By CRU Analyst Iris Speelmanns, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service The spread of Covid-19 has resulted in an annualized loss of 284 Mt of steel capacity outside China. Slowly easing lockdown measures in most regions have allowed for the resumption of some industrial activities and steel producers in some countries are restarting their operations, […]
SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors (davidfeldstein@rocktradingadvisors.com, twitter @TheFeldstein). In addition to market analysis, RTA provides price risk management not only for ferrous products, but also base metals, energy and interest rates. RTA also trains sales staff and creates the infrastructure necessary for firms to offer their customers fixed pricing on […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors. David has over 20 years of financial market trading experience and has been active in the ferrous futures space for eight years. David earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in economics, statistics and analytical finance. Since […]
Rates of contraction eased in the latest analysis of global manufacturing by J.P. Morgan and IHS Markit. The J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI rose to 42.4 in May from 39.6 in April, but remained well in contraction territory. “Rates of contraction for many of the survey variables, including output, new orders, new export business, quantity […]
Total U.S. construction declined by 2.9 percent in April, compared with March, on a seasonally adjusted basis. On a non-adjusted basis, data for April had a positive growth of 2.3 percent, which was unusually low for this time of year. Normally April expenditures are about 8 percent higher than March. On a year-over-year basis and […]
We had a good webinar with Lewis Leibowitz yesterday (Wednesday). Our next SMU Community Chat webinar will be held next Wednesday, June 10, and our featured guest speaker will be James Banker, Jr., Executive Vice President, NLMK USA. Banker will be the first steel mill to participate in one of our webinars. Jim has a […]
The 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be a virtual conference this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage companies to learn more about how we intend to present valuable information on a wide range of topics of imporance to the greater steel community. We will discuss and forecast steel prices, the economy and […]
The 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be a virtual conference this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is disappointing that we are not able to do a live conference, but we think we are going to provide a solid alternative that will feed your need to interact with multiple companies who buy and sell […]
The 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be a virtual conference this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is disappointing that we are not able to do a live conference, but we think we are going to provide a solid alternative that will feed your need to interact with multiple companies who buy and sell […]
Harry Moser’s phone and email have been ringing off the hook. Moser is the founder and president of the Reshoring Initiative, whose mission is to convince companies to bring manufacturing, and manufacturing jobs, back to America. Reshoring was already gaining momentum prior to the coronavirus outbreak, but the pandemic has infected the marketplace with a […]
Auto sales in May are expected to be up 49 percent from April as the economy starts to reopen, says Cox Automotive. Sales are forecast to finish the year around 11.4 million vehicles, better than last month’s annual rate of 8.6 million, but far below the 17.4 million level seen in 2019, said Cox. “Recent […]
The Institute for Supply Management’s May Report on Business showed improvement, with the manufacturing PMI rising to 43.1 percent from a reading of 41.6 percent the previous month. The PMI score was at a contraction level not seen since April 2009, but the slight uptick was a promising sign. Manufacturers, however, continue to be guarded regarding […]
Domestic steelmakers raised prices twice during the month of May, by a total of $90-100 per ton, hoping to establish a floor and set the stage for recovery in anticipation of improving demand as coronavirus restrictions ease in June and July. Service center and manufacturing executives responding to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire this […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Editor’s note: Lewis Leibowitz will be the featured speaker during the next SMU Community Chat at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Register for the free webinar by clicking on this link. It is hard to believe that three months […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: As an international trade attorney, I work hard to explain why we as a nation engage in international trade; this week, two senior administration officials weighed in on that subject. Everyone should take note. I think Ambassador Robert […]
The Chicago Business Barometer dropped to 32.3 in May, indicating further pressure on the manufacturing sector due to the COVID-19 crisis. The barometer was at its lowest level since March 1982. After seeing a dramatic drop in demand during April, new orders fell 2.3 points in May. Production fell 6.3 percent putting the index at […]
New data from U.S. Federal Reserve Districts shows economic activity declined in all regions of the country in April and May due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all areas of economic activity were negatively impacted during the period. Most districts reported a severe drop in manufacturing activity with production especially weak in […]
Covid-19 restrictions kept consumers and businesses from buying big ticket items last month, causing manufactured durable goods orders to plummet 17.2 percent in April. The new data from the Commerce Department follows a 16.6 percent decline in orders during March. Transportation orders, always a volatile data point, plunged 47.3 percent in April. The auto industry […]
Ferrous scrap remains in limited supply, prompting predictions that scrap prices will settle still higher in June, on top of the big increase in May. Steel Market Update sources forecast an increase of $10-20 per ton for obsolete grades and $20-30 per ton for prime grades in June from May levels. Higher scrap prices may […]
Barry Zekelman will be the guest speaker for our upcoming SMU Community Chat webinar. The free webinar will be held at 11 AM ET on Wednesday, May 27. Zekelman Industries buys 200,000 tons of steel each and every month. Their customers are associated with construction, energy, agriculture and many other market segments critical to the […]
Neither rosy nor the voice of doom, IHS Markit analyst John Anton offered a realistic assessment of the U.S. economic recovery post-COVID-19 during Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat Webinar. Recovery from the current recession will not be a quick V-shaped rebound, said Anton, who is associate director of IHS Markit’s Pricing and Purchasing Service. Instead, he […]
By CRU Analyst Nikki Ni, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Over the past month, Chinese steel demand has accelerated, resulting in lower inventories while output remained at a high level. The ongoing demand recovery has improved the Steel PMI to 45.9 in April, up by 3.7pp m/m. Despite being below the 50-mark, the consecutive m/m improvement […]
Now more than ever the steel industry must come together to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Steel Market Update hopes to help by promoting a sense of community among producers, distributors, buyers, vendors and their customers. SMU’s Executive newsletter now includes this periodic community news roundup where we report on the human side of the pandemic. […]
Barry Zekelman will be the next speaker for our very popular SMU Community Chat webinar. The free webinar will be held at 11 AM ET on Wednesday, May 27. Zekelman Industries buys 200,000 tons of steel each and every month. Their customers are associated with construction, energy, agriculture and many other market segments critical to […]
Steel demand is showing early signs of strengthening, said manufacturing and service center executives during Steel Market Update’s canvass of the market May 11-14, as officials in various states begin to ease coronavirus restrictions allowing businesses to slowly reopen. Half said demand for their products is stable or even improving, while the other half said […]
Wholesalers of HVAC products for the construction market report surprisingly strong sales given the coronavirus situation, but also concerns about construction demand in the second half when current work is completed and there are fewer new projects in the pipeline. In a conference call this morning, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors […]
Wholesalers of HVAC products have weathered the pandemic surprisingly well so far and are more concerned about construction demand months from now than they are about their near-term prospects. Consider what has happened since April as a result of the market’s response to the virus: Steel mills are operating at just above 50 percent of […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Manjot Singh, from CRU’s Metallurgical Coal Market Outlook Seaborne coking coal prices were steady last week as market participants adopted a “wait-and-see” approach due to the ongoing uncertainty in the coal market. There are upside risks to seaborne prices in the form of relatively strong demand in China, and ease of […]
By CRU Economist Anissa Chabib, from CRU’s Economic Outlook On May 8, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the official U.S. unemployment data for April. Unemployment increased to 14.7 percent from 4.4 percent in March. This is the highest rate and the largest month-on-month increase in the history of the series, which was created […]
The economic downturn in the U.S. will continue for the rest of this year, says the Institute for Supply Management in their Spring 2020 Semiannual Economic Forecast, based on survey responses from manufacturing purchasing and supply executives. The COVID-19 crisis has cast a shadow over the manufacturing sector that is unlikely to lift until the […]