Steel Market Update is including the following MetalMiner article about zinc for a number of reasons. The run-up in zinc spot pricing late last year and early this year created a situation where the domestic North American steel mills felt they had no choice but to increase the coating extras used when putting zinc onto […]
According to Baker Hughes data from April 21, 2017, the US rig count for the week was 857 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 10 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 5 to 688 rigs, gas rigs up 5 to 167 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged […]
Miami – April 20, 2017 – Optima Specialty Steel, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, collectively the “Company” or “OSS”) today announced that it has entered into a Plan Support Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Optima Acquisitions, LLC (“OA”), the sole shareholder of OSS. The Agreement contemplates that the Company will emerge from Chapter 11 by the […]
Earlier today, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order requesting the U.S. Department of Commerce conduct an investigation under the Section 232 statutes (national security) to see if steel and imports of foreign steel are important to National Security interests of the United States. “We’re going to use American steel, we’re going to use American […]
Washington, D.C. – April 19, 2017 – The first quarter of the year ended on a positive note for the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the eighth consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory for a single week. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the […]
For the week ending April 15, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,740,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.2 percent increase over the previous week and a 2.5 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Total Canadian steel shipments for all products in March were 421,300 net tons, an increase of 15.2 percent from the month before and an increase of 7.4 percent from March 2017. Total steel inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,165,000 tons, down 0.5 percent from last month and down 2.0 percent from […]
Below is the latest data release issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through February 2017. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for February 2017 increased 5.5 […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil 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 […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the seventh consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory for a single week. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the […]
February 2017 steel exports totaled 827,559 net tons (750,750 metric tons), up 1.1 percent over January and up 6.2 percent from February 2016. This is the highest export level seen since June 2015 when 885,190 tons were exported out of the US. The total February export figure is above the three month moving average (average […]
For the week ending April 8, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,703,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.7 percent increase over the previous week and a 0.3 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
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 February 2017 was 8,501,854 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports, then subtracting total US steel exports. February apparent […]
According to Baker Hughes data from April 7, 2017, the US rig count for the week was 839 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 15 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 10 to 672 rigs, gas rigs up 5 to 165 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the sixth consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory for a single week. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the […]
For the week ending April 1, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,692,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.9 percent decrease over the previous week but a 0.4 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) recently reported final U.S. raw steel production estimates for the month of February 2017. 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 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 31, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 824 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 15 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 10 to 662 rigs, gas rigs up 5 to 160 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil 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 […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of February 2017, providing updated data on iron ore imports, scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in February were 83,490,000 metric tons, a decrease of 9.1 percent from the previous month but an increase of 13.4 percent from […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the fifth consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory for a single week. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the […]
For the week ending March 25, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,725,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.3 percent decrease over the previous week but a 2.4 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
Steel Market Update is being asked whether Big River Steel’s production has been added to the raw steel capacity that the AISI uses when calculating capacity utilization rates. The short answer is we don’t think so. The AISI did make a change and increased quarterly capacity for the 4th Quarter 2016 from 30.7 to 31.2 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 24, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 809 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 20 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 21 to 652 rigs, gas rigs down 2 to 155 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs up […]
The Steel Market Update Steel Price Momentum Index (MoMo) for hot rolled steel in the United States remained in positive territory for the fourth consecutive week after briefly dipping into negative territory last month. MoMo is a trailing indicator and shows the relationship between the current U.S. hot rolled coil price movements against the previous 12-week […]
For the week ending March 18, 2017, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,747,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.5 percent decrease over the previous week but a 3.7 percent increase over the revised rate from the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 17, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 789 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 21 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 14 to 631 rigs, gas rigs up 6 to 157 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs up […]
Total Canadian steel shipments for all products in February were 365,700 net tons, a decrease of 11.2 percent from the month before and a decrease of 7.8 percent from February 2017. Do keep in mind that total January shipments were at an 18 month high. Total steel inventories at the end of the month stood […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel export prices and domestic (USA) hot rolled coil 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 […]