Canadian steel service center shipments for all steel products during the month of April were 496,300 net tons, a decrease of 0.7 percent from the month before, and a decrease of 5.6 percent from April 2013. Inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,431,800 tons, a decrease of 2.7 percent from last month, […]
Steel Market Update published our special data on March steel imports which are produced by product (slabs, plate in coil, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume), by port of entry and by the country of origin. The full data is available for review by our Premium Level subscribers. Below is a portion of the […]
CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Nucor Corporation announced today that Chad Utermark, Vice President and General Manager of Nucor-Yamato Steel Company, has been promoted to Executive Vice President of beam and plate products effective May 11, 2014. Joe Stratman, who has served as Executive Vice President of beam and plate products since 2007, will […]
Steel Market Update follows a number of price indices on a weekly basis. All of the indices saw double digit increases during the month of April. The average change on hot rolled was +$43 per ton, cold rolled +$47 per ton, galvanized +$66 per ton and Galvalume +65 per ton. Plate prices remained relatively stable […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to rise for the 6th week (according to SMU HRC average) with the benchmark hot rolled coil price average just below $680 per ton and just a few dollars away from the $685 announced by Nucor and a number of other mills at the beginning of April. For the first […]
A large portion of the recent Nucor 1st Quarter earnings conference call with analysts was devoted to the progress of the company’s DRI (direct reduced iron) project which is called Nucor Louisiana. First Quarter 2014 was the first full quarter that the equipment was up and running. Nucor Louisiana is home to the largest single […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released preliminary steel import census data for March and reported total steel imports at 3,218,914 net tons (NT). Compared to February, March imports are down by 2.0 percent or 66,960 NT. Compared to the same month one year ago, total March 2014 imports are up 25.2 percent or 648,510 NT. […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum, the largest metals service center in the United States, announced earnings earlier today. The company reported net income of $87.2 on sales totaling $2.09 billion. Sales included the recent acquisitions of Metals USA and Haskins Steel. The company reported an 8.4 percent improvement in same store sales over the same quarter […]
For our plate customers, SSAB announced a $40 per ton plate price increase effective immediately. We will see if it sticks in the marketplace. We have a couple of minor bugs and tweaks we are working out of our systems and then we will release our Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution workshop for […]
Foreign steel imports, for the month of April 2014 are projected by Steel Market Update to exceed 3.5 million net tons. Based on preliminary license data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce through April 22, 2014 imports could reach as high as 3.7 million net tons. However, as our regular readers already know, license […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments in March rose by 283,700 tons to 3.515 million tons, more than making up for the February decline. Shipping days increased from 20 in February to 21 in March. Tons per day (t/d) shipments rose from 161,600 tons in February to 167,400 in March, both on a non-seasonally adjusted […]
Canadian service center steel shipments for all carbon steel products were reported at 499,700 net tons (NT) in March, up 11.4 percent over February figures and up 5.8 percent from March 2013 shipments. With 21 shipping days in March, daily steel shipments are calculated to have been 23,800 tons per day, up from 22,400 tons […]
The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) published March shipment and inventory data earlier today. Here is a brief synopsis of the numbers and Steel Market Update will produce a more detailed report in Thursday evening’s issue combined with our own inventory results from this week’s survey. Total steel shipments (all products) were 3,675,200 tons during […]
First quarter sales for Severstal North America flat rolled steel products increased 1.0 percent quarter over quarter to 1.83 million tonnes (2 million tons). Production at Severstal Dearborn fell 8 percent q/q due to severe weather and resulting higher natural gas prices. Prices for steel products were mostly flat. Average price for steel rolled products […]
Three of the four indices followed by Steel Market Update posted higher flat rolled steel averages through the end of this past week. CRU made the biggest catch-up move taking their benchmark hot rolled index to $654 per ton, up $21 per ton since the previous week. CRU and SMU HRC indices are now within […]
To our Premium Level members – just a quick note to let you know that we publish Premium articles to the front of the website prior to sending them out in a supplemental newsletter. We have been waiting for imports by product, port and country to become available before we send out a supplemental issue. […]
The Senate Finance Committee passed a bill on Thursday that would restore key tax credits for the wind industry. The renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit were included in the Committee’s final tax extender package after the PTC was passed over in the first draft. Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) sponsored the […]
The following is a report which is normally provided to only our Premium Level members. It is a detailed analysis of flat rolled, long products and semi-finished imports through the month of March 2014. Written by Peter Wright, we analyze how accurate license data is and provide a table using three month moving averages to […]
Steel producers and distributors can expect an influx of orders for steel plate for rail tank cars in the next several years. After several serious tanker accidents involving crude oil transport, the Association of American Railroads Tank Car Committee (AARTCC) and Railway Supply Institute Committee on Tank Cars (RSICTC) have each submitted higher safety standard […]
Every month we track a number of the other steel indexes including the two used the most for contract adjustments: CRU and Platts. We had some interesting results as the month of March closed as all of the indices showed declines (compared to the end of the prior month) in hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized […]
A Houston, Texas jury returned a verdict for $52 million in damages against Nucor Corp., Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co., its unit Chapel Steel Corp., American Alloy Steel Inc., and JSW Steel Inc. in an antitrust lawsuit brought by former plate steel distributor MM Steel, LP. SSAB was also named in the lawsuit but settled […]
Steel Market Update has been projecting 3.5 million tons of total steel products as the target number for the month of March based on US DOC license data. The license numbers were updated again today (April 1st) and we continue to believe we will be quite close to the 3.5 million ton mark when the […]
Imports of foreign steel increased during the month of February compared to the prior month. Steel Market Update carefully monitors total steel imports, slab imports, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume imports as well as plate (coiled and sheet) and oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The U.S. Government recently released preliminary census data for […]
Imports of foreign steel increased during the month of February compared to the prior month. Steel Market Update carefully monitors total steel imports, slab imports, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume imports as well as plate (coiled and sheet) and oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The U.S. Government recently released preliminary census data for […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Preliminary Census Data for February 2014 steel imports into the United States. Total steel imports (all products) were reported to be 3,250,176 net tons which is an increase of 30 percent year over year and well above both the 12 month and 3 month moving average. As you can […]
As our regular readers know, Steel Market Update projects imports of foreign flat rolled sheet, plate and oil country tubular goods (OCTG) as well as semi-finished (mostly slabs) steels for the month in progress. The projection is based on U.S. Department of Commerce license data which can be misleading and our projection should also be […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments in February declined by 225,000 tons but this was because shipping days declined by two to twenty. Tons per day (t / d) shipments rose from 158,500 tons in January to 161,600 in February. Intake was 162,820 t / d leading to a monthly surplus of 24,400 tons and […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released steel service center shipment and inventories for the month of February. The 20 day month was impacted by severe weather around the country and saw total steel shipments drop from 3,648,200 tons in January to 3,380,000 tons during February. Even so, the daily shipping rate rose to 169,000 […]
Canadian steel service center shipments for all steel products were reported at 448,500 net tons (NT) in February, down 9.4 percent over January figures and down 3.2 percent from February 2013 shipments. With 20 shipping days in February, daily shipments are calculated to have been 22,400 tons per day, down from 22,500 tons per day […]
The indexes are beginning to spread out, especially on benchmark hot rolled coil pricing. Steel Market Update saw HRC prices down $15 per ton this past week, SteelBenchmarker was $16 per ton lower (but they only produce prices twice per month), CRU down $5 and Platts held the line even with the previous week. The […]