Mills historically have enjoyed a healthy price premium for cold rolled and galvanized products over hot rolled, at times reaching as high as $220 per ton. More recently, due to the tight supplies of hot rolled, the differential has dipped as low as $80 per ton, prompting at least one mill to act. ArcelorMittal USA […]
An incident at the D4 blast furnace at Great Lakes Works on Friday, Aug. 10, sent 15 Songer Services contract employees to the hospital. Spokesperson Amanda Malkowski says the incident “was not an ‘explosion,’ as many have been reporting.” The furnace was down for scheduled maintenance at the time, so there is no impact to […]
Steel Market Update offers this early look at July’s import volume based on license data (see explanation below). The analysis evaluates the pressure that imports are having on individual products at the national level, but gives no indication of regional differences. SMU has developed a new series of regional reports for the six main flat […]
Emission standards set by the Obama administration in 2012 are now on the chopping block by the Trump administration. Last week the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation submitted a proposal to roll-back emission standards that are set to take effect after 2020 and freeze them at the pre-2020 levels. “We are delivering on […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest developments in Washington: While attending and giving a presentation to the SMU Steel Summit conference in Atlanta on Monday, word came that the U.S. and Mexico had reached a tentative deal on a revised trade agreement. President Trump […]
A major aluminum company has requested that Canada be exempt from Section 232 aluminum tariffs so that it can import alloy from its Canadian mills. Alcoa has three smelting facilities in Canada and three in the United States, as well as other global locations. The Baie-Comeau facility in Quebec produces specialty aluminum in 24-inch slabs, […]
Olympic Steel Inc. announced significantly improved financial results for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30. Net sales for the service center increased 27 percent in 2018’s second quarter, to $453 million, the highest quarterly sales in the company’s history. This compared with $356 million in net sales during the same quarter of 2017. […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum announced it has completed the acquisition of KMS Fab, LLC and KMS South, Inc. The KMS companies specialize in precision sheet metal fabrication using a variety of metals ranging from prototypes to large production runs. The facilities are located in Luzerne, Pa., and West Columbia, S.C., and employ over 200 employees. […]
The ferrous scrap market is showing small signs of weakness looking ahead to August, report Steel Market Update sources, who say prices on obsolete grades such as shredded and heavy melt are likely to decline anywhere from $5 to $20 per ton next month, while pricing of busheling and bundles will remain unchanged. Demand for […]
Scrap is trading lower in August. Steel Market Update sources in the ferrous scrap market report that the price of obsolete grades has declined by about $20 per ton and prime by $10 per ton. Weakness in foreign markets has reduced scrap exports, increasing the domestic supply. “Looking forward, I don’t expect prices to really […]
Following on declines in August and September, ferrous scrap prices in October are settling at an increase of $20 per ton for prime grades and $10 per ton for obsolete grades, according to Steel Market Update sources. A dealer in the Northeast reports that the Detroit market has bought Busheling at $390/GT, up $20; Shredded […]
Nucor’s consolidated net earnings in the second quarter of 2018 jumped to $683.2 million, the second highest quarterly earnings in the company’s history. In comparison, earnings were $354.2 million in the first quarter and $323 million in Q2 2017. Nucor’s Chairman and CEO John Ferriola attributed the successful quarter to an upturn in the steel […]
A Missouri senator is calling for the end of the trade war instigated by Trump administration tariffs that are threatening agricultural producers and manufacturers in her home state. “Missouri jobs and livelihoods are at stake—and I don’t understand the decision to escalate this trade war with no end in sight, risking critical foreign markets and […]
Oil prices have bounced around a bit lately, struggling to stay above the $70 per barrel mark. The spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) broke through $70 on May 7 for the first time since Nov. 27, 2014, and stayed above that level through May 24 this year. The price declined to $64.75 on June […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update have access to reports on SMU’s website that break out the import tonnage into district of entry and source nation for six sheet and plate categories. SMU has now developed reports that drill down to provide more product detail on hot rolled and cold rolled coil. We report these […]
This Steel Market Update report examines the import share of sheet, plate, long and tubular products and 16 subcategories through May. Table 1 shows total supply to the market in three months through May and in 12 months through May for the four product groups and the 16 subcategories. Supply to the market is the […]
The 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference is on pace to become the largest conference we have ever hosted. Our conference will be the premium networking event for manufacturers, fabricators, steel distributors, steel mills, trading companies and toll processors, as well as the industries that supply those groups. Based on the current registration rate, we anticipate […]
Imports of other metallic coated sheet (OMC) into the U.S. as a whole were down by 17.6 percent in May year to date, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of federal data. The Great Lakes region was up by 10.5 percent and the South Atlantic was down by 35.8 percent. SMU now has a […]
Imports of hot-dipped galvanized sheet into the U.S. as a whole were down by 10.9 percent year to date through May, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of Commerce and ITC data. SMU now has a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look at license data to the very detailed look […]
This analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled products into the district of entry and the source country. We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about local import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis is to describe in detail what is going on in a […]
Flat rolled steel imports into the United States continue to decline. The three-month moving average (3MMA) for rolled product imports into the U.S. year over year was down by 11.3 percent as of June, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of Commerce Department license data. This is an early look at June’s import volume […]
U.S. treasury yields are surging and this is contributing to the recent advance in the value of the dollar on foreign exchange markets. The dollar has strengthened by 4.5 percent in the last three months and also by 4.5 percent since Jan. 2. Please see the end of this report for an explanation of data […]
U.S. Steel has promoted Daniel M. Killeen to the position of General Manager Gary Works effective immediately. Killeen will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of U.S. Steel’s largest integrated steelmaking facility. Killeen joined U.S. Steel in 1996 as a Management Associate at Gary Works. He went on to work in a series of increasingly […]
The price of oil topped the $70 per barrel mark last month, a level that often triggers new investment. Indeed, the rig count is up significantly from last year. But the oil price has since receded a bit. The spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) broke through $70 on May 7 for the first […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest developments in Washington: On Wednesday, during a Senate hearing on the Section 232 tariffs, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross offered some additional information on the volume of product exclusion requests he has received. As of June 20, there were […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest developments in Washington: The Trump administration announced new tariffs on China on Friday, covering about $36 billion in imports (2017 figures). Two lists were released. The first list consists of 863 tariff lines that will be subject to […]
Steel Dynamics is expecting second-quarter profitability to be “meaningfully” higher than the first quarter due to increased steel shipments and metal spread expansion. Steel pricing is outpacing scrap costs in Q2. Profitability has improved across all of SDI’s steel platform, but especially in sheet operations. The metals recycling division is expected to be level with […]
Foreign-made automobiles and parts may soon be facing tariffs if the administration is successful in its investigation to determine whether imports of automobiles and auto parts threaten to impair national security. On May 23, the Commerce Department initiated a Section 232 investigation on imported automobiles and parts, noting that during the past 20 years imports […]
Editor’s Note: Not a Premium-level subscriber to SMU? See the sample Premium report below: Imports of hot-dipped galvanized sheet into the U.S. as a whole declined by 8 percent year to date through April, but the Great Lakes region was up by 14.1 percent and the South Pacific was down by 33.8 percent. Imports can […]
Nucor expects earnings for its second quarter to increase significantly compared to first-quarter 2018 due to higher average selling prices and increased profitability. Deregulation, tax reform and higher, stable oil prices have contributed to stronger market conditions, said Nucor in the company’s earnings guidance statement. Profitability increased across all of Nucor’s steel mill product groups […]