Flat rolled and plate steel prices, which have been fairly resilient over the past couple of months, slipped this week. The biggest move was in plate, which was down $30 per ton, while flat rolled products were lower by $5 to $20 per ton. We will wait to see if this move was nothing more […]
U.S. raw steel production totaled 1,745,000 net tons in the week ending Sept. 16, up 0.7 percent from the prior week and an increase of 9.7 percent from the same period last year. The mill capability utilization rate for the Sept. 16 week was 74.9 percent, up significantly from 68.0 percent at the same time […]
Flat rolled steel average prices are once again “mixed” as some items have dropped, some have remained the same and some rose last week compared to the previous week. We received numbers from Platts, SteelBenchmarker and our own steel index late last week and we found hot rolled down $5 on SMU, up $7 on […]
Last week, we mistakenly published new extras for Nucor that have not yet been announced. We have revised our galvanized coating extras comparison table (see below), which is also available on our website. The table below is available on our website in the menu system under Resources > Steel Mills > Galvanized > Coating Extras […]
Imports continued to increase their share of the steel sheet market in July. Apparent supply is a proxy for market demand. For all sheet products except other metallic coated, demand had positive momentum in three months through July. This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through July 2017 and year-on-year changes. It then compares […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel import prices (delivered to USA ports) and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil prices (FOB Domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Director of Risk Management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
JSW Steel, a steel plate mill in Baytown, Texas, reports a remarkable story of perseverance, ingenuity and courage as it faced the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. As the hurricane was bearing down on the coast, CEO John Hritz made the difficult decision to shut down operations at the mill. JSW’s 700 acres are situated in […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated foreign steel license data on Tuesday. Based on data through the first 12 days of September, foreign steel imports are trending toward a 2.6 million net ton month. If the numbers hold, the 2.6 million tons would be one million tons lower than the three-month moving average, which is […]
Zinc prices have been rising and we are starting to see updated galvanized price extras from the mills. Steel Market Update has received updated galvanized coating extras from Nucor, USS Posco (UPI), NLMK, California Steel Industries (CSI), and AK Steel. We updated the comparison tables on our website and have included a copy of the […]
Steel Market Update canvassed flat rolled and plate steel buyers throughout the day today in order to determine if steel prices have changed since our review last week. We found prices softening on most flat rolled products and heard from steel buyers that the mills were willing to discuss pricing on “real” orders. Here is […]
Throughout the day (Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017), Steel Market Update (SMU) has been discussing steel prices, AK Steel’s price announcement and whether or not there is any way the mills will be able to collect another $30 (or anything) based on what is happening in the market right now. “This increase puzzled all of us. […]
Domestic raw steel production totaled 1,733,000 net tons in the week ending Sept. 9, an 8.9 percent increase from the same period last year, but a decrease of 0.8 percent from the prior week. The mill capability utilization rate was 74.3 percent, down slightly from 74.9 percent the prior week, but up from 68.0 percent […]
There was little movement in the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) last week. Both Platts and SMU have hot rolled average as being $630 per ton ($31.50/cwt). Cold rolled average was $805 (+$5) out of Platts and $810 (-$5) on our own CRC index. Galvanized was up $5 to $893 per ton […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of July totaled 9,570,118 net tons, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total U.S. steel exports. July apparent steel supply […]
U.S. steel exports in July totaled 806,512 net tons (731,656 metric tons), down 11.5 percent over June, but up 9.3 percent from July 2016. Total exports have declined over the last two months after reaching a 2.5-year high in May (1,006,087 tons). The total July export figure is below the three-month moving average (average of […]
We believe that misinformation, or a lack of information, about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of sheet steel imports by district of entry and source through July 2017 is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide […]
Total rolled steel imports increased by 10.8 percent in the three months through August compared to the three months through May. Sheet product imports rose by 14.3 percent on the same basis, according to final license data for August reported by the U.S. Commerce Department on Aug. 6. The data is reported within the Steel […]
Late yesterday (Sept. 6), AK Steel announced a new $30 per ton flat rolled price increase. AK Steel last announced a flat rolled price increase three weeks ago when on Aug. 16 the steel mill raised prices by $30 per ton. So far this year, AK Steel has made seven price increase announcements totaling $215 […]
Ferrous scrap prices were expected to rise by $20 to $30 per gross ton once the September negotiations began. By Thursday afternoon (today), we were learning that steel mills are suddenly able to buy at sideways numbers. We understand North Star BlueScope was able to buy September at the same prices as August. Other sources […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Director of Risk Management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released final census data on July foreign steel imports. The DOC advised total steel imports of 3,482,524 net tons. When semi-finished steels are removed (slabs/billets/blooms), finished steel imports totaled 2,896,389 net tons. At the same time, the DOC advised the latest license data for the month of August. As […]
Domestic raw steel production totaled 1,747,000 net tons in the week ending Sept. 2, up 0.4 percent from the prior week and an 8.6 percent increase from the same period in 2016. The mill capability utilization rate was 74.9 percent for the week, up from 68.8 percent in the same week last year, reports the […]
Flat rolled prices have been mixed since we last produced our indices on Thursday of last week. The expectation is for prices to go higher from here, although Steel Market Update (SMU) is waiting to see how those responding to our flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire feel about the current and future markets. We […]
The various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) had flat rolled and steel plate prices as mixed last week. SMU, Platts and SteelBenchmarker all had hot rolled prices as averaging $630 per ton. SMU had HRC up $5, SteelBenchmarker was up $10 and Platts remained the same as the prior week. Cold rolled […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) received pricing information from China this morning along with a warning that China may be building a steel price bubble that will pop. The only question is when and how much damage will it do when it does. Traders are complaining that the new Chinese numbers are too high to be […]
Scrap prices are likely to jump by $20 to $30 per ton in the short term as a result of the hurricane and flooding in Houston, predicts John Harris of Aaristic Services, Inc., who was a panelist at Steel Market Update’s Steel Summit Conference last week in Atlanta. Harris did not have time to respond […]
We did not review pricing earlier this week due to all of our staff being at the SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. During the conference, we did not want to discuss pricing in an open format. We did check on pricing today and found mixed results depending on the product. Within the data, we […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel HR futures prices along the curve have been range bound this past week on modest trading activity. The quiet week could […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary July import data as well as August license requests through the 29th of the month. The July Preliminary Census number has foreign steel imports as being 3,471,614 net tons. This is down from the June 3.9 million ton level. However, what continues to be concerning is the August […]