By CRU Analyst Michelle Liu Rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China have driven one of the largest w/w falls in iron ore prices, a drop of $21 /t w/w to $98 /t. The U.S. president’s threat of imposing 10 percent tariffs on the remaining $300 billion worth of Chinese imports last Friday has escalated trade […]
By CRU Analyst Alexander Ordosch On Friday, Aug. 2, the U.S. government announced 10 percent tariffs on an additional $300 billion in Chinese imports that are not already covered by Section 301 (S301) tariffs. About 50 percent of the new tariffs cover steel-bearing machinery, while the rest are non-steel-containing items such as food, clothing, base metals […]
JSW Steel (USA), Inc., is seeking relief from the Section 232 tariffs on the steel slabs it must import temporarily to supply its mill in Baytown, Texas. The U.S. arm of the India-based steel producer has filed a complaint against the U.S. alleging that the Commerce Department’s denial of JSW’s request for exclusion from the […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: On Wednesday, President Trump tweeted that new tariffs would be imposed on U.S. imports from China, an escalation of the trade war that was launched in July 2018. The new tariffs, on most of the products not already […]
The government’s first estimate of U.S. GDP growth in Q2 2019 was 2.1 percent, down from 3.1 percent in the first quarter. The current U.S. expansion is now the longest on record at 121 months dating back to June 2009. Last Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its first estimate of GDP growth […]
Steel Market Update’s analysis of Key Market Indicators shows the present market situation was basically unchanged in the last month, based on data released in July, but half the 36 indicators trended positive and half negative. This report is designed to be a big picture summary of data on which we have reported in detail […]
The following article discussing the global ferrous derivatives markets was written by David Feldstein. As an independent steel market analyst, advisor and trader, we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Note that Steel Market Update does not take any positions on HRC or scrap trading, and any recommendations made by […]
ArcelorMittal suffered a net loss of $447 million in the second quarter due to high raw material costs and sharply lower steel prices in the U.S. resulting in impairment charges on fixed assets in ArcelorMittal USA of $600 million. An additional impairment charge of $347 million occurred due to the sale of assets related to […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: In a tweet today, President Trump announced new tariffs on essentially all the $300 billion in imports from China not already covered by the Section 301 tariffs. The tariff of 10 percent will take effect Sept. 1. I […]
AK Steel’s net sales for the second quarter declined by 4 percent to about $1.68 billion due primarily to lower shipments to the slowing automotive market. Yet the steelmaker’s earnings for the quarter reached $66.8 million, an improvement from the $56.6 million in Q2 2018, though down from $72.9 million in the prior quarter. Hot rolled […]
Rising steel prices may be giving a lift to industry attitudes. Steel Market Update’s latest Steel Buyers Sentiment Index shows an eight point increase in Current Sentiment and an 11 point increase in Future Sentiment. While a single week’s results can’t reliably predict a new trend, the uptick is a notable change from sentiment data […]
By CRU Analyst Chris Bandmann CRU is launching weekly Turkish HR coil export prices, enhancing the existing suite of weekly Turkish long product and scrap prices. This Insight being offered for these other markets has now been brought to flats – and offers a window into the world of Turkish hot rolled coil exports. Turkey […]
Canadian ports in the Pacific Northwest have benefited from the U.S. trade war with China. Vancouver and Prince Rupert have seen combined market share for regional imports and exports increase from 59 percent in 2014 to 62.3 percent in the first half of 2019, according to JOC.com. The port at Seattle-Tacoma saw exports from the […]
The European Union has prepared a list of nearly $40 billion (€35 billion) in U.S. goods it will hit with retaliatory duties should President Trump decide to impose tariffs of 25 percent on imported cars and auto parts. EU Trade Commissioner Cecelia Malstrom said the list of targeted goods has been raised from €20 billion […]
