In November net job creation was 178,000 which was about in line with analysts’ expectations. The employment situation is strong enough for the Fed to likely go ahead with a target rate increase later this month. September employment numbers were revised up by 17,000 and October down by 19,000. Using a three month moving average […]
Lack of infrastructure projects has led to a decline or stagnation of construction employment in one third of U.S. metro areas in October said the Associated General Contractors of America. The press release from AGC follows: Construction employment declined or was stagnant in one-third of metro areas between October 2015 and October 2016 amid diminishing […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. This will explain the difference between our view of the present situation which is subjective and our analysis of trends which is based on the latest facts available. At the end of […]
NLMK USA has gotten the go-ahead on a new walking beam furnace for the Pennsylvania plant. Some pre-construction has already begun. James Baker, Jr. told us in an email, “We will be installing a walking beam furnace in Farrell. We have already started on initial site prep with target completion date of September 2018. There […]
Steel Market Update went out to a couple of hundred steel buyers and executives today as we probe for information about flat rolled steel prices. At the same time we asked questions about price direction and demand. Tonight we will cover price direction (prior to AM increase announcement) and on Thursday we will cover their […]
Once each quarter we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Currently available GDP data is through the third quarter, other data included here is through October. Many analysts don’t believe these Party self-serving figures but we include them in our reports because of the importance […]
Twice per month Steel Market Update conducts an analysis of the flat rolled steel market. One of the proprietary products that comes out of this effort is the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. Our index measures how steel buyers and those that sell flat rolled steels feel about their company’s ability to be successful both […]
October service center daily shipments improved 1.0 percent from September which is better than it seems because since 2009 on average, October has declined by 2.3 percent. Carbon steel shipments increased by 29,700 tons, the number of shipping days was unchanged at 21 and tons/day shipments increased by 1,400 tons. Intake and shipments In October […]
Licensed data for October was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on November 8th. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in short tons. Total rolled […]
The Architecture Billings Index rebounded modestly in October, registering 50.8 after dipping below the neutral point in September and August. Fewer firms, however, reported an increase in new inquiries or in value of design contracts signed during the month. Both inquiries and design contract indexes fell for the second month in a row with the […]
On Tuesday of this week Steel Market Update (SMU) and one of our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshops toured the Big River Steel facility in Osceola, Arkansas. We conducted the classroom portion of our program in Memphis and then drove to the mill for our tour and then we moved […]
Good evening from Memphis, Tennessee and Ocseola, Arkansas home of Big River Steel. Earlier today our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop held our class on the steel making and rolling process. The morning session was then followed by a trip to Osceola and a tour of the brand new (so […]
The annualized GDP growth rate in the first estimate of the third quarter of 2016 was 2.91 percent which was the best result since the Q3 of 2014. Economy.com had this to say: “Prospects remain bright. Consumers are doing their part and spending growth will remain strong as labor markets tighten and wage increases accelerate. […]
In October net job creation was 161,000. August was revised up by 9,000 and September revised up by 35,000. Using a three month moving average (3MMA), the result for October was 176,000 down from 233,000 in August and from 206,000 in September. Figure 1 shows the 3MMA of the number of jobs created as the […]
Once per month HARDI* wholesalers conduct a galvanized steel conference call so they can better understand what is happening in the broader markets as they deal with steel pricing, demand and inventory issues. The HARDI monthly call was held on Wednesday, November 9, just one day after the presidential election. Not surprisingly, the future of […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. September data for CPIP was released on Tuesday November 1st. On a rolling 3 months basis year over year total construction has declined every month since March when growth was 12.4 […]
The Premium article below was originally produced for our Premium members on Wednesday afternoon. Over the last couple of days SMU has had conversations with a number of our members regarding our views on the construction markets. This is an analysis which was shared with our Premium level members yesterday and we have decided to […]
The Department of Commerce announced on Monday its affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping investigations of imports of certain carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate (CTL plate) from Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. CTL plate is a flat-rolled carbon and alloy steel product that is 4.75 mm or more in […]
Nonresidential construction planning took a jump in October, according to the latest survey by Dodge Data and Analytics. The Dodge Momentum Index grew 4.1 percent in October to 133.6, nearly reversing September’s loss. Commercial planning increased by 6.1 percent sequentially and by 20 percent year-over-year. “This suggests that despite being in a more mature phase […]
Construction demand in the private sector is driving increases in construction employment and offsetting declines in public sector jobs, said the Associated General Contractors of America in their November press release. Residential construction employment grew 5.4 percent year-over-year in October while nonresidential construction jobs grew 1.4 percent. AGC notes that public construction needs the support […]
Gibraltar Industries, as a leading manufacturer and distributor of building products, has close ties to the steel industry. In the third quarter earnings call, Gibraltar Senior Vice President and CFO Ken Smith was asked about how the company is handling the recent steel price increase. Steel increases are monitored multiple times day across the Gibraltar […]
Home prices in August rose by 5.3 percent annually in August according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. The 20-city composite gained 5.1 percent annually. Portland, Seattle and Denver drove gains during the past seven months. On a month-over-month basis the National Index showed a 0.5 percent increase in August. […]
Steel Market Update is a member of an association connected to the construction industry called HARDI. HARDI stands for Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International. HARDI and the Institute for Trend Research (ITR), an economic forecasting company, work together to gather economic data to provide a forecast to the HARDI members located in the United […]
Steel Market Update is a member of an association connected to the construction industry called HARDI. HARDI stands for Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International. HARDI and The Institute for Trend Research (ITR), an economic forecasting company, work together to gather economic data to provide a forecast to the HARDI members located in the United […]
With the end of October at hand, it is time for SMU to take another look at shipping conditions around the U.S. Seaborne MID-SHIP is seeing improvement in freight rates and fuel prices and an increase in period chartering activity for seaborne cargo. A surge in coal pricing in the past few weeks has resulted […]
Steel Dynamics reported higher flat rolled prices resulted in an 11 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter. Net earnings were $284 million on net sales of $2.1 billion. Adjusted net income, including a $5 million litigation settlement charge, was $157 million for the quarter. SDI steel production was at 85 percent capacity in […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported sales of $2.19 billion, down 0.8 percent from Q2 and down 4.4 percent from Q3 2015. Tons sold were down 4.9 percent from the previous quarter to 1,445,500 tons with average selling price per ton up 4.4 percent, sequentially. Reliance was able to maintain during most of the quarter the […]
The Architecture Billings Index posted two months of decline with September’s score of 48.4 dipping from 49.7 in August. The American Institute of Architects report this is the first time since Summer 2012 that the index posted consecutive months of decline. The new projects inquiry dropped to 59.4 from 61.8 and the design contracts index […]
EVRAZ North America increased third quarter crude steel production 5.7 percent to prepare for scheduled maintenance outages at its Regina and Pueblo mills. Regina will be out for three weeks for upgrades to the steelmaking and rolling mills while Pueblo is scheduled for a two week maintenance outage. Flat rolled production dropped 25.7 percent in […]
Housing starts dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,047,000 in September, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The decline was 9 percent below August’s revised estimate and 11.9 percent below the September 2015 rate. Single family housing starts increased from August by 8.1 percent to 783,000. Starts for apartment housing of five […]