I need everyone to shake off your webinar fog…. The 2020 SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference will not be a series of mind-numbing webinars. It is time to give you a peek at a mock-up of the lobby for the 2020 SMU Virtual Steel Conference. When you click on your registration link for our virtual […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor In the U.S. Midwest market this week, sheet prices were somewhat mixed with HR coil near steady w/w while HDG coil fell by $19 /s.ton to $650 /s.ton and CR coil inched up by $4 /s.ton to $697 /s.ton. Our full HDG coil price, reflecting […]
It’s time to register for CRU’s 5th Annual New York Steel Briefing. The event, now virtual due to the coronavirus, will feature CRU analysts sharing their outlooks for steel and how to manage through volatile markets. Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2020 Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM EST Overview: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption across domestic […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Metallics Monitor The CRU metallics price indicator (CRUmpi) increased slightly in June, rising by 2.9 percent m/m to 208.3. The reduction in lockdowns and other Covid-19-related restrictions across the globe allowed scrap to become more readily available as demand increased in major importing markets. In the near term, we […]
By Anh Nghiem, CRU Steel Prices Lead, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The iron ore price was stable last week but increased sharply on Monday after the news on suspension of mining activities at Vale’s Itabira mining complex during the weekends due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The mine produced 36 Mt […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The suspension of iron ore production at Vale’s Itabira Complex resulted in prices surging after the weekend. On Tuesday, June 9, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $105.0 /dmt, up $4.5 /dmt w/w. In China, demand has remained robust as […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor In the past week, iron ore has fallen by $11 /dmt, the largest price drop since August 2019. The price fall comes after declining steel margins and slightly lower steel production levels in China. At the same time, offloading activities at Chinese ports have […]
Join us for CRU’s 5th Annual New York Steel Briefing, now virtual, featuring the outlook for steel and how to manage through volatile markets. Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2020 Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM EST Overview: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption across domestic and global commodity markets, with steel among those most impacted. With scenarios for a post-pandemic outlook […]
This week’s SMU comparison of foreign and domestic hot rolled prices shows that U.S prices remain advantageous over foreign imports, but at a slightly lesser level compared to mid-May figures, according to SMU and CRU indices. The price gap between domestic HRC compared to German imports is just over $100 per ton, while the Italian […]
By CRU Analyst Iris Speelmanns, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service The spread of Covid-19 has resulted in an annualized loss of 284 Mt of steel capacity outside China. Slowly easing lockdown measures in most regions have allowed for the resumption of some industrial activities and steel producers in some countries are restarting their operations, […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Sheet prices in the U.S. Midwest market have continued to rise with HR coil assessed at $510 /s.ton, a w/w gain of $23 /s.ton. While prices are higher, overall volume of transactions has been limited. This is due not only to low demand and plentiful […]
Join us for CRU’s 5th Annual New York Steel Briefing, now virtual, featuring the outlook for steel and how to manage through volatile markets. Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2020 Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM EST Overview: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption across domestic and global commodity markets, with steel among those most impacted. With scenarios for a post-pandemic outlook […]
By CRU Analysts Alexander Ordosch and Iris Speelmanns, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor: The Covid-19 crisis has resulted in a rapid fall in market activity and steel demand, which has resulted in steelmakers across the globe responding quickly by lowering steel production. Steelmakers have two options to reduce steel output in response to lower […]
Ferrous scrap prices for Detroit came out late this afternoon. Prime grades (busheling and bundles) were up $10 per gross ton. There was no change to cut grades, and shredded scrap was down $10/GT. On Wednesday, June 3, we will host our 9th SMU Steel Community Chat webinar. We will be discussing trade with trade […]
Our SMU Community Chat attendees reacted to Wednesday’s webinar with Barry Zekelman of Zekelman Industries by flooding my office with emails. Readers of my editorial in Thursday’s issue of Steel Market Update also chose to provide their opinions on the subjects discussed. Emotions were running high as some thought I was being disrespectful to Mr. […]
