Light vehicle sales in the US skyrocketed in May to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 17.8 million units. This is the strongest pace in almost 10 years. Auto sales were 7.4 million in April and rose to 8.1 million in May. Light trucks rose from 9.1 to 9.7 million. Imports in May were 3.8 […]
Written by: John Packard, Publisher, Steel Market Update Last Thursday evening Ray Culley (SMU) and I attended the Chicago regional meeting of the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) at the Hotel Sofitel Water Tower in downtown Chicago. The speaker for the evening was Chicago based trade attorney Larry Friedman. His practice concentrates on the representation […]
Steel Market Update has been asked a number of times to define, or help our readers to understand, what is “injury” when it comes to the domestic steel industry. Last week we heard from trade attorney Larry Friedman at the Association of Steel Distributors Meeting in Chicago that injury was losing sales, the lowering of […]
In its second quarter 2015 earnings guidance, AK Steel said it expects to report a net loss of $0.37 to $0.42 per diluted share of common stock. The company attributed negative results to low steel prices caused in part by high levels of unfairly traded imports. Shipments of 1.8 million were up 3 percent from […]
SMU Sentiment Index Jumps Since our last flat rolled steel market analysis and evaluation of how buyers and sellers of steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful both three to six months from now (Future) as well as in today’s economic environment (Current), we have had a second price increase and a dumping […]
There has been some confusion over the customs bill that was passed by the House last week. The bill, HR 644 – Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, was not part of the TAA/TPA package (HR 1314). Passage of the House bill will send it to committee where it will be reconciled with […]
Nucor’s second quarter guidance indicates earnings in the range of $0.20 to $0.25 per diluted share, below analyst consensus of $0.30 per share for the quarter. Earnings decreased from Q2 2014 at $0.46 per share and are comparable to $0.21 in Q1 2015. Overall operating performance is down from Q1. Prices are beginning to stabilize, […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The IP index was reported as 105.102 for May, down by 0.18 from April and down from the all-time high of 106.309 in November last year. The three month moving average, (3MMA) in May was 105.40, down by 0.23 from April. January […]
The USW negotiating committee for workers at ArcelorMittal USA met in Pittsburgh this week to begin working on new contracts. The current three year contracts will expire at 11:59 pm. EST, September 1, 2015. The master Basic Labor Contract covers employees at 12 ArcelorMittal USA facilities; three additional sites have contracts that will expire concurrent […]
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 […]
A joint statement by eight steel trade associations calls for immediate action in addressing steel overcapacity and the increase in subsidized exports from China. The statement below has been issued by the following organizations: AISI, SMA, CSPA, SSINA, CPTI, Canacero, Alacero, Eurofer and the Turkish Steel Producers Assn and Brazilian Steel Institute. “There is a […]
The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) “fast track” was passed by the House in a 219-211 vote on Friday. The Trade Adjustment Act (TAA), however, suffered a crushing defeat in a 126 to 302 vote. TAA would extend a program providing assistance to workers who lose their jobs as a consequence of trade deals and add […]
Steel Market Update was analyzing data from our last flat rolled market survey just as the domestic mills began announcing price increases. We thought our readers might be interested in looking at the data with us and then guess as to whether the new price increases will “stick” or falter over time. In our opinion, […]
An executive with a large service center group penned us some thoughts about the market (prior to the SSAB plate price increase) on Wednesday of this past week. “I was surprised at the June import-rate figures, with the forecast/possibility of 3+ million tons. It doesn’t seem like imports are falling as fast as expected for […]
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 […]
Just a quick note to let our Premium level members know that earlier this week we put the latest imports by product, port and country on our website. You can review the data by clicking here. We received notification from the MSCI that their data will be released on Monday of next week. We will […]
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 […]
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has initiated investigations into alleged dumping and subsidizing of certain hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate originating in or exported from the Republic of India (India) and the Russian Federation (Russia). The investigation follows a complaint filed on April 20, 2015 by Essar Steel Algoma claiming […]
One of the key items Steel Market Update watches is the spread between world hot rolled export pricing and the HRC spot price average here in the United States. The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update in order to identify the spread between world hot rolled export prices as determined by SteelBenchmarker and domestic […]
According to Investopedia, a subsidy is “a benefit given by the government to groups or individuals usually in the form of a cash payment or tax reduction. The subsidy is usually given to remove some type of burden and is often considered to be in the interest of the public.” The example accompanying the definition […]
OK, everyone is looking for signs from the steel gods to see if (or when) foreign steel imports would begin to back off from the record high levels seen every month this year. So, we will tempt fate and show our readers a small sign. The US Department of Commerce released license data this afternoon […]
US Steel has called 149 employees back to work at Fairfield Works. Currently just 76 workers are on layoff from the original 225 workers at the end of May. US Steel is in the process of restarting the Fairfield Works blast furnace. US Steel spokesperson Sarah Casella told the Birmingham Business Journal that the Jan […]
Ferrous scrap prices rose in June as obsolete flows continue to be weaker than normal and the domestic mills have come back into the market. The strength of the market has come as a surprise to dealers and mills alike. Number 1 Heavy Melt (HMS) ranged from $230 to $265 per gross ton with the […]
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 […]
According to the latest data released from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of April 2015 was 9,212,032 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. April supply […]
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, […]
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 […]
The article below was originally published on March 19, 2014 (SMU Volume 10, Issue 34) and it deals with the questions that we are sure many of you are asking yourselves this morning, how does the anti-dumping and countervailing duty systems work especially the timeline for action by the Department of Commerce and the International […]
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, […]
The United Steel Workers said Wednesday that the union fully supports the antidumping and countervailing petition filed on corrosion-resistant steel products. The petition, said the USW in a press release, details ”how a flood of subsidized and unfairly traded steel imports from China, India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan has damaged the US steel industry […]