Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Friday marks a turning point in the “trade war” between China and the United States. A widely expected breakthrough in negotiations was supposed to happen this past week, when the Chinese Vice Premier brought a trade delegation over […]
ArcelorMittal faced a number of challenges that impacted earnings in the first quarter resulting in net income plunging 66 percent to $414 million from $1.19 billion reported in both the fourth quarter of 2018 and first quarter of 2019. Earnings reflected a $150 million impairment charge related to the sale of assets to acquire ArcelorMittal […]
By Paul Lowrey Editor’s note: Paul Lowrey is an industry consultant and president of Steel Research Associates, LLC. He will be a featured speaker at the upcoming Steel Market Update Steel Summit Aug. 26-28 in Atlanta. Click here for more information and to register for the summit. Recent announcements of new flat rolled capacity have […]
By Paul Lowrey Editor’s note: Paul Lowrey is an industry consultant and president of Steel Research Associates, LLC. He will be a featured speaker at the upcoming Steel Market Update Steel Summit Aug. 26-28 in Atlanta. Click here for more information and to register for the summit. Recent announcements of new flat rolled capacity have […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
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 […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: As President Trump tweeted this past Sunday, the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a notice that List Three of the tariffs on Chinese imports will be subject to 25 percent tariffs effective 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, […]
Steel imports into the U.S. in March, totaling 2.26 million tons, were down by 7 percent from the prior month led by a sharp decline in semi-finished imports, according to final Census data from the Department of Commerce. It does not appear the downtrend is continuing, however. Based on the latest license data, imports totaled […]
AISTech 2019, presented by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology, boasted more than 8,000 attendees this year. The four-day conference May 6-9 in Pittsburgh included more than 550 technical presentations and nearly 550 domestic and international exhibiting companies. The exhibit floor was a dizzying display of the latest innovations from software and robotics to cranes […]
AISTech 2019, presented by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology, boasted more than 8,000 attendees this year. The four-day conference May 6-9 in Pittsburgh included more than 550 technical presentations and nearly 550 domestic and international exhibiting companies. The exhibit floor was a dizzying display of the latest innovations from software and robotics to cranes […]
Steel buyers are still trying to get a sense for what is driving this market and market pricing. We are seeing weakness in prices even though foreign steel imports are down, import price offers are higher than domestic steel prices and demand is pretty good for most of the market segments using sheet or plate […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: President Trump’s Twitter finger twitched on Sunday. He announced via his favorite social media platform that he has grown tired of China’s stalling. He said he will increase the 10 percent tariffs on goods imported from China to […]
Final figures show that the EU28 steel market grew in 2018. However, forecasts estimate that it will fall slightly in 2019, reports the European Steel Association (EUROFER). The preliminary safeguard measures in place since mid-2018 could not prevent third country imports from rising sharply over the year and, as a consequence, local steel producers are […]
By CRU Research Manager Chris Houlden, CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and CME Metals Products Manager Sean Kessler. U.S. Midwest HR coil price volatility has increased markedly in recent months as opaque policy decision-making processes and inelasticity of domestic supply have led to large variations in physical market price. Concurrently, volume and open interest on […]
Earlier this week the U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest foreign steel import license data. Based on this data, the trend is for 2.8 million net tons of foreign steel imports to arrive in the United States during the month of April. This is essentially unchanged from March, but higher than the 2.4 million […]
The Great Lakes continues to be the highest volume district of entry for hot rolled coil, and the Pacific South had the highest rate of increase year to date through February, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of government data. SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look […]
Cold rolled imports from Mexico through Laredo have surged in 2019 making this the highest volume region of entry year-to-date. For the nation as a whole, cold rolled imports year-to-date were down by 15.3 percent, but the Pacific South, (Los Angeles and San Diego) was up by 78.8 percent, according to Steel Market Update’s latest […]
The growth of U.S. GDP in Q1 2019 increased to 3.2 percent and exceeded economists’ expectations. On Friday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the first estimate of GDP growth in the first quarter of 2019 stating: “Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the […]
AK Steel is not too worried about new steel capacity stealing market share. New carbon steel capacity coming on line is still several years away, said President and COO Kirk Reich. Much of it is not “new” but rather older restarted facilities that AK Steel competed with in the past, and some of that capacity […]
SSAB Americas was a strong contributor for SSAB’s global steel business in the first quarter of 2019. The Americas segment turned in a solid performance with an EBITDA margin of 23 percent and record profit of $129 million due to higher steel prices. Sales increased 45 percent from the first quarter of 2018 to $3.363 […]
When I was in Atlanta, the questions on the minds of the members of the Association of Specialty Cold Rolled Steel Producers were connected to trying to get a better handle on this market. The questions were less about the direction of flat rolled prices, but rather why are steel prices tumbling with Section 232 […]
When I was in Atlanta, the questions on the minds of the members of the Association of Specialty Cold Rolled Steel Producers were connected to trying to get a better handle on this market. The questions were less about the direction of flat rolled prices, but rather why are steel prices tumbling with Section 232 […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the Commerce office handling the 232 steel tariff exclusion requests, recently denied requests from California Steel Industries (CSI), Allegheny Technologies, Inc. (ATI) and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK). As users of semifinished steel, […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the Commerce office handling the 232 steel tariff exclusion requests, recently denied requests from California Steel Industries (CSI), Allegheny Technologies, Inc. (ATI) and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK). As users of semifinished steel, […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: President Trump’s Twitter finger twitched on Sunday. He announced via his favorite social media platform that he has grown tired of China’s stalling. He will increase the 10 percent tariffs on goods imported from China to 25 percent […]
Canada will keep safeguard tariffs on imports of heavy plate and stainless steel wire—only two products of the original seven provisional safeguards implemented in October. In April, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal found that imports of hot-rolled steel, pre-painted steel, energy tubular products, rebar and wire rod did not pose a threat of “serious injury” […]
The vast majority of flat rolled and plate steel buyers are reporting to Steel Market Update that prices on all products will be moving at best sideways, with most believing prices will move lower from here. We are seeing pressure on hot rolled, cold rolled and plate prices right now as indexes on these products […]
The recent mining accident in Brazil leading to lost production of iron ore at Vale is “shaping up to be a multi-year shortage of iron ore and pellets,” said Cleveland Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves during earnings remarks on Thursday. “The catastrophic events in Brazil have provoked a radical change in the supply-demand dynamics of iron […]
NLMK USA shipments increased 19 percent to 600,000 metric tons from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019. Higher shipments resulted in $530 million in revenue—a 4.0 percent increase despite steel prices slipping 12 percent quarter-over-quarter. NLMK USA hot rolled coil shipments totaled 330,000 metric tons and high value added products […]
Final February steel import data was recently released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, putting the total monthly import level at 2.4 million net tons, down 30.1 percent compared to January’s 3.5 million ton high. The February figure is below both the three-month moving average (3MMA) and the 12-month moving average (12MMA). When removing the […]