Zinc prices hit a 10-year high this past week, climbing to $3,000 per metric ton ($1.36 per pound) on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday. Strong global demand and shrinking inventory boosted prices, as well as a shortage of Chinese zinc. The primary use of zinc is for the production of coated steels such as […]
The three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update reporting this past week saw prices differently. Steel Market Update, which gathered its pricing information on Monday through Wednesday of this past week, found prices to be lower on all flat rolled products and plate. Platts, on the other hand, reported hot rolled prices higher late […]
SSAB Americas announced a $40 per ton price increase on non-contract plate orders, effective Oct. 1. The increase will apply to as-rolled mill plate, cut-to-length plate >72”, hot rolled >72”, as well as normalized and quenched & tempered plate. “SSAB continues to monitor market conditions in order to better realize the value our products bring […]
The number of U.S.-based flat rolled steel mills announcing price increases on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume has reached six. On Tuesday of this week, Nucor Sheet Mill Group became the first flat rolled steel mill to raise transaction pricing on spot flat rolled steel. The Nucor increase was for a “minimum” of […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Troy Rossi of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Troy saw trading over the past week: Steel This week, HR futures markets continued to see price consolidation along the curve as HR futures prices have found some support […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest license data for foreign steel imports for the month of August. Beginning in March 2017, imports have exceeded 3.0 million tons, perhaps peaking in June at just shy of 4.0 million tons. The expectation has been for import levels to drop due to concerns about the Section […]
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 […]
Flat rolled steel prices slipped over the past week just as the domestic steel mills began to announce new price increases. Were the increases in reaction to the slippage? Were they in response to new higher scrap costs for August delivery? Most likely, it was a combination of both. We found the spread widening on […]
Four flat rolled steel mills, Nucor, NLMK USA, California Steel Industries (CSI) and ArcelorMittal USA, announced spot price increases today on all flat rolled steels produced at each mill. The Nucor Sheet Mill Group, which handles flat rolled steel products, announced a minimum of $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) price increase on hot rolled, cold rolled […]
Nucor’s Plate Group announced a $30 price increase on Aug. 14, citing escalating raw material and input costs. Nucor will increase transaction prices on all new orders for carbon, alloy and heat-treated plate by $30 per ton, effective immediately. Plate distributors responding to SMU’s request for comment are generally supportive of Nucor’s move. “The plate […]
Domestic raw steel production totaled 1,780,000 net tons in the week ending Aug. 12, up 1.0 percent from the previous week and a 7.6 percent increase from the same period in 2016. The mill capability utilization rate was 76.4 percent for the week, up from 70.8 percent the same time last year, reports the American […]
Cliffs Natural Resources, in celebration of 170 years in business, has returned to its historical name Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. “The historical name Cleveland-Cliffs is synonymous with our strong heritage and is the perfect one for our next era of growth,” said Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves. “As we did more than 60 years ago, when […]
Based on the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU), there were some very minor changes to hot rolled and cold rolled prices this past week, while coated products were unchanged and plate products fell. Both Platts and SMU had hot rolled falling by $5 per ton with both indexes reporting the HRC average […]
Total raw steel production for the month of June was 7,487,972 net tons, with 5,182,147 tons produced by electric arc furnaces (EAF) and 2,305,825 tons produced by blast furnaces. June raw steel production was 118,921 tons or 1.6 percent lower than the previous month, and 34,195 tons or 0.5 percent lower than the same month […]
One of the reasons Steel Market Update has constant contact with steel buyers and steel mills is because we are aware that pricing momentum can change on a rumor or a belief that supply or demand is shifting. We are seeing market sentiment being impacted by Section 232. At the same time, scrap prices are […]
Editor’s note: As a special bonus, we are sharing this premium-level article with all our subscribers: Demand for sheet products is increasingly driven by hot rolled coil. Imports are taking a greater share of the sheet market, reaching 21.2 percent in June. Apparent supply is a proxy for market demand, and the apparent supply of […]
U.S. steel exports in June totaled 910,988 net tons (826,435 metric tons), down 9.5 percent over May, but up 12.3 percent from June 2016. Although down over last month, total June exports are in line with the average monthly level over the last few months. Back in May, total exports had climbed to 1,006,087 tons, […]
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 […]
Editor’s note: As a special bonus, we are sharing this premium-level article with all our subscribers: We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of entry is to describe in detail what is going on in […]
SMU scrap sources advised us early this morning of an export sale of an 80/20 mix of ferrous scrap bound for Turkey. Our sources reported the sale price at $350 per metric ton delivered Turkey. The sale price is up approximately $50 per metric ton since early July and $20 per metric ton from last […]
Flat rolled steel prices remained range-bound on most items for yet another week. We picked up a couple of points of weakness in coated products, but they seem to be isolated in nature. Many of the steel buyers are reporting the mills (especially Nucor) are talking up the idea of a price increase on flat […]
Ferrous scrap prices are up about $20 per ton across the board on strong domestic demand and scrap export markets “that are on fire,” say SMU’s scrap sources. One scrap metal processor with locations across the country reports HMS at $300, shred at $315 and busheling at $390 per gross ton for August delivery. Export […]
On Monday, the futures markets surged 7 percent in China. We reached out to one of our trading contacts in China to see what we could learn about physical steel trading prices into the export markets out of China: Future’s market jumped 7% yesterday but only on Hot Money influx. Spot market was up RMB15 […]
China domestic demand is driving a tandem rise in iron ore and steel pricing. Iron ore prices are at their highest level since April as Chinese steel producers gobble ore to take advantage of high margins and surging summer steel prices. Although China is ahead of its target for reducing steel capacity this year, Chinese […]
Domestic raw steel production totaled 1,762,000 net tons for the week ending Aug. 5, down 0.4 percent from the previous week, but up 6.3 percent from the same week last year, reports the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington. Mill capability utilization for the Aug. 5 week averaged 75.6 percent, a significant improvement from the […]
It is now official. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, June 2017 foreign steel imports totaled 3,923,126 net tons and are at the highest levels seen since January 2015, prior to the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) trade suits being filed. Approximately one-quarter of the imports were semi-finished steels (mostly slabs) with the […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices were essentially flat this past week as both Steel Market Update and Platts saw hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steel prices remaining the same as the previous week. With Section 232 being put on the back burner, the flood of foreign steel imports (prompted by the original […]
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 This week HR futures markets experienced continued price consolidation along the curve as HR futures prices continued to retrace lower from […]
Total imports of rolled steel increased by 16.9 percent, and sheet products by 18.4 percent, in the three months through July, compared with the prior three months, according to final license data for July released by the U.S. Commerce Department on Aug. 1. The three-month moving average (3MMA) of the total volume of rolled product […]
Steel Market Update has seen a bit of a yo-yo effect to flat rolled and plate steel prices over the past few weeks. Since the word got out that the Section 232 decision would not be announced any time soon, the market has taken a step back to evaluate where prices will go from here. […]