Tag: Overall Demand

Despite an uncertain economic outlook, Olympic Steel is expecting demand to remain steady in the current quarter.

We weren’t supposed to see hot-rolled coil prices dip below $800 per ton ($40 per cwt) anytime soon.

We weren’t supposed to see hot-rolled coil prices dip below $800 per ton ($40 per cwt) anytime soon. Or at least that seemed to be the consensus in mid-June after mills rolled out a round of $50-per-ton price hikes, with a second round rumored to be in the works. That second round of price hikes […]

The LME aluminum 3-month price is moving down again after the 4th of July holiday and was last trading near $2,130 per metric ton (as of the writing of this article on July 7). The fact that the price resumed sharp declines and is not challenging the next resistance at $2,200 per metric ton shows […]

 In a good sign for the construction markets, architectural firms saw a rebound in business conditions in May after experiencing a softer April. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Deltek reported a May reading of 51.0 in the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). This was a rise from the previous month’s reading of 48.5 and […]

What to make of the latest round of sheet prices hikes: Are they aimed at stopping the bleeding, getting buyers off the sidelines, or actually getting sheet prices back up again? These are serious questions now in a way that they weren’t after U. S. Steel first announced its price hike last Wednesday.  That hike […]

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including current and future steel prices, inventory strategies, supply, demand, and new mill capacity. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing some of them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! […]

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including current and future steel prices, inventory strategies, supply, demand, and new mill capacity. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing some of them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! […]

Both SMU’s Steel Current and Future Buyers Sentiment Indices have increased from two weeks ago, according to SMU’s most recent survey data. The Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices measure how steel buyers feel about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market, as well as three to six months down the road. Every other […]

By CRU Research Analyst Yusu Mao, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Last week, buying activity continued in the Turkish scrap market, and our assessment for HMS 80:20 rose slightly to $411 per ton CFR Turkey, that’s a $3-per-ton increase week on week and a boost of more than $30 per ton vs. the prior month […]

Steel sheet prices have bottomed or soon will, according to most respondents to our latest market survey. We’ve also seen an uptick in expectations about future prices. The chart below provides a quick before/after snapshot of expectations for prices ahead of Thanksgiving and then following price hikes of $60 per ton ($3 per cwt) announced […]

Is the market at a bottom or not? Cleveland-Cliffs and US Steel have each announced price hikes of $60 per ton ($3 per cwt). And we’re told other mills might follow. If this isn’t a bottom, it sure looks like domestic mills are trying to create one with a floor of ~$600 per ton for […]

SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects on Monday and Tuesday of this week, including current and future steel prices, inventory strategies, supply, demand, and new mill capacity. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! Contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com […]

The prices contractors pay for construction materials and services — chiefly for new nonresidential construction — jumped 20.2% year-on-year (YoY) in October and were up 3% month-on-month (MoM), the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) reported in its latest analysis of government data. AGC cautioned that higher construction costs could undermine demand for projects, and urged […]

I want to give a shoutout to the North American Steel Alliance (NASA) for giving me the opportunity to provide a keynote address at their Forecast Conference in Chicago earlier this week. And I want to take a minute to dive deeper into SMU’s lead time figures, one of the indicators I highlighted at the event as […]

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 […]

NLMK USA saw a considerable decline in third-quarter and year-to-date sales due to high inventories and a slowdown in customer activity because of falling steel prices. The US flat-rolled steel company — made up of NLMK Indiana, NLMK Pennsylvania, and the Sharon Coating galvanizing facility in Pennsylvania — posted preliminary sales of 300,000 metric tons […]

Demand for galvanized sheet is strong or softening, depending on where you’re located, according to members of the Heating, Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) Sheet Metal/Air Handling Council. And with pricing bouncing along somewhat steadily in recent weeks, most members are not expecting any big swings in galvanized pricing in the coming months. In […]

Has the US steel market reached another downward inflection point? I ask because our survey data has turned a little bearish following an upsurge in sentiment that, in retrospect, might have crested not long after Steel Summit. It wouldn’t be the first time that we saw post-conference euphoria in late August fizzle out in September. Last […]

Underlying price function stops sliding and may have found basis for strengthening The London Metal Exchange (LME) may have found a floor to stop the slide it has experienced since April. Topping out near $3,400 metric tons earlier this year, the price of aluminum drifted lower steadily in the second quarter and into the third […]

Despite falling prices and declining lead times for galvanized sheet, overall demand is still generally strong and a good reason for optimism, according to members of the Heating, Air-Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International on this month’s call of HARDI’s Sheet Metal/Air Handling Council. One HARDI member in the Rocky Mountain region noted that his company […]

The steel market has adapted to the shock of the war in Ukraine – and it’s become clearer with each passing week that a steeper price decline than we have seen to date might be in store. I wrote on Thursday that the headline data from our latest survey indicated the market had peaked. I […]

The ongoing correction in steel prices is not a reflection of demand, which is strong now and is expected to remain so for the balance of 2022, Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) executives said. Hot-rolled coil prices are roughly in line with published price ranges of $1,300-1,400 per ton ($65-70 per cwt), although a limited number […]

There’s surprisingly little consensus among market participants about where steel prices will be next year, even though 2022 is just around the corner. That’s a big departure from the last 12 months, when respondents to Steel Market Update surveys were roughly in agreement on where prices would be in the future – or at the very least […]

Flat Rolled = 56.7 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 62.0 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled U.S. service center flat rolled inventories increased in October, as shipments slowed, according to Steel Market Update data. At the end of October, service centers carried 56.7 shipping days of supply on an adjusted basis, compared to 54.5 […]

By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley and Analyst Dave Thewlis, from CRU’s Steel Long Products Monitor Long product prices in the U.S. remained elevated and moved higher again m/m in some cases for October. Wire rod mills pushed through another round of price increases in mid-September and there was little to no resistance from buyers […]

If you feel a chill in the air, it’s not just the first day of fall and cooler weather coming. We’ve noticed a cooling in market conditions – and it’s backed up by our survey results (which are colorful like fall leaves). Let’s not talk about prices, at least not directly. Let’s talk about lead times, […]

Steel Market Update’s check of the market this week shows HRC setting a new record at $1,955 per ton, just a stone’s throw from a $2,000 mark that was once unimaginable but now seems inevitable. As one observer opined: “I don’t expect to see any actual easing until we get to $2,000 a ton.” Very […]

Olympic Steel kept the momentum going at the start of 2021, achieving its most profitable first quarter ever and third best quarter overall in the company’s history. Despite supply/demand challenges, Olympic recorded record net sales of $463 million due to higher metals pricing. Net income was $22 million, a big improvement from $600,000 in Q1 […]

The deep freeze last month across a large swath of the U.S. showed how fragile the U.S. freight system is, said DAT Freight and Analytics. “In 2020, things bent but they didn’t break,” Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT told Logistics Management. “In the last two weeks of February, things very much broke. Shipments […]