Today two mills began advising their customers of their intention to raise flat rolled steel prices. ArcelorMittal USA and NLMK USA both came out with increases. ArcelorMittal provided specific base price “minimums” while NLMK USA advised their customers of a flat $30 per ton increase. If all of the other mills follow, this would be […]
Flat rolled steel prices slipped this week even as ArcelorMittal USA announced new spot pricing for the month of August. Steel Market Update (SMU) has been noticing a “topping” of the market over the past few weeks and our expectation is for the market to be a little “sloppy” in the coming weeks. We do […]
Steel mill lead times, the amount of time it takes to get steel produced from the time a flat rolled steel order is placed, have apparently peaked and we are beginning to see signs of a slight pull back in all but coated products. Having said that, lead times still continue to be highly extended […]
The domestic steel mills are barely breaking a sweat as they have minimal need to negotiate flat rolled steel prices according to those taking our mid-June flat rolled steel market trends survey. Last week we invited hundreds of companies associated with the steel industry to provide their opinions on the flat rolled steel market. Over […]
There was very little movement in the SMU and Platts indices this past week. SteelBenchmarker, which only produces their index pricing twice per month, saw a modest rise in their numbers as they catch up with the other indices in the market. Hot rolled is about as close as it has been in many months […]
For the third week the data points collected by Steel Market Update found the flat rolled steel market as stable with only one of our indices showing a minor change in our average since last week. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU Range is $620-$650 per ton ($31.00/cwt- $32.50/cwt) […]
SMU received a couple of inquiries about sheet shipments and one of our Premium customers had a specific question about the data presented in one of our Premium supplemental issues last week. We thought that we should share the data and then present at the end the question and our response for all of our […]
Last week Steel Market Update advised our readers that we were considering removing the Comparison Price Indices article from our newsletter. The index has more value, in our opinion, when there is a wider array of data points available to be compared. We publish only the indices where we have permission to do so. Over […]
Licensed data for May was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on June 3rd. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of May were […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through April 2016 and year on year changes. It then compares domestic mill shipments and 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 […]
Flat rolled prices are beginning to stabilize as a number of mills are not taking orders at this time and those that are are holding fairly firm at where they were a week ago. Our benchmark hot rolled average rose by $5 per ton while cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume averages remained unchanged. When we […]
I spent a good portion of my day today talking to traders (importers of foreign steel) as well as steel buyers. A number of questions were raised about the amount of foreign steel actually being offered as well as the amount of orders that were actually being placed. From my perspective, I am not seeing […]
Compared to what we have been seeing over the past two months, price movement last week was modest with hot rolled barely moving (SMU no change and Platts +$5, SteelBenchmarker did not report last week). Our hot rolled average is now $632.50 per ton. Cold rolled saw SMU take their price average up $15 per […]
Flat rolled steel mill lead times continue to be extended according to those responding to this week’s steel market trends analysis (lead times are the amount of time it takes for an order placed today until the steel is produced and shipped out of the domestic steel mill). Lead times now average two weeks or […]
With the extended weekend in the United States there was very little movement in flat rolled steel prices compared to late last week. Our benchmark hot rolled average remained the same although we did pick up some movement, especially with a tightening of the lower end of the range, on the other flat rolled products. […]
The Department of Commerce announced on Wednesday affirmative final determinations in AD and CVD investigations of imports of corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE) from China, India, Italy, Korea; an affirmative final determination in the AD investigation of imports of CORE from Taiwan; and a negative final determination in the CVD investigation of imports of CORE from […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) does not anticipate the spread between hot rolled base prices and those of domestic galvanized/Galvalume will be reduced any time soon. The U.S. Department of Commerce latest ruling on corrosion resistant steels will put new wind in the steel mills sails. The DOC final determinations on antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties […]
The domestic steel mills continue to walk prices higher with all flat rolled products except cold rolled moving up by double digits this week. We understand that at least one mill and perhaps more are trying to collect $880 per ton ($44.00/cwt) on cold rolled and coated products. But, we did not hear from any […]
Whenever SMU speaks to steel buyers about flat rolled steel pricing cycles we inevitably hear about how the domestic steel mills have a tendency to over-correct to both the low and the high sides of the cycle (boom/bust). In the process there seems to be an assurance that market volatility will continue to be significant […]
As we write this article we are aware that the US Department of Commerce will be releasing their “Final Determination” on corrosion resistant steels tomorrow (Wednesday). We will cover their announcement in a special edition of SMU once the announcement is made. We thought our readers would be interested in seeing both the build-up of […]
We tend to see the various steel indexes become more “in tune” with one another once the steel mills decide to take a wait and see attitude about the market. Over the past few weeks, U.S. steel mills have (once again) managed to expand the spread between U.S. steel prices and those of foreign steel […]
On Monday of this week, Steel Market Update began canvassing the flat rolled steel market as part of our mid-May flat rolled steel market trends analysis. One of the areas we probe is that of mill lead times, the amount of time it takes to get an order produced for new orders placed this week. […]
As the thunderstorms erupt around our offices one of our indices is quite calm. The calming blue color of our bar graph depicts what buyers and sellers are telling us is happening during the negotiation process between mills and their customers: take it or leave it. Respondents to our mid-May flat rolled steel market trends […]
Flat rolled prices took a bit of a breather this week as buyers and sellers evaluate what will happen next. The expectation is for prices to continue to move higher from here. But, maybe with the potential for a pull back in scrap coming next month, and with the amount of the increases we have […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through March 2016 and year on year changes. It then compares domestic mill shipments and 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 […]
Flat rolled prices have been very dynamic over the past few weeks with double digit price changes and, at times, more than one price change during the course of one week. This has kept the steel price indexes busy and has shown the strength and weaknesses of the collection techniques used by each index. Flat […]
Supply is the over-riding issue affecting steel buyers today. Supply is constrained for a number of reasons, some expected and some by chance. We wrote an article earlier this week about two situations affecting steel buyers in the United States. The accident at CSN in Brazil took out their lone blast furnace costing them about […]
We hope the contract customers are paying attention to what is going on in the flat rolled steel spot markets. When the adjustment comes at the end of this quarter there will be some very shocked purchasing people. Spot flat rolled steel prices rose again this week by large double digits. Over the past two […]
Licensed data for April was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on May 3rd. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of April were […]
Domestic mill lead times: the amount of time it takes to receive flat rolled steel on an order placed this week, continue to be extended and are averaging at least one week longer than one year ago according to those participating in this week’s SMU flat rolled market trends analysis. Earlier this week we began […]