Metal Center News published their top 50 service centers based on volume with Reliance Steel & Aluminum taking top honors once again by a wide margin. Reliance 2013 revenues were $9.22 billion up from 2012 revenues of $8.44 billion. The next five service centers are closely bunched with revenues of at least $3.0 billion but […]
Everyone continues to watch for how the consolidation of the Severstal NA assets (Dearborn and Columbus steel mills) will impact the flat rolled steel markets. Early indications are for shorter lead times out of the SDI Columbus facility and Dearborn lead times are shorter than the Middletown and Ashland plants for AK Steel. But, it […]
On Wednesday, Steel Market Update (SMU) participated in a monthly steel conference call hosted by the Heating, Air-conditioning , Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI). HARDI wholesalers supply galvanized sheet and coils to the mechanical contractors involved in residential, multi-family and commercial construction segments of the construction industry. Consolidation was the first topic of discussion with AK Steel […]
We anticipate closing registration for the Ft. Wayne, Indiana Steel 101 workshop on Friday of this week. We have (once again) an excellent group of companies and people registered to attend with a record number of women attending (11). If you would like to learn more about our Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals workshop […]
Steel buyers think the domestic mills are riding high at today’s prices. Iron ore prices are dropping, coking coal is down and scrap has been treading water and the word is it may dip a bit as we enter the month of October. Steel buyers think the mills are floating on the top of the […]
Steel Market Update attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Big River Steel in Osceola, Arkansas which was held on Monday, September 22nd. According to Big River Steel Chairman and CEO John Correnti (and the sign at the entrance to the work site), the mill will be making steel in 550 days. A groundbreaking ceremony is much […]
“A simple act can create awareness,” is how our interview with Association of Steel Distributors President Brian Robbins began. The topic of the conversation was a follow-up to his comments made at the Cleveland regional meeting of the ASD when he told the group “let’s bring back sexy” to the steel industry. He clarified his […]
Through the 23rd of September foreign steel import licenses continue to suggest that September imports could exceed the 4.0 million net tons reported in the final census numbers for May 2014. The license data suggests that the biggest surge in imports will move through the domestic steel mills as semi-finished import licenses are trending toward […]
Consolidation may not be over yet. We saw a report this evening out of Minnesota about how Essar Steel Minnesota has failed to secure financing to complete the $1.8 billion taconite pellet facility. The company’s India parent company was so over-leveraged it was put on the top ten watch list by Credit Suisse one year […]
One of our readers asked us earlier this week what the average price for hot rolled has been so far this calendar year according to the Steel Market Update HRC index. The answer to that question is $665.30 per ton through this current week. The average of all of the hot rolled indexes followed on […]
Earlier today one of the steel analysts shared the most recent world production data for the month of August. Chinese mills now produce 51.1 percent of all of the world”s steel. However, the Chinese markets are slowing and the question is what (or where) will the Chinese mills be able to ship steel by the […]
Based on the results from our most recent Steel Market Update steel market analysis, flat rolled steel mill lead times, the number of weeks needed to produce and ship a new order, remained above 2013 levels on all products. SMU conducted one of our twice monthly steel market surveys this past week. During the process […]
Flat rolled steel mills continue to negotiate pricing on hot rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products and less enthusiastically on cold rolled, according to our latest flat rolled steel market analysis conducted this past week. Galvanized continued as the product manufacturing companies and service centers were reporting where prices were negotiable gathering 68 percent of the […]
The following is part of a series of articles Steel Market Update has been producing on the subject of steel sales. The series is called: The Truth About Selling Steel and today, with the help of John Temples, we are going to introduce communication and engagement. In the coming weeks we will expand upon our […]
The following articles are for our Premium level customers. Thank you again for your business. We also want you to know that the latest imports by product, port and country are in the website (must be logged in as Premium customer in order to access the data) as is our latest Survey data which was […]
