Barge availability is still tight in the U.S. due to large cargo volumes of southbound grain, and northbound volumes of steel and salt, according to the Dec 4 MID-SHIP report. The US Department of Agriculture reports rates for southbound grain have dropped to 426 percent of tariff after reaching 800 percent or more in November. […]
Based on preliminary Chinese data, total steel exports from China were 9.7 million metric tons (10.7 million net tons) for the month of November, a 14 percent increase from the previous month and a 94 percent increase from November 2013 tonnage. This brings total 2014 exports to 83.6 million tons (92.2 million net tons). To […]
In a complicated appeals decision on Monday, the World Trade Organization reversed the majority of a July ruling against India that said US duties had wrongly penalized India for subsidizing steel imports of pipe produced by Tata Steel. The decision, however, also admonished the US for breaking Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) rules and called […]
The following article on the hot rolled futures market comes to SMU from contributing writer Bradley Clark, Director of Steel Trading for Kataman Metals. Hot rolled coil futures have been quite inactive the past week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. As activity picks back up, it appears the next move will be lower. The forward […]
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. The Chicago Fed Mid-West Manufacturing Index which was suspended earlier this year was expected to be re-instituted this month but […]
It has now been five weeks (October 28th) since AK Steel became the first domestic steel mill to announce a price increase on flat rolled steel. The relatively modest $20 per ton move was, in many steel buyers’ opinions, meant to stem the decline in steel prices. At that point in time benchmark hot rolled […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) benchmark hot rolled coil pricing averaged $634 per ton ($31.70/cwt) for the month of November. CRU HRC averaged $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt) while Platts averaged $640 per ton ($32.00/cwt). Hot rolled prices at $630 per ton as of the last week of the month, were $5 per ton lower than where […]
Last week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-November flat rolled steel market survey. We invited approximately 600 companies to participate representing manufacturing, steel service centers, trading companies, steel mills, toll processors and suppliers to the steel industry. Last week’s participation mix was very similar to what we see on a regular basis with 46 […]
We ended the article above talking about the tight range we have seen on hot rolled coil over the past 12 months. Total price movement from low to high during that time period has been $65 per ton. The question is, will U.S. hot rolled coil prices break through the low of the past 12 […]
Today’s hot rolled, ferrous scrap and iron ore futures article comes to us from Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and the instructor for Steel Market Update’s Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II workshops. Along with HRC, iron ore and BUS trading Andre also discusses the S&P 500, copper and crude […]
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/– United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) today announced the executive leadership for three of the company’s newly created commercial entities. Joseph R. Scherrbaum will serve as acting vice president – Industrial Solutions, Geoff M. Turk will serve as vice president – Service Center Solutions and Lawrence W. Sutherland will serve […]
Vessels carrying iron ore, metallurgical coal, aggregate and grain continue to work under the force majeure created when ice conditions at the start of the shipping season ended up costing the shipping companies 40 days of lost transit time. At the beginning of the season ice conditions were beyond the Coast Guard’s ice breaking capabilities. […]
Spot prices for 62% Fe iron ore fines, CFR Tianjin Port in China were reported by The Steel Index this morning as being down 4 percent to $72.10/dry metric ton. This is down 4 percent in one day and is, based on TSI records, the lowest we have seen since SMU began tracking iron ore […]
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 18, 2014 — United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) today announced the executive leadership for three of the company’s newly created commercial entities. Joseph R. Scherrbaum will serve as acting vice president – Industrial Solutions, Geoff M. Turk will serve as vice president – Service Center Solutions and Lawrence W. Sutherland will serve […]
The Wyoming Business Council and JR Simplot Company are hoping to revive a shuttered iron ore mine and build a $500 million iron ore concentrator and pig iron production facility in central Wyoming. The plant would produce cast pigs with a carbon content of 3.5 percent made from low grade taconite ore with an iron […]
I noticed one of the analysts had reported CSN out of Brazil as shipping between 300,000-500,000 tons of flat rolled steel in the 4th Quarter 2014 into the United States. Our sources have advised us that the number is closer to 130,000 tons with a portion of the tons going directly to the CSN mill […]
The following article on the hot rolled futures market comes to SMU from contributing writer Bradley Clark, Director of Steel Trading for Kataman Metals. Over the past couple of weeks the HRC futures market has traded within a narrow range reflecting mixed sentiment among market participants. There seems to be a divergence of opinion regarding […]
One of the topic of conversations during the Cowen & Company Global Metals, Mining & Materials Conference was the issue of scrap prices versus iron ore and the value of iron “units.” On the first day of the conference, Dan DiMicco former CEO of Nucor, told the audience that iron ore and scrap would come […]
Barge volumes continue to be high on the US river system although rates have softened slightly, according to the latest MID-SHIP Report. Grain shipments this year are at the highest level since 2010 and are loading 45-50 seaborne vessels each week in the Gulf. As of the beginning of November, 83 percent of the soybean […]
I was at the Cowen & Company Global Metals, Mining and Materials Conference in New York City earlier this week. I always find it interesting when meeting with members of the financial community as their questions and concerns can many times be much different than those of the steel community. The constant question was how […]
I have been in New York City since Sunday. I am participating in a panel on Wednesday at the Cowen & Company conference. Steel people don’t get to attend most of the financial related conferences. The attendees tend to be hedge fund managers and investors. Their perspectives of the steel industry can be quite different […]
ArcelorMittal reported $20 billion in sales for third quarter on 21.5 million tonnes (23.7 million tons) of steel shipments. Net income for the quarter was $22 million, compared to $52 million in Q2 2014 and a net loss of $193 million in Q3 2013. Total crude steel production for the company was 23.9 million tonnes […]
The Association of American Railroads reported 305,389 carloads for the week ending Nov 1, 2014, up 4.3 percent year over. Intermodal volume increased 5.9 percent y/y to 279,819 units for the highest volume ever. “America’s railroads are moving an enormous amount of freight today,” said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. “In the first […]
One thing that we learned from the earnings conference calls which were conducted over the past two weeks: the domestic steel mills will be entering 2015 with all of their blast furnaces online, maintenance completed and (hopefully) running well. Barring any unforeseen circumstances we should have plenty of domestic supply going into the traditionally strong […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early November flat rolled steel market survey this week. We invited approximately 600 companies to participate in the process. Of those participating 44 percent were manufacturing companies and 44 percent were steel service centers. The balance of the respondents was comprised of 6 percent trading companies, 5 percent steel […]
Andre Marshall, well known commodity futures trader, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and instructor for our Managing Price Risk I and II workshops has written today’s HRC futures article. Today he comments on the financial markets, steel, iron ore and ferrous scrap markets. Financial Markets: All time highs again in the stock markets. We are […]
China has a number of taxes on steel, both domestically and for exports. This is one of the misunderstandings many countries have (including the United States). We have been speaking about the subject with one of our key Asian trading contacts over the past few days as we asked about possible suspension of Boron added […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of September 2014, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in September were 84,695,000 metric tons, an increase of 13.1 percent from the previous month and an increase of 13.6 percent […]
Nucor Corp. is reportedly one of the steel mill in talks with Cliffs Natural Resources over an investment plan for the Bloom Lake iron ore mine in Canada. Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in the company earning calls that Cliffs would seek three investors, to partner at 10 percent each, to develop Phase 2 of […]
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 has been increased by one this month to thirty six. We have added the price of coking coal FOB the Australian East Coast to the raw […]