When asked to report on how steel mill pricing was this past week, one coating mill told Steel Market Update, “Really nothing. It wasn’t up, nor down in my opinion. We are booking steadily. But people still have inventory so nobody is desperate or in a bind. Good lead time but not enough panic to […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) released the latest foreign steel import license data through the 23rd of June. Based on the latest data, the trend is for steel imports to continue to slide towards the magical 3.0 million net tons mark. Last week the data was suggesting imports would be about 3.2-3.3 million net […]
I was advised by the US Department of Commerce that they will announce tomorrow (Wednesday, June 24) whether they will “…initiate AD and CVD investigations of imports of corrosion-resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, Korea and Taiwan.” We will have a fact sheet from them outlining their decision and we will provide it to […]
Hot rolled coil prices appear to be stuck in the $462 to $465 range. We have seen very little movement on HRC since the move made after the first price increase announcement back on April 28th. Cold rolled, which SMU saw as being up $10 this past week, went nowhere according to Platts and CRU […]
Attorney Larry Friedman noted the “hockey stick” graphs when looking at the five countries listed as defendants in the coated steel antidumping petition. We wanted to take a new look at the five countries and the total galvanized and Galvalume shipments made during 2012, 2013 and 2014 and how 2013 and 2014 compared with the […]
Lead times moved out slightly on three of the four flat rolled products: hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized. The only product which essentially remained the same was Galvalume. Hot rolled lead times averaged 4 weeks, according to the results of this week’s flat rolled steel market analysis (survey). This is up from 3.66 weeks […]
As with lead times, our survey respondents are reporting steel mills as slowly regressing and moving away from negotiating flat rolled steel prices. Although we are seeing movement, the percentage of respondents reporting the mills as still willing to negotiate hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume continues to be more than 50 percent. Hot […]
The steel industry has been preparing for a trade suit for well over a year. Those who buy steel, manufacturers, fabricators and steel service centers have had ample time to prepare for what many had been predicting as inevitable, a light flat rolled coated steel anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) suit. As we speak […]
Coated steels continued to be the strongest products on the heals of AD/CVD suits having been filed on the products along with the new price increase announcements by the domestic mills. We heard from a number of galvanized buyers that the offers out of the steel mills all begin with a three (as in $30.00/cwt […]
We are starting to see signs that the June import numbers could be significantly below those of April and May which were both at 3.5 million net tons. The daily import license rate for June is at 109,662 tons per day and if the actual imports were to come in at that rate the month […]
With the price increase announcements and the filing of a trade case against coated products we saw galvanized and Galvalume prices move higher by double digits this past week. Galvanized increased by $15 per ton according to SMU and $16 per ton according to CRU. Galvalume prices moved higher by $10 per ton. When looking […]
This report compares domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market to enable a side by side comparison and the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce with analysis by SMU. Table 1 shows both supply and mill shipments of sheet […]
Licensed data for May was updated on June 9th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is available to our […]
Last week anti-dumping suits were filed against corrosion resistant products (mostly galvanized and Galvalume) and we did see some tightening as the domestic mills try to move prices anywhere from $10 to $20 per ton on new spot offers. We are still early in the process with many buyers either not needing to buy or […]
Steel Market Update conducted our flat rolled steel analysis (survey) last week. We began the process on Monday (June 1st) and approximately 90 percent of the responses were made prior to the filing of the anti-dumping and countervailing duty suit on corrosion-resistant steel (galvanized, Galvalume, galvanneal, aluminized, etc.). We invited approximately 600 companies to participate […]
Flat rolled steel prices have stabilized over the past couple of weeks, according to our analysis of the various steel indexes we follow on a regular basis. The expectation is with the increase in scrap prices and the filing of the anti-dumping suit against China, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Italy will bring a new […]
The US Department of Commerce release Final Census Data regarding April steel imports which were reported to be 3,501,337 net tons in total, down 3.2 percent over March data and down 6.3 percent over the level seen one year ago. Semi-finished (blooms, billets, and slabs) imports recovered 118,000 tons from the four year low we […]
Lead times have not shot out since the price increase announcements were made in early May. Hot rolled lead times were reported as being 3.5 weeks at the beginning of May and one month later HRC lead times averaged 3.66 weeks according to the results of our most recent flat rolled steel survey. Lead times […]
Our respondents to last week’s flat rolled steel market survey continue to report prices as being negotiable, maybe not to the degree we have been seeing since the beginning of the year, but negotiable non-the-less. However, we need to remember that the vast majority of our responses were made prior to the anti-dumping trade suit […]
The “not if but when” question has been settled as the long awaited trade case filing on galvanized steel finally occurred on Wednesday. Six domestic steel mills submitted a petition to the Department of Commerce asking for the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on certain corrosion-resistant steel products from China, the Republic of Korea, […]
Steel Market Update will have a number of articles in today’s issue of our newsletter about the corrosion resistant trade cases filed yesterday by six U.S. steel mills. We will discuss what has to be proved, the timetable that a case goes through at both the Department of Commerce (DOC) and the International Trade Commission […]
Steel Market Update has written numerous articles about the corrosion resistant trade case filed by six domestic steel mills against five foreign countries. The petition which called for anti-dumping and countervailing duty action will now go through the proper channels at the US Department of Commerce (anti-dumping) and the International Trade Commission (countervailing duty). There […]
The following article was the first of a two part series of articles on how the anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) systems work regarding any steel trade case that might be filed. Since we now have a filing on corrosion resistant steels (galvanized, aluminized and Galvalume) we thought that our readers would be interested […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) wants to provide as much detail as possible regarding imports of coated steels into the United States. In particular, we are focusing on galvanized and Galvalume imports from China, India, Taiwan, South Korea and Italy. Galvanized: When looking at the data for 2012, 2013, 2014 and the first 4 months 2015, […]
I was pleased to hear from a number of our readers who had used the search function at the top right hand side of our website in order to find old articles that we had written on the subject of dumping suits and the process that the suit has to go through. I used the […]
When speaking to buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel this week, one theme became abundantly clear: everyone is waiting for trade cases and, second, where scrap prices will end up for the month of June. Both are expected to support a further tightening of steel prices. Scrap is expected to rise anywhere from $10 […]
Steel Market Update sources: mill, service center and others are advising us that anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) trade cases on coated products will be filed yet this week. We have heard that the filing could come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3rd) or on Thursday of this week. Any trade filing on coated […]
We ended the month of April with the SMU Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral. As the month of May began, the domestic mills announced price increases and managed to move our needle to Higher. As the month ends, our Momentum Indicator continues to point toward higher domestic flat rolled steel prices over the next 30 […]
We are seeing a further firming in the hot rolled numbers with our sources advising that most offers are in the range of $460 per ton with a few offers higher and limited offers lower unless tied to specific tonnage and sizes that fit the producing mill’s sweet spot. Lead times have moved out, for […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a detailed flat rolled steel market analysis. We do this by inviting approximately 600 companies, which have been vetted by our publisher to make sure they are legitimate buyers, sellers or executives involved with hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume or plate products. We then send invitations […]