Rising steel prices, some in anticipation of Section 232 trade action, are blurring the line between prime and secondary steel, report service center executives familiar with secondary steel products. Grand Steel Products, Wixom, Mich., sells both prime steel and secondary—material that did not meet the specifications of its initial customer but is still suitable for […]
U.S. steel mills managed to export just over one million net tons in May, according to just-released data by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Exports increased by 150,000 tons over April 2017 and were 203,000 tons greater than what was exported during May 2016. May 2017 is the first month to exceed one million tons […]
Domestic raw steel production was 1,733,000 net tons in the week ending July 8, up 0.9 percent from the previous week and 4.0 percent from the same week in 2016, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) in Washington. Mill capacity utilization in the July 8 week was 74.3 percent, up from 73.6 percent […]
As expected, ferrous scrap prices traded sideways (July delivery to be the same as June) in most markets. Of course, having just said that, we do need to point out that the steel mills sourcing scrap from the East Coast had to pay $10 per gross ton more in order to keep scrap from moving […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed with SMU seeing increases in hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized (.060″ G90) and Galvalume. SMU took plate prices down $15 per ton. Platts saw prices as stable on all but cold rolled, which they saw down $5 per ton compared to the prior week. We had a shortened week […]
Total raw steel production for the month of May was 7,606,893 net tons, with 5,168,112 tons produced by electric arc furnaces (EAF) and 2,438,781 tons produced by blast furnaces. May raw steel production was 231,724 tons or 3.1 percent higher than the previous month, but 86,653 tons or 1.1 percent lower than the same month last […]
Steel Market Update saw modest improvements in flat rolled steel prices mostly associated with reductions of the discounts found at the lower end of the ranges. There are a number of mills that are waiting to see what happens with the Section 232 investigation before announcing new prices or opening their order books for the next […]
The final license data for June was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis system of the U.S. Commerce Department on July 5. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in […]
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 If you compare prices between last week and this week, you will see the HR futures market has found support and […]
Domestic raw steel production totaled 1,717,000 net tons in the week ending July 1, off 0.7 percent from the previous week and down 1.5 percent from the same week in 2016. The mill capacity utilization rate was 73.6 percent, down from 74.2 percent the prior week and 74.5 percent the same time last year, reports […]
John Harris is the former director of raw materials for ArcelorMittal. Currently, he is a consultant and speaker on global metallics, and he will be a speaker at this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference at the end of August. Mr. Harris and Philip Hoffman of Hoffman Iron & Steel have been conducting a friendly debate […]
The following article was sent to us by one of our steel and scrap trading sources located within China. He has been actively involved in the export of ferrous scrap out of China this year and understands where that market is headed right now (and why). Here is what he shared with Steel Market Update […]
On Thursday, Steel Market Update (SMU) published an article about the scrap markets entitled “Ferrous Scrap: Sideways in July?” In the article, John Harris, the former scrap buyer for ArcelorMittal and one of our speakers at this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference, gave his opinions on the future issues associated with the industry. On Friday, […]
Flat rolled steel prices inched higher this past week on the indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU). We saw just about everyone take benchmark hot rolled prices higher by $5 per ton. SMU took our HRC average from $600 to $605, Platts took theirs from $605 to $610 and SteelBenchmarker took theirs from $603 […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) spoke with ferrous scrap executives about the outlook for the industry, not only looking at the upcoming negotiations with the steel mills for July shipments, but also the long-term view. The scrap industry is upbeat about its future as electric arc furnaces continue to take market share from integrated steel producers. […]
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 […]
In early June, the price of zinc had nosed down to about $1.10 per pound, raising hopes among buyers of galvanized steel that the mills might consider rolling back their coating extras–the extras mills charge when applying zinc to cold rolled or hot rolled substrate to produce galvanized products. Those hopes were short-lived as the […]
Global steel production in May was 143,325,000 metric tons, up from 142,060,000 tons in April. Capacity utilization was 71.8 percent in May. The three-month moving averages (3MMA) that we prefer to use were 142,957,000 and 72.4 percent, respectively. Capacity is 2.35 billion metric tons per year. Figure 1 shows monthly production and capacity utilization since […]
We are seeing a strengthening in the resolve of the steel mills as most (but not all) steel buyers were reporting an attempt to take numbers up or to restrict orders by having mills move to an “inquire only” position. Even so, we continued to get some pricing at the lower end of our range […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released Preliminary Census Data on May indicating foreign steel imports totaled 3.6 million net tons. They also released license data for June and we are seeing the trend indicating the month will be close to 3.8 million net tons (license data through the 27th of June). The numbers for […]
Domestic raw steel production declined slightly last week, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington. In the week ending June 24, raw steel production totaled 1,729,000 net tons, down 0.6 percent from the previous week and down 1.5 percent from the same week last year. Adjusted year-to-date production through totaled 43,353,000 net […]
Flat rolled steel prices had another mixed week of results based on our analysis of the steel indexes reporting last week. Hot rolled prices were up slightly on both the Steel Market Update (SMU) index as well as Platts. SMU saw the market as averaging $600 per ton, while Platts had it at $605 per […]
“Countries like China are clearly at fault for the decline of the North American aluminum industry,” said M. Robert Weidner, III, president and CEO of the Metals Service Center Institute, in written testimony to the Commerce Department on June 23. “China’s share of the world primary aluminum market rose from 10 percent in 2000 to […]
The Department of Commerce hearing Thursday on the proposed Section 232 for aluminum revealed the same big rift between supporters and opponents as in the steel industry. And for many of the same reasons, notably the effect on prices for downstream manufacturers and consumers and possible retaliation by global trading partners. Commenting on the proceedings, […]
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 Lack of certainty in forecasting future HR business continues to create excess price volatility. Longer lead times along with slightly lower […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released foreign steel license data on Tuesday of this week. The trend, based on the first 20 days of this month, is for June imports to be at record highs for the year. Total steel imports are trending toward 3.7-3.9 million tons which would be the highest level since […]
We are continuing our investigation to quantify the players in the global trade of both HRC and CRC. We now have data through Q1 2017. This information is sourced quarterly from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau in the UK. Data is not very current because many countries are slow in reporting, but we feel […]
We saw mixed results this week as hot rolled prices rose a very modest $5, cold rolled was down $15, galvanized was up $10 and Galvalume remained the same even as the lower end dropped $10 per ton and the upper end rose $10 per ton. Definitely a mixed week as the market tries to […]
Domestic raw steel production inched up in the past week and remains ahead of last year’s pace, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington. In the week ending June 17, domestic raw steel production totaled 1,739,000 net tons, up 1.2 percent from the previous week, but down 0.9 percent from the same week […]