In second-quarter 2019, all nine regions of the U.S. had positive employment growth. Second-quarter regional employment data by state was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday. The state data follows and confirms the strong employment situation that we reported at the national level two weeks ago. In the second quarter, the […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released foreign steel import preliminary Census data for June and license data for July. June imports totaled 2,023,081 net tons with 1,720,318 of those tons being finished steels (as opposed to semi-finished, which is slabs/billets). The July license data has total finished imports trending toward a 2 million net ton […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported net sales of $2.8 billion for the second quarter of 2019, a decrease of 2.5 percent from the first quarter. Net income totaled $183.1 million, down from $190.1 million in the prior quarter, while shipments totaled 1.5 million tons, up slightly (0.4 percent) from Q1. “We had a solid second […]
This week we solicited input from steel buyers (and steel mills) regarding their reaction to the third round of price increases, which was kicked off by ArcelorMittal USA yesterday. On June 24, Nucor announced the first of the latest round of mill price increases on spot flat rolled steel. Nucor advised that hot rolled, cold […]
This week we solicited input from steel buyers (and steel mills) regarding their reaction to the third round of price increases, which was kicked off by ArcelorMittal USA yesterday. On June 24, Nucor announced the first of the latest round of mill price increases on spot flat rolled steel. Nucor advised that hot rolled, cold […]
Steel Dynamics is expecting modest growth for steel consumption in the second half of 2019 supported by the end of steel inventory destocking and further reduction of steel imports. “The team delivered a solid second-quarter performance in a challenging steel pricing environment,” said SDI President and CEO Mark Millett. “A weakening scrap price environment coupled […]
May apparent steel supply was calculated at 9,387,605 net tons, according to data recently released by the American Iron and Steel Institute and U.S. Department of Commerce. Apparent steel supply, a proxy for demand, is determined by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total U.S. steel exports. May apparent steel […]
By Fouad Egbaria, MetalMiner Editor’s note: The following article, Chatting with CRU’s Josh Spoores Ahead of the 2019 SMU Steel Summit, originally appeared in MetalMiner’s July 18 edition. Those in the steel sector will have a chance to learn about all of the trends impacting the steel industry during the upcoming SMU Steel Summit, scheduled […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and CRU North America Analyst Ryan McKinley U.S. domestic scrap prices fell by $10 /l.ton m/m in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley for most grades prior to the Independence Day holiday, but dealers the following week pushed back on the price decline, with some successfully securing little to […]
Imports of “finished” foreign steel are trending below 2 million net tons for the month of July. Overall, the trend, based on the first two weeks of license data for all products, is for a 3.2 million net ton month. SMU believes these numbers are overstated due to the opening of a new quarter and […]
SMU contributor Gaurav Chhibbar is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Gaurav’s previous role, he was a trader at Cargill spending time in […]
In this report, we examine the change in currency values of the 16 preeminent global steel and iron ore trading nations. The currencies of these 16 don’t necessarily follow the Broad Index value of the U.S. dollar. In fact, at any given time, some are always moving in the opposite direction. The latest value of […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled today that imports of steel propane cylinders from China and Thailand are causing injury to the domestic industry, marking a victory for U.S. producers including Worthington Industries and Manchester Tank and Equipment. The ITC’s final determination places dumping and subsidy margins of 37-217 percent on China and 10.77 percent […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg Iron ore prices jumped back in the past week as Chinese iron ore demand remained steady while weak seaborne supply from Australia has kept port inventories at a low level. On Tuesday, July 16, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $122.00 /t, a $4.00 /t increase […]
Most of my day today was spent communicating with steel buyers and a few steel mills to see where prices are being offered on the spot market by the mills, and where transactions were occurring. As I went through this process, I also collect comments about whether increases are “sticking’ and if the industry believes […]
Steel Market Update has moved our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled products from Neutral to Higher. We continue to reference plate Price Momentum at Lower. This move is being made after the domestic steel mills, led by Nucor, announced two rounds of $40 per ton price increases over the past two weeks. SMU is […]