Despite the risks associated with Section 232 and the belief that flat rolled steel prices will rise prior to and immediately after the announcement of a Section 232 decision, mills appear somewhat more open to price discussions. Based on the responses received this week from our flat rolled market trends questionnaire, buyers and sellers of […]
As the steel industry waits for clarity on Section 232 we got another week where flat rolled steel prices came in with mixed results. We saw some of the items indexed have their averages rise while others fell. In reality it doesn’t appear that there is a lot pushing prices in one direction or another […]
Flat rolled prices were mixed this past week. Early last week we were collecting information from steel buyers who were advising Steel Market Update that steel mill lead times were short and there were still holes in the order books at many of the domestic mills. As the week progressed we found, especially after the […]
The controversial Section 232 tariffs/quota expected to be proposed by the Trump administration against foreign steel imports elicited many strong opinions from respondents to SMU’s July 5 flat rolled steel market trends survey. Only 22 percent said they feel duties of 20 percent or more on foreign sources of supply would be good for their […]
Apparent supply is a proxy for market demand, and for hot rolled coil has been growing strongly this year. Imports continue to be an increasing factor in the sheet markets. There is a major difference in import market share for the four major sheet products. This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through May […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released license data for the month of June as well as the first 11 days of July. The bottom line is imports of foreign steel into the U.S. continue to be worrisome (to the domestic steel mills) and the early trend is for July 2017 to be another three […]
The market has become “quiet” over the past week and our sources (steel buyers) are providing mixed messages, which is showing up especially in our galvanized index whose average was down $25 per ton today. The GI number was impacted by cheap pricing being reported on commodity grade galvanized with one GI buyer telling us, […]
Flat roll lead times have remained within a narrow range over the past six months, according to the manufacturing companies and steel service centers responding to our flat rolled market trends analysis last week. Hot rolled lead times now average 4.41 weeks, which is the same as what we reported in mid-June, but still one-half […]
We saw steel mill lead times as being essentially the same to slightly higher than what we measured at the time of the last price increase announcements (week of June 5th). When the announcements were made, most steel mills were actively trying to collect increases. We saw the bottom of our price range rise, and […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed with SMU seeing increases in hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized (.060″ G90) and Galvalume. SMU took plate prices down $15 per ton. Platts saw prices as stable on all but cold rolled, which they saw down $5 per ton compared to the prior week. We had a shortened week […]
Steel Market Update saw modest improvements in flat rolled steel prices mostly associated with reductions of the discounts found at the lower end of the ranges. There are a number of mills that are waiting to see what happens with the Section 232 investigation before announcing new prices or opening their order books for the next […]
The final license data for June was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system of the U.S. Commerce Department on July 5. 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 […]
Flat rolled steel prices inched higher this past week on the indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU). We saw just about everyone take benchmark hot rolled prices higher by $5 per ton. SMU took our HRC average from $600 to $605, Platts took theirs from $605 to $610 and SteelBenchmarker took theirs from $603 […]
We are seeing a strengthening in the resolve of the steel mills as most (but not all) steel buyers were reporting an attempt to take numbers up or to restrict orders by having mills move to an “inquire only” position. Even so, we continued to get some pricing at the lower end of our range […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released Preliminary Census Data on May indicating foreign steel imports totaled 3.6 million net tons. They also released license data for June and we are seeing the trend indicating the month will be close to 3.8 million net tons (license data through the 27th of June). The numbers for […]
Flat rolled steel prices had another mixed week of results based on our analysis of the steel indexes reporting last week. Hot rolled prices were up slightly on both the Steel Market Update (SMU) index as well as Platts. SMU saw the market as averaging $600 per ton, while Platts had it at $605 per […]
Steel mill flat rolled lead times, which have generally trended downward this spring, my be showing early signs of lengthening, reflecting new strength in demand for domestic steel products. Mills were successful in collecting a price increase earlier in the month. Despite SMU data that shows service center inventories at “comfortable” levels, some distributors may […]
Steel buyers report that mills are considerably less willing to negotiate prices on spot orders than they were a month, or even two weeks, ago. The findings of the latest SMU survey of service centers and manufacturers indicates that only about half find mills willing to negotiate on hot roll spot buys, compared with more […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released foreign steel license data on Tuesday of this week. The trend, based on the first 20 days of this month, is for June imports to be at record highs for the year. Total steel imports are trending toward 3.7-3.9 million tons which would be the highest level since […]
We saw mixed results this week as hot rolled prices rose a very modest $5, cold rolled was down $15, galvanized was up $10 and Galvalume remained the same even as the lower end dropped $10 per ton and the upper end rose $10 per ton. Definitely a mixed week as the market tries to […]
Two of the three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update saw flat rolled prices as rising last week and steel plate prices sideways or down. The third index, SteelBenchmarker only produces their average steel prices twice per month and they saw the market as being lower on all products last week. Hot rolled averages […]
Steel Dynamics, Inc., reported lower earnings guidance for the second quarter due to operational issues at two of its plants. An upgrade to Steel Dynamics’ galvanizing line at Butler required a three week outage, diminishing second-quarter pretax earnings by $15 million. In addition, quality issues related to start-up of the new Galvalume and paint line […]
Flat rolled steel prices moved higher this week as the effects of last week’s price increase announcements begun to take place. Prices on all but plate moved up by $15 to $20 per ton. As one mill pointed out to SMU earlier today many of the orders that are being placed this week are smaller […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been in contact with dozens of steel buyers and executives over the past 24 hours discussing the status of the flat rolled price increases, steel mill lead times and other items of interest to the steel community. Most steel buyers reported the flat rolled price increases as being in effect […]
The final license data for May was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system of the U.S. Commerce Department on June 6. An explanation of the methodology that SMU uses to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in short tons. […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through April 2017 and year-on-year changes. It then compares domestic mill shipments with total supply to the market. It quantifies market direction by product and enables a side-by-side comparison of the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and […]
Domestic steel mills announced flat rolled steel (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume) price increases early last week. However, as is sometimes their want, especially when lead times are shorter than they would like, most of the mills gave their customers time to place orders at the existing prices quoted prior to the announcements. It […]
The slide in flat rolled steel prices was curtailed compared to previous weeks as prices on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume moved sideways to slightly lower while plate was sideways to slightly higher. All of the major flat rolled steel mills in the United States announced flat rolled price increases on Monday and Tuesday […]
Flat rolled lead times have continued to decline over the past 10 weeks, according to this week’s SMU Flat Rolled Steel Market Trends questionnaire. Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel report shorter lead times than in early May. Lead times on all products are considerably shorter than one year ago. Shorter lead times are […]
Lead times are declining, which reflects a possible softening of demand, thus domestic mills appear to be more willing to negotiate spot pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, hot-dipped galvanized and Galvalume steels than they were earlier in the year. About 70-80 percent of steel buyers responding to this week’s flat rolled steel market trends […]