One of the biggest issues that has been holding the domestic steel mill lead times (and prices) in check during calendar year 2014 is the amount of foreign steel coming into the United States. SMU recently reported the U.S. received 4.4 million net tons of imports during the month of October and license data is […]
With buying prices down by approximately $60 per ton over the past two months, we are seeing a lack of feedstock for shredded scrap across the country. The net result is shredded scrap prices are up $5 to $10 per gross ton compared to where they were in November in most regions east of the […]
There has been a fair amount of interest being generated regarding our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop which will be held in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina on January 20 & 21, 2015. If you go to our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com and click on the Steel 101 link in the Events […]
It has now been five weeks (October 28th) since AK Steel became the first domestic steel mill to announce a price increase on flat rolled steel. The relatively modest $20 per ton move was, in many steel buyers’ opinions, meant to stem the decline in steel prices. At that point in time benchmark hot rolled […]
Flat rolled steel prices began slipping once again as our benchmark hot rolled average broke through the $630 mark for the first time since the middle of March. The new average is now at the lowest level for the calendar year (tied with mid-March) and is poised to set a new low point for the […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data through today, December 2, 2015. Based on the latest data, there were 3,938,330 net tons of steel import license requests for the month of November. This does not mean that the U.S. actually received 3.9 million tons of steel imports during the month of November, but it […]
A member of the financial community contacted me earlier today asking about rumors of a new price increase by the domestic steel mills as we move into January 2015. He stated that another steel-related publication had quoted a service center as believing price announcements would be coming soon. First, I have not heard directly from […]
With the exception of Platts, all of the other flat rolled steel indexes reported benchmark hot rolled pricing as being down $5-$9 per ton this past week. Our average also declined by $5 per ton and now sits at $637 per ton. With at least one mill offering spot hot rolled at, or below, $600 […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) benchmark hot rolled coil pricing averaged $634 per ton ($31.70/cwt) for the month of November. CRU HRC averaged $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt) while Platts averaged $640 per ton ($32.00/cwt). Hot rolled prices at $630 per ton as of the last week of the month, were $5 per ton lower than where […]
Monday is December 1st. This means we will begin our early December flat rolled steel market survey first thing Monday morning. Look for your invitation around 8 AM ET on Monday. If you receive an invitation please take a few minutes to click on the link and respond to our questionnaire which is housed on […]
It has been a very quiet week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the U.S. on Thursday. A number of service centers advised SMU that the number of inquiries had dramatically fallen off and there isn’t much need to buy steel at this time. The question isn’t so much where are prices this week […]
Preliminary October import figures show October as the second highest month in the 17 years worth of history we have at SMU. October steel imports were the highest figure since August 1998 when total imports were 4,417,811 net tons. We also address November 2014 imports which we believe will be approximately 3.7-3.8 million net tons […]
First, I want to wish everyone in the United States a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends. Steel Market Update will not publish on Thursday but will return to our normal schedule on Sunday evening. Our offices will be open both on Wednesday and Friday of this week but will be closed on Thanksgiving […]
Last week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-November flat rolled steel market survey. We invited approximately 600 companies to participate representing manufacturing, steel service centers, trading companies, steel mills, toll processors and suppliers to the steel industry. Last week’s participation mix was very similar to what we see on a regular basis with 46 […]
We ended the article above talking about the tight range we have seen on hot rolled coil over the past 12 months. Total price movement from low to high during that time period has been $65 per ton. The question is, will U.S. hot rolled coil prices break through the low of the past 12 […]
Flat rolled steel prices, as reported by Steel Market Update, Platts, CRU this past week (SteelBenchmarker did not report last week) had mixed results. CRU and SMU have hot rolled prices at $634 and $635 respectively. Platts remains stuck at $640 as they have been for a number of weeks now. SteelBenchmarker did not report […]
This is part of a series of articles for those associated with the steel industry who are interested in steel sales or steel purchasing. Steel Market Update “Truth About Selling Steel” as well as our “Steel Buyers Basics” articles can be found on our website and are available to the public. Steel Market Update (SMU) […]
We understand from press reports in the Baltimore, Maryland area that the new owners of Sparrows Point will announce on Monday, November 24th when the “L” blast furnace will be demolished. It is expected that the furnace, which is one of the tallest structures for miles around, will be taken down sometime in December. The […]
Buyers and sellers of steel are beginning to feel the strain of reduced demand (whether seasonal or otherwise), stable to falling steel prices and a very competitive service center spot market which impacts distributors margins. The bottom line is those actively involved in the flat rolled steel industry in the United States and Canada are […]
Last year at this time hot rolled steel prices averaged $670 per ton and were close to the peak for the year which was $680 per ton (SMU index HRC average). Lead times peaked the first week in December on all flat rolled with the exception of Galvalume. From mid-December 2013 until the middle of […]
The vast majority of our SMU steel survey respondents reported the domestic steel mills as willing to negotiate flat rolled steel prices this week. Those reporting the mills as willing to negotiate hot rolled prices increase by 2 percent to 70 percent of the respondents. Cold rolled jumped by an even greater margin from 52 […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported steel import license data through the 18th of November a little earlier this week. We have done an analysis of the license data and have compared it to previous months to see if we can see any similarities in the numbers. The daily average rate for licenses is shown […]
On October 28, 2014 AK Steel announced a $20 per ton ($1.00/cwt) price increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steels. Shortly after, ArcelorMittal and then Nucor advised their customers of specific base price levels on new spot flat rolled orders. Hot rolled was to be offered at $33.00/cwt ($660 per ton or higher) […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported flat rolled steel inventories earlier this week. Steel Market Update then reviews the data and incorporates the information into a proprietary model which assists us in determining whether inventories are short (deficit) or long (excess) based on what our model is telling us. When September ended we were […]
The way our market surveys work is we invite approximately 600 companies to participate. Each individual receives and email invitation with a link to the survey which is hosted on SurveyMonkey.com. The first few questions are posed to the entire group. We asked questions related to our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, general demand and […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) is seeing flat rolled steel prices as drifting at this time. We saw slight adjustments in both the upper and lower end of our range on hot rolled compressing our range. Cold rolled was up by $5 per ton while galvanized was unchanged and Galvalume was lower. Market players are sitting […]
Earlier today Steel Market Update participated in the HARDI steel group conference call which resulted in more questions than answers being raised due to the uncertainty in the galvanized steel markets. The call began with a recap of the price announcements which were made by the domestic mills when AK Steel began the process on […]
Yesterday the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released their inventory and shipment data. According to the latest data total steel inventories dropped by 0.40 percent from the previous month and stood at 9,312,500 tons as of the end of October. Although down from the prior month steel inventories were 15.5 percent higher than October 2013. […]
Vessels carrying iron ore, metallurgical coal, aggregate and grain continue to work under the force majeure created when ice conditions at the start of the shipping season ended up costing the shipping companies 40 days of lost transit time. At the beginning of the season ice conditions were beyond the Coast Guard’s ice breaking capabilities. […]
Spot prices for 62% Fe iron ore fines, CFR Tianjin Port in China were reported by The Steel Index this morning as being down 4 percent to $72.10/dry metric ton. This is down 4 percent in one day and is, based on TSI records, the lowest we have seen since SMU began tracking iron ore […]