By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary, from CRU’s Zinc Monitor As the Chinese market gradually emerges from its Covid-19 lockdown and businesses and individuals start to return to normal, acute outbreaks of the virus across the world mean that many countries are still operating under severe restrictions. Even as China attempts to reinvigorate domestic demand, […]
By CRU Research Analyst Eduardo Tinti, from CRU’s Iron Ore Market Outlook Despite some volatility driven by divergent signs related to supply and demand expectations, iron ore prices were flat w/w. On Tuesday, April 21, the 62% Fe fines price was assessed at $86.0 /t. Last week, Chinese steel demand was robust as the country […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update have reports available on our website that break out the import tonnage into district of entry and source nation for six sheet and plate product categories. This report takes the total national tonnage of hot rolled and breaks it down into product detail. Using U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) […]
Using International Trade Commission (USITC) data, Steel Market Update has taken the import tonnage of cold rolled sheet and broken it down into coil and leveled, into four thickness ranges, and identifies how much was full hard, annealed and high strength. This update examines the total cold rolled sheet and strip imports into the U.S. […]
The analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled products into the district of entry and the source nation. We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about local import volume is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis is to describe in detail what is going on in a […]
The U.S. dollar strengthened against 14 of the 16 steel and raw materials trading nation currencies in the last three months and also in the last month. There was a turnaround in the last seven days when the dollar weakened against 14 of the 16. In the last three months, the currencies of Brazil, Mexico, […]
Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on how to upgrade to a Premium subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Total rolled product imports in March were down by 25.6 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis year over year. This was the fifth consecutive month where imports were […]
Total rolled product imports in April were down by 26.3 percent year over year on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This was the sixth consecutive month where imports declined by more than 20 percent compared to the same month last year. This early look at April’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license […]
February apparent U.S. steel supply slipped to 8.5 million net tons, according to data from the American Iron and Steel Institute and U.S. Department of Commerce. Recall that January apparent supply saw a drastic jump over December and was quite high compared to the last few years. The latest data shows suppy has fallen back […]
Final February steel import license data was released this week, ending the month at 1.5 million net tons of total steel imports, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This is the lowest monthly import level seen since December 2009 when final imports were at 1.4 million tons. OCTG imports have not been this low […]
By CRU Senior Cost Analyst Ross Cunningham, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Covid-19 has spread across the world at alarming rates. As of March 28, the pandemic has reached 177 countries and shows little sign of letting up. When fighting a global health and economic crisis unlike anything ever seen before, there will be no winners—only […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: It’s unusual for a business to die from only one cause, just like it’s unusual for a person to die from only one cause. There is usually an underlying condition that made the business, or the person, vulnerable […]
Schnitzer Steel Industries, a metals recycler and long products producer, posted revenue of $439 million for the second quarter of FY 2020. Net income was $4.5 million for the quarter, improving from a $7 million loss in Q1 but down significantly from income of $13 million in Q2 2019. Autos and Metals Recycling achieved operating […]
The latest SMU comparison of foreign and domestic hot rolled prices shows that U.S prices continue to remain advantageous over foreign imports, according to SMU and CRU indices released earlier this week. The price gap between domestic HRC compared to German and Italian products has widened to over $100 per ton since our previous price […]
SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors (davidfeldstein@rocktradingadvisors.com). In addition to market analysis, RTA provides price risk management not only for ferrous products, but also base metals, energy and interest rates. RTA also trains sales staff and creates the infrastructure necessary for firms to offer their customers fixed pricing on physical sales. […]
Allegheny Technologies will idle its operations at Midland, Pa., by the end of June 2020 due to the Section 232 tariffs. A&T Stainless imports semi-finished stainless steel slab products from Indonesia to produce 60-inch wide Direct Roll Anneal and Pickle (DRAP) stainless sheet products. The imported steel slabs are subject to 25 percent tariffs under […]
Infrastructure is finally getting some attention again, despite and because of the cornavirus. Congress and the White House are calling for an infrastructure bill to be included in the fourth COVID-19 relief package. “With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill,” Trump […]
Zooming – sounds like a new drug, doesn’t it? We will be hosting another SMU Community Chat Webinar on Wednesday, April 22, at 11:00 a.m. ET (and I promise to hit the “start” button on time this week). Speaking with me will be Bernard Swiecki of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). We will discuss […]
The COVID-19 crisis caused a spike in truck rates in March as vans and reefers worked to replenish retail stocks and move essential supplies. DAT Trendlines said rates are likely to fall in the coming weeks, however, as fewer load postings occur. Van and reefer rates are expected to stay elevated, whereas flatbed rates and […]
U.S. Steel announced on Friday a series of aggressive actions to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus and significant demand changes in the oil and gas industry. Flat-rolled: Gary Works—U.S. Steel will idle the #4 blast furnace at Gary Works immediately, moving up a 48-day outage originally planned for April. The scope of the planned […]
Preliminary steel import license data for February, released this week, slipped to the 1.5 million net ton range for total steel imports, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Steel Market Update’s last import update just one week ago had February imports at 1.9 million tons. This is the lowest monthly import level seen since […]
A battle is brewing among legislators, manufacturers and steel producers regarding whether tariff measures should be suspended on imports under Section 301 and Section 232 during the coronavirus crisis. Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee urged President Trump to ease tariff restrictions during the pandemic. In a letter on March 25, the committee exhorted […]
The American Institute for International Steel is asking the Supreme Court to hear its challenge to the constitutionality of Section 232 following the loss of two appeals in the lower courts. “We are heartened that the Court of International Trade recognized that Section 232, in the court’s words, ‘seem[s] to invite the President to regulate […]
Steel prices saw further declines this week, but not a dramatic collapse. The benchmark price of hot rolled now averages around $560 per ton, down $5 from last week and down $50 from the mid-January high of $610. Most of the steel buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s check of the market this week expect […]
Global scrap trade has been trending down for two years and in Q4 2019 the U.S. share increased to 26.8 percent, the highest since Q1 2013. This is a quarterly analysis using data from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) in the UK. Some nations are slow to report, which results in the analysis […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Matt Watkins, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service Covid-19 is now the major driver of developments in the global steel industry, as indeed it is in the wider economy. Over the past month the virus has spread rapidly outside China and its growth remains uncontrolled. Europe has become a new epicenter […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Trade is only a part of the national and global response to the pandemic that is now sweeping the world—but in our interconnected world, it’s a pretty important part. So far, it’s not nearly as bad as other […]
NLMK USA’s plant in Farrell, Pa., is running a full schedule right now, but will idle its hot strip mill next week as the plant is low on slabs. The mill is dependent on imports of slabs. Its allocation of slabs for the second quarter does not open until April 1. The mill expects slabs […]
Our latest look at foreign versus domestic hot rolled prices shows that U.S prices continue to remain advantageous over foreign imports, according to SMU and CRU price indices released earlier this week. The price gap between domestic HRC compared to German and Italian products has widened since our previous price updates, while the East/Southeast Asian […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary, from CRU’s Zinc Monitor The LME is preparing to move from trading in the ring to electronic settlement pricing as the UK ramps up Covid-19 restrictions on all but essential activities and LME prices continue to take a hammering. While Chinese demand is gradually recovering from the Q1 shock of […]