I am asked quite often what the differences are between Premium and your Executive level memberships. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to try point out what Premium receives above and beyond the Executive newsletter and website access. There are a number of special reports produced by Steel Market Update which Premium […]
Olympic Steel reported a net loss of $600,000 for third quarter but managed to expand gross margin 21.2 percent, compared to Q3 2104, despite pressure on pricing and volume. Olympic lowered operating expenses by almost $20 million so far in 2015 as well as lowering debt by a total of $60 million. Sales volume decreased […]
We have two data sources for this report. These are the Federal Reserve and the Oanda forex trading platform. An explanation of these sources is given at the end of this report. Oanda is current every day but the Federal Reserve daily broad index (BI) is normally about eight days in arrears. As of November […]
License data for October was updated on November 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. At SMU we perform a detailed analysis of this data, an explanation of our methodology is given at the end of this write up. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of October were […]
Steel Market Update asked one of our Asian iron ore and steel trading sources to comment on the recent decline in iron ore prices which recently broke below $50/dmt on 62% Fe fines in China. We also asked for a comment about the recent spat of trade suits and the Chinese mills not cooperating with […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported total foreign steel imports for the month of September 2015 were 2,834,240 net tons. This represents a 227,141 net ton reduction from the 3,061,381 net tons that arrived on U.S. shores during the month of August. The September tonnage was below both the twelve month and three month moving […]
Based on the most recent import license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, October import licenses totaled 3,399,248 net tons. We anticipate when the final census numbers are released for the month of October total steel imports will be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4 million tons (net tons not metric tons). Imports of […]
US Steel continues to utilize its Carnegie Way initiative to find cost savings throughout the company to offset the challenges of unfairly traded imports, lower order rates, and falling steel prices. In third quarter 750 projects were completed, raising the total number of projects contributing savings benefits to the company this year to almost 2000. […]
The American Iron and Steel Institute, the Steel Manufacturers Association, the Canadian Steel Producers Association, CANACERO (the Mexican steel association), Alacero (the Latin American steel association), EUROFER (the European steel association,) Instituto AcoBrasil (the Brazil Steel Institute), the Specialty Steel Industry of North American and the Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports today released a […]
US Steel Corp. reported a net loss of $173 million for third quarter 2015. Results included a $53 million loss due to shutdown of the blast furnace and associated operations at Fairfield Works. It also included a charge of $10 million for pension obligations to US Steel Canada and $7 million in restructuring costs. In […]
The Institute of Supply Management released their October report on November 2nd. An explanation of the ISM index is given at the end of this piece. After seven straight months of decline the three month moving average (3MMA) of the index had positive growth on a month over month basis in June and July but […]
On October 23, 2015 attorneys for the domestic steel mills alleged that exports from Brazil, Australia, Japan and the Netherlands surged into the United States in an effort to “…avoid the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties.” Much like the corrosion resistant case that preceded the hot rolled filing which was originally made in August […]
The following article was written by contributing writer Damon Sun of Daido International. The Asian ferrous scrap markets are still very weak, but there are some positives recently. Rebar demand seemed to have picked up some in the last two weeks and consequently, there has been more activity in the containerized scrap markets. For reference, […]
Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) reported a net loss of 1.28 billion pesos ($77.8 million) for third quarter 2015, almost double its loss from the same period in 2014. Revenue dropped to 10.2 billion pesos ($619 million) for the quarter. Steel production fell 1.16 percent to 922,138 tonnes. Production of thermal coal increased 5.31 percent […]
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 this analysis is currently 36. Please refer to Table 1 for the view of the present situation and the quantitative measure of trends. Readers should […]
On Friday, October 30, 2015, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced their Preliminary Determination that critical circumstances existed on corrosion resistant steels from certain mills in the Peoples Republic of China (China), South Korea (Korea), Italy and Taiwan. Critical circumstances were not found for any company from India and only ILVA was identified from Italy. […]
Scrap prices were forecast a week ago to drop $10-$20 per gross ton in November. However, we are beginning to hear that the scrap markets may not be as dire as predicted and the numbers may be much closer to sideways than down once the negotiations are concluded next week. One of our scrap sources […]
According to a media reports, Essar Steel Algoma is in talks with senior lenders regarding entering insolvency. Bloomberg sources say a court filing is possible within the next month. Reuters said the company has hired law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and restructuring specialists Evercore Partners Inc. to advise it. Canadian steelmaker, Essar Steel […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) released Preliminary Census Data for September foreign steel imports on Monday. September imports dropped below 3.0 million net tons and at 2.77 million net tons they were down 5 percent month-over-month. As you can see by the table below hot rolled imports were down by 100,000 tons and […]
“Cost is the enemy of profitability,” said AK Steel CEO James Wainscott in the company’s third quarter earnings call. AK Steel proved it can cut costs, trimming $58 million at Dearborn Works and $60 million for the company as a whole for 2015, and delivering a positive net income of $6.7 million in third quarter. […]
“The UK steel industry is struggling for survival in the face of extremely challenging market conditions.” That’s how Tata Europe CEO Karl Koehler summed up the condition of the industry that is facing an onslaught of cheap steel imports, particularly from China, high energy costs and a weak export market due to a strong British […]
The difference between auto industry and steel industry: the UAW has issue a notice to GM that they could walk out at midnight tonight (Sunday) if they don’t have a contract. The USW is content to work under the old contract for as long as they can get away with it since both US Steel […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets: The stock market continues to prevail. From […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. posted net income of $54.4 million in third quarter despite falling prices, decreased sales, and a restructuring charge of $55.5 million related to businesses serving the energy industry. End market demand was relatively steady in third quarter, except in the energy market where shipments dropped approximately 40 percent year over […]
Nucor third quarter earnings exceeded analyst expectations with earnings per share of $0.71 compared to estimates of $0.49. Nucor posted net income of $227.1 million, up from $124.8 million in second quarter due to a larger than forecasted LIFO credit and improved performance in the steel segment. Consolidated net sales were $4.23 billion on shipments […]
Steel earnings calls began this last week and all of them reference the downturn in the oil industry and its effect on production. Low oil prices, overcapacity, and resulting weak demand for OCTG products continues to force firms to adjust output and workforce. Vallourec Star Steel announced this week that it will begin a third […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of September 2015, providing updated data on iron ore imports, scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in September were 86,120,000 metric tons, an increase of 16.2 percent from the previous month and an increase of 1.7 percent from […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) released the latest import license data for the month of October. Based on the 2.5 million net tons of license requests through the 20th of the month we are on pace to exceed 3.5 million tons for the month of October. Anything over 2.9 million net tons we […]
Steel Dynamics reported decreased third quarter profit as a result of high levels of low priced imports and elevated domestic inventory. SDI posted net sales of $2.0 billion for a net income of $61 million in Q3. The three percent drop in sales was due to lower pricing and reduced volume in the recycling and […]
Allegheny Technologies reported a challenging flat rolled market in their third quarter results. Flat rolled sales were $358 million, down from $511 million in Q2 and $561 million in 2014. ATI’s lockout of USW workers resulted in 25 percent lower shipment volume during the quarter. Total ATI sales for the quarter were $833 million resulting […]