Funding for the FY 2015 appropriations bill that supports the US Army Corps of Engineers and projects in the WRRDA has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee. Funding for the Corps civil works projects is $5.493 billion. Below is a reprint of a press release by Waterways Council Inc. praising the Committee’s approval and […]
We are now one-third of the way through the month of June, far enough along to begin doing our analysis of the US Department of Commerce license data on imports. The data is showing us that the surge of imports grew during the month of May and will continue into the month of June. We […]
April ferrous scrap exports totaled 1,476,282 net tons (1,339,262 metric tons) with Turkey, Taiwan, Korea, Mexico, and China being the top five importing countries. These countries accounted for 73.2 percent of all scrap exports. Total April ferrous scrap exports were 0.7 percent higher than previous month and 36.7 percent higher than the same month one […]
Total shipments of sheet and strip products including hot rolled, cold rolled and all coated products were up by 0.8 percent year to date (YTD) compared to the first four months of 2013. In the period January through April compared to the previous three months, the total tonnage was up by 4.8 percent. Comparing YTD […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released final census data regarding exports of steel out of the U.S. steel mills this past week. According to the US DOC data, the domestic mills exported a total of 1,079,723 net tons of steel products during the month of April 2014. This is in line with the previous two […]
The U.S. steel mills exported 1 million tons of steel during the month of April. This is within the 12 month moving average and only slightly higher than the 1,041,387 net tons shipped in April 2013. During the same month (April 2014) foreign imports rose by 999,557 net tons compared to the same period one […]
Apparent steel supply for April was 9,925,287 net tons, the highest figure Steel Market Update has in its recorded history beginning in January 2010. April supply represents an 831,098 ton or 9.1 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This is primarily due to the massive spike in April imports, up 36.5 […]
A strike by Seaspan tugboat operators at the Westshore Terminal in Roberts Banks near Vancouver has been averted by last minute negotiations on Wednesday, June 3. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 400 voted 100 percent in favor of a strike earlier in the day but the union and Seaspan have now agreed […]
Something has to give. US Steel announced the closure of two of their OCTG production facilities. The McKeesport facility has a capacity of 315,000 tons of OCTG per year while the Bellville operation capacity is 100,000 tons of OCTG on an annual basis. Total US Steel production capacity of oil country tubular goods is 2.8 […]
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI made a modest uptick to 52.2 in May after dropping to a six month low of 51.9 in April. Faster expansion rates were seen in production, new orders and orders for new exports. Overall improvement, however, remains modest with the average rate of increase in business conditions lower than […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution instructor penned the following commentary on the financial, iron ore, scrap and steel markets and the results of trading on the HRC and BUS Futures markets over this past week. More information about futures can […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution instructor penned the following commentary on the iron ore, scrap and steel markets and the results of trading on the HRC and BUS Futures markets over this past week (as of May 29th). More information […]
While trading emails with one of my Asia trading sources regarding export price offers coming out of China I got the following response, “By the time September rolls around, CRC and other coated products may already be under anti-dumping and nothing sellable to the U.S….” It appears some in China are expecting the inevitable. As […]
While trading emails with one of my Asia trading sources regarding export price offers coming out of China I got the following response, “By the time September rolls around, CRC and other coated products may already be under anti-dumping and nothing sellable to the U.S….” It appears some in China are expecting the inevitable. As […]
Chinese steel trade data for April 2014 was released earlier this week, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in April were 83,390,000 metric tons, an increase of 12.8 percent from the previous month and an increase of 24.2 percent from […]
The psychological barrier has been broken! Iron ore spot prices broke below $100 for the first time this year as 62% Fe fines were reported to be $97.5 per dry metric ton (dmt) today according to The Steel Index. The $97.5/dmt number is the 52-week low with the high being $142.8/dmt. The last time iron […]
Iron ore spot prices in China have been falling and may continue to decline to the lows last seen in September 2012 when prices for 62% Fe fines reached into the $80’s (currently trading at $97.5/dmt). Steel Market Update has been reviewing the relationship between iron ore and ferrous scrap prices using shredded scrap as […]
Both Industrial Production (IP) and Manufacturing Capacity Utilization are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The IP index was reported as 102.744 for April, with a three month moving average (3MMA) of 102.83. This was the fifth consecutive month for the index to exceed the pre-recession peak of September 2007. The 3MMA has […]
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the law firm of Stewart and Stewart recently released its publication “Surging Steel Imports Put Up to Half a Million U.S. Jobs at Risk.” The publication was released in support of the domestic steel industry and their unions and contends that unfairly traded imports are costing the U.S. jobs […]
The finished steel stockists have been buying finished products the last two weeks. However, the stockists are still keeping very little inventory on a wait and see mode due to the iron ore price collapse (currently abt $102/dmt). The current finished product orders should keep the production smooth for the next 3 weeks in China. […]
The supply of all steel products in Q1 2014 was up by 5.9 percent from Q1 last year. Flat rolled was up by 4.5 percent and longs were up by 9.8 percent. The sources of this analysis are the Commerce Department trade statistics and AISI steel shipment data.The bad news is that imports of all […]
Apparent steel supply for March was 9,753,954 net tons, a 9.6 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This is due to an increase in domestic shipments and finished imports and a slight decrease in total US exports. The net trade balance between imports and exports was a surplus of 2,194,246 net […]
March ferrous scrap exports totaled 1,466,528 net tons (1,330,413 metric tons) with Turkey, Taiwan, Korea, Egypt, and Mexico the top five countries receiving U.S. scrap. These countries received 69.3 percent of all scrap exports. Total March ferrous scrap exports were 11.1 percent higher than previous month but 32.3 percent lower than the same month one […]
The Broad Index value of the US $ has been gradually strengthening for 18 months (Figure 1), which favors imports to the US and depresses exports. See explanation at the end of this piece. Table 1 shows the number of currency units that it takes to buy one US $ and the percent change in […]
The hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market has been trading sideways over the past couple of weeks, taking cues from the physical market that looks to have slowed its ascent. Trading volumes have been fairly average, with traders and hedgers seemingly more comfortable on the sidelines until a new catalyst sparks the market to break […]
The following is reprinted from AIIS March Export Press Release: March Important Canadian and Mexican Markets Show Strong Gains U.S. steel exports expanded significantly in March, though they remained below the levels of a year earlier. Following a dip in February, when many parts of the United States were still suffering the impact of a […]
The JP Morgan Global PMI was at a six-month low in April but indicated manufacturing remains in the expansion range. At 51.9 the score reflected weaker production and new orders. The PMI was negatively affected by the downturn in production and new business that followed an increase in sales tax in Japan. The US and […]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released their first estimate of real GDP today, (April 30th) for Q1 2014. GDP rose in the fourth quarter by 2.6 percent but declined to 0.1 percent in the first estimate for Q1 2014. Figure 1 shows quarterly results since 1990 with the IMF forecast through 2018. The Q1 […]
Financial Markets We are still in the testing of the highs mode, closing in the 1877.50 zone on S+P 500, not much different from a week back. Need to take the out the old high and test 1900 again, otherwise… The Fed tapered on the easing, paring the buying program back $10 bln /month again–think […]
This article is part of a longer article first published on Thursday, May 1st and is written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk II instructor: Steel It was a fairly quiet week in futures with 400 lots or 8,000 ST trading most of yesterday on the July date. […]