The U.S. Department of Commerce released their latest imported steel license data for the month of May 2014. The early indication is for May steel imports to remain at, or above the projected April imports of 3.7 million tons. March final imports came in at 3.2 million which is also our 3 month moving average. […]
Steel Market Update watches foreign steel imports as closely as humanly possible as we look for trends to see how imported steel tonnages relate to past historical averages. We use a monthly average as opposed to a specific monthly number in order to smooth out the numbers and provide a clearer picture. As you can […]
Apparent supply is defined as domestic mill shipments to domestic locations plus imports. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce. The three month moving average of the total tonnage of sheet and strip supply in the 1st quarter was 4,603,548 tons, up from 4,426,649 tons per month in Q4 […]
The domestic steel mills continue to be united in their approach to negotiating flat rolled steel pricing. Based on data collected this week from our flat rolled steel market survey, we found that only 30 percent of the respondents were reporting the domestic mills as willing to negotiate hot rolled steel pricing. This is up […]
Pressure continues on flat rolled steel prices as we saw gains on hot rolled and cold rolled while galvanized and Galvalume remained the same as one week ago. The issue on the coated products and cold rolled to a lesser degree, has been imported steel which is impacting the southern states in two ways. First, […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) flat rolled steel price indices all saw very large double digit increases from the beginning to the conclusion of April 2014. Steel Market Update provides a range for our readers from low to high with the average being our indexed number for the product. We saw benchmark hot rolled prices increasing […]
Steel Market Update follows a number of price indices on a weekly basis. All of the indices saw double digit increases during the month of April. The average change on hot rolled was +$43 per ton, cold rolled +$47 per ton, galvanized +$66 per ton and Galvalume +65 per ton. Plate prices remained relatively stable […]
The following article is a continuation of our Steel Buyers Basics series written by Mario Briccetti. Mario is Principal of Briccetti & Associates, a Supply Chain consulting firm, and can be reached at Mario@mbriccetti.com In my series of articles, I have stressed that buyers should have the best information possible in order to effectively negotiate pricing […]
Flat rolled steel mills have become less willing to negotiate flat rolled steel spot prices with their customers. During the analysis of the flat rolled steel market conducted by Steel Market Update earlier this week, we found large adjustments in negotiations on hot rolled pricing as well as spot galvanized steel pricing. Cold rolled actually […]
Prices moved sideways this week as buyers digest the $30 per ton of movement made in benchmark hot rolled pricing going back to the beginning of the month of April. Steel Market Update is aware there are a number of domestic mills who have made “internal” spot price adjustments, taking price offers from $34.25/cwt ($685 […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released preliminary steel import census data for March and reported total steel imports at 3,218,914 net tons (NT). Compared to February, March imports are down by 2.0 percent or 66,960 NT. Compared to the same month one year ago, total March 2014 imports are up 25.2 percent or 648,510 NT. […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to be firm as supply issues haunt the northern steel mills and lead times remain extended at most mills throughout the eastern United States and Canada. US Steel has issues with receiving raw materials into their Gary Works facility which has slowed steelmaking operations to approximately 50 to 75 percent […]
Foreign steel imports, for the month of April 2014 are projected by Steel Market Update to exceed 3.5 million net tons. Based on preliminary license data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce through April 22, 2014 imports could reach as high as 3.7 million net tons. However, as our regular readers already know, license […]
All of the steel indices followed by Steel Market Update saw flat rolled steel prices increase this past week. Benchmark hot rolled coil saw the spread between the indices shrink while the average HR price increased by $17 per ton. Cold rolled was one item where the price spread increased across the various steel indexes […]
Steel Dynanics CEO Mark Millett and other officers of the steel mill provided their review of the company’s first quarter earnings as well as their insights into the various markets they serve as well as the challenges and opportunities they see in front of them. SMU found one comment interesting as Mr. Millett feels there […]
According to Steel Market Update most recent flat rolled steel market survey results, lead times at the U.S. and Canadian steel mills continue to extend on hot rolled, cold rolld and coated products with the exception of Galvalume. Hot rolled lead times are now averaging 5.49 weeks, up from 4.87 weeks just two weeks ago […]
Flat rolled steel mills have become less willing to negotiate flat rolled steel spot prices with their customers. During the analysis of the flat rolled steel market conducted by Steel Market Update earlier this week, we found large adjustments in negotiations on hot rolled pricing as well as spot galvanized steel pricing. Cold rolled actually […]
Severe winter conditions negatively impacted Steel Dynamic’s first quarter earnings causing a 25 percent drop in consolidated operating income as compared to the previous quarter. SDI reported net income of $39 million for first quarter 2014, on net sales of $1.8 billion, down from $55 million on net sales of $1.9 billion Q4 2013. Steel […]
All of the current production issues are relegated to the northern fully integrated steel mills. One of our service center contacts laid out the production scenario and how it is impacting the other northern steel producers: “The Great Lakes outage, and then accident during repair, and the Gary reduction in output is the important factor […]
Steel Market Update found flat rolled steel prices to be higher this week. As mentioned in our first article, pricing is not even across the country and we are seeing some flexibility in the numbers in the south compared to those in the Midwest. The Midwest is where all of the mill production disruptions are […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data through Tuesday, April 15th for imported steel scheduled to arrive into the United States during the month of April. Based on this early license data (knowing it can be misleading) we are projecting total steel imports will exceed the 3.5 million net tons forecast for March. Our […]
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 […]
Three of the four indices followed by Steel Market Update posted higher flat rolled steel averages through the end of this past week. CRU made the biggest catch-up move taking their benchmark hot rolled index to $654 per ton, up $21 per ton since the previous week. CRU and SMU HRC indices are now within […]
“Mills are stubborn this week. We’ll see what happens when US gets caught back up,” is how one steel executive pegged the market for Steel Market Update earlier today. Many of the steel service centers we spoke to over the past few days are indicating there is strengthening demand in portions of their business. What […]
This week was a tough one to figure out where transaction prices actually are at this moment in time. What makes it challenging is mill offers appear to be firm from mill to mill with very little wiggle room at this moment. The second issue making things tough to evaluate pricing is we had a […]
The following article is a continuation of our Steel Buyers Basics series and is written by Mario Briccetti. Mario is Principal of Briccetti & Associates, a Supply Chain consulting firm, and can be reached at Mario@mbriccetti.com In an earlier article I noted that the steel business is often subject to interruptions in supply and described […]
Mill lead times moved out over the past two weeks. We are seeing lead times extending by as much as one week on hot rolled and cold rolled and three quarters of a week on galvanized. We did some quick checking and HRC, CRC and GI lead times are the furthest we have recorded since […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are reporting the domestic steel mills as much less willing to negotiate prices this week as compared to two weeks ago. Our market analysis saw major contraction in each of the products with hot rolled moving from 85 percent down to 48 percent. Cold rolled halved their previous […]
The US Department of Commerce released Final Census numbers for the month of February 2014. The 3,285,874 net tons was the highest level for imports since July 2007 when they were 3,288,054 NT. In the table below we have provided updated twelve month and three month moving averages through the month of February. The March […]
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 […]