Twice per month Steel Market Update asks both manufacturing companies and service centers/wholesalers to weigh in on the subject of service center spot price offers. In the survey concluded on Thursday of this past week, with most responses having been locked in prior to the dumping suit announcement, we found manufacturers reporting mixed results. Thirty-eight […]
Lead times have not shot out since the price increase announcements were made in early May. Hot rolled lead times were reported as being 3.5 weeks at the beginning of May and one month later HRC lead times averaged 3.66 weeks according to the results of our most recent flat rolled steel survey. Lead times […]
According to Baker Hughes data from June 5, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 868 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on January 24, 2003 at 862 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 7 rigs […]
I was pleased to hear from a number of our readers who had used the search function at the top right hand side of our website in order to find old articles that we had written on the subject of dumping suits and the process that the suit has to go through. I used the […]
When speaking to buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel this week, one theme became abundantly clear: everyone is waiting for trade cases and, second, where scrap prices will end up for the month of June. Both are expected to support a further tightening of steel prices. Scrap is expected to rise anywhere from $10 […]
Steel Market Update sources: mill, service center and others are advising us that anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) trade cases on coated products will be filed yet this week. We have heard that the filing could come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3rd) or on Thursday of this week. Any trade filing on coated […]
Today SMU is not only going to discuss where flat rolled steel prices were this past week based on our analysis of steel pricing from our steel index as well as CRU, Platts and SteelBenchmarker, we are also going to discuss price momentum which our SMU Price Momentum Indicator currently points to higher prices over […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 29, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 875 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on January 31, 2003 at 873 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 10 rigs […]
Steel Market Update closely follows the hot rolled futures market as a leading indicator of where “the money” is predicting HR steel prices to go in the future. We have added a new writer to our futures articles and he is very experienced in the trading of HRC futures, options and SWAPS. However, he has […]
Steel Market Update participated in the monthly galvanized steel conference call sponsored by HARDI for their wholesalers who supply sheet and coils to the HVAC mechanical contractors. The focus of the conference call is to discuss how the wholesalers see demand and market forces which impact galvanized steel supply and prices. This was the first […]
We are seeing a further firming in the hot rolled numbers with our sources advising that most offers are in the range of $460 per ton with a few offers higher and limited offers lower unless tied to specific tonnage and sizes that fit the producing mill’s sweet spot. Lead times have moved out, for […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a detailed flat rolled steel market analysis. We do this by inviting approximately 600 companies, which have been vetted by our publisher to make sure they are legitimate buyers, sellers or executives involved with hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume or plate products. We then send invitations […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 22, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 885 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on June 12, 2009 at 876 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 3 rigs […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets Well, the last time we spoke […]
According to the results of the Steel Market Update most recent flat rolled steel survey, domestic steel mill lead times are beginning to extend reflecting the improvement in the mills’ order books. We are, however, still far away from the lead times that we saw in the middle of May 2014. Hot rolled lead times […]
U.S. and Canadian steel buyers reported mills as less willing to negotiate flat rolled steel prices (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume prices) at the beginning of the month of May. Prior to that, the domestic steel mills had been extremely active and willing to negotiate pricing on all products. This, according to our […]
This week we are seeing a “settling” of prices as buyers work with their suppliers. We are seeing a mixed market which was described to us by an executive with a large service center when he told us, “… it’s quite perplexing. The domestics certainly are seeing increased activity, slightly longer lead-times, and slightly higher spot […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 15th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 888 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on June 12, 2009 at 876 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 6 rigs […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets: We are last 2118 on the […]
This week Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to Higher from Neutral. Based on our checks of the steel buying community, prices are beginning to firm and the $20 per ton price increase announced by a number of the steel mills appears to be sticking. SMU is of the opinion as long as […]
The market has continued to firm as steel buyers return to the market and lead times slowly begin to extend. We are also seeing a return to the more traditional spreads between hot rolled base prices and those of cold rolled and coated. The normal spread has been $100 to $120 per ton depending on […]
The domestic flat rolled steel mill lead times have begun to move out, according to the results from our flat rolled steel analysis questionnaire conducted this past week. We are seeing movement on all four products: hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume. Lead times had bottomed in January and February and we started to […]
The domestic steel mills are still willing to negotiate according to the majority of last week SMU flat rolled steel market survey respondents. However, for the first time in many months we are seeing a break in the “tell me what it’s going to take” negotiating tactic and more of the “here is our bottom, […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 10th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 894 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on June 12, 2009 at 876 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 11 rigs […]
Late last week I asked the vice president of one of the steel mills which had announced price increases if they were indeed collecting higher prices and we received a one word response “Yep.” Earlier today we spoke with a conversion mill about the status of their pricing and they provided a more descriptive look […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 1st, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 905 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on June 19, 2009 at 899 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 27 rigs […]
The Chicago Business Barometer rose 6 points to 52.3 in April, beating analyst expectations for a reading of 50. The index fell to a five and a half year low in February before bouncing up five points to 46.3 in March. The index grew in four of its five components in April with New Orders […]
Late on Monday, ArcelorMittal sales people began informing their customers by email of their intention to raise flat rolled steel prices by $20 per ton ($1.00/cwt). The increase was to be effective with orders taken for June production and beyond. In an email seen by Steel Market Update, ArcelorMittal explained their reasoning for taking prices […]
Late last week one of the smaller mills (North Star Bluescope) not known to cold rolled and galvanized buyers since they only produce hot rolled coils, began moving spot prices higher. One of NS customers advised us toward the end of the week that the mill was looking for $465 per ton ($23.25/cwt) for new […]
The domestic mills were beginning to make moves late last week to increase steel prices. Those efforts accelerated earlier today with the announcements out of ArcelorMittal USA (internal memo), Nucor (verbal & later in a letter to their customers), NLMK USA (letter to customers). These moves have, at least temporarily, halted the slide in flat […]