When speaking to buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel this week, one theme became abundantly clear: everyone is waiting for trade cases and, second, where scrap prices will end up for the month of June. Both are expected to support a further tightening of steel prices. Scrap is expected to rise anywhere from $10 […]
Steel Market Update sources: mill, service center and others are advising us that anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) trade cases on coated products will be filed yet this week. We have heard that the filing could come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3rd) or on Thursday of this week. Any trade filing on coated […]
As this issue started and I began working on my final thoughts for tonight’s issue, it began with comments from one of our service center friends about the prospect of dumping suits being filed. As the evening progressed I started to receive a number of credible comments from steel mills, service centers and others. The […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets Well, the last time we spoke […]
The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), Eurometal, and the International Steel Trade Association have agreed to establish a global steel supply chain partnership. The purpose is outlined in a press release from AIIS below: The purpose of their agreement is to establish a Global Steel Supply Chain Partnership as a framework for collaboration among […]
ArcelorMittal’s NAFTA segment, and in particular the US, saw a collapse in steel prices in first quarter. High levels of imports, a strengthening dollar, and a weak energy segment created significant headwinds for the company that are expected to continue in 2015. CFO Aditya Mittal hinted in the earnings conference call that cuts may be […]
The 2015 Association for Iron and Steel Technology Steelmaker of the Year Award was presented to Mario Longhi, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Steel Corp. at the AISTech 2015 conference in Cleveland, Ohio on May 5, 2015. The award recognizes the contributions of a prominent individual to the steel industry. Longhi was honored […]
During the latest slew of earnings conference calls by the domestic steel mills, analysts were relentless in their pursuit of information regarding trade cases which would conceivably impact the flow of imported steel into the United States. The steel mill CEO’s and other mill executives associated with the conference calls were more than willing to […]
US Steel spoke at length on the impact that unfairly traded imports have had on results in first quarter. Although, CEO Mario Longhi could not give an estimate for when the next trade case will be filed he did respond, “What I can tell you, it’s not a question of if; it’s a question of […]
AK Steel earnings in first quarter were challenged by high levels of imported carbon steel products, said CEO James Wainscott. “The first quarter of 2015 was certainly more challenging than we anticipated. That because of the extremely high level of imported carbon steel products–unfairly traded imports, in our opinion–that hit our countries shores at the […]
Nucor Corp. announced net earnings of $67.8 million. Consolidated net sales decreased 14 percent year over year to $4.4 billion in the first quarter 2015. Earnings were down 12 percent compared to fourth quarter 2014. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 5.6 million tons, down 7 percent from Q4 and 9 percent from Q1 […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. reported high levels of steel import and customer inventory reduced shipments for first quarter resulting in a 44 percent drop in consolidated operating income compared to fourth quarter. SDI adjusted net income was $40 million for first quarter 2015 with $2 billion in net sales. The adjusted income excludes $17 million in […]
First, before everyone goes completely crazy regarding the US Steel announcement to “idle” the Granite City Works steel plant, SMU has been told by Courtney Boone, US Steel media spokesperson, that the plant would not go down prior to May 28, 2015. A lot can happen (and will happen) in the industry prior to that […]
We thought we would take one last stab at the subject of Anti-Dumping (AD) and Countervailing Duties (CVD) since we received more detailed information from attorney Lewis Leibowitz: The question of time lines for AD/CVD cases can fill many pages. There are rules, exceptions and discretion (mostly Commerce) that can alter the time lines. Your […]
As we ended the last article about the possibility of Anti-Dumping (AD) or Countervailing Duty (CVD) trade cases against flat rolled steel (cold rolled, galvanized and possibly Galvalume) in Tuesday evening’s issue we presented a number of questions posed by one of our readers. He wanted to know: I have a timeline question for you […]
