from $30 million in the previous quarter and $18 million a year ago. Earnings per diluted share dropped […]
Steel shipments at Ternium Mexico were relatively flat in the second quarter, increasing 0.4 percent from the first quarter to 1.57 million metric tons. Sales of $1.37 billion slipped 3.9 percent from Q1 and fell 17 percent from Q2 2018. Steel prices have declined in the past three quarters in Mexico, mostly driven by a […]
Demand for HVAC products remains relatively strong in an otherwise lukewarm steel market, but members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) say they are challenged by declining galvanized steel prices and rising intensity from the competition. Polled six weeks ago, nearly all the HARDI members expected galvanized steel prices to stay […]
Olympic Steel further advanced its strategy to add manufactured metal products to its portfolio with the acquisition this week of EZ-Dumper. EZ-Dumper, a nationally recognized brand, produces steel and stainless steel dump inserts for pickup truck and service truck beds. Built from heavy-gauge materials and backed by a structural steel frame, the dump inserts can […]
U.S. Steel reported sales of $3.5 billion in the second quarter, down from $3.6 billion a year ago due to lower steel prices. Net earnings totaled $68 million, down from the $214 million in the second quarter of 2018. The company’s flat rolled segment posted earnings of $134 million despite significant weather-related logistics problems during […]
By CRU Principal Economist Lisa Morrison Total IP contracted q/q in both Q1 and Q2, but the June report pointed to potential stabilization in manufacturing. YTD through June, total IP is up 2.2 percent y/y, but it is averaging just 1 percent higher than in 2018. Since we expect little expansion during H2, we now […]
Construction spending declined in June, but most categories made gains in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018, says a new analysis of federal data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Construction spending totaled $1.287 trillion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in June, down 1.3 percent from […]
Private construction contracted in three months through June, but state and locally funded work, including infrastructure, is continuing to boom. Construction Put in Place (CPIP) expenditures data for June was released on Aug. 1. Through June, total construction has had negative momentum every month since October last year. This was entirely a result of […]
In June, China’s share of global steel production exceeded 55 percent for the first time. In May and June, the annual rate of global steel production exceeded 1.9 billion metric tons. Capacity is calculated to be 2.4 billion metric tons and capacity utilization in June was 80.0 percent, according to the latest Steel Market Update […]
Steel Market Update’s analysis of Key Market Indicators shows the present market situation was basically unchanged in the last month, based on data released in July, but half the 36 indicators trended positive and half negative. This report is designed to be a big picture summary of data on which we have reported in detail […]
Zekelman Industries plans to build what it claims will be the world’s largest continuous ERW tube mill in Blytheville, Ark., on property adjacent to its existing Atlas Tube mill. Startup of the new mill is scheduled for September 2021. “Having two mills within close proximity of each other will only increase our organization’s efficiency. We […]
Construction employment continued to grow in June, but could have been stronger if more qualified workers were available for hire, said the Associated General Contractors of America in its latest analysis of federal employment data. “Demand for construction remains robust in most metro areas,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “But, with record job […]
AK Steel’s net sales for the second quarter declined by 4 percent to about $1.68 billion due primarily to lower shipments to the slowing automotive market. Yet the steelmaker’s earnings for the quarter reached $66.8 million, an improvement from the $56.6 million in Q2 2018, though down from $72.9 million in the prior quarter. Hot rolled […]
A new bipartisan Senate bill on transportation infrastructure is getting the enthusiastic support of industry associations. The America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 will authorize $287 billion over five years to improve the nation’s roads and bridges. The legislation includes provisions to improve road safety, accelerate project delivery, improve resiliency to disasters and reduce highway […]
If you haven’t registered for the Premier Steel Conference in North America, then this is the time to do so. The Steel Market Update Events App, which all 900+ attendees have access to, was launched last week, meaning registered attendees are now busy organizing meetings with each other in advance to make the most of their time […]
If you haven’t registered for the Premier Steel Conference in North America, then this is the time to do so. The Steel Market Update Events App, which all 900+ attendees have access to, was launched last week, meaning registered attendees are now busy organizing meetings with each other in advance to make the most of their time […]
Steel Market Update and the Steel Manufacturers Association are committed to promoting youth and encouraging more young people to consider careers in the steel and manufacturing industries. The 2019 SMU NexGen Leadership Award is just one of the ways we are recognizing the existing talent within the industry. There is still time to get in […]
This week we solicited input from steel buyers (and steel mills) regarding their reaction to the third round of price increases, which was kicked off by ArcelorMittal USA yesterday. On June 24, Nucor announced the first of the latest round of mill price increases on spot flat rolled steel. Nucor advised that hot rolled, cold […]