We have been hearing of a very strong booking week at many of the domestic steel mills this past week. With the hot end of USS Great Lakes down and other flat rolled steel production issues within the domestic steel mill ranks, we have seen a tightening of flat rolled steel pricing. We have heard […]
The word out of U.S. Steel has been silence since they reported a collection pipe (collector main) falling onto and collapsing part of the roof over their #2 BOP Shop at Great Lakes Works on Thursday evening. Our understanding continues to be that all three blast furnaces are in hot idle (not producing pig iron) […]
Steel Market Update has been projecting 3.5 million tons of total steel products as the target number for the month of March based on US DOC license data. The license numbers were updated again today (April 1st) and we continue to believe we will be quite close to the 3.5 million ton mark when the […]
Flat rolled steel pricing momentum reversed course due to the price increase announcement led by ArcelorMittal and followed by virtually all of the domestic and Canadian steel mills. We moved the SMU Price Momentum Indicator first to Neutral and then a week later to Higher in response to the increase announcements and the fact that […]
March was the month that saw the bottom to the flat rolled steel pricing cycle and signs of the first bounce as prices began moving higher. We are finding our monthly analysis of pricing fascinating as many become consumed by the weekly numbers and forget the bigger picture. Weekly gyrations many times equal little change […]
Imports of foreign steel increased during the month of February compared to the prior month. Steel Market Update carefully monitors total steel imports, slab imports, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume imports as well as plate (coiled and sheet) and oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The U.S. Government recently released preliminary census data for […]
Last week Steel Market Update published an article from one of our contributing writers, David Phelps who was the former president of the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS). The article was about Big River Steel and Nucor. You can link to the original article by clicking here. One of our readers had strong opinions […]
From time to time Steel Market Update uses words or phrases within articles which sometimes will set off your SPAM filters. You may notice that I never use the “M” word. The word used to describe a home loan. It is one of the words that SPAM filters love to hate. Another word is survey […]
US Steel has essentially lost a steel mill – Great Lakes in Ecorse, Michigan – for how long is the unknown question. Part of the roof collapsed in the building which houses their basic oxygen furnace (they called it a basic oxygen process or BOP). It is the most critical piece of equipment in the […]
US Steel’s Great Lakes (Ecorse) facility suffered a roof collapse at the #2 BOP on Thursday evening which has ceased steelmaking operations at the plant. According to our sources, the USS Great Lakes facility in Ecorse, Michigan only has one basic oxygen process plant (BOP) which is fed molten pig iron from the blast furnaces […]
When markets start to move each steel index will pick up the information in different ways. It is important to understand each index methodology, how often the markets are canvassed and how deep the reporting resources are. CRU indices are based on actual verifiable transactions from both steel mills and buyers. Platts takes into consideration […]
Even as other companies were issuing lower guidance due to weather and its impact on negatively impacting their earnings during the first three months 2014, Worthington Industries reported their fiscal year 2014 3rd Quarter results which ended on February 28, 2014 as being the best in the company’s history. The company reported earnings of $40.6 […]
According to recently released data from Novileptsk (NLMK), their North American operations sold 737,000 net tons of flat rolled steel products during the 4th Quarter 2013. This includes sales of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steels. The new number represents an improvement of 240,000 tons compared to the 4Q 2012 (+30 percent). For the […]
Imports of foreign steel increased during the month of February compared to the prior month. Steel Market Update carefully monitors total steel imports, slab imports, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume imports as well as plate (coiled and sheet) and oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The U.S. Government recently released preliminary census data for […]
Friday was a sad day at Sparrows Point as the dismantling of the facility took on the BOF (basic oxygen furnace). There was a controlled demolition of the BOF on Friday. Essentially, this leaves only the blast furnace to be destroyed. One of our instructors who lives close to the Sparrows Point facility told us […]
We are beginning to see a new push away from a fragmented steel mill supply base as closures of capacity coupled with the recent acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA by ArcelorMittal/Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metals Corporation (AM/NS Calvert) are reducing the number of players and the tons in the game. Over the past two years we […]
When I last wrote my final thoughts, I had just discovered that my passport had expired ten days earlier and I was scheduled to speak to the Toronto Steel Buyers & Associates dinner in Canada the following day. My efforts to have the passport renewed in Atlanta were rebuffed and I was down to my […]
Usually the news about price increase announcements is regarding the ability of the steel mills to collect all, or a portion, of the announced flat rolled price increases. With the latest announcements made last week led by ArcelorMittal on Monday and then followed by the rest of the industry as the week progressed, the question […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Preliminary Census Data for February 2014 steel imports into the United States. Total steel imports (all products) were reported to be 3,250,176 net tons which is an increase of 30 percent year over year and well above both the 12 month and 3 month moving average. As you can […]
Regular Steel Market Update readers know we project steel imports into the United States for the current month based on the revised weekly license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Based on data released earlier today, imports are now forecast to exceed 3.5 million tons (3,629,548 tons) which, if correct, would be the […]
Would you want to start up your own service center in today’s environment? The risk and rewards are much different than in the past and, more often than not, entrepreneurs are not opening steel distribution centers. Last week, Steel Market Update attended the Platts Steel Markets North America conference, where the challenges of service center […]
I have been asked about the rumor mill surrounding coated products and especially the Asian 4 exporting countries. The Asian 4 are: China, India, Taiwan and South Korea. Steel Market Update is aware that at least one mill has been pushing for dumping suits on coated products. We understand that not all mills favor the […]
One of the keys watched by Steel Market Update is service center spot pricing into their customers – especially the manufacturing segment of the industry. We have found if service centers are lowering their spot prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels, especially after a price increase announcement, it is more difficult for […]
Has the flat rolled steel price turn already begun? According to Platts it has, as they moved both hot rolled pricing and cold rolled pricing higher on their index during the later part of the week. Both CRU and SMU reported flat rolled steel prices earlier in the week as either flat or lower than […]
Early indications are for April ferrous scrap prices in the Midwest to rise once we enter the next round of steel mill negotiations with their scrap suppliers. Steel Market Update (SMU) scrap sources are pegging the potential increase at $10 to $15 per gross ton. Other industry sources have it as moving even higher. Scrap […]
SMU’s John Temples attended the Platts Steel Market’s North America Conference this week. Panelist focused on market forecast, natural gas, service center operations, and a healthy dose of business promotion. One discussion of interest was on the recovery and outlook of the construction sector. Throughout the conference, many people were optimistic about the non-residential construction […]
I want to take a moment to thank the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) and their new organization president, Brian Robbins, for the opportunity to speak to the organization at their annual meeting held in Orlando over the past few days. The conference covered a wide variety of topics including the award for Steel Man […]
The possibility for steel prices to have, at the very least, bottomed and improving weather conditions across the United States and Canada have sparked an improvement in our Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. The index, which has been monitoring buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel since 2008, was reported earlier today […]
The following article on hot rolled futures (HRC), #1 busheling futures (BUS) as well as information regarding the iron ore spot pricing and futures trading in China is written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk, LLC and the instructor for Steel Market Update’s Managing Price Risk workshop series. Our new: Managing Price Risk 2: […]
As our regular readers know, Steel Market Update projects imports of foreign flat rolled sheet, plate and oil country tubular goods (OCTG) as well as semi-finished (mostly slabs) steels for the month in progress. The projection is based on U.S. Department of Commerce license data which can be misleading and our projection should also be […]