The article below was originally published on March 19, 2014 (SMU Volume 10, Issue 34) and it deals with the questions that we are sure many of you are asking yourselves this morning, how does the anti-dumping and countervailing duty systems work especially the timeline for action by the Department of Commerce and the International […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) wants to provide as much detail as possible regarding imports of coated steels into the United States. In particular, we are focusing on galvanized and Galvalume imports from China, India, Taiwan, South Korea and Italy. Galvanized: When looking at the data for 2012, 2013, 2014 and the first 4 months 2015, […]
Steel Market Update received the following letter to the editor from one of our readers regarding the running conversation we have been having in our newsletter regarding free trade and if dumping suits are justified at this time. “Thank you for the opportunity to comment on one of the Trader’s viewpoints, specifically the “China will […]
Steel Market Update has been communicating with our scrap sources during the day today (Thursday, June 4th) and we have learned that not all of the transactions/negotiations have been completed. Even so, a pattern has emerged which is showing ferrous scrap prices as moving higher by $20-$30 per gross ton compared to this time last […]
I was pleased to hear from a number of our readers who had used the search function at the top right hand side of our website in order to find old articles that we had written on the subject of dumping suits and the process that the suit has to go through. I used the […]
When speaking to buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel this week, one theme became abundantly clear: everyone is waiting for trade cases and, second, where scrap prices will end up for the month of June. Both are expected to support a further tightening of steel prices. Scrap is expected to rise anywhere from $10 […]
The world’s steel producers managed to pump out 1.665 billion metric tons of steel (1.84 billion net tons) during 2014 according to the World Steel Association (WSA) which released their 2014 data book earlier today. According to the WSA, the United States was the third largest steel producing country behind China and Japan. This is […]
Steel Market Update found it interesting as we received a number of comments regarding Al Plummer’s letter to the editor regarding foreign steel imports, pricing and potential dumping. What was most interesting was the vast majority of the comments received were from other steel traders… One trader responded to the continued threats of filing dumping […]
Steel Market Update sources: mill, service center and others are advising us that anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) trade cases on coated products will be filed yet this week. We have heard that the filing could come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3rd) or on Thursday of this week. Any trade filing on coated […]
As this issue started and I began working on my final thoughts for tonight’s issue, it began with comments from one of our service center friends about the prospect of dumping suits being filed. As the evening progressed I started to receive a number of credible comments from steel mills, service centers and others. The […]
Last month, Alfred (Al) Plummer, Sales Manager for Hanwa American Corporation, made a presentation about the steel industry at a regional meeting of the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD). Over the past few days Mr. Plummer has been communicating with Steel Market Update and we thought that the items being discussed should be of interest […]
Today SMU is not only going to discuss where flat rolled steel prices were this past week based on our analysis of steel pricing from our steel index as well as CRU, Platts and SteelBenchmarker, we are also going to discuss price momentum which our SMU Price Momentum Indicator currently points to higher prices over […]
We ended the month of April with the SMU Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral. As the month of May began, the domestic mills announced price increases and managed to move our needle to Higher. As the month ends, our Momentum Indicator continues to point toward higher domestic flat rolled steel prices over the next 30 […]
To those of you who receive invitations to participate in our flat rolled steel market questionnaire (survey) we will send out invitations for the early June analysis on Monday, June 1st at 8 AM. The survey will remain open until Thursday afternoon. Please take a few moments to click on the button (link) which will […]
Based on channel checks with our scrap sources, we are hearing that many of the steel mills have been actively buying as much scrap as possible during the month of May. The extra tonnage being added to the early May tons are being purchased at higher prices. Prices are up as much as $10 to […]
Steel Market Update closely follows the hot rolled futures market as a leading indicator of where “the money” is predicting HR steel prices to go in the future. We have added a new writer to our futures articles and he is very experienced in the trading of HRC futures, options and SWAPS. However, he has […]
Steel Market Update participated in the monthly galvanized steel conference call sponsored by HARDI for their wholesalers who supply sheet and coils to the HVAC mechanical contractors. The focus of the conference call is to discuss how the wholesalers see demand and market forces which impact galvanized steel supply and prices. This was the first […]
That sound you may be hearing is the drums (again) pounding, pounding louder and louder. I continue to get calls from people who “heard from a friend” that the dumping suits are days, maybe hours away. I don’t know if it is the boy in the woods crying wolf for the umpteenth time. Or a […]
We are seeing a further firming in the hot rolled numbers with our sources advising that most offers are in the range of $460 per ton with a few offers higher and limited offers lower unless tied to specific tonnage and sizes that fit the producing mill’s sweet spot. Lead times have moved out, for […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a detailed flat rolled steel market analysis. We do this by inviting approximately 600 companies, which have been vetted by our publisher to make sure they are legitimate buyers, sellers or executives involved with hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume or plate products. We then send invitations […]
The US Department of Commerce released preliminary census import data today (Tuesday) for the month of April. Steel Market Update (SMU) has analyzed the data for April and we have also revised our Trend Analysis for foreign steel imports for the month of May based on license data received through today. April Preliminary Census data […]
We saw mixed results this past week as the various indexes attempt to find firm ground for flat rolled steel pricing. Of the three reporting indexes followed by Steel Market Update last week, one (Steel Market Update) saw two of the four products as being lower than the week before. Although, SMU advised that the […]
About a week ago I asked if our readers would mind if we switched from a three day a week schedule to twice a week plus supplemental issues as warranted. We provided a link and to date we have received a modest number of respondents with 90 percent responding they did not have objections to […]
Steel Buyers Sentiment continues to be well within the optimistic end of our range as the Steel Market Update (SMU) Future Sentiment Index was reported to be +61 this week. This is up one point from two weeks ago but unchanged from one month ago. The SMU Future Sentiment Index measures how buyers and sellers […]
There are going to be two main themes which SMU and other steel periodicals will be writing about over the coming months (between now and our Steel Summit Conference at the beginning of September). The two themes are: anti-dumping suits on light flat rolled products and union contract negotiations between U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal USA […]
According to the results of the Steel Market Update most recent flat rolled steel survey, domestic steel mill lead times are beginning to extend reflecting the improvement in the mills’ order books. We are, however, still far away from the lead times that we saw in the middle of May 2014. Hot rolled lead times […]
U.S. and Canadian steel buyers reported mills as less willing to negotiate flat rolled steel prices (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume prices) at the beginning of the month of May. Prior to that, the domestic steel mills had been extremely active and willing to negotiate pricing on all products. This, according to our […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) is picking up a small reduction in the daily steel import license data rate compared to prior months. As you can see from our table below, based on the third week of the month import license data as provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce, May is running at a 117,150 […]
A quick reminder that this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend and Steel Market Update will not publish our Sunday evening issue. The next time we will publish will be on Tuesday evening (unless something happens which warrants your immediate attention). For those of you in the United States enjoy your Memorial Day Holiday Weekend with […]
This week we are seeing a “settling” of prices as buyers work with their suppliers. We are seeing a mixed market which was described to us by an executive with a large service center when he told us, “… it’s quite perplexing. The domestics certainly are seeing increased activity, slightly longer lead-times, and slightly higher spot […]