My final thoughts will be relatively short and sweet this evening. I have begun to follow Chris Kuehl (pronounced keel) of Armada Corporate Intelligence. I first saw Chris speak at the FMA Toll Processing Conference in Austin, Texas and I was impressed. I suggest to my readers that they consider registering for a free trial […]
Steel Market Update has been carefully watching the progress of iron ore shipments to U.S. Steel Gary Works. Earlier this month, US Steel reported the curtailment of steelmaking operations at the Gary Works plant. The Gary steel mill is the largest production facility for US Steel with four blast furnaces and two BOP’s with three […]
A large portion of the recent Nucor 1st Quarter earnings conference call with analysts was devoted to the progress of the company’s DRI (direct reduced iron) project which is called Nucor Louisiana. First Quarter 2014 was the first full quarter that the equipment was up and running. Nucor Louisiana is home to the largest single […]
With the various flat rolled indexes reporting hot rolled pricing approaching $680 per ton in the mill spot market we are quite close to the $685 announced by Nucor on April 4th and matched by a number of the domestic steel mills. The question now is will the mills attempt to move prices up to […]
For our plate customers, SSAB announced a $40 per ton plate price increase effective immediately. We will see if it sticks in the marketplace. We have a couple of minor bugs and tweaks we are working out of our systems and then we will release our Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution workshop for […]
Once per month, Steel Market Update provides a flat rolled service center inventory forecast for our Premium Level members. We thought in light of the recent numbers released by the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) to see how our forecast for April compared with the actual figures compiled by the MSCI. As indicated in our […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to be firm as supply issues haunt the northern steel mills and lead times remain extended at most mills throughout the eastern United States and Canada. US Steel has issues with receiving raw materials into their Gary Works facility which has slowed steelmaking operations to approximately 50 to 75 percent […]
The enormous undertaking by the US and Canadian Coast Guard to clear the Great Lakes of ice this year underscores the need for passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). Over 200 million tons of cargo, including iron ore and coal for steel mills, are shipped every year through the Great Lakes, according to […]
AK Steel CEO James Wainscott, in the company’s earnings conference call with analysts, reported that their blast furnaces were running at reduced capacities due to the ice problems on the Great Lakes. US Steel has been upfront by reporting their Gary Works steelmaking operations are running at less than capacity as they struggle to get […]
Earlier today, Steel Market Update (SMU) participated in the monthly galvanized steel with members of HARDI. The last conference call was held the day after ArcelorMittal has announced the first of two price increases during the month of March (Galvanized base of $39.50/cwt). The purpose of today’s call was to discuss what has been happening […]
Foreign steel imports, for the month of April 2014 are projected by Steel Market Update to exceed 3.5 million net tons. Based on preliminary license data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce through April 22, 2014 imports could reach as high as 3.7 million net tons. However, as our regular readers already know, license […]
Novolipetsk (NLMK) reported flat rolled steel sales for their USA division.The parent company also provided slab sales from Russia to the USA division by quarter going back to Q1 2012. Hot rolled steel tonnage sold by NLMK USA during the 1st Quarter 2014 was 680,000 tons (net tons). Cold rolled sales totaled 403,000 tons and […]
We learned today that ArcelorMittal will be taking down their #7 blast furnace at Indiana Harbor for two months: June & July 2014 (scheduled maintenance). The #7 furnace is capable of producing up to 11,500 tons of molten pig iron per day when ready at full capacity. Our assumption is US Steel Gary Works should […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-April steel market survey this past week. Early in the survey process we approached a subject that we know is near and dear to those within the steel industry – where do our respondents see demand for their products. What we found is a clear sign of improving demand. […]
All of the steel indices followed by Steel Market Update saw flat rolled steel prices increase this past week. Benchmark hot rolled coil saw the spread between the indices shrink while the average HR price increased by $17 per ton. Cold rolled was one item where the price spread increased across the various steel indexes […]
Steel Dynanics CEO Mark Millett and other officers of the steel mill provided their review of the company’s first quarter earnings as well as their insights into the various markets they serve as well as the challenges and opportunities they see in front of them. SMU found one comment interesting as Mr. Millett feels there […]
Ice coverage on the Great Lakes is beginning to subside with 36.7 percent coverage reported by NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory as of April 19. Ice persists, however, in Lake Superior and the northern sections of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Ice continues to clog the locks through Sault Ste. Marie. It is the […]
Question: How can you tell when a salesperson is lying? Answer: Their lips move. Of course from a salesperson perspective, the same question can be asked of buyers with the same response given as the punch line. The issue that you as a steel salesperson (or steel buyer for that matter) have to address is […]
Northwest Pipe was selected to provide 108-inch diameter pipe for a Texas water project. The 81,958 feet of pipe translates into 23,000 tons of hot rolled substrate with production slated to begin as early as May 2014 according to SMU sources. VANCOUVER, WA – Northwest Pipe Company, an industry leader of engineered welded steel pipe […]
Happy Easter to everyone! Normally Steel Market Update would not publish on Easter Sunday due to it being a holiday in the United States. However, we have so much information to share with our readers I decided not to let it wait and to publish. If domestic flat rolled steel prices continue to rise there […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index reached new highs this week. Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel were the most optimistic we have seen since SMU first began measuring Sentiment in October 2008. Our Sentiment Index was measured at +58 which is up 15 points since early April and exceeded the previous […]
According to Steel Market Update most recent flat rolled steel market survey results, lead times at the U.S. and Canadian steel mills continue to extend on hot rolled, cold rolld and coated products with the exception of Galvalume. Hot rolled lead times are now averaging 5.49 weeks, up from 4.87 weeks just two weeks ago […]
Flat rolled steel mills have become less willing to negotiate flat rolled steel spot prices with their customers. During the analysis of the flat rolled steel market conducted by Steel Market Update earlier this week, we found large adjustments in negotiations on hot rolled pricing as well as spot galvanized steel pricing. Cold rolled actually […]
US Steel Gary Works is not alone as the mill limps along on two of its blast furnaces operating at reduced capacities due to a lack of raw materials. According to a US Steel spokesperson nothing has changed over the past five or six days as the mill waits for further shipments coming from Northern […]
Our Steel 101 workshop on May 6-7, 2014 is sold out and we have a three person waiting list. We are working on two more workshops to be conducted over the balance of the year and we will advise the dates and locations once we have worked out all of the details. Our goal is […]
All of the current production issues are relegated to the northern fully integrated steel mills. One of our service center contacts laid out the production scenario and how it is impacting the other northern steel producers: “The Great Lakes outage, and then accident during repair, and the Gary reduction in output is the important factor […]
The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) published March shipment and inventory data earlier today. Here is a brief synopsis of the numbers and Steel Market Update will produce a more detailed report in Thursday evening’s issue combined with our own inventory results from this week’s survey. Total steel shipments (all products) were 3,675,200 tons during […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data through Tuesday, April 15th for imported steel scheduled to arrive into the United States during the month of April. Based on this early license data (knowing it can be misleading) we are projecting total steel imports will exceed the 3.5 million net tons forecast for March. Our […]
First, our questions posed to U.S. Steel remained unanswered as we reached the end of the day today. The last we heard they were running two blast furnaces at reduced capacities for each at Gary Works. It is not known exactly how many tons per day of pig iron or steel are being produced. Iron […]
Three of the four indices followed by Steel Market Update posted higher flat rolled steel averages through the end of this past week. CRU made the biggest catch-up move taking their benchmark hot rolled index to $654 per ton, up $21 per ton since the previous week. CRU and SMU HRC indices are now within […]