CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) announced today that John J. Ferriola, 67, will retire as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on December 31, 2019 and that the Board of Directors elected Leon J. Topalian, 51, to be President and Chief Operating Officer, effective September 5, 2019, and to […]
Steel Market Update will produce our Service Center Inventories and Shipments “Flash Report” on flat rolled and plate steels for data providers on Monday, Sept. 9. Also on Monday, we will begin our early September flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis. On Friday, we will provide data providers with a link to a […]
Steel Market Update is making adjustments to our Price Momentum Indicators on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. The pressure behind rising steel prices seems to be subsiding as lead times at most mills are reasonable (especially considering the maintenance schedules in place for September and October). Steel buyers are beginning to tell […]
As many of our trading company contacts have been telling SMU, finished steel imports have bottomed at just under 2 million short tons. Total foreign steel imports for the month of August are forecast to be 2.1 million net tons based on license data released on Tuesday of this week. Only 275,954 net tons are […]
On Wednesday, September 4, 2019 the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a Preliminary Antidumping Duty Determinations on fabricated structural steel from Canada, China and Mexico. In the determination Canada was found to be essentially harmless while China and Mexico were found to be dumping fabricated steels into the U.S. markets. SMU normally does not cover […]
Ferrous scrap prices are starting to settle as of today. Initial checks with some of our scrap sources found prime grades down $40 and obsolete grades down $30 in portions of the Midwest. We learned the Cleveland area mills bought busheling down $20 to $300/gross ton. We also learned of a purchase of HMS at […]
As I write my “final thoughts” for Tuesday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update, I am in Stuart, Fla., and there is a hurricane located about 80 miles due east in the Bahamas. It is Monday and I expect there will be limited power or mobility come Tuesday, so I am trying to be a […]
I thought I was going to get a respite from the stress of putting on the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference as the conference has concluded and I have returned home. For those of you who do not know, I live in southern Florida on the Atlantic coast side close to West Palm Beach. Mother […]
We are not producing our flat rolled and plate steel price ranges and averages this evening as we are tied up with our conference. We will produce new pricing on Tuesday of next week, after the Labor Day Weekend Holiday. On the elevator up to my room this evening (Tuesday, Aug. 27) was a gentleman […]
Temperatures in Atlanta were in the high 70’s today under cloudy skies. The forecast for the next few days is for temperatures to be in the low 80’s on Monday and then climbing to the high 80’s by Wednesday. There is a chance of showers/thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday, but they should be gone come […]
I have been traveling all day, so I have had limited exposure to the market today. For that matter, as I have mentioned on a couple of recent occasions, I have been almost entirely focused on the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference. So, here are a few comments about the conference for those of you […]
Six days to go… Today, I had a long conversation with Ryan Smith who is the Global Costing Analyst for CRU. Ryan is based out of Australia and will be joining us in Atlanta next week when he will speak about the advantages and disadvantages the domestic steel industry has, and domestic steel buyers need […]
Written by: John Packard, President & CEO, Steel Market Update Seven days to go… Seven days before the beginning of the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. I have spoken to almost every single speaker, interfaced with the CRU Events team in London as well as our SMU team. All is going as planned. […]
As mentioned above, it is crunch time for me and my team as we prepare for the conference, now one week away. I want to emphasize SMU will have a major announcement at the conference on Monday as we roll out our Service Center Inventories on Hand, on Order, Shipments and an analysis of what […]
The upturn in steel prices appears to have some staying power as both service centers and their manufacturer customers reported rising prices in the first half of July, according to findings from Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire. As seen in the chart below, the majority of service centers (54 percent) said they are […]
The upturn in steel prices appears to have some staying power as both service centers and their manufacturer customers reported rising prices in the first half of July, according to findings from Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire. As seen in the chart below, the majority of service centers (54 percent) said they are […]
Halfway through the month of August, steel import license data is trending down considerably, as expected following a big bump in July. Taking the rate of license requests and extrapolating it out for the entire month, August is on track to see less than 2.1 million tons of total steel imports, down from nearly 3.6 […]
I received a call from the Congressional Quarterly today asking my opinion on steel prices, trade cases, capacity being added to the marketplace, etc. I did answer his questions as accurately as I could, which in many cases are subject to the decisions being made at various steel mills around North America, and whether those […]
Nearly 1,000 executives are registered with just two weeks to go before the start of the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We continue to see strong interest in this year’s event, which will be held in Atlanta on Aug. 26-28. Once again, the Georgia International Convention Center will be the home of this, our 9th […]
I sold steel for 31 years. The last 10, I represented a domestic steel mill and a couple of trading companies. One thing I learned, the steel buyers determine the market, not steel mills. We had been hearing rumors of the move U.S. Steel made today regarding moving toward no-index contracts for their 2020 order […]
For the past three days, I have been studying the nominations of 21 young individuals who were nominated by their companies for the 2019 SMU NexGen Leadership Award, which this year is being sponsored by the Steel Manufacturers Association. The process has been exhilarating to say the least. I decided many years ago that as […]
On the surface, steel imports appear to have increased substantially in July, based on license data from the Commerce Department. While the figures are preliminary, they put total imports for July at 3.5 million tons, a million tons above average. Skewing the data are the licenses for semi-finished imports, which registered about 1.6 million tons. […]
I have to apologize to those who are looking for insightful steel comments from me today. I’ve been busy with the final details of the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference, reviewing the SMU NexGen Leadership Award nominations and planning for the next few Steel 101 workshop locations and dates. My focus has been a little […]
It is now three weeks to go before the beginning of the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta (Aug. 26-28). We want to remind everyone that the CME Group is hosting a Price Risk Management Workshop just prior to the opening of the conference on Monday at 10:30 a.m. Please find the link to […]
It is now three weeks to go before the beginning of the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta (Aug. 26-28). We want to remind everyone that the CME Group is hosting a Price Risk Management Workshop just prior to the opening of the conference on Monday at 10:30 a.m. Please find the link to […]
I got a note from one of our readers today about the removal of the U.S. Steel blast furnace(s) and why the capacity utilization rates don’t reflect the change. The answer to that question is that as long as the furnace is still capable of producing (i.e. hot idle vs. being totally shut down cold) […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to announce we have closed the nomination process for the 2019 SMU NexGen Leadership Award, and we have 21 solid candidates. Steel Market Update and the Steel Manufacturers Association want to say “well done” to each of the candidates and their nominating company. The judges will be reviewing the nominations […]
I was pleased that we got 21 quality nominations for our first SMU NexGen Leadership Award, sponsored by the Steel Manufacturers Association. I mention each of the canidates in an article earlier in tonight’s newsletter. I hope we are able to double the canidates next year as we strive as an industry to bring new […]
Price momentum has shifted dramatically in the steel spot market since mid-June following three price increase announcements by the major mills. Both service centers and their customers report rising prices in today’s marketplace. As seen in the chart below, 81 percent of the service centers polled by Steel Market Update just six weeks ago said […]
My final thoughts will be just that as I remember the life of Asa Jonathan Berkowitz, Managing Director for Cotia (USA) Ltd. I met Asa at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner hosted by Timna Tanners in New York City. At first, I was a little wary of Asa and I think he felt […]