Big River Steel CEO John Correnti says government should “stay out” of private industry. What appeared to be a contradiction after receiving more than $125 million in incentives from the state of Arkansas, Correnti stated in an interview with Arkansas Business that states have to invest in big business in order to stay competitive, but […]
Nucor announced consolidated net earnings of $147 million for the second quarter of 2014. Second quarter net sales increased by 4 percent to 5.29 billion compared to Q1 and 13 percent compared to Q2 2013. Steel shipments to outside customers totaled 6,370,000 tons, an increase of 1 percent q/q and 9 percent y/y. Steel production […]
With the announcement of the sale of Russian owned Severstal North America assets to AK Steel (Dearborn, Mountain State Carbon & Joint Ventures) and Steel Dynamics (Columbus) for $2.325 billion, the market is now asking what, or who, is next. There are two mills that are being mentioned. One, Gallatin Steel, a hot rolled mini-mill […]
A special thank you to Pacesetter Steel Service Inc. who has stepped up to sponsor our networking/cocktail reception to be held at the end of the first day of the SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. For those of you who are unaware the conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) […]
On Monday, July 21, 2014 OAO Severstal announced the sale of their two steel mills located in the United States for $2.325 billion. The two mills, Severstal Dearborn and Severstal Columbus were purchased by AK Steel and Steel Dynamics (SDI), respectively. The acquisition of the Severstal assets by two existing steel suppliers is being touted […]
For those of you who don’t realize it – Steel Market Update is conducting our mid-July market analysis this week. I have added a couple of questions about the sale of the Dearborn and Columbus steel mills. I will send out a reminder email first thing in the morning on Wednesday. If you receive an […]
Rick Blume, Nucor General Manager, Commercial Steelmaking Group, testified on Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations on Homeland Security regarding trade remedy laws. “Nucor relies on trade remedy laws to combat unfair trade practices of our foreign competitors, but we face many challenges in using these laws,” said Blume. “First, we have to […]
US Steel agreed in a Northern Illinois federal court on Tuesday to pay $58 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed in 2008 by Standard Iron Works on behalf of direct purchasers of steel products. The suit alleged that eight U.S. steel producers violated federal antitrust laws by restricting production of steel products between […]
The Detroit scrap market settled on Monday with cut grades (such as heavy melt or HMS) rising by $10 per gross ton and shredded scrap by $15 per gross ton. Prime grades, such as #1 busheling traded sideways compared to last month. Our scrap sources are telling us that the best deals made (from a […]
Our ferrous scrap sources are advising Steel Market Update that June saw the bottom to scrap prices and July will see prices move sideways (no change) to as much as up $20 per gross ton. If scrap prices do indeed rise by as much as $20 per ton, this could be important for steel buyers […]
Our ferrous scrap sources are advising Steel Market Update that June saw the bottom to scrap prices and July will see prices move sideways (no change) to as much as up $20 per gross ton. If scrap prices do indeed rise by as much as $20 per ton, this could be important for steel buyers […]
Steel Market Update spent an extraordinary amount of time on today’s price ranges and averages. There has been a lot written recently about demand supporting prices and the lack of supply supporting prices. However, the deeper we dug the more questions we began to ask about what is real and what is a little murky. […]
Hello from Chicago, home of our first Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution workshop. We have an excellent group in attendance and the program is going well. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is day 2 when we provide an opportunity to our attendees to do simulated trading based on profiles and directives that they have to meet […]
Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) announced today guidance for Q2 ending July 5, 2014. The full press release can be viewed here. Below are key sections of the report: Nucor expects second quarter results to be in the range of $0.35 to $0.40 per diluted share. This range represents an increase from the second quarter of 2013 […]
We have two markets developing for flat rolled steel imports: hot rolled imports are expected to actually begin to shrink from here as the offers out of Russia and Turkey for hot rolled pricing are approximately $600 per ton or higher. Since most foreign steel buyers tend to be buyers of large tonnage and thus […]
According to industry sources, SSAB Americas announced a price increase on plate products as well as hot rolled coil. The price increase was referenced at $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) and are effective immediately. Nucor and ArcelorMittal advised their customers after the SSAB announcement was made supporting the $30 per ton move. SMU learned from multiple […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the HRC pricing […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the hot rolled […]
ArcelorMittal has agreed to pay a $90 million settlement in an antitrust lawsuit brought in the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. The class action lawsuit, filed in 2008 by Standard Iron Works on behalf of direct purchasers of steel products, alleged that eight U.S. steel producers violated federal antitrust laws by […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk and our Managing Price Risk I & II workshops instructor writes about the financial and futures markets, including hot rolled futures and busheling scrap futures trading over the past week. You will also be able to see Andre speak at our Steel Summit Conference in September (3 & 4) in […]
According to SMU sources, last week ArcelorMittal USA raised the minimum selling price on secondary grades of steel to approximately $500-$520 per ton ($25.00/cwt-$26.00/cwt). This has caused some concern within the industry with one fabricator who has been involved with secondary steel for the past 15 years reporting to Steel Market Update, “…I have been […]
The terms Buy America and Buy American are not interchangeable. CSI Executive VP, Finance & Administration Brett Guge explains the difference: “The longstanding historical standard for direct government procurement is “Buy American,” which requires only that the steel products used in government projects must have been “substantially transformed” in the U.S. “Buy America,” on the […]
For those of you who are paying attention to our website you might have noticed we added a new sub-menu under the Resources tab. The new menu is called “The Truth About Selling Steel” and we have attempted to split out those articles associated with sales from our Steel Buyers Basics series of articles many […]
We have had a couple of minor bugs but we hope to have registration open for the 2014 SMU Steel Summit Conference by late Monday or Tuesday of this week. The dates for the conference are September 3 & 4 and the location is the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) which is located right next […]
It is well known that Dan DiMicco, the former CEO of Nucor Steel, has been an advocate of holding the Chinese steel mills to tougher standards. He has been opposed to imports of Chinese steel into the United States since most of the industry is government controlled and, in his opinion, unfairly traded. In light […]
Iron ore spot prices in China have been falling and may continue to decline to the lows last seen in September 2012 when prices for 62% Fe fines reached into the $80’s (currently trading at $97.5/dmt). Steel Market Update has been reviewing the relationship between iron ore and ferrous scrap prices using shredded scrap as […]
The terms Buy America and Buy American are not interchangeable. CSI Executive VP, Finance & Administration Brett Guge explains the difference: “The longstanding historical standard for direct government procurement is “Buy American,” which requires only that the steel products used in government projects must have been “substantially transformed” in the U.S. “Buy America,” on the […]
There has been a debate which goes back to the 1930’s regarding what “Buy American” means when it comes to steel products. The issue is whether those mills who do not make steel, such as NLMK USA (in their Pennsylvania plant) and California Steel Industries as well as the former ThyssenKrupp plant in Calvert, Alabama […]
Steel Market Update attended SMDI’s “Great Designs in Steel” conference on May 14. This was the 12th year of the popular GDIS conference, and it was well attended with over 1200 auto steel players. The focus of the conference was on auto light weighting through the use of advanced high strength steels (AHSS). There were […]
On Wednesday, Steel Market Update adjusted our SMU Price Momentum Indicator to Neutral from Higher. Our Price Momentum Indicator had been pointing toward Higher prices ever since March 25, 2014. Over the past seven weeks, hot rolled coil prices advanced from $630 to a high of $685 per ton based on the Steel Market Update […]