Steel prices continue to lack a clear direction, as Steel Market Update keeps its price momentum at Neutral. SMU’s canvass of the market over the past two days shows hot rolled prices unchanged, cold rolled up and coated steels down. Plate prices also saw a small decrease. Here is how we see prices this week: […]
Flat Rolled = 52.6 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 48.4 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled Service centers scaled back their flat rolled steel inventories at the end of January to 52.6 shipping days of supply on an adjusted basis, down from 62.9 in December, according to the SMU Service Center Inventories Report. This […]
In three months through December, demand for total rolled products declined by 6.1 percent. This Premium analysis by Steel Market Update is based on steel mill shipment data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and import-export data from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). It is meant as a more in-depth look compared […]
This report examines the import share of sheet, plate, long and tubular products and 16 subcategories. Since January 2019, the import market share of total sheet products has been below 15 percent with an 11-month average of 14.0 percent. The import share of HRC has been below 10 percent since January 2019. The most striking […]
Steel prices finished 2019 on an upward trajectory, giving the market hope for a stronger 2020. That trend proved short-lived, however, as prices stalled in January and February, leaving both buyers and sellers wondering what to expect in the weeks and months ahead. Steel prices rose in November and December on a series of price […]
We will begin our mid-February flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis at 8 a.m. on Monday. Currently we are inviting approximately 560 individuals to participate in the market questionnaire, which takes about 4-8 minutes to complete. If you receive an invitation, please take a few minutes to provide your insights as they are […]
On Thursday February 13 we shared an overview of the 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference agenda. If you did not see Thursday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update, you can find the agenda on our website. We also published some of the “keys” regarding this our 10th SMU Steel Summit Conference. Those were also published […]
Steel Market Update’s Price Momentum Indicators remain at Neutral for all flat rolled and plate products. Steel prices moved sideways to down slightly again this week as the market lacks a clear direction. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $560-$600 per ton ($28.00-$30.00/cwt) with an average […]
Steel buyers weighed in today as Steel Market Update conducted our sweep of the markets to determine where spot prices are this week, and to see what is on the minds of the buyers. Here are some of the comments made to SMU earlier today: A manufacturing company shared their perspective with these thoughts, “Where […]
The United States exported 534,724 tons of steel in December, according to final Commerce Department Census data, down 11 percent from November but up 3 percent from the same month one year ago. This is the second lowest export level in the past decade, just behind December 2018 when 519,099 tons were exported out of […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive members. For more information on upgrading to a Premium-level subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. This analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled products into their district of entry and source nation. We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about local import volume […]
Imports of steel rolled products have declined every month since May 2018, year over year, with the greatest decline in January 2020, according to government data. Total rolled product imports in January were down by 35.5 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This follows the 27.8 percent decrease in November on the same […]
The Super Bowl is done, the Grammys are behind us, the Oscars selected a foreign film (Parasite from South Korea) for the first time as Best Movie. The Iowa caucus presented more questions than answers. Today is the New Hampshire primary and the first votes finally are being cast to see who the Democrats will […]
Imports of steel products into the United States appear to have increased in January, based on Commerce Department license data. Precisely how much is difficult to calculate, as quotas on imports of semifinished steel pull licenses forward and skew the data. The 1.7 million tons of semifinished imports licensed in January by companies seeking to […]
Mill lead times for spot orders of flat rolled steel extended by more than a week during last year’s fourth quarter, but so far this year have been fairly flat. The average lead time for orders of hot roll is now a bit less than five weeks, cold roll around six and a half weeks […]
Price negotiations between steelmakers and steel users have loosened considerably on most steel products. Buyers report some new wiggle room in talks over spot prices. In the hot rolled segment, nearly three out of four of the steel buyers responding to SMU’s questionnaire this week (74 percent) said the mills are now more willing to […]
Steel prices can’t seem to gain any traction, as hot rolled, cold rolled and plate saw small declines this past week, while coated steel prices saw a small uptick. Steel Market Update’s Price Momentum Indicators remain pointing higher, but with less confidence about the trend. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled […]
If you want to get a better feel for what you can learn and the value of our Steel 101 workshop, listen to what a couple of our most recent attendees had to say: “This is a great workshop where the ABC’s of the steel business are spelled out quite clearly, even for someone new […]
If you want to get a better feel for what you can learn and the value of our Steel 101 workshop, listen to what a couple of our most recent attendees had to say: “This is a great workshop where the ABC’s of the steel business are spelled out quite clearly, even for someone new […]
The question I am getting right now is, “Where is price momentum headed?” Good question. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator continues to point toward higher prices over the next 30 days. However, we are not blind, and we have seen prices stall here at the beginning of the year. The way I am looking at […]
It’s Super Bowl Sunday! I will try to keep my comments short so we can all enjoy the game and worry about the steel markets in the morning. On Thursday and Friday of this past week I was in Ponte Vedra, Fla., as I was speaking to the Steel Manufacturers Association. The SMA are the […]
The recent rise in flat rolled mill spot prices have, in Steel Market Update’s opinion based on our survey analysis, been supported by a rise in service center spot prices to their end customers. However, the analysis of last week’s flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey indicates that support for higher prices has […]
Demand is looking good for the steel industry this year, especially in the construction sector, said panel members on the Steel Manufacturers Association media call today. Dave Sumoski, Nucor Executive Vice President – Merchant and Rebar Products, noted that construction is a major area for Nucor. The market for steel bar is very strong with […]
By Principal Analyst James Campbell, from CRU’s Steel Plate Products Market Outlook The coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan has led to Chinese New Year holidays being extended and transportation restrictions introduced in order to contain the spread of the virus. Steel demand is normally weak during this period, but production continues as usual. Every day of […]
Except for a small decline in coated products, steel prices remained largely unchanged in the past week, according to Steel Market Update’s latest check of the market. While SMU’s Price Momentum Indicators continue to point higher, we’ll be watching closely to see if the uptrend in prices is losing steam. Here is how we see […]
SSAB Americas posted a loss of $23 million (-222 million SEK) for the fourth quarter of 2019 due to lower realized steel prices and maintenance costs associated with a planned outage in Mobile, Ala. Heavy plate demand was good in the first half of the year, but weakened in the fourth quarter due to inventory […]
JSW Steel USA reported dismal results for the third quarter of 2020, but the company expects losses will be reduced substantially in the fourth quarter. JSW Steel – Baytown produced 70,479 metric tons of plate and 14,669 MT of pipes during the third quarter of 2020, reported JSW Steel India. The plate mill operated at […]
Lead times for hot rolled and cold rolled steel have flattened out, seeing little change in the past month, as measured by Steel Market Update. Lead times for steel delivery are an indicator of demand at the mill level. The longer the lead time, the busier the mill. Lead times in general are about a […]
Negotiations between steelmakers and steel buyers on new spot orders appear to have loosened slightly on hot rolled and cold rolled, but not to levels we saw in late 3rd quarter 2019. In the hot rolled segment, the majority of buyers (58 percent) said the mills are now more willing to negotiate prices on HR, […]
I have been spending time looking at market momentum, lead times (real, not from our survey), who is buying and who is not (and why), and what the market should be concentrating on over the next couple of months (not just today). I am going to start with comments I got from a couple of […]