Any of you out there feeling like the beat of the anti-import drums are once again beating harder and harder. So, what happens if the Chinese steel mills decide to “voluntarily” reduce or allocate their export tonnage to the United States? First, would they try to allocate at existing tonnage levels (which are quite high) […]
Ryerson Holding Company, a leading distributor and processor of metals, announced a net loss of $25.7 million for 2014. Revenues increased 4.7 percent last year to $3.6 billion, but $32.7 million in IPO-related expenses and costs associated with partial redemption of Senior Notes negatively impacted earnings. “We showed year-over-year improvement in our key metrics for […]
Steel Market Update has received a number of inquiries recently asking questions about the potential for a trade case or anti-dumping filing by the domestic mills against foreign steel imports. In particular, the imports in question are cold rolled and coated steels and, the country mentioned the most is China, although if there is a […]
I reproduced part of an article written by David Phelps about the fling of an anti-dumping trade case, what the mills have to prove and how the system works. The original article was written back in July 2014 and the exact same subject, with the exact same products and same cast of characters, exists today. […]
Tenaris announced it will temporarily suspend operations at its welded tubes mill in Conroe, Texas. The shutdown will result in the layoff of approximately 230 employees, effective April 2015. “Record levels of unfairly traded imports of OCTG (oil country tubular goods) from South Korea and the sharp decline in the price of oil and consequential […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum fourth quarter consolidated sales rose 11.7 percent year over year to $2.58 billion. Tons sold increased 4.4 percent year over year to 1,469,300 tons. Carbon steel sales of $1.4 billion fell 5.9 percent sequentially with tons sold down 4.7 percent to 1,999,300 tons. The average selling price per ton of steel […]
Phillip Bell, President of the Steel Manufacturers Association (steel mills) told those assembled at the 26th annual Port of Tampa Steel Conference, “There is a growing consensus that something just isn’t right.” What he was referring to was the domestic steel mills running at 75 percent capacity utilization rates and the industry still suffering due […]
Keith Busse, former CEO of Steel Dynamics (SDI) told those assembled at the Port of Tampa Steel Conference held this past week in Tampa, Florida that “…It was bound to happen.” What he was referring to was the steel community being impacted by the strong dollar, surging imports and a world economy which he described […]
So far Steel Market Update has heard a similar cry in each steel mill earnings conference call. The domestic mills are not happy about the amount of foreign steel coming into the country and the growing percentage of market share foreign steel is taking from the domestic mills. We are hearing a couple of terms […]
The fall in hot rolled futures prices seems to have slowed with the CRU down only $6/ton this week compared to an $18/ton drop the week prior. The second half of the year seems to have stabilized with trades being done at $570-575/ton for Q3 and Q4. The near term remains softer with bids retreating […]
AK Steel CEO, James Wainscott, spoke to analysts this morning regarding AK Steel 4th Quarter and calendar year 2014 earnings. We have a separate article which speaks to their earnings. What we have done is to point on some of the highlights of the call from our perspective: AK Steel did a major reline of […]
AK Steel claimed its best quarter in three and a half years and its best annual performance since 2008. AK Steel reported shipments of 2,010,200 tons in fourth quarter 2014 compared to 1.42 million tons in Q4 2013. The increase exceeded analyst expectations and was due primarily to strong demand from automotive and the addition […]
Thursday is New Year’s Day and a Holiday here in the United States. Steel Market Update will not publish on Thursday but we will be back to our normal schedule on Sunday, January 4, 2015. We will publish a Premium supplemental issue of our newsletter on either Wednesday or Friday of this week with Key […]
Steel Market Update is speaking at the Cowen & Company conference in New York City this week. On the agenda today were three former “captains of the industry” – Dan DiMicco, John Surma and Keith Busse – each a former CEO of a major steel producer, DiMicco with Nucor, Surma with US Steel and Busse […]
On Thursday of this past week Nucor announced their earnings and conducted their quarterly earnings conference call with analysts. SMU has highlighted a number of subjects touched on during the conference call. The following information (minus the headers) was taken directly from The Street transcript of the call: Potential for Light Flat Rolled Trade Cases […]