Details on steel trade data out of China were released earlier this week regarding iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore during March were 73,960,000 metric tons (MT), an increase of 20.8 percent from the previous month and an increase of 14.6 percent from March […]
Chinese statistical data is always questioned for a number of reasons, not least is, “Is the data politically motivated.” Other suspicions arise because China gets their data out faster than any other major economy and the data is never revised. However at SMU we believe that in spite of these concerns what we have is […]
This month (April 2014) the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) released its report on petroleum reserves for 2012. Proved reserves are estimated volumes of hydrocarbon resources that analysis of geologic and engineering data demonstrates with reasonable certainty are recoverable under existing economic and operating conditions. Reserves estimates change from year to year as new discoveries […]
The Asian scrap markets is currently stable and predicted to slow down both regarding demand as well as pricing over the next few weeks. Mainly, summer time electricity curtailments are scheduled to take effect in early May. Currently: • China Fe63.% Indian Iron ore at about $116-117/dmt. Somewhat stable +/-$1/dmt currently• Asian FX rates have […]
Total shipments of sheet and strip steel products, including hot rolled, cold rolled and all coated products, were down by 3.5 percent YTD compared to the first two months of 2013. In the period December through February compared to the previous three months, the total tonnage was down by 2.3 percent. Comparing YTD shipments for […]
The Broad Index value of the US Dollar has been gradually increasing for 18 months (Figure 1) which tends of raise imports to the US and depress exports. The broad index is a weighted average of the foreign exchange values of the U.S. Dollar against the currencies of a large group of major U.S. trading […]
Year to date scrap exports through February are down by 40.5 percent from the same period last year. Total YTD was 2,034,000 metric tonnes a decline of 1,387,000 tonnes. Figure 1 shows that all major purchasing nations were down on a three month moving average basis. Turkey and China contributed the most to the YTD […]
The following article is one that we would normally just provide to our Premium Level members. We thought that those who have Executive level members would be interested in some of the detail we are providing our Premium Level members. If you have questions about Premium Level membership please feel free to contact our offices: […]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch gave their quarterly global steel outlook on April 8. BofAML predicts demand for finished steel in China will grow 4.4 percent in 2014. Chinese crude steel production is expected to increase 4.6 to 815 million tons. The outlook is for a trend of slowing but positive growth. Despite mill closings […]
Apparent steel supply for February was 9,002,702 net tons, an 8.5 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This is due to an increase in finished imports and domestic shipments but a decrease in total US exports. The net trade balance between imports and exports was a surplus of 2,381,742 net tons […]
The American Institute for International Steel reported “February 2014 showed mixed to disappointing results for U.S. steel exports.” The following report is from an AIIS press release regarding exports of steel out of the domestic (US) mills during the month of February. Key to the data is NAFTA exports which, according to the AIIS, represent […]
Total steel exports decreased 6.1 percent in February over January to 904,131 net tons (NT), below both the 3 and 12 month moving averages (MMA). Compared to the same month last year, total February exports were down 12.8 percent. Of the select products we follow at Steel Market Update, hot rolled exports showed the greatest […]
The month of March proved to be an interesting month for the flat rolled steel industry and related commodities associated with the industry, both within North America and around the world. The biggest news was the move by the domestic mills to raise flat rolled steel prices. ArcelorMittal led the way on March 17th when […]
The following article was written by contributing writer David Phelps. Mr. Phelps is recently retired from his duties as the Director of the American Institute for International Steel. In that capacity he had occasion to interact with the domestic steel mills. The following article contains the viewpoint of Mr. Phelps regarding Big River Steel and […]
The following article was written by contributing writer David Phelps. Mr. Phelps is recently retired from his duties as the Director of the American Institute for International Steel. In that capacity he had occasion to interact with the domestic steel mills. The following article contains the viewpoint of Mr. Phelps regarding Big River Steel and […]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released their third estimate of real GDP today, (March 27th) for Q4 2013. The third is normally the final estimate though there sometimes are revisions further back in time. GDP rose in the fourth quarter by 2.6 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, this was an upward revision […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Preliminary Census Data for February 2014 steel imports into the United States. Total steel imports (all products) were reported to be 3,250,176 net tons which is an increase of 30 percent year over year and well above both the 12 month and 3 month moving average. As you can […]
Details on steel trade data out of China were released earlier this week on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled steel imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in February were 61,240,000 metric tons (MT), a decrease of 29.6 percent from the previous month but an increase of 8.5 percent from […]
I have been asked about the rumor mill surrounding coated products and especially the Asian 4 exporting countries. The Asian 4 are: China, India, Taiwan and South Korea. Steel Market Update is aware that at least one mill has been pushing for dumping suits on coated products. We understand that not all mills favor the […]
The following article on hot rolled futures (HRC), #1 busheling futures (BUS) as well as information regarding the iron ore spot pricing and futures trading in China is written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk, LLC and the instructor for Steel Market Update’s Managing Price Risk workshop series. Our new: Managing Price Risk 2: […]
Ferrous scrap exports totaled 898,156 metric tons (990,046 net tons or NT) for the month of January, a 42.7 percent decrease in exports from December 2013. This is a 41.4 percent decrease over the same month last year when tonnage was 1,689,288 NT. Global exports haven’t been this low since January of 2006 when they […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The Industrial Production (IP) index was reported as 101.63 for February, this was the fourth consecutive month for the index to exceed the pre-recession peak of September 2007. The three month moving average, (3MMA) of the index expanded by 0.62 month on […]
Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out its series of producer price indexes for thousands of goods and materials. The latest release on Friday reported February results. These statistics are a useful way to evaluate any changes in the competitive position of steel against competing materials. See below for the official description […]
The following article on the financial, hot rolled coil futures, busheling scrap futures and iron ore markets is written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk 1 and 2 instructor. Financial Markets: Today was not a good one, a repeat of last week when the market retraced on the back […]
Canada was the highest volume exporter of all carbon and low alloy steel products to the US in both the last 12 and 3 month periods through January with 4,956,812 and 1,172,616 tons respectively (Figure 1). Mexico came in 4th in 12 months after Brazil and Korea but was bumped into 5th place by Russia […]
Total January 2014 US steel exports were 963,060 net tons (NT), a 10.5 percent increase over December 2013 figures but down 10.6 percent compared to January 2013. Total exports in January were above the three month moving average but below the twelve month moving average. The top countries receiving US exports were Canada at 54.8 […]
Apparent steel supply for January was 9,386,260 net tons, a 1.1 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. Although steel imports were up and exports decreased over these periods, the decrease in domestic shipments negated any big changes in total apparent supply. The net trade balance between steel imports and exports was […]
Met coal prices are plummeting and oversupply is the problem, says Goldman Sachs. On Friday, Goldman cut its metallurgical coal average price estimate for 2014 to $141 per metric ton from $150 due to higher Australian output and slower demand from China along with “limited U.S. supply rationalization.” Bank of America Merrill Lynch agrees that […]
An ousted president, deadly violence, military insurgence and a possible secession—the crisis in the Ukraine has been moving at an alarming speed in the last several weeks. As the Ukraine struggles to create a new government, economic sanctions are increasingly being considered by the global powers to sway preferred outcomes. The US and the EU […]
Russia and the Ukraine are major steel producers and exporters of steel to the rest of the world. Under the current political upheaval associated with these two countries, Steel Market Update thought it might be interesting for our readers to understand what steel products are being imported from the two countries into the United States. […]