Mill lead times for spot orders of flat rolled steel continued to shrink this month. Even plate, which has been in short supply, is showing signs of loosening with its average lead time dipping to less than six weeks from more than seven weeks at the beginning of January. Lead times for steel delivery are […]
Halfway through the first month of the year, buyers report that most mills are willing to talk price to secure the order. Even price negotiations with plate mills are beginning to loosen up. Nearly half (47 percent) of plate buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire this week said suppliers are now open […]
The plate markets have been acting quite differently than the hot rolled markets for some time. As hot rolled prices have eroded, plate prices have stabilized, with discrete plate trading around $1,000 per ton, delivered to the mill’s customer. We are seeing the dynamics of the plate markets changing, and SMU wants to be careful […]
Nope, I have not yet changed my position on the flat rolled market and where I am seeing momentum. Demand is good, sentiment is just “ok” for lack of a better term. I am seeing a little weakness in the plate market, but come on, the spread between plate and hot rolled is way too […]
All is quiet on the eastern front (the western front announced increases yesterday – so, not so quiet there). Steel buyers have been telling Steel Market Update over the past few days that their inventories are stable to high, they are not comfortable with all of the uncertainty and concerned with the lack of transparency […]
California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS-POSCO Industries (UPI) announced price increases of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) on Monday, hoping to stem the slide in flat-rolled steel prices that began last summer. The announcements do not include plate. In its Jan. 21 letter to customers, CSI stated that it is opening its order book for flat-rolled […]
On Monday, California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS/POSCO (UPI) advised customers of their intention to take spot prices on flat rolled products produced by the two mills up by $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). This is the first price announcement out of either mill since October 2018. So far, there have not been any announcements out […]
On Monday, California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS/POSCO (UPI) advised customers of their intention to take spot prices on flat rolled products produced by the two mills up by $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). This is the first price announcement out of either mill since October 2018. So far, there have not been any announcements out […]
California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS-POSCO Industries (UPI) announced price increases of $40 per ton on Monday, hoping to stem the slide in flat-rolled steel prices that began last summer. The announcements do not include plate. In its Jan. 21 letter to customers, CSI stated that it is opening its order book for flat-rolled orders […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores Scrap prices in the U.S. fell $30 /lt m/m in January, the first time since 2006 that prices have declined in the month. The fall was also the largest December to January decrease in at least two decades for obsolete grades. The unusual decline occurred because supply outpaced demand […]
It’s football night in North America, so I don’t know how many late Sunday night readers I will have. Hopefully, your team won, and all is well with the world. We have closed registrations for the end of January Steel 101 workshop. Our next workshop will be in Baytown, Texas, (just outside of Houston) and […]
Steel Market Update spoke with a number of foreign steel trading companies who service the North American market today. There was one very clear theme no matter who I spoke with – steel buyers are not willing to take any risk on foreign steel with spreads less than $60 per ton. A second common theme: […]
When we looked at the hot rolled coil market this week, it became apparent there were a number of pressures on that particular product. Pressures from short lead times, for one. Some of our sources reported HRC lead times around 2-3 weeks. We also have at least one mill looking for market share with numbers […]
When we go out for flat rolled and plate steel spot pricing, we do so in a number of ways in order to maximize the number of responses. This week SMU sent out an email inquiry requesting information on pricing, but also on lead times, inventories and foreign steel offers, and we solicited general open […]
If the prevailing view in the market proves correct, steel mills will announce a price increase soon—but it won’t stick. Two out of three steel executives responding to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire this past week believe the mills will announce an increase in flat rolled prices by the end of January. But given […]
Last week, Steel Market Update concluded our early January analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel market trends. One of the key areas we watch is how service centers are handling spot pricing of flat rolled steels to their end customers. Over the years we have learned that when service centers are raising prices, […]
Steel Market Update faces unique challenges as we strive to “fairly” report market intelligence to the broader steel community. We understand that the consumers of our information are buyers, sellers and producers of steel and steel products. Of concern to our readers is the need to better understand flat rolled and plate steel prices and […]
Steel Market Update faces unique challenges as we strive to “fairly” report market intelligence to the broader steel community. We understand that the consumers of our information are buyers, sellers and producers of steel and steel products. Of concern to our readers is the need to better understand flat rolled and plate steel prices and […]
Mill lead times turned the corner on the new year little changed from mid-December. At less than four weeks for hot rolled and around six weeks for cold rolled and coated products, lead times for spot orders of most products are as short as they have been in over a year. While still in high […]
Steel Market Update’s first canvass of the new year shows a subtle shift in the price dynamic between mills and steel buyers. No doubt, buyers still have a lot of leverage and most mills are usually willing to talk price to secure the order. But SMU’s findings show a slight tightening in negotiations. In the […]
Steel Market Update’s Steel Buyers Sentiment Index began the year with another slight dip in optimism, as measured by both the Current Sentiment and the Future Sentiment three-month moving averages. The goal of the index is to measure how buyers and sellers of steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful today (Current Index), […]
We captured some very low (market-share grabbing) hot rolled prices this week. We are seeing two domestic mills aggressively going after hot rolled orders. We saw spot HRC as low as $660 FOB one specific mill. However, we have decided not to include their offers in the market pricing yet. Our readers need to be […]
Nucor Corp. announced on Monday that it is scouting the Midwest for a suitable location to build a $1.35 billion EAF mill that is capable of producing 1.2 million tons of steel plate products annually. Nucor expects site selection to be completed in 2019 and construction to begin as soon as permits are secured. The […]
I mentioned this in my pricing article earlier in this newsletter, but I think it bears repeating. When I was with Winner Steel (now called NLMK Sharon Coatings) we brought up two new coating lines. As each line came onstream it was imperative to get orders, so the line would run. One way to get […]
When on calls with steel service center and manufacturing executives, one of the questions that always comes up is my view on the economy. I am not an economist and I defer to CRU and to economists like Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics (Alan speaks at the SMU Steel Summit Conference). I know Dr. Beaulieu’s […]
January 2019 has begun and steel prices have taken up where they left off as Steel Market Update price ranges and averages dropped compared to where we ended 2018. Steel buyers are worried about inventory levels, which some service centers reported as having grown more than expected during the month of December. They also worry […]
The year ended on a cautionary note with steel demand, prices and buyers’ sentiment showing downward momentum in December. Prices for flat rolled products continued their fourth-quarter declines with hot rolled dipping to $754, cold rolled to $865 and galvanized to $931 in December. Plate is the notable exception, holding steady around $1,000 per ton, […]
The service center sector will witness the return of a familiar old name in the new year. Norfolk Iron & Metal Co. has closed on its acquisition of O’Neal Flat Rolled Metals (OFR), which will now go to market under its former moniker Metalwest. Norfolk Iron purchased OFR from O’Neal Industries, based in Birmingham, Ala. […]
For almost eight years, Steel Market Update has been working in conjunction with the U.S. and Canadian steel mills on a basic steel training workshop for those involved in the flat rolled, plate and long product steel industries. We have trained in excess of 600 individuals ranging from people on their first day on the […]
The New Year has started, the pace is a little slow for some, others have told me that their order books got a kick start yesterday. I have to imagine the differences are based on geography and product. This afternoon I had an interesting conversation with the head of commercial for a domestic steel mill. […]