Tag: supply chain

The US OCTG Manufacturers Association (USOMA) announced that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency made an initial affirmative determination of duty evasion practices.

Nucor’s Consumer Spot Price (CSP), a legitimate mill offer price, is a potential disruptor to North American steel sheet commercial and procurement strategies. We will dive into the details of what we think the CSP is and why we believe it is a potential disruption to how the North American sheet market operates.

Here’s something I didn’t expect to see this week: SMU’s Current Buyers’ Sentiment Index dropped to its lowest point since August 2020.

JSW Steel USA has rejoined the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA).

Tenaris is blaming unfairly traded OCTG imports flooding the US market for its decision to lay off approximately 170 employees.

Roughly halfway through Q2, flatbed rates are holding firm, currently showing no change from April to May and a slight increase quarter-over-quarter (q/q).

Majestic Steel announced the completion of its flagship Majestic Steel Arkansas facility in Blytheville on the campus of Nucor Steel Hickman.

US announces new import duties on aluminum extrusions The US Department of Commerce has placed preliminary antidumping (AD) duties of 2-600% on imports of aluminum extrusions from 14 countries. The rates are: “[The findings] show just how widespread dumping practices are globally and highlight the importance of strongly enforcing the antidumping laws to shield US […]

The Index had briefly showed expansion in March, but has indicated a contracting manufacturing sector for 17 of the last 18 months.

An important economic indicator for the nonresidential construction industry declined in March to its lowest point in more than three years.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) executives said the company's Sinton, Texas, sheet mill should be able to increase melt capacity after an outage earlier this month. Sinton should see "additional improvements in production" after taking "several maintenance days in April," Barry Schneider, SDI president and COO, said in a Q1 earnings conference call on Wednesday.

Cleveland-Cliffs is working on a solution for its recently idled mill in Weirton, W.Va., that will address pent-up demand for transformers, increase the need for its electrical steel, and get its workforce back to work.

ArcelorMittal plans to build a new electrical steel manufacturing facility near its AM/NS Calvert joint-venture mill in Alabama.

While shipping and supply chains have always been subject to wars, pirates, privateers, geopolitical issues, and natural disasters, it seems that “it’s been busier lately when it comes to dealing with significant supply chain disruptions,” according to logistics expert Anton Posner.

The United Steelworkers (USW) union is calling out Nippon Steel for already prioritizing its Japanese operations at the expense of American workers despite forging ahead with its proposed plan to purchase U.S. Steel.

Mercury Resources CEO Anton Posner will be the featured speaker on SMU’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, April 10, at 11 a.m. ET. The live webinar is free. You can register here. A recording of the webinar and the slide deck will be available only for SMU members.

The US Department of Energy has finalized Congressionally mandated energy-efficiency standards for transformers.

Following 16 months of contraction, US manufacturing activity expanded in March according to the latest report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

The Biden administration this week announced landmark industrial funding to support potentially transformational industrial decarbonization projects. In total, thirty-three projects across eight industrial sectors will receive up to $6 billion in federal funds from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED).

Mercury Resources CEO Anton Posner will be the featured speaker on SMU’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, April 3, at 11 am ET. The live webinar is free. You can register here. A recording of the webinar and the slide deck are available only SMU members.

Worthington Steel is taking a pause on M&A activity as it focuses on progressing its electrical steel expansions in Mexico and Canada.

I’ve had questions from some of you lately about how we should think of the spread between hot-rolled (HR) coil prices and those for cold-rolled (CR) and coated product. Let’s assume that mills are intent on holding the line at least at $800 per short ton (st) for HR. The norm for HR-CR/coated spreads had been about $200 per short ton (st). That would suggest CR and coated base prices should be ~$1,000/st. Good luck finding anyone offering that.

Earlier this week SMU polled steel buyers on an array of topics, ranging from market prices, demand, and inventories to imports and evolving market chatter.

The spot rate trend in the flatbeds has seen a positive upturn. There are potential rate accelerators and decelerators, however, likely to influence spot and contract flatbed rates. The flatbed market for spot rates is showing signs of improvement as we move through the new year. February increased slightly from January, marking the third consecutive […]

Worthington Steel began trading publicly on New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 1. In one sense, this marked the “finish line” of the company’s separation process. As the company gets ready to release its first earnings report as a standalone company, president and CEO Geoff Gilmore reflected on the journey, and what lies ahead.

Canada will soon require steel imports to report “country of melt and pour” information.

Mercury Resources CEO Anton Posner will be the featured speaker on SMU’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 11 am ET. The live webinar is free for all. A recording of the webinar and the slide deck are free for SMU members.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. announced on Thursday, Feb. 15, that it will indefinitely idle tinplate production at its mill in Weirton, W.Va.

Sheet prices have fallen again this week on shorter lead times, higher imports, and potentially higher inventories. (We’ll see for sure when we release our service center shipment and inventory data next week.) I remember reporting almost exactly the same thing about a month ago and getting a fair amount of pushback. Not so much these days.

More supply coming online and an unchanging demand environment – two key themes for 2024 – could soon bring the steel sheet storm to a market near you.