Flat Rolled = 52 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 44.4 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled US service center flat rolled inventories edged down further in March. Inventories did not fall as much as expected, as attitudes about inventory changed with the reversal of pricing trends. At the end of March, service centers carried […]
Total mill shipments of steel products fell for the second straight month in February to 7.655 million tons, a 6.1% decline from January’s 8.153 million tons. Apparent supply also fell in February, down 12.1% versus the prior month, falling repeatedly and unable to maintain the momentum seen during the final quarter of 2021. This analysis is based […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), scrap and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Hot Rolled As the Russia/Ukraine conflict continues to smolder the upward trend in spot HR prices appears to have stalled this week […]
The competitive advantage foreign import prices hold over domestic steel is relatively unchanged from our previous update, with most prices moving just $10-$20 from last week, according to SMU’s latest foreign versus domestic hot-rolled coil (HRC) price comparison. Select foreign HRC prices range from $305 per ton cheaper than domestic prices to $27 per ton more expensive, […]
Steel mill lead times appear to be steadying this week for four of the five sheet and plate products we track. They are also rising at a slower rate compared to the big gains seen in March. Steel Market Update’s latest check of the market indicates sheet lead times increased by an average of 0.2 weeks […]
Sheet and plate prices are flat or modestly down. I didn’t expect to write that this week. But the data we collected and our methodology indicated that it was the right decision. I’ve had a lot of experience with pricing over the years. And in my experience, that data often moves before the words. In […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. chairman, president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves blasted low US tariffs on Russian pig iron given sharply higher ones on steel. The pig iron tariff – $1.11 per metric ton, or $1 per short ton – is too little to stop companies, notably electric-arc furnace (EAF) sheet mills, from importing raw material from Russia, […]
US apparent steel supply levels slipped 11% from January to February, down 997,000 net tons to 8.37 million tons, according to the latest US Department of Commerce and American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) data. Recall that just last September, the market saw the highest monthly supply level in over six years (9.92 million tons). […]
President Biden on Friday signed two pieces of trade legislation that sailed through Congress: the “Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act” (HR 6968), which prohibits imports of oil, gas and other energy products from Russia, and “Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act” (HR 7108), which imposes higher “Column 2” tariffs on imports […]
Despite economic and geopolitical headwinds, there remains tremendous opportunity for steel and industrial metals distribution, Ryerson president and CEO Eddie Lehner during the most recent Steel Market Update Community Chat webinar. There might be debate over where rising finished steel prices will settle. But gone are the days of hot-rolled coil averaging around $600 per ton ($30 […]
President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law a bill stripping Russia and Belarus of what’s known as “permanent normal trade relations,” or PNTR. The president also signed into law a bill prohibiting imports of energy products from Russia. President Biden’s actions came after the Senate unanimously voted on Thursday to pass a bill to remove PNTR […]
President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law a bill stripping Russia and Belarus of what’s known as “permanent normal trade relations,” or PNTR. The president also signed into law a bill prohibiting imports of energy products from Russia. President Biden’s actions came after the Senate unanimously voted on Thursday to pass a bill to remove PNTR […]
By CRU Senior Coal Analyst Dmitry Popov, and Senior Analyst Banmeet Khurmi, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor, April 7 Among the latest sanctions against Russia, the EU is planning to introduce a full import ban of Russian coal from August 2022. In this Insight, we look at the EU’s reliance on Russia for thermal […]
Foreign import prices are slowly gaining back their competitive advantage over domestic steel, according to SMU’s latest foreign versus domestic hot rolled steel price comparison. Select foreign HRC prices range between $327 per ton cheaper than domestic prices to $46 per ton more expensive, after taking freight costs, trader margins and tariffs into consideration. Recall that the price differentials between […]
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.) want President Biden to lift the 25% Section 232 tariff on steel imports from Ukraine. They note in a letter to the president that Ukraine is the 13th largest steel producer in the world, and that as much as 80% of that steel is exported. The senators said that […]
