The following article was prompted by a report coming out of a consulting group working for Greenpeace. SMU understands they have a political agenda but we wanted to provide our readers with what was being said and then some commentary at the end from one of our trading friends located in Asia who works with […]
We believe that to understand the forces acting on the US steel import market it is necessary to examine global trade flows. We present here episode one of our investigation into the global trade of hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil and the US’s position in the big picture. The source of this data […]
According to the latest data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of December 2016 was 8,622,171 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports, then subtracting total US steel exports. December apparent […]
Licensed data for January was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on January 7th. 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 […]
December steel exports totaled 726,847 net tons (659,385 metric tons), down 0.3 percent over November but up 0.2 percent from December 2015. This is the lowest export level seen since December 2015 when 658,362 tons were exported. Total December figures are below the thee month moving average (average of October, November, and December 2016 figures) […]
The following article was originally published by Daniel Pearson, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute on January 18, 2017. Mr. Pearson will be one of our speakers at this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference: Wilbur Ross has accomplished impressive business turnarounds during his career. His efforts in the steel, textile and automotive parts industries demonstrate […]
Following the DOC determination of AD/CVD duties on imports of stainless steel products, China issued a statement expressing its disappointment that the United States continues to follow its path of protectionism. “China is disappointed that the United States continued to launch high taxes on Chinese steel export products and calls into question the unfair way […]
The JP Morgan Global PMI remained steady at 52.7 in January. Global manufacturing production increased for the fifty-first consecutive month according to data collected IHS Markit. Faster expansion was noted in the US, Eurozone and UK. Manufacturing expansion slowed in Japan in January and contraction was registered in South Korea, Brazil, Turkey and Greece. At […]
Please see the end of this report for an explanation of data sources. The Broad Index value of the US $ is reported several days in arrears by the Federal Reserve, the latest value published was dated January 20th (Figure 1). The dollar had a recent peak of 128.9627 on January 3rd which was the […]
The headline report of GDP growth in Q4 came in at 1.88 percent a decline from 3.53 percent in the third quarter. GDP is measured and reported in chained 2009 dollars and in the first estimate of Q4 was $16.805 trillion. The growth calculation is misleading because it takes the quarter over quarter change and […]
The Keystone XL Pipeline was given approval by the new administration through executive order last Tuesday. Since that time there has been a flurry of speculation on what kind of benefit building the pipeline will provide to the U.S. steel Industry. “We are — and I am — very insistent that if we’re going to […]
As January comes to a close there have been plenty of changes in the U.S. with the new administration taking office and a flurry of cabinet nominations and trade decisions that could affect shipping in the U.S. and globally. Wilbur Ross is slated by the new president to lead the Department of Commerce, Robert Lighthizer […]
The Associated Steel Distributors regional meeting in Detroit on January 19 very appropriately focused on the automotive industry. The meeting was held during the last weekend of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit where a vast array of technological innovation was showcased through virtual reality, simulators and presentation of current models and concept […]
Wilbur Ross, Trump nominee for Commerce Secretary, talked tariffs on China during Wednesday’s confirmation hearings. The billionaire investor, who was instrumental in turning around ailing steel mills such as LTV Steel in 2002, appears to be a solid supporter of President-elect Trump’s strong-arm approach to trade. “One of the things that we do need very […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel It has been an active week even with the CME closed for Martin Luther King Day. This past week we have […]
November steel exports totaled 729,391 net tons (661,693 metric tons), down 4.8 percent over October but up 2.4 percent from November 2015. This is the lowest export level seen since December 2015 when 658,362 tons were exported. Total November figures are below the thee month moving average (average of September, October, and November 2016 figures) […]
Chinese finished steel exports are beginning to drop month over month. In December, finished steel exports were down about 4 percent from November to 7.8 million tonnes. In comparison to a year ago, December exports had fallen approximately 27 percent from a record 112.4 million tonnes. Looking at the data by quarter finished steel exports […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has released Final Census numbers on foreign steel imported into the United States through November 2016 and has updated license data for the month of December 2016. This provides us with our first look at imports for the year so we can do a comparison against 2015 to see […]
This article was previously published on Wednesday, January 11th for our Premium level members. We are sharing this article with our Executive level members as we thought it would be interesting to look at our 2016 import analysis and then be aware that we have much more data available in our website for our Premium […]
According to the latest data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of November 2016 was 8,144,758 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports, then subtracting total US steel exports. November apparent […]
In the first eleven months of 2016, total ferrous steel scrap exports were 11,428,000 tonnes, down by 11.8 percent from the first 11 months of 2015. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages for 2016 and on the annual monthly average for previous years. The graph shows that exports […]
Commercial Metals Company announced net sales of $1.1 billion for earnings of $7.2 million for first quarter 2017, ending Nov. 30, 2016. Metal margins in the Americas Mills segment took a hit of 17 percent in Q1 due to lower selling prices resulting from continued import pressure, scrap price volatility and market uncertainty. Average selling price […]
Another major automaker says it will invest in U.S. facilities and add jobs to the industry. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US said on Sunday that it will invest $1 billion at plants in Michigan and Ohio to produce new Jeep vehicles in a plan that was originated long before the presidential election. The investment is the […]
We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about regional steel import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of entry is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide a negotiating advantage for for premium subscribers. We are now […]
Ferrous scrap price negotiations for January were slow to develop but by late Thursday and into Friday prices firmed and deals between the domestic steel mills and the scrap dealers were getting done. The two largest scrap buyers, David J Joseph (Nucor) and Omnisource (Steel Dynamics), entered the market late during the week at $30 […]
Earlier this week we reported on the status of the Chinese steel markets and steel export price offers as of the end of this past week. Both trading company sources used by SMU reported that prices were artificially high and the expectation was that they would fall if not soon by no later than the […]
Licensed data for December was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on January 3rd. An explanation of the methodology that use at SMU to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in short tons. In December, on […]
Global manufacturing reached a three year high in December, finishing out the year with the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing PMI at 52.7, up from 52.1 in November. After a flat first half, the second half of 2016 showed steady growth in the manufacturing sector. The December survey by IHS Markit indicates global manufacturing is growing at […]
This is our first ever write up of global scrap trade. We believe that to understand the gyrations of the domestic scrap market we should study where the US stands as a global player. This data is not very current because some nations are slow to report but we still believe it gives a valuable […]
The anniversary of China joining the World Trade Organization has passed without the key governments of the EU, Japan and the United States recognizing China as a market economy. The following statement is from the Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, published in the People’s Daily and on the Ministry of Commerce website on December […]