This afternoon, Nucor’s plate mill group advised their customers through the use of an emailed letter of their intention to raise spot plate prices $40 per ton. The increase was to be effective with new spot orders acknowledged for the week of April 9th production and beyond. They also advised that they would collect the […]
The ruling regarding the preliminary determination of dumping of hot rolled steel out of Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom was announced this evening. You will hear split opinions as to whether the ruling is a “win” or “loss” for the domestic steel mills. It is my opinion that this […]
Prices jumped this past week on both SMU and Platts indexes (SteelBenchmarker did not report prices last week). These increases come on the heels of the most recent price announcements made a couple of weeks ago. Benchmark hot rolled continues to be the weakest of the flat rolled products and we are seeing some separation […]
Licensed data for February was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on March 8th. At SMU we perform a detailed analysis of this data, an explanation of our methodology is given at the end of this write up. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of February […]
Recently, Steel Market Update produced an article regarding a discussion between Dan DiMicco, former CEO of Nucor and another one of our LinkedIn members who, in a past life, was responsible for buying foreign slabs for a domestic steel mill. Here is a small clip of that conversation: LinkedIn member: Of course I don’t imagine […]
Recently, Steel Market Update produced an article regarding a discussion between Dan DiMicco, former CEO of Nucor and another one of our LinkedIn members who, in a past life, was responsible for buying foreign slabs for a domestic steel mill. Here is a small clip of that conversation: LinkedIn member: Of course I don’t imagine […]
Brian Jackson, China economist for IHS Global Insight, issued the following note on China’s Steel Production Capacity. Key Points At the National People’s Congress, Hebei Province governor Zhang Qingwei announced he plans to cut just under 200 million of steel production capacity by 2020, or about 60% of current production capacity. By the end of […]
In Sunday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update we warned our readers that something was happening in China that could impact US steel prices. We have been working on this project ever since and this is what we have learned from multiple sources around the world: Iron ore and steel prices are surging in China. […]
Steel prices have surged in the Chinese domestic market over the past few days. Steel Market Update reported in our Final Thoughts on Sunday evening that something was up and buyers needed to be aware of what is going on around them – both here in North America as well as around the world. Volatility […]
As negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their ferrous scrap suppliers conclude we are seeing scrap prices rise with the Chicago markets “catching up” with some of the other regions. Dealers are reporting robust sales, especially to sheet mills as they are picking up spot market share from the integrated mills. Chicago area prices […]
One of the first things that happen as flat rolled steel prices begin to firm the lower end of the range of pricing available begins to move higher. This is what happened to our numbers this past week. In many cases the lower end of the range moved up while the upper end of the […]
Steel Market Update posted one of our articles from Thursday evening’s issue of our newsletter (Steel Market Update Publisher Quoted Around the World) and in the process comments were made that started a debate on a subject SMU has addressed in the past: the purchase of foreign steel slabs by domestic steel mills. After the […]
Spot flat rolled steel prices were adjusted higher by Steel Market Update based on the data being collected out of our ongoing flat rolled steel survey as well as through direct contact with steel buyers. We found a tight cluster of hot rolled offers in the $400 to $410 range. Our average increased due to […]
SSAB, which is known primarily as a plate supplier, announced a $30 per ton price increase on plate and hot rolled coil in the United States and a $40 per ton price increase on hot rolled. The SSAB increases were sent via an emailed letter to their customers. The letter began, “Please be advised that […]
Steel prices continued their three month hike higher as SMU benchmark hot rolled price index (average) for the month was $408 per ton. Even with some minor stumbles noted in hot rolled and cold rolled during the second half of the month, our Price Momentum Indicator is still pointing toward higher prices over the next […]
Flat rolled & Plate prices have been moving mostly sideways over the past few weeks as little has happened to propel prices higher (or lower) from here. Hot rolled prices have been stuck in the $400-$410 per ton range with SteelBenchmarker at the lower end of the range while SMU ($405) and Platts ($407.50) rounding […]
Happy Academy Award (Oscar) Night… We will begin our early March flat rolled steel market trend analysis on Monday morning. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few moments to click on the button contained in the message which will take you to our questionnaire. If you would like to participate in […]
The Department of Commerce is initiating a circumvention inquiry on imports of cut-to-length steel plate from China following a petition from Nucor and SSAB. The two steel mills assert that producers, exporters and importers are circumventing duties imposed on CTL by adding alloys, such as boron, titanium and chromium to the product. The Department of […]
We actually saw some pull back in hot rolled and cold rolled pricing. The amounts were minimal and, in our opinion, do not represent a deteriorating or change in market direction. The hot rolled market is not as strong as that of cold rolled which is not as strong as that of coated steels. Some […]
Based on Steel Market Update (SMU) analysis of the recently released MSCI service center inventory and shipment data, total service center carbon steel shipments increased by 264,500 tons in January to 2.909 million tons. Shipping days at 20, were down by two from December. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments increased from 120,200 […]
SMU has developed a series of reports that cover hot rolled, cold rolled, HDG, other metallic coated, coiled plate and semi-finished slabs. These reports are a detailed drill down into tons by source country and port of entry. Total imports of HR in 2015 were 3,477,187 metric tons. Table 1 shows the tonnage by port […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released shipment and inventory data for U.S. steel distributors this week. The headline for total steel products is shipments rose from December to January by 275,200 tons or 9.9 percent, but were still 470,400 tons or 13.3 percent below levels from one year ago. U.S. steel service centers shipped […]
A note from the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) regarding a change in data: “For this month’s Metals Activity Reports in Canada, and going forward, there have been changes in the companies in the sample. These changes result in a reduction in the number of product categories being reported. As indicated on the reports Carbon […]
SAULT STE. MARIE, ONTARIO – On January 29, 2016, Essar Steel Algoma appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal to overturn the January 6, 2016 decision of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (“CITT”) regarding dumped and subsidized hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate imports from India and Russia. In their ruling, the […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported net income of $68.8 million for fourth quarter of 2014, down 25.7 percent from fourth quarter 2014 but up 33.5 percent from third quarter. Total sales for Q4 were $2.03 billion down 21.4 percent year over year and down 11.4 percent from third quarter 2015. Total tons sold were down […]
Flat rolled steel prices are beginning to stabilize according to the most recent revisions in the flat rolled steel indices followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled remained stuck at $410 per ton ($20.50/cwt) at both SMU and Platts while SteelBenchmarker, which reports prices twice per month, published their new HRC number as being […]
SSAB faced a tough market in fourth quarter resulting in an operating loss of SEK 802 million ($94.4 million). Low volumes and steel prices in North America and Europe and a maintenance outage at SSAB Special Steels were contributing factors. For the full year 2015, SSAB posted an operating loss of SEK 128 million ($15.2 […]
EVRAZ North America announced it will idle indefinitely the Portland Spiral pipe mill in Oregon, effective April 9, 2016. The idling will result in the termination of 130 employees. The closure was “a result of economic challenges from three primary factors: delays in regulatory approvals for pipelines in the U.S. and Canada; the influx of […]
I was very disappointed to hear the news that Carrier Corporation has decided to move their manufacturing and distribution operations in Indianapolis, Indiana to Monterrey, Mexico. As I heard the news I thought about the 2016 AHR Expo show (co-sponsored by ASHRAE and the AHRI) that I attended at the end of January. That show […]
Flat rolled steel prices are moving higher albeit at a slow pace – especially for hot rolled coil which continues to be the weakest of the flat rolled products. SteelBenchmarker did not report new prices this week (they only report prices twice per month) so we will review what our index as well as Platts […]