Cliffs Natural Resources announced Tuesday that it has entered a nine year agreement to provide iron ore pellets to AK Steel. The new agreement runs from 2014 through 2023. Cliffs will continue to supply AK Steel under its previous agreement from now until 2014. The new agreement sets minimum and maximum volume purchases from Cliffs […]
We got a taste of everything this past week from the various steel indexes we monitor on a regular basis. Platts, which recently has been on the leading edge of higher flat rolled steel prices, scaled their numbers back on both hot rolled and cold rolled this week. CRU budged ever so slightly higher on […]
Platts continues to lead the other steel indexes on both benchmark hot rolled as well as cold rolled pricing. Platts has hot rolled coil priices at $665 per ton this past week, while the rest of the indexes SMU reviews on a continuous basis have the product ranging from $645 to $653 per ton. A […]
Over the past decade more steel indices have emerged in the steel commodities markets. All serve the same objective of providing pricing benchmarks for buyers and sellers of steel – and, in recent years, for the financial settlement of derivative contracts. As the number of indices grew so did the questions surrounding the validity of […]
By John Packard Have flat rolled steel prices reached their peak? We captured mixed results in this week’s analysis of the indices followed by Steel Market Update. Platts Midwest hot rolled and cold rolled coils both shot up $12.50 per ton compared to where we had them one week ago. Steel Orbis numbers did not […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) watches a number of steel indexes and their weekly price movements on various flat rolled products. Since the May 22nd price increase announcement by U.S. Steel the indexes have been capturing a steady increase in pricing. The spread on benchmark hot rolled has narrowed with all but SteelBenchmarker being within $5.50/per […]
We had a mixed bag this past week as the CRU indices went higher while SMU and Platts moved lower. Stuck in the middle was Steel Orbis which didn’t do anything and SteelBenchmarker which did not report new numbers last week. The benchmark hot rolled index is in a fairly tight range from $610 (SMU/Steel […]
All of the indices followed by Steel Market Update had benchmark hot rolled above $600 per ton with all being above $610 per ton with the exception of the CRU. With the exception of Platts – which has been higher than the other indices for a number of weeks recently – cold rolled could be […]
With the exception of the CRU, all of the other indexes followed by Steel Market Update showed a change in the price direction on all of the flat rolled products followed by SMU. Steel Orbis and Platts both had items increase by as much as $20 per ton where SMU and CRU were a bit […]
The indices watched by Steel Market Update (SMU) tumbled this past week as benchmark hot rolled averages were at, or below $600 per ton in three of the five indexes. We saw many indices dropping by double digits prior to the U.S. Steel pricing announcement. It is normal for prices to move lower the week […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Home prices showed strong gains at the end of 2012 according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. The national composite increased 7.3 percent in 2012 after surging in the second and third quarter and dipping slightly in the fourth period. The yearly indices for the 10- and 20-City Composites posted annual […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) flat rolled price assessments remained the same on hot rolled, cold rolled and Galvalume this past week compared to the week before. Our galvanized price average was $5 per ton lower than one week earlier as the lower end of our range dropped by $10 per ton. Platts did not change […]
Split on Increase, Lead Times, Sentiment for Sideways Pricing – Market has Little Direction Steel Market Update (SMU) continues to set a new record each week we hold our Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral. The longest previous record for a Neutral indication for market price direction was five weeks (back in late May/June 2011) for […]
With the exception of SteelBenchmarker which only produces pricing twice per month, the rest of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update were bunched fairly closely together. Hot rolled coil price assessments were reported at $610 by three – SMU, CRU and Steel Orbis while Platts was at $620 and SteelBenchmarker at $631. Many of […]
Prices crept up on most of the indexes watched by Steel Market Update on a regular basis – even the straggler, Steel Orbis, raised their indices last week. CRU and Steel Orbis are at the low end of the range for Benchmark hot rolled with SMU and SteelBenchmarker somewhere in the middle and Platts at […]
After speaking with Platts on Friday – Mr. Surma of US Steel was correct in his call with analysts, there is one index which has hot rolled coil (Midwest) at $630 this week. A split has developed amongst the indexes as various price points have been gathered over the past week to ten days (depending […]
At the moment we have broken into two camps when it comes to hot rolled coil – the CRU and SteelBenchmarker (which did not report prices this past week) who both pegged their HRC prices in the mid-$630’s – and the rest of the indexes we follow on a regular basis and ourselves (SMU) who […]
Platts may be providing a hint as to what we will see coming from the other indices as we enter a full week. SMU did see weakness in our steel survey but we have decided not to make any adjustments in our index until Tuesday evening since last week was 1) a short week and, […]