Flat rolled prices continued their skid despite the Memorial Day Holiday. Prices were lower by $5 to $15 per ton depending on product. Steel buyers continue to be concerned about the direction of prices and how long this downward spiral will last. We have more on the comments received today as we canvassed both end […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) spend the majority of today discussing the flat rolled steel markets with steel buyers from around the country. The main topic of conversation was pricing, which is anticipated will drop over the next 30 days and Section 232 which is expected to end that drop… Flat rolled steel buyers reported most […]
Flat rolled steel prices dropped last week as all three of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) reported lower pricing. Benchmark hot rolled prices dropped by double digits last week with SMU and Platts at $595 per ton as the week ended and SteelBenchmarker dropping $12 per ton to $611 per ton. The […]
CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) announced today that it is investing an estimated $176 million to build a hot band galvanizing and pickling line at its sheet mill in Ghent, Kentucky. The new galvanizing line will expand Nucor Steel Gallatin’s product capabilities and have an annual capacity of 500,000 […]
“There’s been further erosion with EAF’s dropping spot to $570-$580, not necessarily tied to volume,” is what one large service center told us this afternoon. “[I am] afraid this market at risk of bigger drops than was anticipated.” Flat rolled price averages were lower across all products followed by Steel Market Update with the exception […]
When we saw that shipments had dropped by over 500,000 tons in April our first thought was “Yikes!” but as we looked deeper we saw that shipping days in March were 23 days (their highest in the cycle) and in April fell to 19 days. Daily shipments in April increased by 6.6 percent from March. […]
Steel Market Update has begun to ask our scrap sources to provide some color as to what we can expect. Early indications from our sources are to expect ferrous scrap prices to trade “sideways” (unchanged) from the levels reported at the beginning of May. One of our sources told us, “The June market looks to […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to slip lower this past week according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled prices slipped $5 per ton on both Platts and our own index. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices as they only produce prices twice per week. The hot rolled average is quickly […]
Earlier today, Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral to Lower. Flat rolled prices have been slowly dropping for more than a month and it does not appear there is anything that is going to stop the leak from continuing, at least not over the next 30 days. Flat rolled steel […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released their April 2017 shipment and inventories data for the United States and Canada. The following is a recap of the U.S. data. Total steel shipments (all products) were reported to be 3,110,500 tons which was 4.2 percent lower than year ago levels (19 days vs. 21 day month […]
Total Canadian steel shipments for all products in April were 362,400 net tons, down 14.0 percent from March and down 2.8 percent from April 2017. On a daily rate, total shipments were 19,100 tons per day in April (19 day month), up from 18,300 tons per day in March (23 day month), and up compared […]
I have read reports that suggest the first fully integrated mill in Vietnam, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, has received permission to test their #1 blast furnace. The Vietnamese government has approved the pollution control equipment and the company is going to be allowed to run the blast furnace on a six-month trial period. In July […]
Hot rolled prices have been dropping over the past few weeks and that trend continued with all three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update reporting lower hot rolled coil price averages last week. Steel Market Update’s (SMU) own index saw HRC prices as being down $15 per ton ($0.75/cwt) to $610 per ton ($30.50/cwt). […]
The latest license data was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system of the US Commerce Department on May 2nd and closed out the April data. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this […]
We saw mixed results this week with two products moving lower (hot rolled and galvanized), two remained the same (cold rolled and Galvalume), and plate prices rose a modest $5 per ton. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $580-$640 per ton ($29.00/cwt-$32.00/cwt) with an average of […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission made a final determination that the U.S. steel industry has been materially injured by imports of carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Antidumping (AD) orders will be issued on imports of these products from the eight countries as well as […]
March 2017 steel exports totaled 948,606 net tons (860,562 metric tons), up 14.6 percent over February and up 22.4 percent from March 2016. This is the highest export level seen since November 2014 when 953,828 tons of steel were exported out of the US. The total March export figure is above the three month moving […]
Last week we saw adjustments to the indices that brought the Steel Market Update and Platts numbers closer to one another. Hot rolled is now averaging $625 per ton ($31.25/cwt) on both SMU and Platts (SteelBenchmarker did not provide numbers last week as they only publish their indices twice per month). The spread between the […]
It is the first week of May and the negotiations between the long and flat rolled steel mills have been in full swing all week. By late today (Thursday) word of how the scrap dealers had fared has been coming into our offices. The first region to settle was Detroit which was up $10 on […]
From Steel Market Update perspective the past week was fairly quiet and we did not find any huge changes in prices from what we had reported one week ago. We have a flat rolled steel market trends survey in process right now and a portion of our indices are based on the approximately 100 companies […]
For a number of weeks now (?) Steel Market Update has had our Price Momentum Indicator pointing toward Neutral as opposed to Higher or Lower. Over the past couple of weeks flat rolled prices have been coming off their highs and yet SMU continues to keep our Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral. What gives? Why […]
Steel prices were down across the board this past week according to the indexes followed by Steel Market Update. The biggest drops were on our own indices as we saw large moves in hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel with a smaller move in Galvalume. Our plate prices were up slightly as we continue […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum turned in a strong first quarter with sales up 17.4 percent to $2.42 billion from Q4 2016 and net income up 81 percent to $111.7 million. On a year-over-year basis sales were up 11.9 percent and income 21.1 percent. “Improved demand, higher metal pricing and continued strong execution resulted in record […]
Is the newly initiated Section 232 the Black Swan event that will remove steel supply from the market and tip the balance of supply/demand in favor of the domestic steel mills, thus pushing prices to levels not seen since 2008? There should not be any doubt that the make-up of the Trump Administration, coupled with […]
We have an unusual market. What Steel Market Update is seeing is confidence by most of the steel mills. They feel there may be some minor adjustments in spot pricing as a few mills jockey to maintain their order books. At the same time, most steel buyers are being supportive of the price levels we […]
Swedish steel mill SSAB posted an operating profit of SEK 702 million for the first quarter 2017 ($79.2 million). Higher prices and increased shipments at SSAB Europe helped drive profits for the company. SSAB Americas also saw an increase in realized prices during first quarter and stronger margins as scrap metal prices increased. A maintenance […]
Flat rolled spot prices are slipping based on an analysis of the Steel Market Update (SMU) and Platts flat rolled steel indexes. We found lower average pricing on hot rolled and cold rolled this week with no movement in galvanized and Galvalume. SMU had plate prices down $20 per ton while Platts kept plate prices […]
With consolidated sales of $4.82 billion which is a 30 percent increase over 1Q 2016 and net earnings of $356.9 million it was a good 1st Quarter 2017 for the company. The company reported that the second quarter earnings should exceed that of 1st Quarter. The overall operating rates at the Nucor steel mills was […]
The debate these days seems to be centered around how much inventory is really out there, how much is incoming (especially from foreign sources) and how much flat rolled will buyers need to buy come this summer? Earlier today I asked a small steel mill if they believed the low coated inventories (1.65 months) according […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) is providing two articles on the MSCI (Metal Service Center Institute) data for March 2017 for United States steel distributors in tonight’s newsletter. The first article is our normal analysis and the second article is a deeper dive analysis normally provided to our Premium level readers. Publisher, John Packard, also provides […]