Since the beginning of the New Year, manufacturing companies and steel service centers have been reporting service center spot pricing to their end customers as rising. Just a few weeks ago, 100 percent of the manufacturers responding to our mid-March flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire reported distributor prices as rising. Last week, Steel Market […]
Trying to predict the price of a metal is an exercise in futility, but MetalMiner strives to provide metal buying organizations with clarity around when and how much to buy, says Lisa Reisman, MetalMiner Executive Editor. Reisman will make another appearance at Steel Market Update’s 2018 Steel Summit Conference, set for Aug. 27-29 at the […]
AK Steel announced that three of its employees were recognized by the Manufacturing Institute as 2018 STEP Ahead Award winners who exemplify leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering and Production. Lisa A. Vensel, AK Steel General Manager, Manufacturing Planning, and Joyce C. Niedringhaus, AK Steel Principal Research Engineer, were named 2018 STEP Ahead Honorees. Ayesha Satija, […]
Our 8th SMU Steel Summit Conference registrations are quickly approaching 300 executives. With 136 days still to go, we are confident we will set another record attendance. Over the past two days we have received registrations from the following companies (those with a * next to their name means there is more than one person […]
Flat rolled steel prices appear to have hit a lull as prices have remained relatively range-bound compared to last week. Steel Market Update spent the past two days canvassing steel buyers at manufacturing companies, distributors, wholesalers and steel mills. We report on what steel buyers had to say to us in a separate article in […]
Bay State Wind, a 50-50 partnership between offshore wind company Orsted and transmission builder Eversource, will partner with international steel pipe producer EEW to manufacture components for offshore wind projects at a new facility to be built in Massachusetts. EEW will collaborate with U.S.-based Gulf Island Fabrication, a fabricator of offshore and onshore steel structures […]
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced last week that the agency plans to roll back the Obama-era standards for fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions. The Obama administration’s goals “don’t comport with reality and are too high,” Pruitt said. Offering no details of the plan, he added, “The EPA will set a national standard for greenhouse […]
Registrations for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit continue to come in at a steady pace. It took us until May 9 last year to reach the number of registrations that we already have as of the beginning of this week. There are 110 companies registered and we still expect 300 companies and 800 executives to […]
Registrations for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit continue to come in at a steady pace. It took us until May 9 last year to reach the number of registrations that we already have as of the beginning of this week. There are 110 companies registered and we still expect 300 companies and 800 executives to […]
Steel executives are evenly split on whether President Trump is making the right choice to use the Section 232 tariffs as leverage to negotiate better trade deals and quotas on future steel imports. Respondents to this week’s Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire expressed sentiments ranging from “it’s about time we had fair trade” to […]
Orders for heavy-duty trucks are at their highest level since 2000, according to industry research firm FTR Transportation. Orders for the heavy-weight Class 8 trucks increased 98.4 percent year over year to 133,900 vehicles during the first quarter of 2018. Increased demand caused FTR to increase its forecast for 2018 North American Class 8 truck […]
For those of you waiting for the PowerPoint presentation of our flat rolled steel market trends analysis, we should have it on the site either tomorrow afternoon (Monday) or on Tuesday. Brett has been on vacation and he is our master number cruncher. I want to thank Lewis Leibowitz for all of the help he […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Director of Risk Management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
Steel Market Update has been diligently working toward completing our SMU Steel Summit Conference agenda. We have been intentionally taking our time as we wait for market developments to mature and provide guidance as to what subjects will be the most pressing to the manufacturing companies, fabricators, steel distributors, steel mills, trading companies, toll processors […]
Steel Market Update has been diligently working toward completing our SMU Steel Summit Conference agenda. We have been intentionally taking our time as we wait for market developments to mature and provide guidance as to what subjects will be the most pressing to the manufacturing companies, fabricators, steel distributors, steel mills, trading companies, toll processors […]
