On Friday, July 15th, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its affirmative final determinations in the antidumping (AD) investigations of heavy walled rectangular welded carbon steel pipe and tubes from Korea, Mexico and Turkey, and the countervailing duty (CVD) on imports of the same products from Turkey. The following determinations came directly from the U.S. […]
The price of oil and natural gas have much to do with sales of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and related steel products. The energy markets represent a large portion of the hot rolled coil used to make pipe and tube, storage facilities as well as equipment used to drill and pump oil and natural […]
What impact will Brexit have on the U.S. steel industry? Not much, says Metal Miner authorities Lisa Reisman, CEO & Executive Editor and Stuart Burns, Editor at Large, during a webinar presented July 13. The exit of the UK from the European Union is not likely to impact ferrous prices said Reisman. Instead steel prices […]
Chinese finished steel exports surged for monthly increase of 16 percent in June to 10.94 million tonnes and were 23 percent higher than a year-over-year. The June exports were among the highest monthly totals to date, exceeded only by the 11.25 million tonnes recorded in September 2015. Key Banc attributes the rise to the competitiveness […]
Mexico announced it will enforce tariffs on imports of cold-rolled coil (CRC) from China with boron greater than or equal to 0.0008 percent. Antidumping duties will range between 65.99 percent and 103.41 percent. The Secretariat of Economy added the cold rolled steel with added boron to the existing antidumping duties on CRC after Altos Hornos […]
End users who use specialty steels that are not readily available in the United States have to be concerned about both supply and price due to the successful prosecution of the antidumping and countervailing duty trade cases by the domestic steel industry. Earlier this week Steel Market Update received a “letter to the editor” which […]
AISI, WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thomas J. Gibson, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), today testified before the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing on “Evaluating the Financial Risks of China.” Gibson highlighted global steel overcapacity, market distortions created by China’s state-controlled steel industry and China’s market economy status, among other issues. The […]
Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp confirmed they are in talks about consolidating their European steel businesses. Tata Steel is currently in the process of selling its UK assets but said on Friday that it will also “look at alternative and more sustainable portfolio solutions for the European businesses.” Tata said it has been reviewing bids from […]
The statement of Erica L. Groshe Commissioner Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released on Friday morning reads as though the increase in net non-farm employment of 287,000 in June was a fact as was the downwardly revised May number of 11,000. We at SMU don’t believe the May result has any credibility which is particularly […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through May 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 […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are not believers that the next move will be for higher flat rolled steel prices over the next couple of months. At least that is what the respondents to our most recent flat rolled steel questionnaire believe. Based on the analysis of last week’s survey, 60 percent of […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission has put the Section 337 case brought by US Steel against Chinese steel companies on hold until Oct. 2, 2017. Administrative Law Judge Dee Lord said that two of the three complaints in the case, price fixing and transshipment, belong under the purview of antidumping and countervailing duty laws that […]
According to the latest data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of May 2016 was 8,957,525 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports, then subtracting total US steel exports. May apparent […]
Licensed data for June was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on July 5th. 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 June were 2,169,434 […]
Licensed data for July was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on August 2nd. 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 July were […]
The PMI for the Manufacturing ISM Report on Business rose 1.9 percentage points to 53.2 in June, expanding for the fourth consecutive month. New orders gained 1.3 points and production 2.1 percentage points for readings of 57.0 and 54.7, respectively. The employment index grew 1.2 points to 50.4 percent. Inventories of raw materials registered 48.5, […]
This Key Markets Indicator report is something we produce for our Premium level clients. However, we thought that our Executive level readers would appreciate knowing… An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in […]
Steel Market Update received the following question from one of our new readers who has a specific project related to sourcing of hot rolled and cold rolled steels from outside of the United States. Based on our conversation with the reader we believe this question is being raised at this time due to the wide […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall and Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how they saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets Brexit serves in some people’s minds as the beginning of the end, the unraveling of […]
The following article is by contributing writer Damon Sun of Daido International. Several key elements has happened in the last few weeks in the ferrous markets in Asia: 1) China Customs Bureau has started inspections for alloy content in the export of billets (square bars). The export tax rebate (9%) is applicable only to alloy […]
A strong finish to the 2016 fiscal year drove annual earnings per share to a record $2.22 for Worthington Industries. Earnings for fourth quarter, ending May 31, 2016, were were $58.8 million with sales of $714.7 million. Net earnings were more than double Q4 2015 earnings of $28.9 million. “While we expect some headwinds to […]
The Broad Index value of the US $ is reported several days in arrears, the latest value we have was dated June 24th, the day that the result of the UK’s referendum became known. There was no significant move in the value of the dollar on that day which may have been published before the […]
Metalforming companies surveyed in June are expecting little change in business conditions during the next three months. The June 2016 Precision Metalforming Association sampled 120 metalforming companies in the U.S. and found most expect economic activity to remain steady. Orders are expected to remain at stable, with 51 percent predicting no change compared to 44 […]
The flat rolled markets are trying to find where, and what direction, prices should be moving. After being down slightly last week, this week prices are up slightly. There is no clear-cut focus to the market at this moment. As one service center purchasing director put it to us this afternoon, “[Pricing] is all need […]
China is threatening to file a suit at the World Trade Organization against the U.S. following the latest duty assessments against imports of cold-rolled and corrosion resistant steel products from China. The Commerce Ministry said it is deeply concerned about the protectionist policies of the U.S. steel industry and fears the large anti-dumping and anti-subsidy […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission announced Friday that it made an affirmative decision on injury to U.S. steel producers by imports of corrosion resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, Korea, and Taiwan. The USITC determined by unanimous vote that the U.S. steel industry was materially injured by the import of corrosion-resistant steel products (galvanized, […]
Leaders in the steel industry reacted favorably to Friday’s affirmative decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC)’s regarding injury to the industry resulting from the import of corrosion-resistant steel from China, India, Italy, Korea, and Taiwan. Mario Longhi, President and CEO, US Steel Corp.: “United States Steel Corporation is pleased with the International Trade Commission’s […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced today (June 22, 2016) that it finds that unfairly priced and subsidized imports of cold-rolled steel flat products from China and Japan have hurt U.S. steel producers. All six commissioners voted in the affirmative. As a result, the antidumping and countervailing duties determined by the DOC in their […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of May 2016, providing updated data on iron ore imports, scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in May were 86,750,000 metric tons, an increase of 3.4 percent from the previous month and an increase of 22.4 percent from […]
The reaction to the latest round of price increase announcements out of ArcelorMittal USA and NLMK USA got one of our readers fired up. After reading Tuesday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update they penned their thoughts on price increases and imports, especially imports out of the “2nd tier guys”: I just finished reading last […]