I have moved from our Steel 101 workshop in Iowa to Minnesota where I met with a large flat rolled service center this afternoon. The service centers are consistently reporting to SMU that the domestic steel mills are just plain producing too much steel. With scrap down and the marginal cost to produce a hot […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices continued their slide this week. There continues to be a wide spread between hot rolled base pricing and that of cold rolled and coated steels. The changes in pricing shown below do not reduce the spreads, which have been running $150-$170 per ton. Normal spreads should be closer to […]
Steel Market Update is sharing this Premium content with Executive-level members in this issue. For more information on how to upgrade to a Premium-level subscription, email info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Rolled product imports declined by 24.4 percent in April year over year on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This early look at April’s import volume is based […]
U.S. steel exports in March totaled 589,057 net tons (534,384 metric tons), down 1.7 percent from February and down 32.2 percent from levels one year ago. This is the third lowest monthly export level seen in our 10+ year history, behind December 2018 at 519,099 tons and September 2018 at 584,858 tons. The total March […]
Good afternoon/evening from Davenport, Iowa. Davenport is where the Mississippi River flooded the downtown area a couple of weeks ago. Water levels are down four feet from their highest point, and the flood waters reached the parking lot of our hotel before receding back across the railroad tracks. The river is still in flood stage […]
There is no more debate, service centers are moving off inventories at deeper discounts to their end customers than they did just a few weeks ago. The lower spot prices to service center customers were captured during the Steel Market Update flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis conducted this past week. As you […]
More than 40 percent of respondents to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire this past week said they are confused by the current steel market and price direction. Judging by their comments, it’s unclear to many why steel prices are declining at a time when the economy is so strong, imports are down and the […]
Data in Steel Market Update’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Index continues to trend more pessimistic with Current Sentiment hitting its lowest reading in two and a half years. Industry executives appear less optimistic in light of declining steel prices, uncertain demand and contentious negotiations with U.S. trading partners. The goal of the index is to measure […]
With steel prices moving down or sideways and demand softening in some markets, it’s no surprise that most mills are willing to talk price to win business in the current environment. Eight out of 10 of the flat rolled steel buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s questionnaire this week report that prices are in play […]
Average lead times for spot orders of steel have shortened in the past month, suggesting that the mills are not as booked as they would like to be at this time of year. Hot rolled lead times now average less than four weeks, cold rolled less than six weeks, and galvanized and Galvalume slightly above […]
Steel buyers are still trying to get a sense for what is driving this market and market pricing. We are seeing weakness in prices even though foreign steel imports are down, import price offers are higher than domestic steel prices and demand is pretty good for most of the market segments using sheet or plate […]
I got a call earlier today asking about a steel publication changing the direction of some of their flat rolled pricing. I responded that I don’t read the other trade publications, and I don’t follow their indices. I do not want to be influenced as I go through the always difficult, and sometimes tedious, process […]
President Trump has announced that he intends to increase the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese finished goods to the full 25 percent by the end of this week (current rate on first batch is 10 percent). He also intends to increase the number of products to be hit. His statement was the Chinese were dragging […]
Olympic Steel reported a 19 percent increase in its first-quarter sales, netting $446 million, thanks in part to its January acquisition of manufacturer McCullough Industries. Net income for the quarter totaled $2.1 million, down from 7.6 million in the same quarter of 2018. Returns from Olympic’s manufacturing segment are considerably higher than service center margins, […]
Earlier this week the U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest foreign steel import license data. Based on this data, the trend is for 2.8 million net tons of foreign steel imports to arrive in the United States during the month of April. This is essentially unchanged from March, but higher than the 2.4 million […]
The Great Lakes continues to be the highest volume district of entry for hot rolled coil, and the Pacific South had the highest rate of increase year to date through February, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of government data. SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look […]
Cold rolled imports from Mexico through Laredo have surged in 2019 making this the highest volume region of entry year-to-date. For the nation as a whole, cold rolled imports year-to-date were down by 15.3 percent, but the Pacific South, (Los Angeles and San Diego) was up by 78.8 percent, according to Steel Market Update’s latest […]
This comment from a large national service center says it all: “Prices are all over the place. It’s as if the discipline is lost. Different mills all seem to have some sort of hole or gap they’re trying to fill causing pricing heartburn.” Steel Market Update saw further erosion in spot prices on flat rolled […]
Buyers of flat rolled and plate steels with whom Steel Market Update spoke today are concerned about the direction of steel prices, believing prices will continue to fall from here. Many buyers were debating how low prices would go over the next few months. A number have become believers that hot rolled coil will breach […]
AK Steel is not too worried about new steel capacity stealing market share. New carbon steel capacity coming on line is still several years away, said President and COO Kirk Reich. Much of it is not “new” but rather older restarted facilities that AK Steel competed with in the past, and some of that capacity […]
SSAB Americas was a strong contributor for SSAB’s global steel business in the first quarter of 2019. The Americas segment turned in a solid performance with an EBITDA margin of 23 percent and record profit of $129 million due to higher steel prices. Sales increased 45 percent from the first quarter of 2018 to $3.363 […]
Olympic Steel announced the promotion of Andrew J. Tobias to General Manager of Berlin Metals. Tobias has been with the company since 2013, beginning as an outside sales representative for Integrity Stainless. He was promoted to Stainless Steel Product Manager-Specialty Metals in 2015. In his new position, Tobias will be responsible for driving profitable growth […]
When I was in Atlanta, the questions on the minds of the members of the Association of Specialty Cold Rolled Steel Producers were connected to trying to get a better handle on this market. The questions were less about the direction of flat rolled prices, but rather why are steel prices tumbling with Section 232 […]
When I was in Atlanta, the questions on the minds of the members of the Association of Specialty Cold Rolled Steel Producers were connected to trying to get a better handle on this market. The questions were less about the direction of flat rolled prices, but rather why are steel prices tumbling with Section 232 […]
Twice per month Steel Market Update conducts an analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel markets and market trends. We are searching for what is moving the markets, and what buyers and sellers of steel should anticipate in the coming weeks and months. One of the key questions associated with our analysis: Are the […]
Canada will keep safeguard tariffs on imports of heavy plate and stainless steel wire—only two products of the original seven provisional safeguards implemented in October. In April, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal found that imports of hot-rolled steel, pre-painted steel, energy tubular products, rebar and wire rod did not pose a threat of “serious injury” […]
U.S. steel exports in February totaled 599,430 net tons (543,794 metric tons), down 5.8 percent from January and down 25.6 percent from levels one year ago. The total February export figure is above the three-month moving average (3MMA, average of December 2018, January 2019, and February 2019) but below the 12-month moving average (12MMA, average […]
The vast majority of flat rolled and plate steel buyers are reporting to Steel Market Update that prices on all products will be moving at best sideways, with most believing prices will move lower from here. We are seeing pressure on hot rolled, cold rolled and plate prices right now as indexes on these products […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum posted a good first quarter with net sales of $2.96 billion, increasing 7.2 percent year-over-year and 4.1 percent from the fourth quarter. Net income jumped 122 percent from the fourth quarter to $190.1 million. Tons sold increased 5.2 percent from the fourth quarter to 1.5 million tons, but were slightly below […]
Steel buyers continue to express concerns about hot rolled, cold rolled and plate steels. We have seen weakness in those products over the past week to two weeks. Galvanized and Galvalume have had more staying power, however buyers are not rushing to fill their inventories at today’s pricing. There is a wait-and-see attitude regarding future […]