There’s something special about tales of yesteryear. Stories of a bygone era — before cell phones, virtual reality, and self-driving cars — can create a longing for nostalgia. For the Quality Metal Stamping (QMS) family, those tales of old are engrained in the company’s history. Steel Market Update sat down with Stephen Serling, a member of […]
Don’t look now but sheet price erosion continues, with tags across all flat-rolled products inching lower this week, according to SMU’s latest check of the market. For some time now we’ve been trying to gauge SMU survey respondents’ sentiment and their sense of market direction by asking when they think HRC prices will bottom out […]
Galvanized prices continue to drop, as discussed during this month’s call of the Sheet Metal/Air Handling Council of the Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI). Prices have been steadily dropping for the past six months despite stable demand. A few highlights from the call include the differential between hot-rollled and cold-rolled coil being in […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. expects a continuation of the trend it saw in the third quarter of increasing shipments to the automotive sector. This should support steel pricing going forward, the steelmaker said in its Q3 earnings report released on Tuesday, Oct. 25. “Shipments to our automotive clients significantly improved in Q3, achieving a level among the highest in […]
Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc. said its fourth quarter ended Aug. 31 results were negatively impacted by declining ferrous and nonferrous sales prices and demand. The trend partially offsets the benefits of strong prices for its finished steel products. Tighter supply flows and an extended outage at its Everett, Mass., recycling facility were partly to blame […]
The Biden administration is pushing its Federal Buy Clean Initiative to reduce carbon emissions from American industry and to support the purchase of low-carbon, made-in-America construction materials. The administration last week lauded two domestic steelmakers for their commitments to lower emissions and for participating in the initiative. Cleveland-Cliffs is the first domestic steel producer to […]
Nearly two-thirds of US states added construction jobs month-on-month (MoM) in September. Most also boosted construction employment during the past twelve months, according to Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) figures. AGC said the job gains were welcome news even if significant labor shortages probably prevented an even bigger upswing in employment. “While it is encouraging […]
What a difference a week can make. The lack of clarity in the short-to-medium-term direction presently in steel seems to be stumping maybe even the best and the brightest of flat-rolled buyers. And perhaps as Michael Cowden indicated in SMU’s prior Final Thoughts, the steel market might be somewhere in the middle — in-between bearish […]
A new railcar manufacturing facility will soon be built in Washington County, Md. Hitachi Rail announced plans for a $70 million factory to build all types of trains to meet growing demand in North America’s rail market. Construction of the facility’s building will use 1,050 tons of steel including joists, girders, and structural steel columns. […]
Investing further in its US operations, agricultural and heavy equipment manufacturer Deere & Co. is reshoring production of a certain cotton harvester model back from China. The steel end user is expanding its operations in Thibodaux, La., with a $29.8 million investment, according to a news release from Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. A new […]
Business activity in the state of New York has recently declined, according to the Empire State Manufacturing Survey responses collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York between Oct. 3 and Oct. 11. The survey’s headline general business conditions index dropped to -9.1 for October, maintaining a negative value for the third straight month. The index […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor Sheet prices took split paths between eastern and western regions. Prices in Asia found support from restocking in China and supply disruptions in South Korea. Meanwhile, western markets remained weak, and we expect this to persist over the near term. October is the […]
By CRU Senior Analyst, Puneet Paliwal, from CRU’s Scrap, DRI/HBI & Pig Iron Monitor Global scrap prices stay subdued while those of ore-based metallics have found some support. Overall metallics demand continues to be hampered by the steel market weakness, a trend which may sustain through the short term, particularly in Europe. The CRU metallics price […]
The international consensus on expanding international trade has shattered. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a piece last week in the Times outlining some of the factors that led to the demise of this consensus. In the 1990s, with the advent of NAFTA and the WTO, the prevalent view among policymakers was that trade […]
Green iron startup company Electra has raised $85 million to support its production of low-temperature iron (LTI). The process will utilize commercial and low-grade ores and zero-carbon electricity. The Boulder, Colo.- based company focuses on iron refining without a green premium and is backed by various organizations, including the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon, […]
