Contributor: Ethan Bernard

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. would still be interested in acquiring some or all of U.S. Steel’s assets, if the proposed deal by Nippon Steel stumbles, according to an article in Bloomberg.

Hot-rolled coil and plate lead times contracted this week, with most other products remaining flat, according to SMU's most recent survey data. Cold-rolled products, however, saw lead times extend 0.1 weeks to an average of 7.5 weeks vs. two weeks earlier. Hot rolled and plate lead times both contracted 0.3 weeks from our last market check.

Reliance Inc.’s earnings slumped in the first quarter of 2024, but the company expects better than normal seasonal recovery in demand in the second quarter.

Sheet steel buyers said mills are more willing to talk price on spot orders, according to our most recent survey data.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) executives said the company's Sinton, Texas, sheet mill should be able to increase melt capacity after an outage earlier this month. Sinton should see "additional improvements in production" after taking "several maintenance days in April," Barry Schneider, SDI president and COO, said in a Q1 earnings conference call on Wednesday.

Steel Dynamics Inc.'s (SDI's) earnings fell in the first quarter of 2024 as the company cited steel order volatility early in the quarter and lower scrap prices.

Nucor executives explained their recently introduced hot-rolled (HR) coil consumer spot price (CSP) is a way to serve their customers and deal with market volatility.

Cleveland-Cliffs’ chief Lourenco Goncalves and US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm stressed the importance of the US steel industry and domestic manufacturing at Cliffs' Butler Works in Pennsylvania on Monday.

Nucor’s earnings slipped in the first quarter of this year, but the company said it launched key growth initiatives during this time period.

Zekelman Industries will invest up to $120 million to expand the manufacturing capabilities and product offerings of its Atlas Tube subsidiary in Mississippi County, Ark.

Nucor has appointed Nicole B. Theophilus to the newly created position of EVP of talent and human resources, effective April 29.

A lot of economists were predicting a recession last year. Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), wasn’t one of them.

Metalformers expect economic activity to remain level over the next three months, according to the April Business Conditions Report from the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA).

Bula tapped as CEO of Finland's Blastr

U.S. Steel’s No. 8 blast furnace (BF8) at its Gary Works in northwest Indiana is undergoing a 45-day maintenance outage that started on April 4.

Domestic shipments of heating and cooling equipment soared in February, according to the latest data released from the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI).

Drilling activity decreased in the US but rose in Canada in the week ended April 12, according to the latest data from Baker Hughes.

SMU’s Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices both rose this week.

For something that wasn’t on the agenda in Washington this week, the proposed Nippon Steel deal for U.S. Steel is getting a lot of attention.

Steel buyers said mills are more willing to talk price on spot orders on all the products SMU covers, according to our most recent survey data.

President Biden said on Wednesday he would stand by his commitment to US workers regarding the proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel.

The spread between hot-rolled coil (HRC) and prime scrap prices has widened this month after narrowing for three months, according to SMU’s most recent pricing data.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be in Washington this week where one topic under discussion with President Biden will be U.S. Steel's proposed sale to Nippon Steel.

Steel Warehouse Co. has announced the rebranding of its Cold Mill division as “Specialty Strip,” a boutique cold mill.

Evraz North America said there was no impact on production from a fire that broke out at its Pueblo., Colo., steel mill on Friday.

Nucor said its new weekly hot-rolled coil spot price is not meant as a substitute for any current price indices.

They say all’s fair in love and war. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in steel. Being deemed “unfair” could get you slapped with shiny new Section 232 tariffs these days. Then again, “unfair” implies a judge. And people on opposing sides seldom agree with the judgment. Such seems to be the current case between the US and Mexico.

April scrap prices came in sideways in the US, sources told SMU.

The US Department of Energy has finalized Congressionally mandated energy-efficiency standards for transformers.

Reliance Inc. said it has completed its buy of Houston-based American Alloy Steel, effective as of April 1.