Steel prices are starting to slip. We have found a number of mills making price adjustments to their flat rolled steel offers over the past 24-48 hours. The steel mills are attempting to keep the reductions as minimal and quiet as possible. We are posting reductions in our averages, most occurring due to reductions on […]
The steel storage facilities located at ports around the United States are brimming with foreign steel. We have been advised that companies like Kinder Morgan and Fleetwood Port Services are at maximum capacity in their Houston facilities and struggling with Savannah, Camden and other port facilities. However, that is not the major problem facing the […]
Something has to give. US Steel announced the closure of two of their OCTG production facilities. The McKeesport facility has a capacity of 315,000 tons of OCTG per year while the Bellville operation capacity is 100,000 tons of OCTG on an annual basis. Total US Steel production capacity of oil country tubular goods is 2.8 […]
For the week ending May 31, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,895,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, 1.1 percent increase over the previous week and a 3.4 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 78.8 percent, […]
Licensed data for May was updated on June 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is published in our […]
Licensed data for May was updated on June 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is published in our […]
Ferrous scrap negotiations have begun between the U.S. and Canadian steel mills with most mills expecting lower prices. One way we know if the mills believe prices will fall is they will cancel any remaining orders from May that have not yet been completed from their scrap suppliers in the hopes of being able to […]
Steel Market Update has a close contact who is an active iron ore and steel trader in Asia. He sells iron ore to the Chinese steel mills and then he buys steel from the Chinese (and other Asian) steel mills and ships it around the world. Over the past couple of days we got deeply […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution instructor penned the following commentary on the financial, iron ore, scrap and steel markets and the results of trading on the HRC and BUS Futures markets over this past week. More information about futures can […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution instructor penned the following commentary on the iron ore, scrap and steel markets and the results of trading on the HRC and BUS Futures markets over this past week (as of May 29th). More information […]
Ferrous scrap price negotiations are beginning with at least one deal getting done in Detroit within the past few days at down $22 per gross ton. However, as one scrap dealer explained to us earlier today, scrap prices are all over the board. There are steel mills who are bringing furnaces back online and others […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of April 2014. This estimation is different than the weekly raw steel production as it is based on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. 50 percent for the weekly estimates. Total raw steel production for the […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their final raw steel production numbers for the month of April 2014. This estimation is different than the weekly raw steel production as it is based on 75 percent of the domestic mills reporting vs. 50 percent for the weekly estimates. Total raw steel production for the […]
While trading emails with one of my Asia trading sources regarding export price offers coming out of China I got the following response, “By the time September rolls around, CRC and other coated products may already be under anti-dumping and nothing sellable to the U.S….” It appears some in China are expecting the inevitable. As […]
While trading emails with one of my Asia trading sources regarding export price offers coming out of China I got the following response, “By the time September rolls around, CRC and other coated products may already be under anti-dumping and nothing sellable to the U.S….” It appears some in China are expecting the inevitable. As […]
Earlier this week SteelBenchmarker reported their latest world export price for hot rolled steel at $501 per net ton ($552 per metric ton), unchanged from their price two weeks ago. With an estimated $70 per ton in freight, handling and trader margin added, that puts the world price at approximately $571 per ton CIF USA […]
In late May SteelBenchmarker reported their world export price for hot rolled steel at $501 per net ton ($552 per metric ton), unchanged from their price earlier in the month. With an estimated $70 per ton in freight, handling and trader margin added, that puts the world HRC price at approximately $571 per ton CIF […]
Steel imports to the U.S. totaled 3.7 million net tons according to preliminary data from the US Census Bureau but the reaction to this data depends on one’s point of view. The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) and the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) both came out with reports on April imports, but […]
The break for the Memorial Day Holiday here in the United States took some of the pressure off both buyers and sellers of steel as both sides regroup and begin to look at July and beyond flat rolled steel pricing. One steel mill executive told us that they were seeing downward pressure on their mill […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data on steel imports into the United States for the month of April on Friday. As expected steel imports jumped by 20 percent compared to the previous month and by 36 percent year-over-year (days adjusted basis) to 3,726,199 net tons (3.4 million+ metric tons). This is for […]
The numbers are not looking good for the domestic steel mills as the latest license data from the US Department of Commerce shows May steel imports may well exceed the 3.7 million tons just reported for the month of April (Preliminary Census data for April). We remind our readers that the May tonnage shown in […]
What SMU found interesting when looking at flat rolled steel price movement over this past week is Platts, the industry optimist recently, dropped their benchmark hot rolled pricing multiple times as the week progressed. Platts ended the week down $10 per ton to $685 per ton. The $685 is where SMU had its HRC index […]
There are questions about potential manipulations of zinc and zinc trading which may have artificially inflated the metal’s price since 2010. Zinc, which is the metal used to coat galvanized steel as well as Galvalume, Galfan and ZAM, is believed to have been manipulated by The London Metal Exchange, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Glencore Xstrata […]
Last week Steel Market Update conducted our mid-May flat rolled steel market analysis. We thought it would be interesting to compare what our respondents were thinking last week compared to the beginning of May regarding where hot rolled coil spot prices might be by the beginning of June. What our survey discovered was our respondents […]
For the week ending May 24, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,875,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, 2.0 percent increase over the previous week and a 2.3 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 78.0 percent, […]
The past couple of weeks have been a bit brutal for the US hot rolled coil (HRC) forward curve. While the spot market is appearing to run out of steam the HRC forward curve has broken down particularly the second half 2014 periods and calendar 2015 periods. May and June have withstood this recent selling […]
Even though there might be an air of expectation that flat rolled steel prices are going to drop, Steel Market Update continues to see a stingy domestic steel industry. Stingy in that they are not quick to give back the gains made over the past eight weeks. SMU noticed that Platts actually moved their hot […]
The psychological barrier has been broken! Iron ore spot prices broke below $100 for the first time this year as 62% Fe fines were reported to be $97.5 per dry metric ton (dmt) today according to The Steel Index. The $97.5/dmt number is the 52-week low with the high being $142.8/dmt. The last time iron […]
Iron ore spot prices in China have been falling and may continue to decline to the lows last seen in September 2012 when prices for 62% Fe fines reached into the $80’s (currently trading at $97.5/dmt). Steel Market Update has been reviewing the relationship between iron ore and ferrous scrap prices using shredded scrap as […]
For the week ending May 17, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,838,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.3 percent decrease over the previous week but a 0.3 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.4 […]