Flat rolled steel prices shot up this week in response to two price increase announcements within the past 8 days. ArcelorMittal provided base price guidance on Monday for $560 for hot rolled ($28.00/cwt) and $780 base on cold rolled and coated ($39.00/cwt). A number of mills followed with some announcing $30-$40 per ton and others […]
On Monday ArcelorMittal USA announced their third flat rolled steel price increase in less than a month. The mill informed their customers of their intention to raise base prices on all flat rolled products. On Tuesday NLMK USA followed the AM lead while Nucor and AK Steel came out with a $40 per ton price […]
On Monday NLMK USA advised their customers of their intention to begin collecting new zinc extras on galvanized steel products effective immediately. The new extras are in response to zinc spot prices being at the highest level in the past five years. Zinc closed Monday at $1.1716 per pound up $0.0608 since this past Friday […]
USS/POSCO, the joint venture conversion mill located in California, was the first of the domestic steel mills to raise prices as they opened their January order book. UPI (USS/POSCO Industries) informed their customers last Thursday (November 10th) of their intention to increase their base prices by $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt). At the same time UPI […]
US Steel announced new coating extras for galvanized steel on Tuesday. A letter from the company to customers stated the new extras are due to rising zinc prices. The letter from US Steel to its customers is reproduced below as well as the new coating extras chart:
According to the results of our most recent flat rolled steel market trends survey, service center spot prices have taken a dramatic turn in response to the spat of domestic mill price increase announcements. We have consistently seen, through the use of our surveys and our analysis of market price cycles, when flat rolled steel […]
For the week ending November 12, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,580,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.4 percent decrease over the previous week but a 5.3 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 66.6 percent, down […]
Steel trading companies are advising Steel Market Update that we should expect imports of foreign steel to be much lower as we move into the New Year. There are three major reasons for the slowdown in foreign orders: 1) the antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) results fell in favor of the domestic steel mills, thus […]
Is everyone strapped in? The rollercoaster is clearly on the way back up and the question today is will benchmark hot rolled exceed the previous cycle highs of $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt) set in mid-June 2016? Flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update recorded higher average pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, […]
We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about regional foreign steel 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 a company’s immediate neighborhood and, thus, provide a negotiating advantage for our premium subscribers. […]
As we discussed earlier this week, higher international prices for iron ore, coking coal, pig iron and steel are helping take ferrous scrap export prices higher. SMU had lunch with one of our scrap/pig iron experts who advised that 80/20 scrap export prices may have reached $280 per metric ton delivered. At the same time, […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As Flack Steel’s director of risk management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. […]
Nucor Plate Mill Group was the first of the plate mills to reach out to their customers and advise them of their intention to take plate prices up by $50 per ton. On Tuesday of this week, Nucor sent a letter via email to their customers stating, “Due to current market dynamics, plate pricing has […]
The following is an analysis of steel export data by the American Institute for International Steel: Falls Church, VA. November 9, 2016. Steel exports dipped 2.1 percent from August to September, remaining at roughly the same level as a year ago. The 795,318 net tons of exports were 2 percent below the September 2015 total. […]
Steel buyers and steel mill sellers are beginning to come to the same conclusion, the steel mills have the momentum and flat rolled steel prices are beginning to rise. What may be surprising steel buyers, especially those who do not read publications like Steel Market Update, is the pace and the strength of the market […]
On Monday, November 7, 2016 ArcelorMittal USA began advising their customers of their intention of raising steel base prices to specific minimum levels. The announcement came from an internal memo (or email from the various sales representatives of the mill) which stated, “Effective immediately, the following minimum base prices will be applicable to all new […]
After ArcelorMittal USA announced specific minimum base price levels on Monday we had three steel mills come out with flat rolled steel price announcements on Tuesday. However, none of the mills advised of specific base price levels but rather announced dollar per ton increases. The three mills are Nucor, AK Steel and NLMK USA. Nucor […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released Final Census Data on imports of foreign steel for the month of September 2016. Imports totaled 2,775,565 net tons which is 9.5 percent below the August import numbers. The U.S. continues to see strong imports of semi-finished steels (slabs/billets) which are used by the domestic steel mills. Hot […]
Since the 24nd week of this year weekly raw steel production has not beaten 2015 levels until this week. For the week ending November 5, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,602,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.7 percent increase over the previous week and a […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) ferrous scrap sources advised us over the weekend that strength in the Ohio Valley, as well as in the export markets, has led to ferrous scrap prices trading higher than originally thought. Talks continue in many of the regions of the country which have not yet completed scrap pricing negotiations for […]
Flat rolled steel prices have begun their ascent as the $30 per ton price increase begins to be collected by the domestic steel mills. Both Platts and Steel Market Update have hot rolled prices moving up by $10 per ton this past week with SMU at $480 and Platts at $485 per ton by week’s […]
Imports of foreign steel came in at 2,744,669 net tons for the month of September based on the U.S. Department of Commerce Preliminary Census Data while October is trending at almost the exact same number with 2,774,493 net tons of foreign steel import license requests as of the 1st day of November. When comparing the […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) 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 The Hot Rolled futures market this past week has been characterized by limited trading activity. There have been numerous […]
It does not feel like a “rocket” market. By that we mean we are seeing prices skyrocketing at a breakneck pace. Don’t get us wrong. Prices have indeed changed coarse and the Momentum is for prices to trend higher over the next month of two. We just need to be careful as different products and […]
Steel Market Update has been discussing the subject of steel prices with service centers from around the country and there seems to be an almost unanimous belief that new price increase announcements will be made between now and Thanksgiving (November 24th). Here is a sample of what the service centers have told SMU over the […]
On Thursday (October 27, 2016) Cliffs Natural Resources conducted their 3rd Quarter 2016 earnings conference call with analysts. During the call Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves made statements regarding steel service centers which he reported as importing “illegal steel,” thus hurting the domestic steel industry. He also pointed out that service center inventories were “dangerously low” […]
For the week ending October 29, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,575,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a 3.3 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 66.4 percent, down […]
All eyes this week will be on the scrap dealers and their steel mill customers as they haggle over where ferrous scrap prices will trade for the month of November. The opinion of many in the steel industry is that as scrap prices increase, it will both support the flat rolled steel price announcements already […]
Flat rolled steel prices are bottoming out and we are already seeing the potential for hot rolled being the first product to move higher. In the table below are the three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Platts was the first index to report hot rolled prices as moving higher this past week. At […]
Cliffs Natural Resources reported iron ore pellet sales volume in third quarter was 5.3 million long tons compared to 5.6 million long tons in 2015. Production was also down at 3.86 million long tons compared to 4 million long tons the year before. The decrease was attributed to customer inventory mix that was partly offset […]