The last few weeks have been busy ones for the U.S. auto industry. A 40-day strike by the United Auto Workers at General Motors ended with ratification of a new four-year labor agreement, allowing negotiations to move forward at Ford. Ford negotiations wrapped up in just three days with a tentative agreement now ready to […]
I have noticed many articles in the mainline press over the past few days slamming the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariffs as not helping the steel industry. Most of the articles point to the recent loss announced by U.S. Steel as proof, along with minimal to no job gains in the industry. I don’t think […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The China tariffs, the steel and aluminum tariffs, the safeguard tariffs on solar panels and washing machines all have a feature in common: some form of product exclusion. This means that imported products covered by these measures may be […]
By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen We expect world GDP to grow by 2.5 percent this year and next; in other words, we expect global growth to be broadly stable at current rates. The story for world industrial production, instead, is one of a mild recovery from 1.4 percent in 2019 to 2.2 percent in […]
A memo from the Commerce Department Office of the Inspector General suggests that the Section 232 exclusion process may be favoring the companies that file objections to exclusion requests. The watchdog agency found evidence of unofficial communications that may be giving objectors undue influence in tariff decisions. The Bureau of Industry and Security is charged […]
Commercial Metals Company is enjoying the rewards of its purchase of four rebar mills and 33 fabrication facilities from Gerdau. The acquisition added 2.5 million tons of rolling capacity and increased fabrication capacity by almost 50 percent. “The systems integration was flawless and got completed in less than four months, well ahead of schedule,” said […]
Steel price volatility was persistent in 2019, said CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores at the FMA/ASD Executive Networking Series held in Pittsburgh last week. U.S. economic growth was below the historical trend throughout 2019, but has improved since April, according to the Chicago Fed National Activity Index. Activity in two key steel sectors, fabricated metal products and […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: New developments cascaded on us in the past week. I will focus, as is my habit, on those related to international trade and commerce. Trade-related developments called into question a number of initiatives in Congress and the administration. Impeachment looked […]
By CRU Analyst Sam Grant Looking at our North American zinc market forecasts for 2020, there are clear arguments for either a rollover or slight decline in contract premia as we head into negotiations during the final quarter of this year. In this article, we present an overview of the North American refined market fundamentals […]
By John Packard, President & CEO, Steel Market Update The Steel Market Update Steel Buyers Sentiment Index has been a mirror of the comments made by buyers of flat rolled and plate steel over the past few days. Our Sentiment Index, which measures how buyers and sellers of steel feel about their company’s ability to […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran U.S. steel sheet prices have fallen faster in early Q4 than initially expected, as lower demand levels, economic uncertainty and another $30-40 /l.ton decrease in scrap prices in October guided steel prices down. The CRU Midwest HR coil price assessment on Oct. 16 was $507 /s.ton, down $64 from […]
By CRU Analysts Chris Bandmann and Alexander Ordosch In response to events in Syria, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the U.S. tariffs on Turkish steel imports will be restored to 50 percent, after they had been revised down to 25 percent in May. What are the likely impacts of this decision? Turkish Exports […]
Tariffs on steel imports from Turkey will be doubled to 50 percent, declared President Trump, in punishment for Turkey’s military offensive on Kurds in northern Syria. The current tariffs imposed under Section 232 will be increased by executive action, said the White House. Trump’s decision last week to withdraw troops from Syria left the U.S.-allied […]
One of the reasons why I enjoy the steel industry is the fact that every day is different. Each customer is unique, every buyer had his/her own personality and way of conducting business. As a salesman, my challenge was understanding and then navigating the motivating factors behind every purchasing decision. The U.S. government has been […]
In September, the licensed import volume of rolled steel products was the lowest since February 2011, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of the latest Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data. Total rolled product imports in September declined by 15.5 percent year over year on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This follows the […]
JSW USA has filed a challenge to a tariff exclusion denial with the U.S. Court of International Trade. In the first tariff exclusion case to reach the USCIT, JSW claims that Commerce ignored evidence presented regarding the domestic availability of steel slab. The company is requesting a refund of the tariffs it was required to pay. […]
The good news is that the Commerce Department has finally approved Priefert Manufacturing’s request to exclude one of its products from the Section 232 tariff. The bad news is that the company still may never see a refund of the $700,000 it has paid out in unfair duties. Priefert Manufacturing is a service center and […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: A natural question came up this week: What impact will the recent launching of an official impeachment inquiry against President Trump have on trade? We can already see some impacts. USMCA (NAFTA 2.0) continues to have rough sledding […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: As Washington continues to descend into trench warfare over Ukraine, Joe Biden, defense aid and subpoenas, the world continues to turn. It seems likely that soon, impeachment will take up all the oxygen and the ordinary business of government […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: These times can try our patience. This week was such a time. It featured a cornucopia of fast-paced events. They will probably end up affecting us all. I want to focus on two big issues: impeachment and foreign […]
The global market share of U.S. scrap exports continues to increase, according to this quarterly analysis of data from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) in the UK. We believe that to improve our understanding of the gyrations of the domestic scrap market, we should be aware of where the U.S. stands as a […]
There have been some discussions recently with articles written about the global scrap trade and China. China is the world’s largest steel producing nation with 50 percent (or greater) of the world’s steel production. A couple of years ago, I received information from one of my Chinese trading contacts about scrap steel being exported out […]
I received numerous notes regarding a hot strip mill outage at AMNS Calvert, which began last week. Based on reports from steel buyers, the HSM outage was expected to last for about one week. We asked ArcelorMittal for information and confirmation yesterday, but they failed to respond. Today, we received information that the Calvert lead […]
I highly encourage you to read the Global Steel Import Monitor put out quarterly by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It was just published for September 2019. In it are all kinds of statistics concerning U.S. steel trade. In 2018, despite antidumping duties on 35 countries, countervailing duties tacked onto 10 of those countries and […]
Steel Market Update thought it might be interesting to review steel prices over the past 11 years, or since we began producing our own steel indices. As you can see by the graphic below, there have been three strong downward cycles over the past 11 years. The first was in 2011, the second began in […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Last week, in the latest news on dispute settlement proceedings in the WTO concerning the Section 232 “national security” tariffs and quotas, the WTO panelists announced that a panel report would not be circulated to the parties to […]
By CRU Analyst Ryan McKinley Domestic scrap prices in the U.S. fell by $30-40 /l.ton in September depending on region and grade—by about $20 /l.ton lower than was generally expected by the market. The steeper-than-expected decline was caused by a confluence of factors including ample supply, mill outages and a weakening export market. Obsolete prices were […]
Total rolled product imports in August were down by 11.8 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis year over year. This follows the 15.3 percent decline in July on the same basis. This early look at August’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license data (see explanation below.) This import analysis includes all […]
Following on a small $20 increase in August, ferrous scrap prices for September are down $30 to $40 per ton as U.S. mills adjusted to lower demand and planned for upcoming fall shutdowns. “Prices fell this month amid a confluence of factors including ample supply, a weakening export market and mill outages,” reported CRU North […]
Do plans by U.S. mills to add millions of tons of new steelmaking capacity over the next few years make a price-killing supply glut inevitable? That’s a question very much open to debate, as shown by the spirited exchange between three leading analysts during Steel Market Update’s Steel Summit Aug. 28 in Atlanta. Despite some […]