Global manufacturing growth in March slowed to its lowest level since October 2017. The J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI posted 53.4, down from 54.1 in February. Rates of expansion fell in the consumer and intermediate goods sectors, while the investment goods PMI rose to its highest level so far this year. Manufacturing growth eased in […]
Manufacturing activity expanded in March, though at a slower rate than February, reports the Institute for Supply Management. ISM’s March PMI registered 59.3 percent, down from 60.8 percent in the February survey of corporate purchasing managers. Any reading above 50 indicates growth. New orders continued to expand in March, although slowing 2.3 percentage points from […]
Key market indicators tracked by Steel Market Update in March remain very positive, but took a small step back from the all-time highs reported in February. Data released in March shows that 18 of the 36 indicators are historically positive with only 5 negative. The balance is within the band of historically normal. Trends deteriorated […]
ITR Economics prides itself on keeping the hyperbole out of its economic analysis. Proper interpretation of the facts is fundamental. In a recent ITR blog, popular economist Alan Beaulieu pointed to “facts” cited by a recent speaker to illustrate his point. Beaulieu will make another appearance as a keynote presenter for Steel Market Update’s premier […]
JSW Steel announced it will invest $500 million in its U.S. plate and pipe operations. The Baytown, Texas, facility will receive $150 million in upgrades and the rest will fund a new hot-end facility to make steel. Texas Governor Gregg Abbott signed an agreement with the company to provide a grant of $3.4 million. The […]
Economic indicators of manufacturing activity in the United States remain strong and portend well for the first half of 2018. This report summarizes seven data sources that describe the state of manufacturing in the U.S. We have reported on most of these separately in our Steel Market Update publications, and therefore will be brief […]
Just before midnight on Thursday, March 22, the White House released a proclamation adjusting imports of steel (Section 232) by providing exclusions to Canada, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, South Korea, Brazil and member countries of the European Union. The EU countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, […]
Twice per month, once at the beginning of the month and then again in the middle of the month, Steel Market Update conducts an analysis of the trends impacting the flat rolled and plate steel markets. We invite 640 individuals associated with flat rolled and plate steels in purchasing, sales or executive positions at manufacturing, […]
Big River Steel sees opportunity in the convergence of two major trends in automotive: development of autonomous/electric vehicles and advanced steels. “Niche steel is a big part of what we want to do. The opportunity in electrical steel is immense,” said Big River Chief Commercial Officer Mark Bula at the S&P Global Platts Steel Markets […]
Orders for manufactured durable goods jumped 3.1 percent in February, beating economists’ estimates by nearly double. The latest report from the Department of Commerce showed core capital goods (non-defense capital goods minus aircraft) rebounded 1.8 percent last month after two consecutive months of decline. The category is seen as a proxy for business spending. […]
The Section 232 tariffs go into effect tomorrow and already they are being watered down with country exclusions. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is now adding all of Europe, South Korea (one of the biggest importers of Chinese steel), Brazil, Argentina and Australia to the list of countries whose steel exports to the U.S. will […]
Only one out of four respondents to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire this week feel President Trump’s 25 percent tariff on steel imports will have a beneficial effect on their businesses. Most (62 percent) expect it to hurt business in the long term, while the remaining 13 percent predict it will have little effect […]
A survey by the Precision Metalforming Association prior to the Section 232 announcement showed metalforming manufacturing companies expecting little change in business conditions and steady orders for the next three months. PMA President Roy Hardy, however, said the ensuing decision to impose tariffs will raise steel prices, impacting customers’ sourcing and harming the domestic metalforming […]
Steel supply and pricing were the main topics discussed during the March 20 Heating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) conference call. The Section 232 tariff on steel will go into effect on Friday, March 23, but HARDI members are already seeing an impact in the market. Steel prices are up $6/cwt since the last […]
Details on how to request an exclusion from the Trump administration tariffs on steel and aluminum will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow. We received a copy of the exclusion procedure and some comments from trade attorney Lewis E. Leibowitz. President Trump, using his authority under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of […]