Lourenco Goncalves, former CEO of Metals USA, is being nominated by Casablanca Capital, an activist fund, to replace James Kirsch as CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources. Casablanca has called for Cliffs to spin off its international ore business to shareholders and convert its North American assets to a master limited partnership (MLP). Casablanca Capital announced […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 7th, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,771 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 14 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 6 to 1,416 rigs, gas rigs down 7 to 351 rigs, […]
Total construction expenditures in December were $70.278 billion, up by 4.8 percent from December 2012. Fourth quarter expenditures were up by 4.2 percent year over year (y/y) and 2013, as a whole, was up by 6.3 percent from 2012. Private construction continues to be the driver, up by 6.4 percent in Q4 y/y but state […]
The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) reports construction employment levels rose in 192 metro areas between December 2012 and December 2013. Declines were seen in 84 metro areas and flat conditions in 63. Read the entire report at AGC.org.
The introduction of an aluminum F-150 pickup at the Detroit auto show has the steel industry looking hard at its advanced high strength steels (AHSS) and figuring out how to insure that AHSS is the preferred material of choice for the auto industry. SMU spoke with Ronald P. Krupitzer, vice president of automotive applications for […]
Construction spending inched up 0.1 percent in December and picked up a modest 4.8 percent for all of 2013. Apartments and single-family homes offset declines in private nonresidential and public projects, according to US Census Bureau data analyzed by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). The AGC reported: “Construction put in place totaled $930 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 31st, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,785 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 8 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 6 to 1,422 rigs, gas rigs up 2 to 358 rigs, […]
Caterpillar Inc. reported Q4 sales and revenues fell 10 percent year-over-year to $14.402 billion, impacted negatively by a goodwill impairment charge of $580 million and positively by a tax settlement of $300 million. Machinery & Power Systems (M&PS) revenue dropped 11 percent in Q4 while operating profit increased 37 percent to $1.27 billion but was […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 24th, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,777 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is unchanged when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 8 to 1,416 rigs, gas rigs down 9 to 356 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs up […]
Light vehicle production in NAFTA in 2013 totaled, 16,141,347 units, the best year since 2002 and an increase of 6.0 percent on 2012 (Source Wards Automotive.). In 3 months through December production was up by 6.9 percent year over year. Light trucks which include crossovers are surging faster than cars, the year over year growth […]
Contractors are expecting a better year in 2014 said the Associated General Contractors of America in their latest report, Optimism Returns: The 2014 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook. In a survey of 800 AGCA members, firms reported stronger optimism for construction demand and employment than they have since the downturn in 2008. More than 40 […]
The most significant observation about housing permits and starts in 2013 was how the growth rate of both single and multi-family slowed progressively during the year. The three month moving average (3MMA) of the year-over-year growth rate of single family declined from 29.6 percent in March to 10.8 percent in December as multi-family declined from […]
The following is a press release from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) on November 2013 shipments of heating and cooling equipment data: U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for November 2013 decreased 15.5 percent, to 348,542 units, down from 412,416 units shipped in November 2012. Residential electric storage water heater shipments […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 17th, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,777 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 23 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 15 to 1,408 rigs, gas rigs up 8 to 365 rigs, […]
The introduction of an aluminum F-150 pickup at the Detroit auto show has the steel industry looking hard at its advanced high strength steels (AHSS) and figuring out how to insure that AHSS is the preferred material of choice for the auto industry. SMU spoke with Ronald P. Krupitzer, vice president of automotive applications for […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 10, 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,754 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is an increase of 3 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 15 to 1,393 rigs, gas rigs down 15 to 357 rigs, […]
Total light vehicle inventories fell 192,000 units from the end of November to the end of December 2013. Total automotive inventories stood at 3.4 million units at the end of December, for a day’s supply of 68 based on SAAR sales of 15.5 million units. The day’s supply at 68 is about 10 percent higher […]
Genzink Steel, located in Holland, Mich., has promoted John Maxson to chief executive officer. Maxson has served as chief operating officer of the Genzink family-owned company for the past ten years. The announcement was made by Board Chairman Ken Genzink, son of founder Donald Genzink. Maxson said the company will focus on developing more rigorous […]
The Commerce Department compiles their information based on the source of financing. These categories are, private, state + local and federal. There are a huge number of sub categories in the private and state + local construction expenditure categories, not so many in federal where expenditures are minimal. At Steel Market Update we combine these […]
Finally the first data on housing starts since August! Total starts in November shot up to 1,091,000, (annualized), the highest since February 2008. Both single and multi family starts were the strongest since H1 2008. The three month moving average of starts was also very encouraging. At the present rate of increase, single family could […]
In a rolling 12 months through November, light vehicle production (automotive) in NAFTA reached 16,093,000 units, a level not seen since May 2003. In three months through November production was up by 9.4 percent year over year. Light trucks, which include crossovers, are surging faster than cars, the year over year growth rates were 15.4 […]
Detroit automaker GM and Ford are going into an expansion mode that will add nearly 6000 new US auto industry jobs in 2014. GM plans to invest $1.3 billion at five US plants in 2014 that will create or retain about 1000 jobs said retiring GM CEO Dan Akerson in his remarks on Monday to […]
Commerce Department data through October 2013. Focus on private construction. The Commerce Department compiles their information based on the source of financing. These categories are, private, state + local and federal. There are a huge number of sub categories in the private and state + local construction expenditure categories, not so many in federal where […]
Each month Steel market Update publishes a table of 38 indicators that we believe captures the essence of the steel market and its drivers. Six of these indicators deal with construction which we believe consumes about 22 percent of all steel products in the US at present. Table 1 shows the construction section of the […]
Light vehicle (autos + light trucks) production surged in October, up 13.5 percent, the rolling 3 months production was up by 13.1 percent. Year over year production was up by 8.3 percent in total and the Detroit 3 made up some ground being up 10.1 percent. Light vehicle production has now exceeded the pre-recession level […]
The Department of Commerce economic data is running late and in the case of CPIP the September data will be released along with October on December 2nd. We now have August data released almost a month late. Normally, this would be a Premium Level analysis only. Since the reports are running behind we decided to […]
U.S. automakers sales were up by 10.4 percent in October to 1.2 million vehicles. Early October sales slowed during the government shutdown as customers waited to see how the fiscal standoff resolved, but auto sales picked up later in the month. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate fell slightly to 15.22 million, down from 15.26 million […]
The S&P/Case-Shiller Index reported existing home prices accelerated in August as indicated by a 12.8 percent year-over-year increase and 1.3 percent monthly increase. Both the 10-city and 20-city composites were at their highest annual increase since February 2006. “The monthly percentage changes for the 20-City composite show the peak rate of gain in home prices […]
Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for August 2013 increased 22.7 percent, to 335,909 units, up from 273,759 units shipped in August 2012. Residential electric storage water heater shipments increased 16.6 percent in August 2013, to 326,805 units, up from 280,177 units shipped in August 2012. For the year-to-date, […]
Ford Motor produced about 1.5 million units during the 3rd Quarter. This was 187,000 more vehicles than they produced during the 3rd Quarter 2012. In the 4th Quarter total production will be 1.6 million units which is 102,000 units higher than a year ago. However, this includes a reduction of 15,000 units from the company’s […]