I gave the keynote address at The FABRICATOR’s Manufacturers & Suppliers Event in Schaumburg – just outside of Chicago – earlier today. And I want to thank the organizers who invited me, everyone who attended and especially those who asked questions. My presentation focused on the factors we’ve all been following closely over the last […]
Final Census data confirms that February steel imports declined 23% month-over-month to 2.35 million net tons, now at an 11-month low compared to January’s two-year high. March import licenses through April 4 are up to 3.08 million tons, a 31% increase over February and 1% higher than January. Current April licenses are already at 449,000 […]
US President Joe Biden has officially implemented a tariff-rate quota (TRQ) that will ease Section 232 restrictions on steel from Japan. “I have determined that imports of specified volumes of eligible steel articles from Japan will no longer threaten to impair the national security,” Biden wrote in a presidential proclamation. The proclamation is dated Thursday, March […]
By Greg Wittbecker, Advisor, CRU Group Since the onslaught of the war in Ukraine last month, the aluminum market has been fixated on the timing and severity of economic sanctions on the Russian aluminum sector. This attention is warranted given the importance of Russian primary aluminum in global trade. As discussed in prior columns, Russia […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors. Rock provides customers attached to the steel industry with commodity price risk management services and market intelligence. RTA is registered with the National Futures Association as a Commodity Trade Advisor. David has over 20 years of professional trading experience and has been active […]
Preliminary Census data shows that steel imports in February fell 23% month-over-month to 2.34 million net tons, falling from a two-year high to an 11-month low. March import licenses through March 28 are currently at 2.69 million tons, up 15% from February but down 12% compared to January. Total finished steel imports are preliminarily at 1.85 million tons in February, down 19% from […]
The US economy closed out 2021 by expanding at an annual pace of 6.9% from October through December, a slight downgrade from previous estimates, according to the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). This agency’s third and final review showed the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) up 5.7% in the fourth quarter, the […]
The US Commerce Department has decided to continue anti-dumping duties on cut-to-length plate from a dozen nations. It has also determined that countervailing duties – more than 250% – on plate from China should remain in place. The Sun Doesn’t Set on Steel Duties Those decisions follow an expedited “sunset” review that began on December […]
NLMK USA’s lawsuit claiming US Steel had misled the Commerce Department into denying the company Section 232 tariff exemptions was dismissed last week. The lawsuit was originally filed in January 2021 in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pa. NLMK alleged that US Steel undermined its requests for exemptions from Section 232 tariffs […]
Too much went on last week to limit this week’s column to a single issue. The Ukraine war touches everything these days, including almost all recent developments on the trade front. It was a week that, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, was “not entirely uneventful.” First, the NATO summit meeting took on issues that have divided Europe […]
By CRU Principal Economist Alex Tuckett, from CRU’s Global Economic Outlook, March 21 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves through the world economy. What does war mean for the world economy? We outlined three scenarios in terms of severity of impact from the war itself, but most crucially from sanctions and the response to those […]
The U.S.-UK agreement to ease Section 232 tariffs was lauded by some industry groups and union representatives for promoting fair trade. But others questioned whether certain unusual provisions in the deal might cause trouble. And still others said the deal didn’t do enough to remove tariffs from a close U.S. ally. Recall that on Tuesday the United States […]
The U.S. does not have any additional Section 232 negotiations in the pipeline with South Korea, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters. And domestic steel industry lobbying groups said that talks weren’t happening with Brazil or Argentina either, the other countries subject to a Section 232 quota rather than a 25% tariff. The industry execs […]
Steel prices around the globe continue to surge in response to the war in Ukraine, and the brief competitive advantage domestic prices held over foreign steel in early-March has faded, according to SMU’s latest foreign versus domestic hot rolled steel price comparison. Select foreign HRC prices range anywhere from $267 per ton cheaper than domestic prices […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor, March 23 Persistently high steelmaking raw material prices and restricted global production pushed sheet prices higher w/w across the world. The largest of these increases were in Europe and the USA, with prices rising by triple-digit amounts for yet another week. Still, domestic […]