Some days I just stare at my feet and wonder, what happened? Barry Zekelman let it all hang out during this week’s SMU Community Chat webinar. I may have had a “deer in the headlamps” look on my face when we got to the end. Some of you who listened to the webinar loved it, […]
As the world faces the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19, and travel restrictions and other factors continue to limit the movement of people, we are pleased to announce that the SMU Steel Summit Conference will go ahead this year – as a virtual conference This is to ensure the health and well being of all participants, […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor In the U.S. Midwest, sheet prices have continued to strengthen while plate prices have weakened further. HR coil prices increased for the third consecutive week, albeit by just $5 /s.ton to $487 /s.ton. The volume-weighted average of transactions remains below recent mill targets of $500 […]
You plan for as much as you can, and hope for the best… My events team, coupled with the CRU events team out of London, made the determination about a week ago that it was not going to be possible to conduct the SMU Steel Summit Conference at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices contracted in the past week as China’s “Two Sessions” concluded with a disappointing outlook while Brazilian exports registered their strongest week of the year. On Tuesday, May 26, CRU assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $97.0, a $1.3 /t […]
By CRU Analysts Ryan Smith, Andrew Gadd and Ben Carstein Oil markets have had a torrid 2020, with the combination of demand losses due to Covid-19 and the breakdown of coordination between major producing countries resulting in plummeting prices. In this Insight, we assess how the oil price shock influences steelmaking costs through both raw […]
By CRU Economists Jumana Saleheen and Economist Yingrui Wang, from CRU’s Steel Metallics Monitor Special Feature: China will set out its major economic objectives and policy goals for 2020 at the National People’s Congress. We expect fiscal stimulus of 5-8 percent of nominal GDP to be announced, half the size of the stimulus that followed […]
By CRU Analyst Nikki Ni, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Over the past month, Chinese steel demand has accelerated, resulting in lower inventories while output remained at a high level. The ongoing demand recovery has improved the Steel PMI to 45.9 in April, up by 3.7pp m/m. Despite being below the 50-mark, the consecutive m/m improvement […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Manjot Singh, from CRU’s Metallurgical Coal Market Outlook Seaborne coking coal prices were steady last week as market participants adopted a “wait-and-see” approach due to the ongoing uncertainty in the coal market. There are upside risks to seaborne prices in the form of relatively strong demand in China, and ease of […]
By CRU Economist Anissa Chabib, from CRU’s Economic Outlook On May 8, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the official U.S. unemployment data for April. Unemployment increased to 14.7 percent from 4.4 percent in March. This is the highest rate and the largest month-on-month increase in the history of the series, which was created […]
This week’s SMU comparison of foreign and domestic hot rolled prices shows that U.S prices remain advantageous over foreign imports, albeit slightly less so than late-April figures, according to SMU and CRU indices. The price gap between domestic HRC compared to German and Italian imports remains over $100 per ton, as has been the case […]
We are in the middle of a black swan event—an event that is expected but unexpected, said Chris Kuehl, managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence during Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat Webinar. “Viral threats are not new and have been frequent in the past few decades, but we don’t know from year to year how they […]
We are in the middle of a black swan event—an event that is expected but unexpected, said Chris Kuehl, managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence during Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat Webinar. “Viral threats are not new and have been frequent in the past few decades, but we don’t know from year to year how they […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Metallics Monitor The CRU metallics price indicator (CRUmpi) moved higher by 11.5 percent m/m to 202.4 in May. Supply constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic combined with either sustained or recovering scrap demand to lift prices across most of the globe, although pig iron demand was […]
We had an exceptional SMU Community Chat Webinar with Dr. Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence on Wednesday morning. I am getting nothing but rave reviews of our free webinars, and I encourage you to inform your management and other teammates to register and then tune in at 11 AM ET every Wednesday. Next week […]