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 […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg Part two of our three-part series: What’s next for U.S. iron ore production? After a remarkably profitable 2018, the U.S. steel industry has suffered a setback in 2019 as steel prices have dropped sharply on weaker than expected demand. Steel margins have turned negative and production cuts have been […]
By CRU North America Analyst Ryan McKinley U.S. long product price declines were limited for most products in September after finding support from the scrap market, but downward pressure continues to mount. Even with scrap prices rising by $20 /l.ton in August, persistent price falls throughout the year have yet to spur buyers’ interest amid high […]
Steel Market Update received the following letter from a trading company executive and we thought it should be shared with our readers: I was just reading your article concerning Section 232 and came up with the following short conclusions: The damage of Section 232 to the integrated mills is done. The windfall profit reaped by […]
The effectiveness of the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariff gets mixed reviews. The 25 percent tariff has contributed to a 13 percent reduction in steel imports this year, easing the competitive pressures on domestic mills. But after an initial spike in steel prices last year, and record earnings by the mills, the price of finished […]
SMU contributor Gaurav Chhibbar is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Gaurav’s previous role, he was a trader at Cargill spending time in […]