I had an interesting email from one of our members who expressed an issue with the reduction of articles written by me. Here is a portion of the email, “When we first subscribed to your publication several years ago, we found that John P was doing most of the writing and he would stick his […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Final Census Data for the month of March. The final total of foreign steel imported into the United States during the month was 3,615,960 net tons. This is a very small decrease from the 3.7 million tons received during the month of February but is well below the 3.9 […]
Steel buyers in the April ISM Steel Buyers Survey are expecting general economic activity to remain the same during the next six months but were more optimistic regarding sales and production in their specific industry. Forty percent of buyers expect the trend for sales and production to improve, compared to 30 percent in March. Fifty […]
On May 1, Nucor Corp. and SSAB Americas filed a joint request asking the Department of Commerce to find that Chinese producers of cut-to-length (CTL) steel plate are circumventing the antidumping order on CTL plate from China. According to documents submitted to the DOC, Chinese plate producers are adding small amounts of alloys, such as […]
Olympic Steel navigated through falling metal prices for a first quarter net income of $1.1 million. Income was down from $2.8 million in Q1 2014, but better than anticipated by analysts due to higher revenue of $346 million, stronger than expected gross margin (19.1 percent) and lower operating expenses. In the carbon flat products segment, […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of March 2015, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in March were 80,509,000 metric tons, an increase of 18.5 percent from the previous month and an increase of 8.9 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 […]
During the latest slew of earnings conference calls by the domestic steel mills, analysts were relentless in their pursuit of information regarding trade cases which would conceivably impact the flow of imported steel into the United States. The steel mill CEO’s and other mill executives associated with the conference calls were more than willing to […]
There are always two sides to any story. The domestic steel mill view is the influx of foreign steel is due to illegal dumping by the companies or countries exporting steel to the United States. The manufacturing companies who are benefiting from the lower priced imports (and their impact on domestic steel prices) have a […]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the first estimate of Q1 2015 Annual Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts on Thursday The annualized growth rate in the first estimate of Q1 GDP was 0.2 percent down from Q4 2014 which came in at 2.2 percent. GDP is measured and reported in chained […]
Steel Market Update spent time over the past few days speaking with trading companies and customers who buy foreign steel to see if the flow of orders has subsided or remains in place. We were especially interested in cold rolled and coated products (galvanized and Galvalume in particular) since so much has been made about […]
The spread between world hot rolled export pricing and that of the domestic average here in the United States continues to be reduced from what we were measuring a couple of months ago. This analysis is based on our review of world export prices and the hot rolled index produced by SMU earlier this week. […]
US Steel spoke at length on the impact that unfairly traded imports have had on results in first quarter. Although, CEO Mario Longhi could not give an estimate for when the next trade case will be filed he did respond, “What I can tell you, it’s not a question of if; it’s a question of […]
The March AIIS imports report shows steel imports falling for the second month in a row. Imports from South Korea rebounded 16.6 percent from February. The AISI report in its entirety follows: Falls Church, VA. April 29, 2015. Steel imports fell for the second straight month in March – and the fourth of the last […]
Late last week one of the smaller mills (North Star Bluescope) not known to cold rolled and galvanized buyers since they only produce hot rolled coils, began moving spot prices higher. One of NS customers advised us toward the end of the week that the mill was looking for $465 per ton ($23.25/cwt) for new […]
AK Steel earnings in first quarter were challenged by high levels of imported carbon steel products, said CEO James Wainscott. “The first quarter of 2015 was certainly more challenging than we anticipated. That because of the extremely high level of imported carbon steel products–unfairly traded imports, in our opinion–that hit our countries shores at the […]
US Steel reported a first quarter net loss of $75 million–$65 million of which was due to the shutdown of coke production facilities. Net sales were $3.27 billion on total steel shipments of 4.1 million tons. Commenting on results, U. S. Steel President and Chief Executive Officer Mario Longhi said, “Our results reflect extremely challenging […]
The Trade Promotion Authority bill S.995, or “fast track bill” as it being called, passed the Senate Finance Committee last week by a vote of 20-6. The fast track portion gives the President the authority and guidelines to negotiate trade deals in exchange for a vote by Congress passing resulting trade agreements without amendment. The […]
Steel Market Update reviews the weekly steel import license data as reported by the US Department of Commerce. License data can be quite volatile and we only use the reports as a way of evaluating any changes in tonnage or product trends. The closer we get to the end of the month the better the […]
SSAB reports a relatively weak steel market in the US in first quarter due primarily to high inventory levels at distributors and imports that pressured prices in the North American market. Despite challenging market conditions, sales at SSAB Americas rose 24 percent year over year to $407.8 million (SEK 3,508 million). Sales were relatively unchanged […]
The rash of price increase announcements threw one of the articles I have been working on to the back burner for today. However, the flame will be lit once again tomorrow. The article is about foreign steel imports. In particular, I have been talking to a number of trading companies about their order books, spread […]
On Friday of this past week the U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) reported Preliminary License Data for steel imports into the United States. March steel imports (all products) were reported to be 3,587,949 net tons. This is down from the 3.7 million tons reported for February and below both the twelve month and three […]
Latin America is China’s second largest market for steel exports, receiving 8.3 million tons of steel in 2014. Alacero, the Latin American Steel Association, was one of eight steel organizations representing steel interests in North America, Latin America and Europe to express concern over China’s “Steel Adjustment Policy 2015.” SMU asked Alacero to comment on […]
EUROFER, the European Steel Association, is among the eight steel organizations that united to present comments to the Chinese government on its Steel Industry Adjustment Policy 2015. SMU asked the organization provide their view on the Policy and the impact of Chinese steel exports on the EU steel market and industry. The following comments are […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The IP index was reported as 105.22 for March, down by 0.64 from February. The three month moving average (3MMA) was 105.63, down by 0.34 from February. January was the highest value ever of the 3MMA at 106.11. The Y/Y growth rate […]
Reliance CEO Gregg Mollins is expecting a steel price increase in the “not too distant future.” Steel prices have been bouncing near bottom due to a flagging energy industry and competition from extraordinary levels of steel imports. The spread between domestic and foreign is now thin, said Mollins, business is good, and demand is there. […]
The willingness of the steel mills to negotiate flat rolled steel prices with end users and service center customers remains high based on the results from the Steel Market Update flat rolled steel survey. The issue is weak order books (see lead time article in today’s issue) and the domestic steel mills are looking for […]
The energy markets, especially oil and natural gas, are major users of flat rolled steel and plate products. As oil prices have fallen the production of pipe & tube and related products for the energy segment of the economy have fallen significantly. This has had a major impact on hot rolled coil production and pricing. […]
With Nucor CEO John Ferriola commenting today about the surge in steel plate imports over the last two months into the United States, Steel Market Update thought we would do a piece showing plate imports over the last few years and how they compare to recent levels. The monthly average import rate of plate in […]
Nucor Corp. announced net earnings of $67.8 million. Consolidated net sales decreased 14 percent year over year to $4.4 billion in the first quarter 2015. Earnings were down 12 percent compared to fourth quarter 2014. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 5.6 million tons, down 7 percent from Q4 and 9 percent from Q1 […]