For those who are keeping track I will be in Arkansas tomorrow for the Big River Steel groundbreaking. It will be interesting to see for myself what all the fuss is about… More about the groundbreaking (and maybe some of the fuss) in Tuesday evening’s issue of SMU. We have also been working on a […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are becoming more optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful based on current market conditions according to Steel Market Update and their Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index rose to +64 or +11 points higher than where it was measured during the beginning of […]
The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) released shipment and inventory data on the U.S. service centers this week. Total steel shipments of all steel products rose on a daily basis in August compared to July. The daily shipment rate was 173,000 net tons and shipments totaled 3,634,000 tons. The number of tons shipped was essentially […]
It will be interesting to see how AK Steel and Steel Dynamics (SDI) interact with the newly purchased Dearborn and Columbus steel mills. One SDI customer told us today that the mill tends to be very deliberate in their decision making process and they did not expect radical changes for a number of weeks if […]
Spot prices remained stable this week as steel buyers wait to see how the absorption of Severstal by AK Steel and Steel Dynamics will affect the marketplace. It is anticipated that it could take 3-4 weeks before we get a clear indication as to how the commercial departments for each mill will integrate the former […]
The steel market is scrambling to gather information as U.S. Steel Canada today announced they are initiating a court supervised restructuring of the Hamilton and Lake Erie steel mills (USS Canada) so that they can “compete in the North American steel market for the long term.” Metals and mining analysts told SMU this evening that […]
The following press release was made earlier today regarding two investments which are being made in the AM/NS Calvert steel mill (former ThyssenKrupp Steel USA Calvert mill). The two investments will assist in bringing the mill up to its 5.3 million metric ton (5.8 million net tons) target for production. The release (below) came from […]
On Monday, Nucor announced their intention to acquire Gallatin Steel and its approximately 1.8 million tons of hot rolling capacity. Today, AK Steel and Steel Dynamics (SDI) completed the purchase of the Severstal North America assets. The biggest pieces of the Severstal deal are the Dearborn steel mill, which went to AK Steel, and the Columbus […]
On Monday, Nucor announced their intention to acquire Gallatin Steel and its approximately 1.8 million tons of hot rolling capacity. On Tuesday, AK Steel and Steel Dynamics (SDI) completed the purchase of the Severstal North America assets. The biggest pieces of the Severstal deal are the Dearborn steel mill, which went to AK Steel, and the […]
In the week ending September 13, 2014, domestic raw steel production was 1,882,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 78.2 percent. Production was 1,875,000 net tons in the week ending September 13, 2013, while the capability utilization then was 78.3 percent. The current week production represents a 0.4 percent increase from the same […]
For those of you who are new to Steel Market Update (SMU) the Final Thoughts segment of the newsletter is reserved for me (John Packard, Founder and Publisher) to basically spout off on a wide variety of topics. This is the space I reserve for my opinions as well as in your face marketing (sorry, […]
Nucor announced this morning that they have reached an agreement to purchase all of the equity in Gallatin Steel for $770 million. Gallatin Steel is located in Ghent, Kentucky and has the capacity to produce approximately 1.8 million tons of hot rolled steel. Gallatin is an electric arc furnace (EAF) mini mill and complements Nucor’s […]
On Friday, Saikat Dey and nine other executive managers who operated out of the Severstal Dearborn facility were relieved of their positions. SMU sources confirmed that the top two commercial people: Sachin Shivaram and the general manager of sales, Scott Gosselin, were on the list of those not retained as the facility prepares to be […]
The following report was prepared by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk, LLC which is a company specializing in hot rolled, ferrous scrap and other “futures” contracts or financial derivatives. Today he discusses the broader financial markets, hot rolled steel futures (HRC), iron ore and ferrous scrap futures (BUS) trading on the CME. Andre Marshall […]
Flat rolled steel prices moved lower this past week according to the various steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update. The largest movement was seen in cold rolled prices but hot rolled prices and Galvalume prices also fell during the past week. The one item which did not see erosion was galvanized prices which […]