The U.S. active rotary rig count, an indicator of oil country tubular goods demand, declined week over week, according to oilfield services company Baker Hughes. The number of active U.S. rigs fell by 8 to 1,075, with oil rigs down 8 to 877 rigs, gas rigs unchanged at 198 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at […]
Total heating and cooling equipment shipments in November rose 2.4 percent compared to one year ago, according to data released by the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) on Friday. Aside from the 5.1 percent slip in September, total monthly equipment shipments on a year-over-year basis had increased every month since November 2016. Residential and […]
January 2019 has begun and steel prices have taken up where they left off as Steel Market Update price ranges and averages dropped compared to where we ended 2018. Steel buyers are worried about inventory levels, which some service centers reported as having grown more than expected during the month of December. They also worry […]
The year ended on a cautionary note with steel demand, prices and buyers’ sentiment showing downward momentum in December. Prices for flat rolled products continued their fourth-quarter declines with hot rolled dipping to $754, cold rolled to $865 and galvanized to $931 in December. Plate is the notable exception, holding steady around $1,000 per ton, […]
Total raw steel production for the month of November was 8,156,077 net tons. Broken down by production method, 5,533,449 tons (67.8 percent) were produced by electric arc furnaces (EAFs) and 2,622,628 tons (32.2 percent) were produced by blast furnaces. November production was 174,428 tons or 2.1 percent lower than October, but 836,610 tons or 11.4 […]
Steel Market Update rolled flat rolled and plate steel prices for this past week (Dec, 26, 2018) due to limited data being available due to the holidays. We will produce new pricing on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Our Price Momentum Indicator continues to point toward “Lower” prices on flat rolled (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized […]
The Architecture Billings Index remained positive in November and rose over four points to 54.7, according to the Wednesday release by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This is the 14th consecutive month of increasing demand for architectural firms’ services and the strongest billings growth figure in 10 months. The project inquiries index rose to […]
We saw benchmark hot rolled prices slip this week. Hot rolled dropped to $745 per ton, which is down $15 per ton from what we measured one week ago. Cold rolled prices were unchanged. The lower end of the range on galvanized and Galvalume base prices slipped $20 per ton. The Steel Market Update Price […]
This afternoon, the U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest license data for foreign steel imports arriving during the month of December. The trend is for imports to drop from 2.6 million net tons in November (after dropping from 3.2 million tons in October) to just shy of 2.4 million tons in December. This is […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
We are seeing steel price spreads, the range from low to high on a product, tighten this week. Part of the reason is the lack of SMU collecting low-ball orders this week as we did last on galvanized. A second reason is that the high end of the range is being compressed. The net result […]
U.S. steel imports continue to trend down in December, according to import license data from the Department of Commerce. Imports are on track to total around 2.3 million tons this month, well below the preliminary total of 2.6 million tons in November and far below the nearly 3.3 million tons in October. Domestic steelmakers have […]
U.S. steel exports in October totaled 631,087 net tons (572,513 metric tons), up 7.9 percent from September, but down 28.5 percent from October 2017. Although up over the previous month, October export levels remain low in comparison to previous years. The September figure of 584,858 was the lowest monthly export figure seen in nearly 16 […]
October apparent steel supply increased to 9,557,437 net tons, according to government data released late last week. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total U.S. steel exports. October apparent steel supply saw a 201,816 ton or 2.2 percent increase compared to the same month […]
Total raw steel production for the month of October was 8,330,505 net tons, the highest production level since August 2014 when 8,546,303 tons were produced. Broken down by production method, 5,724,209 tons were produced by electric arc furnaces (EAFs) and 2,606,296 tons were produced by blast furnaces. October production was 333,505 tons or 4.2 percent […]
Raw steel production by U.S. steelmakers in the week ending Dec. 8 saw a slight dip for the third week in a row, possibly reflecting seasonal weaknesss, but stayed at the 80.0 percent capacity utilization level the mills strive to maintain. Steel production totaled 1,876,000 net tons for the week, down 0.8 percent from the […]
Total heating and cooling equipment shipments in October rose 10.2 percent compared to one year ago, according to data released by the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) on Wednesday. Aside from the 5.1 percent slip in September, total monthly equipment shipments on a year-over-year basis had increased every month since October 2016. Residential and […]
Raw steel production by U.S. steelmakers in the week ending Dec. 1 backslid a bit, but stayed above the 80 percent level that the mills hope to maintain. Steel production totaled 1,892,000 net tons for the week, down a slight 0.7 percent from the prior week, but up 11.1 percent from the prior year. The […]
The U.S. active rotary rig count, an indicator of oil country tubular goods demand, declined slightly week over week, according to oilfield services company Baker Hughes. The number of active U.S. rigs fell by 3 to 1,076, with oil rigs up 2 to 887 rigs, gas rigs down 5 to 189 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
U.S. steel imports are trending down in November to around 2.5 million tons from the preliminary total of 3.3 million tons in October, according to import license data from the Department of Commerce. The November decline is largely a result of fewer imports of semi-finished products. Imports of slabs jumped in October to nearly 1.3 […]
We did not collect as many low price data points on hot rolled this week as we did last. We did see erosion at the upper end of the range as most offers appear to be trending below $800 per ton. Steel buyers continue to worry about the basic laws of supply and demand. There […]
U.S. steelmakers have produced 5.6 percent more raw steel so far this year. Adjusted year-to-date production through Nov. 24 totaled 85,639,000 net tons. The increase is the result of a nearly 4 percent improvement in capacity utilization, to an average annual rate of 78.1 percent from 74.2 percent in 2017, reports the American Iron and […]
Flat rolled steel prices dropped again this week. One of our domestic steel mill sources told us this afternoon, “Everything is down about a buck from last week.” This source went on to say that the U.S. steel mills are producing more and exporting less. The net result being there is more supply available. Here […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released updated license data on October and November foreign steel imports on Tuesday. The latest data shows October imports at just over 3 million net tons, well above the 2.3 million ton dip reported for the month of September. The majority of this change is due to an increase in […]
September apparent steel supply declined to 9,101,986 net tons, according to government data released late last week. This is the third lowest level of the year, above only February (8.8 million tons) and June (8.9 million tons). Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total […]
Mill utilization among domestic steelmakers continues to inch upward and is now well above the profitable 80 percent level the industry hopes to maintain. U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Nov. 17 totaled 1,924,000 net tons for a capability utilization rate of 82.1 percent, a half-percent more than the prior week and a […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel import prices (delivered to USA ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other […]
Flat rolled steel prices dropped this week based on our analysis of the market. Benchmark hot rolled coil dropped $5 per ton and is now averaging $800 per ton ($40.00/cwt). We saw even larger negative price movements in cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. Plate prices, however, were flat and the expectation of plate steel […]
Domestic steelmakers have been able to sustain operations above 80 percent capacity utilization for a month now, keeping production at the highest rate seen in a decade. U.S. raw steel production for the week ending Nov. 10 totaled 1,915,000 net tons, a utilization rate of 81.7 percent, just slightly below the prior week, but a 12.1 […]