The flat rolled steel markets are in a state of confusion as both buyers and sellers of steel decide what is a fair price for hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels based on existing market conditions both in the United States but also the rest of the world. Even though there have been price […]
On Friday morning US Steel got the ball rolling by announcing a $30 per ton price increase on all spot sales of flat rolled steel (hot rolled, cold rolled and coated products). Before the afternoon was out two other steel mills followed: Nucor and California Steel Industries. On Monday a number of mills were heard […]
Steel Market Update scrap sources are advising us to expect ferrous scrap prices have bottomed and will increase once the November negotiations get underway next week with the domestic steel mills. We are hearing scrap prices should increase by a minimum of $10 per gross ton and some items could go up by as much […]
For the week ending October 22, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,597,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.4 percent increase over the previous week but a 2.0 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.3 percent, up […]
On Friday morning US Steel became the first domestic steel producer to announce a flat rolled steel price increase. Later in the day Nucor and California Steel Industries (CSI) followed with similar announcements. SMU expects other steel mills to follow with announcements of their own as this new week gets underway. On October 21, 2016 […]
Flat rolled steel prices have broken through some key barriers over the past couple of weeks as benchmark hot rolled crashed through $500 per ton and cold rolled has now broken through $700 per ton. It was not just the Steel Market Update steel index average moving lower, we saw Platts take their steel index […]
One of our key Asian steel and commodity trading sources has provided SMU with details about the Chinese steel markets as well as what is happening in Asia,including comments about the circumvention suit which involves Vietnam: Export offers from China have basically risen by USD20/mt in the past two weeks, and it has become a […]
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 What a difference a week makes. Last week we were flush with HR offers but buyers were scarce this week the market view appears […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed this week with three of the four items moving lower and one (galvanized) remaining the same. The questions being asked by buyers – both at the service center and manufacturing level – is how much further do prices need to fall before bouncing back? The issue of “finding the […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated foreign steel import license data earlier today. SMU analyzes the license data through the 18th of October, produces a daily import license request rate and then we make an assumption that if the daily rate continues by the end of the month we will have “X” number of tons […]
For the week ending October 15, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,590,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.3 percent increase over the previous week but a 2.4 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.0 percent, up […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their decline this past week according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Two of the indexes (SMU & Platts) had benchmark hot rolled prices piercing the $500 per ton ($25.00/cwt) level in the spot markets in the United States and Canada. SteelBenchmarker did report prices but still […]
The conversation has begun regarding when flat rolled steel prices will end their slide and reverse course. Flat rolled steel prices have been in a steep decline since mid-June 2016 when benchmark hot rolled prices peaked at $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt, SMU index average) FOB domestic mill. Since then steel prices have retreated $145 per […]
Trading company sources have been telling SMU to expect foreign flat rolled steel prices, especially light gauge galvanized prices, to rise in the coming weeks. Traders are advising SMU that slab and hot band substrate prices have been rising around the world thus increasing the cost for many conversion mills to produce cold rolled and […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled prices. We want our readers to note that we have made a decision to replace SteelBenchmarker as the primary data provider of foreign hot rolled coil prices. We were finding […]
Nucor Plate Mill Group began advising their customers on Tuesday of their intention to raise carbon and alloy plate as well as heat-treated plate prices. The mill advised their customers in an emailed letter with the following (reaction to the increase comes after the Nucor letter below): October 11, 2016 To our Valued Customers, Effective […]
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. […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to move lower as benchmark hot rolled broke through $500 per ton and is now averaging $490 per ton. We were relatively conservative in our range this week as we did capture at least one order placed for moderate tonnage at $440 per ton and we are hearing that the […]
We believe that misinformation 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 a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide a negotiating advantage for our premium subscribers. We are now publishing monthly […]
For the week ending October 8, 2016, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,585,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.6 percent decrease over the previous week and a 2.7 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 66.8 percent, down […]
The following report on steel exports is from the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS). We thought our readers would enjoy looking at exports from a different perspective: Falls Church, VA. October 11, 2016. Steel exports jumped 10 percent from July to August, nearly returning to their level of a year earlier. The 812,011 net […]
Steel Market Update ferrous scrap sources advised us over the weekend that scrap negotiations have wrapped up between the dealers and the domestic mills and that steel mills, once again, have walked away the winners as scrap prices dropped across the country. However, the weakest areas are those furthest away from the east coast where […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their swoon this past week, according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled declined by $10 per ton ($.50/cwt) on our own HRC index average and $15 per ton ($.75/cwt) over at Platts. Both indexes have hot rolled averaging $500 per ton and the expectation […]
According to the latest data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of August 2016 was 9,115,482 net tons and the percentage of imports was 26.2 percent of the market. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished […]
August steel exports totaled 812,010 net tons (736,644 metric tons), up 10.0 percent over July but down 1.7 percent from August 2015. This is the highest export level seen since August 2015, while last month we saw exports at a 7 month low (738,096 tons). Total August figures are above the thee month moving average […]
Final approval was received from a federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday to wind down operations at Magnetation’s iron ore plant in Grand Rapids, MN and pellet plant in Reynolds, IN. “Now, our focus shifts to safely shutting down the Pellet Plant and Plant 4 in order to preserve their value for a potential buyer of […]
Licensed data for September was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on October 4th. 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 short tons. Total rolled […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) reported final census data regarding foreign steel imports for the month of August and revised new license data regarding the month of September. The DOC reported August imports of 3,055,600 net tons and September license data has the month below 3.0 million tons to approximately 2.8 million tons. The […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their swan dive with hot rolled and cold rolled moving $10 per ton lower and galvanized/Galvalume moving lower by $20 per ton. For the first time in quite awhile SMU picked up information regarding HRC offers down to $460 per ton (with tons). Most buyers, however, were reporting $480 to […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final U.S. raw steel production estimates for the month of August 2016. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on over 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent […]