After traveling for the past eight days and arriving back in Florida at 1 a.m. this morning, I am back in my office. I expect to be in the office for the next two weeks before traveling to Orlando to speak to the Air Distribution Institute. Registrations for the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference have […]
There were a number of comments connected to the article we did on Thursday regarding Timna Tanners “Steelmageddon” opinion. Most of the comments in last week’s survey were against the Steelmageddon thought process which calls for the collapse of steel prices in a couple of years when the new capacity comes online. As you can […]
I am traveling this week. I have been in Monterrey, Mexico, where I visited the Roberto Rocca Industrial School in Pesqueria in the state of Nuevo Leon (just outside of Monterrey). I also visited the Ternium Industrial Center, which is already a major rolling facility and where Ternium is expanding capacities dramatically so the mill […]
On my way back to the USA following a good meeting with the folks at Ternium in Mexico. More to follow later. We think the information Steel Market Update provides is important and we want to make it readily available to more individuals within each subscribing company. We want to encourage employees in sales, purchasing, […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Steel and aluminum tariffs are plainly on the table as part of the USMCA approval strategy. Canada and Mexico insist on the removal of the tariffs as part of ratification of the new “NAFTA 2.0.” U.S. Trade Representative […]
By CRU Group’s Zinc Analysis Team Zinc’s price on the LME tracked copper and nickel sharply lower on March 8 as data showed a steep fall in overall Chinese exports in February. Even though January and February data from China can be misleading due to the New Year holiday, the contraction in export volumes rattled […]
I will be traveling all week as I head to Monterrey, Mexico, to tour the Ternium training facilities and steel mill. I will also be meeting with Cesar Jimenez, the CEO for Ternium Mexico, to discuss the new capacity they have coming onstream over the next 12-24 months. We are also working with Ternium to […]
There are reports about a myriad of meetings between the USTR, Mexico and Canada as the sides try to come to some form of resolution regarding the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. I continue to hear that the move is to not reduce the traditional level of imports from these two countries. In […]
Your college degree is not going to help you understand how the steel markets work. To do that you need to attend one of our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshops. Our next workshop is being held in Davenport, Iowa on May 14-15, 2019. We choose our locations because our workshops […]
I have been very pleased with the response we have received for the SMU Steel Summit Conference agenda, which we rolled out earlier this week. I have received multiple comments about the quality of the program and speakers. Brian Robbins of MidWest Materials told me, “It’s good!!!! If not exhausting… I am thinking of bringing […]
Flat rolled steel service centers are beginning to support the concept of higher steel prices. Distributors are raising spot pricing to their end-user customers, and in the process, they are supporting the domestic steel mill flat rolled price increase announcements. Steel Market Update canvasses the flat rolled and plate steel markets twice a month through […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: President Trump may be forced to concede some ground on his Section 232 tariffs in order to get legislators in Canada and Mexico to sign off on the new North American trade agreement. One option the administration reportedly […]
On Wednesday, North Star BlueScope experienced issues with the lining in one of its electric arc furnaces, causing the company to take the furnace down for repairs. According to a North Star executive with whom Steel Market Update spoke with this morning, the furnace will be back up today (Friday) with no impact to any […]
We live in a time when nothing is as it seems and uncertainty rules the roost. This can make for a daunting task when considering when, what and how much steel you need to purchase at any point in time. It appears the second price increase announcement out of Nucor moved some of the end […]
We live in a time when nothing is as it seems and uncertainty rules the roost. This can make for a daunting task when considering when, what and how much steel you need to purchase at any point in time. It appears the second price increase announcement out of Nucor moved some of the end […]
As markets transition from one phase to another, the process can sometimes be “messy” until there is a clear direction as momentum shifts. Many steel buyers reported a higher sense of confidence that the market has “turned the corner” and will move higher from here. However, the feelings are not universally shared as some buyers […]
Some notes that I made to myself during the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association meeting in Nashville this week. There is no panic amongst the attendees. Uncertainty reigns supreme, and uncertainty is difficult to live with. No one with whom I spoke was predicting prices to go crazy. Most felt there would be a modest uptick, […]
Good evening from Nashville, Tenn., and the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association annual meeting. It was a beautiful sunny day today, but a bit on the chilly side for my Florida bones… I enjoyed the two speakers that I saw this afternoon. Dr. Chris Kuehl is back in good voice and humor. He entertained the audience […]
It takes an army to put on a steel conference the size of the SMU Steel Summit Conference. One of the ways we help temper the cost of the conference is through the assistance of our sponsors. Their sponsorship keeps our conference viable and our ticket prices reasonable. SMU wants to thank all of our […]
It takes an army to put on a steel conference the size of the SMU Steel Summit Conference. One of the ways we help temper the cost of the conference is through the assistance of our sponsors. Their sponsorship keeps our conference viable and our ticket prices reasonable. SMU wants to thank all of our […]
First, a warm thank you to Tim Triplett, Sandy Williams and Brett Linton for filling in for me as I took a few days off to attend a Board of Trustees meeting in Minnesota (I left Florida to go to Minnesota?). Since I have been out of pocket for the past four days, I will […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has denied a number of requests for the exclusion of imported semifinished products, chiefly slabs, from the Section 232 tariffs. The analysis of one such denial is emblematic of the reasoning […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: We are about to celebrate (or mourn, as the case might be) the first anniversary of “national security” tariffs on steel and aluminum. As we all know, in March 2018 President Trump proclaimed 25 percent tariffs on most steel […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: We are about to celebrate (or mourn, as the case might be) the first anniversary of “national security” tariffs on steel and aluminum. As we all know, in March 2018 President Trump proclaimed 25 percent tariffs on most steel […]
Flat rolled steel service centers are beginning to believe a change in spot pricing is necessary. We saw a precipitous decline in the percentage of distributors who were lowering their spot pricing to their customers compared to a couple of weeks ago. One of the proprietary indices created by Steel Market Update is our Service […]
Flat rolled steel service centers are beginning to believe a change in spot pricing is necessary. New data collected by Steel Market Update saw a precipitous decline in the percentage of distributors who were lowering their spot pricing to their flat rolled steel customers compared to a couple of weeks ago. One of the proprietary […]
The Bureau of Industry and Security today denied the exclusion exemptions for two mills: California Steel Industries and Evraz. At this point, we are expecting the NLMK USA and JSW USA exclusion requests to be denied as well. However, a trade attorney (not Lewis) suggested that we not move too fast with any proclamations. There […]
It’s Oscar night. I will try to keep my final thoughts brief. President Trump has delayed the increase in the Section 301 tariffs against China. The deadline was March 2, 2019. No new deadline has been set. However, President Xi of China will meet with President Trump in Florida in the later part of March. […]
This morning, Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled from Neutral to Higher. Our Price Momentum Indicator was last adjusted on Jan. 28, 2019, when we moved from Lower to Neutral as the domestic steel mills, led by Nucor, began announcing price increases. It is normal for SMU to adjust our […]
As the domestic steel mills started raising flat rolled prices on Wednesday, Steel Market Update reached out to a number of steel buyers in order to get their reaction to the news. We discussed the $40 per ton increases announced by Nucor, NLMK USA, U.S. Steel, California Steel and USS/POSCO along with ArcelorMittal USA’s new […]