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 […]
Nucor announced net income of $501.8 million for the first quarter of 2019, a 22 percent decrease from income of $646.85 million in the fourth quarter. Net sales slipped 3.0 percent sequentially to $6.10 billion from the fourth quarter as the average sales price per ton dipped 4.0 percent. The drop in earnings was expected […]
Demand for long products and tubular goods has seen strong growth, but sheet products are declining. This analysis by SMU staff is based on data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC). The analysis summarizes total steel supply by product from 2003 through February 2019 and year-on-year […]
We thought it would be a good idea to share the agenda of a typical Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop so you can get a feel for what we cover. Our instructors each have decades of steel experience as metallurgists, purchasing experts, sales, marketing and market intelligence. Our next workshop […]
Non-coated flat rolled and plate prices are under pressure and there is worry coming from steel buyers about the second half of this calendar year. I am hearing mixed results regarding actual demand. The weather has finally broken in the north and products such as the metal building industry are seeing significant gains. We also […]
Mills are willing to talk price on all types of steel products to get the orders, report the vast majority of buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s questionnaire this week. Corroborating the trend, SMU data shows steel prices moving downward or sideways, raising questions about current steel demand. About 86 percent of respondents said the […]
Average lead times for spot orders of steel, including all types of products, have shortened slightly in the past two weeks. Hot rolled lead times now average around four weeks, cold rolled and Galvalume around six weeks, and galvanized down to nearly six and a half weeks. Lead times for plate are now less than […]
Nucor Corporation announced today that Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President R. Joseph Stratman plans to retire on June 8 after more than 29 years of service with Nucor. Stratman began his career with Nucor in 1989 as Controller of Nucor Building Systems-Indiana. He then served as Controller of Nucor-Yamato Steel Company, General Manager […]
Nucor Corporation announced today that Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President, R. Joseph Stratman, plans to retire on June 8, 2019 after more than 29 years of service with Nucor. Mr. Stratman began his career with Nucor in 1989 as Controller of Nucor Building Systems-Indiana. He then served as Controller of Nucor-Yamato Steel Company, […]
First, please be aware that Sunday is Easter and Steel Market Update will not publish an issue on Sunday evening. Our next issue will be on Tuesday, April 23. We have been receiving calls and getting comments associated with our release of the SMU Service Center Inventories Analysis in Sunday evening’s issue where we showed […]
Flat rolled steel prices saw a little more weakening this week, and steel buyers are concerned that more erosion in prices could be coming in the next few months. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $640-$700 per ton ($32.00/cwt-$35.00/cwt) with an average of $670 per ton […]
The Russians are coming—to Kentucky. Russian aluminum producer United Co. Rusal plans to invest $200 million in a $1.7 billion rolling mill being built by start-up company Braidy Industries in Ashland, Ky. The investment will give Rusal a 40 percent stake in the project and a significant presence in the U.S. automotive and aerospace aluminum […]
Flat rolled steel inventories at the service centers rose at the end of March, according to the data providers working with Steel Market Update. SMU has been collecting service center data for almost two years now. Six months back, with the help of the CRU team, we changed the way we were collecting and the […]
Interlake Steamship Company has partnered with Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding to build the first U.S.-flagged Great Lakes bulk carrier in more than 35 years. “It’s being built with a lot of steel from Great Lakes steel mills to carry the products that help to do just that,” said Interlake Steamship President Mark Barker in remarks to […]
Steel Market Update conducted an analysis of flat rolled and plate steel market trends last week. One of the key trends we watch closely is the relationship between how service centers are handling spot prices to their customers and what support is being given to domestic steel mill price increases. With the two increases announced […]
The steel industry is on the brink of a capacity boom as mills reinvest their record profits in dozens of mill additions and upgrades. What will that mean for steel supply and prices in the coming years? Who better to answer that question than the chief executives from four of North America’s leading steel producers—JSW […]
The steel industry is on the brink of a capacity boom as mills reinvest their record profits in dozens of mill additions and upgrades. What will that mean for steel supply and prices in the coming years? Who better to answer that question than the chief executives from four of North America’s leading steel producers—JSW […]
We saw weakness in a number of the products we index this week. We are not seeing a collapse of the market, and as we discuss in another article in tonight’s issue, there are regional and product differences. The various products are not working in concert right now. We moved our Price Momentum Indicators on […]
SMU was speaking to a coated sheet steel buyer this afternoon about flat rolled steel prices. He made an interesting observation about how the markets have become quite complicated. When looking at galvanized, for example, there are different starting points for light gauge, medium gauge and heavy gauge steels. There are also regional differences (southern […]
We saw weakness in a number of the products we index this week. We are not seeing a collapse of the market, and as we discuss in another article in tonight’s issue, there are regional and product differences. The various products are not working in concert right now. We moved our Price Momentum Indicators on […]
SMU was speaking to a coated sheet steel buyer this afternoon about flat rolled steel prices. He made an interesting observation about how the markets have become quite complicated. When looking at galvanized, for example, there are different starting points for light gauge, medium gauge and heavy gauge steels. There are also regional differences (southern […]
A surprising two out of three respondents to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire last week said they are not concerned about the direction of steel prices, at least in the short term, though some question the staying-power of current demand. Steel Market Update asked: “Foreign steel imports are dropping and the domestic mills are […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released updated import license data on Tuesday evening, with new March license estimates up slightly to 2.76 million tons. These latest figures would be above the three-month moving average (3MMA, through final January data), but below the 12-month moving average (12MMA). When removing the semi-finished (mostly slabs) licenses from the […]
Sales of HVAC products remain fairly strong in most parts of the country, but prices don’t fully reflect that demand, reported members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International in their monthly conference call. “I still think the market is fragile,” commented one HARDI member. “The mills have a lot of fundamentals in their […]
A comment from a steel buyer today as we discussed steel prices, “That’s what I like about the steel business, there is always a new dynamic.” Put another way by one of my trading mentors a number of years back, in the steel industry prices are either going up or they are going down, there […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data for foreign steel coming into the United States. Based on the data received and reported through April 2, March imports are expected to come in slightly higher than February at 2.6-2.7 million net tons. When removing the semi-finished (mostly slabs) licenses from the data, the finished steel […]
Year over year, total rolled product imports in March were down by 11.2 percent, measured as a three-month moving average (3MMA). This early look at March’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license data (see explanation below). Beginning in January 2018, we expanded this import analysis to include all major steel sectors: sheet, plate, […]
I’m going to give you more than advertisements in tonight’s Final Thoughts. I have been struggling with our SMU Price Momentum Indicator. It appears that each product has a life of its own, and I need to do a deeper analysis of each to determine where my Momentum Indicator needs to be. Right now, I […]
The majority of respondents to Steel Market Update’s questionnaire this week reported mills willing to talk price in every product category, even plate, which may say something about the current state of steel demand. About 76 percent of respondents said the mills are open to price negotiations on hot rolled, up 20 points from the […]
Lead times for spot orders of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steels are now about a week longer than they were in January, but have seen only small upticks in the past month. Lead times for plate and Galvalume have actually shortened slightly. Hot rolled lead times now average a bit more than four […]