March imports are trending toward another very large month. We expect that when the final numbers are released, the month will come in about 3.6 to 3.8 million net tons which would be in line with our 12 month moving average of 3.7 million net tons. Last March imports were 3.2 million net tons. Note […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a slight rise in production following 7 consecutive declining weeks previous to this data being released. For the week ending March 21, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,639,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.0 percent […]
Global steel production in 12 months through February totaled 1.628 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.2 billion tonnes which yields a utilization for the 12 month period of 74 percent. China accounted for 51 percent of global production in February. Asia as a whole, including India, accounted for 68.4 percent of global production. Production […]
Last week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-March flat rolled steel market survey. We invited approximately 600 companies to link to our questionnaire which covers a number of issues of importance for the industry. Last week’s industry participants consisted of 49 percent manufacturing companies, 37 percent service centers, 8 percent trading companies, 3 percent […]
This weeks Comparison Price Indices analysis saw flat rolled steel prices as continuing their 8 month slide. Benchmark hot rolled coil (or bands) moved Lower by an average of $7 per ton this past week. Of the four steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (including our own) the spread from low (SMU at $470) […]
We thought we would take one last stab at the subject of Anti-Dumping (AD) and Countervailing Duties (CVD) since we received more detailed information from attorney Lewis Leibowitz: The question of time lines for AD/CVD cases can fill many pages. There are rules, exceptions and discretion (mostly Commerce) that can alter the time lines. Your […]
As we ended the last article about the possibility of Anti-Dumping (AD) or Countervailing Duty (CVD) trade cases against flat rolled steel (cold rolled, galvanized and possibly Galvalume) in Tuesday evening’s issue we presented a number of questions posed by one of our readers. He wanted to know: I have a timeline question for you […]
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. Our next Managing Price Risk II workshop will be held in Chicago at the end of April – […]
The quick slide to the bottom slowed over the last 7 days with cold rolled and Galvalume steel prices unchanged, galvanized is down $5 per ton and hot rolled is down $10 per ton compared to last Tuesday evening. Hot rolled is now within the range predicted by Timna Tanners of Bank of America Merrill […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a continuation of the slowing of production at the domestic steel mills. For the week ending March 14, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,623,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.3 percent decrease over the previous […]
Chinese steel exports to the U.S. in January 2015 were 40 percent higher than in January 2014, according to World Steel Association data. As Chinese domestic demand weakens, exports have flooded not only the U.S. but nations across the globe. The resulting depressed prices and undercutting of domestic steel production has led to increased government […]
Every week the US Department of Commerce (US DOC) releases steel import license data for those months that have not had Preliminary Census or Final Census data announced. The latest license data was released this afternoon (Tuesday) covering the month of March through today (March 17, 2015). Steel Market Update (SMU) takes the license data […]
Countervailing duties have been imposed on welded line pipe from Turkey but not South Korea, according to a preliminary determination by the Department of Commerce. On March 17, the Department of Commerce affirmed subsidization in a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of imports of welded line pipe from Turkey. A negative preliminary determination was returned on […]
The following article about the Asian ferrous scrap markets comes to SMU from Damon Sun of Daido International: After the Lunar New Year holidays in Asia, the finished steel market has been subdued. However the scrap markets have stabilized. The raw factors affecting scrap markets: Negative Issue Affecting Ferrous Scrap in Asia: 1.) Iron ore […]
Flat rolled steel prices plummeted again this past week according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. All four indexes reported pricing this week. The range from low to high on benchmark hot rolled coil was $480 to $495 per ton with SMU at the low end of the range and SteelBenchmarker at […]
As Steel Market Update has discussed in previous articles on the subject of scrap pricing, the original projections by buyers of scrap were for prices to drop $20 per gross ton on all products for the month of March. The projected March reduction would have been on the heels of an $80 to $110 per […]
A tentative settlement has been reached between USW refinery workers and Shell Oil said the USW in a statement released Thursday afternoon. The press release is as follows: (Pittsburgh) – The United Steelworkers (USW) announced today that it has reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract with Shell Oil as a pattern agreement […]
Steel prices continued their slide this week. The CRU was down $14 to $488/ton, which has put downward pressure on futures contracts for nearby months. April and May are trading approximately $10 lower this week with the former at $495/ton and the latter closer to $510/ton. While nearby months have been influenced by the deteriorating […]
The spread between world hot rolled export pricing and that of the domestic average here in the United States continues to be lower than what we were measuring a couple of months ago. This analysis is based on our review of world export prices and that of hot rolled index from this week. As the […]
Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an important look at the overall trade picture and its effect on demand at the mill level. Figure 1 shows that net sheet product imports on a three month moving average (3MMA) basis in January were almost double that which existed before the recession. The […]
In the twelve months of 2014, scrap exports totaled 15,308,000 tonnes, down by 17.1 percent from the same period in 2013. In the single month of January 2015 exports were 1,148,422 which is an annual rate of 13,781,062 tons. Figure 1 shows that the monthly average declined for three consecutive years, 2012 through 2014 and […]
Last week the pace of the decline in flat rolled steel prices was relatively modest, most being in the single digits and in some cases there was no decline in our averages at all. There was some talk about “the bottom” of the market around the industry but, the inventory over-hang was just there and […]
There seemed to be three subjects on the minds of the steel buyers and executives with whom Steel Market Update spoke with over the past twenty-four hours: steel prices, demand for steel products and foreign steel (both offers and threats of dumping suits). Since it is Tuesday and we publish our flat rolled steel price […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of January 2015 was 10,378,392 net tons (9,415,130 metric tons). Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. January supply represents a 992,133 ton or 10.6 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. […]
January steel exports totaled 925,428 net tons (839,535 metric tons), down 0.4 percent over December and down 3.9 percent from January 2014. Total January figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA). Here is a breakdown of flat rolled and plate exports: Cut plate exports declined […]
Steel Market Update has received a number of inquiries recently asking questions about the potential for a trade case or anti-dumping filing by the domestic mills against foreign steel imports. In particular, the imports in question are cold rolled and coated steels and, the country mentioned the most is China, although if there is a […]
The most recent weekly raw steel production data is showing a slowing in production by the U.S. steelmakers. For the week ending March 7, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,645,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.7 percent decrease over the previous week and a […]
Over the past month we have begun to ask a new question of those responding to our flat rolled steel questionnaire. With the excessive inventories at service centers, and potentially some end users, created (in part) by high levels of imports, SMU wanted to know when we might see imports start to taper off. This […]
The pace of the drop in flat rolled steel prices slowed this past week. From our perspective, we saw hot rolled prices as down $5 per ton, cold rolled and galvanized as flat and Galvalume up $5 per ton compared to the previous week. All of the reporting steel indexes (SMU, CRU & Platts) followed […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) released final foreign steel import census data late last week, showing final January tonnage at 4.39 million net tons (3.99 million metric tons). This is a 20.8 percent increase over December 2014 imports and 37.1 percent higher than January 2014 levels. Total January imports were the highest seen […]