Flash Steelworks, Inc. is breaking ground on a $12.1 million armor and military-grade plate manufacturing facility in Middlesboro, Ky., the company said in an Oct. 12 release. “Starting in Middlesboro, we will deploy leading-edge advanced steel technology and products in what is planned to be a regional industrial hub,” said Gary Cola Jr., founder, and […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor Michael D’Angelo is a researcher and trader at Marex who has been active in the metals markets for two years. In his role, Mike performs fundamental and quantitative analysis which directly leads to actionable trading/risk management strategies across the base, precious and ferrous metals derivative spaces. Prior to joining Marex, Mike received […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor Michael D’Angelo is a researcher and trader at Marex who has been active in the metals markets for two years. In his role, Mike performs fundamental and quantitative analysis which directly leads to actionable trading/risk management strategies across the base, precious and ferrous metals derivative spaces. Prior to joining Marex, Mike received […]
On Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest report card on the US economy’s performance with its September jobs report. The results, though surprisingly upbeat, point to potentially more troublesome days ahead, both personally and collectively for the steel industry. So here are just a few thoughts to ponder as October nears […]
Los Angeles-based JFE Shoji America Holdings Inc. successfully completed the acquisition of California Expanded Metal Products Co. (CEMCO), the company said in an Oct. 10 news release. The acquisition of the California-based cold-formed steel framing company expands JFE’s steel products business in the US. CEMCO will continue manufacturing products under the leadership of Tom Porter, CEMCO’s […]
The US labor market added 263,000 jobs in September, down for the second consecutive month but still better than expected. The result signals that the Federal Reserve will likely have to do more to slow it down. September was the slowest monthly gain in nearly a year and a half, according to the Bureau of […]
The US economy added 263,000 new jobs in September, slowing for the second straight month and marking the lowest monthly total since April 2021, according to data from the US Department of Labor. Despite the repeated decline in hiring, last month’s total was still solid by pre-pandemic standards and slightly ahead of the expected payroll […]
I look for connections in current events, and often they are apparent for all the world to see. One recent example—in the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August, Congress reinstated and revised the tax credit for “clean vehicles,” including electric, hybrid plug-in, and alternative fuel vehicles (such as hydrogen fuel cells). These cars are in […]
Zekelman Industries is closing its Long Beach, Calif., steel conduit manufacturing facility, pointing its finger at imports from Mexico as a major reason for the closure. The Long Beach facility, which employed 145 workers represented by the United Autoworkers union, manufactured steel conduit under the Western Tube and Wheatland Tube brand names. The Chicago-based company […]
ArcelorMittal is investing in energy storage. The Luxembourg-based global steel manufacturer announced on Oct. 4 a $17.5 million dollar investment in Form Energy Inc. Founded in 2017, Form Energy is a Somerville, Mass.-based company with employees in the San Francisco Bay area and Pittsburgh. The manufacturer is developing an iron-air battery that will be able […]
US Steel’s Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Ark., will be able to further utilize solar energy as early as 2024, allowing the company to reduce its environmental footprint even more. The Entergy Arkansas Driver Solar Project has been approved by the Arkansas Public Service Commission. The project will be located on 2,100 acres adjacent […]
The ongoing trend for steel sheet prices has remained mostly flat over the past several weeks, and this week was really no exception. We’ve seen a tightening of spreads between hot-rolled coil prices and those for cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume. And the trend of narrowing spreads is even more pronounced when it comes to plate. […]
The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI — another measure of manufacturing — edged up to 52 in September, up from 51.5 in August, recovering for the first time in three months after reaching its lowest level in two years. Last month’s recovery was driven by renewed expansions in output and new orders, though operating conditions across […]
US manufacturing activity grew at its slowest pace in nearly two-and-a-half years in September, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Though still expanding last month, manufacturing was slowed as new orders contracted amid aggressive interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve meant to cool demand and tame inflation. The ISM’s report also showed […]
Metals supplier Alro Steel has completed the acquisition of Access Metals, a service center and supplier located in Essex, Md. Effective Sept. 30, the purchase allows Alro to continue growing its customer base. Access Metals caters to small-purchase customers, both from the public and within the manufacturing, machining, and fabricating industries. “Alro shares my philosophy […]