Flat rolled steel prices continued their months long swoon as steel buyers confided in Steel Market Update that lower prices/offers are available for those who actually have tonnage to sell. One service center executive told us today, “We are getting offers for HR at around the $360NT price. I see a lot of material still […]
According to the latest data released from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of September 2015 was 8,543,021 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. September supply […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released import license data this afternoon. Steel Market Update reviews the data and compares it against previous months’ data at the same point in time during the month. What we are concentrating on are the four flat rolled items involved in the ongoing trade cases (AD/CVD). We are seeing a […]
For the week ending November 7, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,618,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.4 percent decrease over the previous week and a 12.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 67.7 percent, down […]
In the first nine months of this year bulk scrap exports were 9,968,048 tonnes for an annual rate of 13,290,731 tonnes, down by 13.8 percent from the first nine months of last year. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages (3MMA) for 2015 and on the annual monthly average […]
On Thursday we reported scrap prices moved sideways on certain grades in the east and were down by as much as $30 per gross ton the further west you went. Chicago ended up the week with the weakest prices as many mills did not buy due to tepid demand and a desire to drive inventories […]
The various flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update are falling in line and reporting hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and plate prices the same. We find this interesting as the various steel price collection techniques are slightly different from one another. Could this be a harbinger that flat rolled prices are close […]
Two dams at the Sarmarco Mineracao SA iron mine, jointly owned by BHP Billiton Ltd and Vale SA, ruptured on Thursday, triggering a mudslide that engulfed the village of Bento Rodgrigues. The flow was estimated to be eight kilometers long and 2.5 meters deep. The dams held tailings, mining waste, from ore operations. Samarco issued […]
September steel exports totaled 811,582 net tons (736,256 metric tons), down 1.8 percent over August and down 21.5 percent from September 2014. Total September figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA, average of July 2015 through September 2015 figures) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA, average of October 2014 through September […]
License data for October was updated on November 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. At SMU we perform a detailed analysis of this data, an explanation of our methodology is given at the end of this write up. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of October were […]
Our scrap sources reported ferrous scrap prices as having the most strength in the east where export pricing has bounced off the bottom and momentum has apparently turned in that region. One of the east coast dealers told us that scrap flows are “atrocious” and if it wasn’t for the “terrible demand situation the market […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets We are actually in a pretty […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported total foreign steel imports for the month of September 2015 were 2,834,240 net tons. This represents a 227,141 net ton reduction from the 3,061,381 net tons that arrived on U.S. shores during the month of August. The September tonnage was below both the twelve month and three month moving […]
Based on the most recent import license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, October import licenses totaled 3,399,248 net tons. We anticipate when the final census numbers are released for the month of October total steel imports will be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4 million tons (net tons not metric tons). Imports of […]
We found flat rolled prices so far this week at about the same levels seen one week ago. Our hot rolled average remained at $390 per ton ($19.50/cwt) with both the upper and lower parts of our range at the same levels seen one week ago. The lower end of the cold rolled price range […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final raw steel production estimates for the month of September 2015. The monthly estimates are different than the weekly estimates we report in our Tuesday issues; the AISI bases the monthly estimates on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. only 50 percent for the […]
For the week ending October 31, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,641,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.6 percent decrease over the previous week and a 10.8 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 68.6 percent, down […]
The following article was written by contributing writer Damon Sun of Daido International. The Asian ferrous scrap markets are still very weak, but there are some positives recently. Rebar demand seemed to have picked up some in the last two weeks and consequently, there has been more activity in the containerized scrap markets. For reference, […]
The following article is written by Spencer Johnson of FC Stone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer will rotate weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to erode at a moderate pace this past week. Steel Market Update reviewed the results of three other steel indexes as well as our own for the week ending October 30, 2015. We found, with the exception of the Platts indices, all of the other indexes saw prices down by […]
At least one company is seeing better days ahead for the oil and gas industry. OCT Pipe announced it will build a one million square foot pipe mill in Norfolk, Nebraska. CEO Charley Havens, of the Rockwall, Texas based company, said the $125 million facility will break ground soon and be operational by mid-2017. OCT […]
The following article is written by Spencer Johnson of FC Stone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer will rotate weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. […]
Scrap prices were forecast a week ago to drop $10-$20 per gross ton in November. However, we are beginning to hear that the scrap markets may not be as dire as predicted and the numbers may be much closer to sideways than down once the negotiations are concluded next week. One of our scrap sources […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the spread between world hot rolled export prices as determined by SteelBenchmarker and domestic (US) hot rolled prices as published by SMU. Steel Market Update compares the world hot rolled export price to which dollars are added for freight, handling, trader margin, etc. The number […]
Cliffs Natural Resources reported net income of $6 million for third quarter compared to a net loss of $6.9 million in Q3 2014. Cost cutting brought US Iron Ore Operations cash production costs down 16 percent to $49 per ton; Asian Pacific Iron Ore cash production costs decreased a record 49 percent to $27 per […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) asked a manufacturing company when they thought prices will stop dropping? Their response was both classic and profound, “Prices will stop going down, when they go up. Prices can’t go below absolute zero. Question then becomes as to what defines absolute zero…?” Flat rolled steel prices continued their march lower this […]
For the week ending October 24, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,667,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.5 percent decrease over the previous week and a 9.4 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 69.7 percent, down […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) released Preliminary Census Data for September foreign steel imports on Monday. September imports dropped below 3.0 million net tons and at 2.77 million net tons they were down 5 percent month-over-month. As you can see by the table below hot rolled imports were down by 100,000 tons and […]
Hot rolled prices are poised to crash through the $400 per ton ($20.00/cwt) barrier and head toward lows not seen since 2009 when SMU’s HRC average briefly reached $380 per ton ($19.00/cwt). This past week SMU saw flat rolled steel and plate prices drop on all of the indexes followed by SMU except SteelBenchmarker which […]
Global steel production in 12 months through September totaled 1.613 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.3 billion tonnes. Capacity utilization in September was 69.3 percent with a three month moving average (3MMA) of 69.1 percent, down from 72.2 percent in three months through April. China accounted for 50.5 percent of global production in September. […]