We continue to book more registrations for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference, which will be held on Aug. 27-29 at the Georgia International Convention Center right next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL). Some of the companies that registered late last week: Hyundai Steel USA, Tata Steel, McNichols Company, ALCOS Machinery Inc., USS Posco, […]
Despite all the uncertainty on the trade front, demand has stayed strong, and buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel remain optimistic about their chances for success in current and near-term market conditions. The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, which measures how buyers and sellers of flat rolled and plate steels feel about their companies’ […]
Despite all the uncertainty on the trade front, demand has stayed strong, and buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel remain optimistic about their chances for success in current and near-term market conditions. The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index, which measures how buyers and sellers of flat rolled and plate steels feel about their companies’ […]
The hot strip mill at NLMK’s Farrell, Pa., facility will be down for the next seven to 10 days. SMU spoke with James Banker, Jr., who said that a component failure in a motor is taking the mill down for unplanned maintenance. The number of tons of production that will be lost is not significant. […]
Foreign steel imports for May are trending toward a 2.3 million net ton month, based on the data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce earlier this week. April imports were just shy 4.0 million net tons. In the graphic below, we are tracking the license rate for the first two weeks of a month […]
Steel Market Update published some inaccurate information about our room blocks for the upcoming Aug. 27-29 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We stated that the entire room block was sold out. In fact, only the lead hotel – Atlanta Marriott Gateway Hotel – has sold all of the rooms in our block. The other two Gateway […]
Trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz advised me earlier this afternoon that the U.S. Department of Commerce did provide a final determination ruling on the Vietnam circumvention complaint. The DOC ruled in favor of the domestic steel mills (affirmative ruling) which means Vietnamese coated steel will be considered to be from China unless there is certification (proof) […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed again this week. Benchmark hot rolled saw erosion at the low end and a slight increase at the top end of our range. The net result being HRC is unchanged compared to one week ago. Other products saw similar adjustments with most averages being close to where they were […]
Last year, it took Steel Market Update until the middle of July before we reached the number of registrations that we have already booked for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We are approaching 500 registered executives and we are well on our way to smashing last year’s record attendance and meeting our self-imposed goal […]
On Monday, Steel Dynamics announced the acquisition of the CSN Heartland flat rolled steel mill in Terre Haute, Ind. The purchase was reported to be for $400 million in cash. The CSN plant has the ability to roll 1 million net tons of cold rolled and to coat approximately 360,000 net tons of galvanized. Steel […]
Registrations for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference continue to come in at a steady pace. It took us until July 10 last year to reach the number of registrations that we already have as of the beginning of this week. There are 211 companies registered and we still expect 300+ companies and 800 steel […]
I am in Miami (South Beach) for a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference. A little different than I am used to, but I guess the insights that Lewis Leibowitz and I bring on the market may help investors. I will be back in my office sometime late on Wednesday afternoon. The questions that Lewis […]
On Thursday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy invited government officials, technical experts in academia, heads of industrial research labs and business leaders to attend the “Artificial Intelligence for American Industry” summit. Big River Steel’s chief executive officer Dave Stickler was in attendance as part of the discussions on how industries are […]
On Thursday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy invited government officials, technical experts in academia, heads of industrial research labs and business leaders to attend the “Artificial Intelligence for American Industry” summit. Big River Steel’s chief executive officer Dave Stickler was in attendance as part of the discussions on how industries are […]
Flat rolled and plate prices had yet another mixed week as there seems to be a semblance of balance in the flat rolled side of the market, while plate customers wait for new pricing. Hot rolled prices were essentially unchanged with Steel Market Update’s average remaining at $880 per ton ($44.00/cwt). Platts moved their average […]
SMU’s Steel Summit Conference hotel room block has been sold out at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway, Atlanta Airport Renaissance and SpringHill Suits Gateway hotels. I am sure there are rooms at these hotels, but they will no longer honor our blocked hotel rates and will charge the rack rates. We have added another Marriott […]
Steel Market Update began working with a large group of flat rolled and plate steel service centers last July regarding producing a new index for distributor inventories. Our initial concentration has been to collect the number of months of supply steel distrubutors were averaging as of the end of the month. Earlier this week, we […]
For Steel Market Update’s upcoming steel summit Aug. 27-29 in Atlanta, we have recruited an exceptional group of speakers who are prepared to talk on a wide variety of topics of importance to those in the flat rolled and plate steel markets as manufacturers, distributors, steel mills, toll processors or suppliers to those industries. Putting […]
I am in Chicago this evening attending the Metals Industry Boy Scout Dinner. Joining me is Tim Triplett, so please excuse tonight’s issue if it seems a little shorter than normal. The Vietnam circumvention final ruling has been delayed another week. I was speaking to a prospective new customer yesterday and realized as I talked […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices were mixed in what has to be considered yet another quiet week for pricing. Steel buyers have mixed feelings as to where steel prices go from here, with some believing prices have no place to go but up and others looking at the HRC futures market (which is backwardated) […]
SMU’s flat rolled steel Price Momentum Indicator is currently pointing at Neutral meaning sheet steel prices are in transition or have hit a lull. A Neutral reading does not mean flat rolled steel prices will automatically move lower from here just because the previous indication was for higher prices. The injection of the U.S. government […]
Last week, Steel Market Update conducted our early May flat rolled steel market trends survey. One of the key areas that we focus in on is the area of service center spot pricing to their end customers. We are interested in better understanding if steel distributors are raising, lowering or keeping spot prices the same […]
With 66 percent of our service center data providers reporting, flat rolled inventories were modestly lower as of the end of April at 2.6 months of supply compared to March when inventories were at 2.7 months. A large percentage (52 percent) of the companies reporting told SMU their number of months of supply for flat […]
The final circumvention decision on Vietnam is due tomorrow, but will not be announced to the public until Thursday. We will have a full article and comments from trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz in Thursday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update. The recent Court of Appeals case may have some impact on the Vietnam final determination. […]
Since November 2008 Steel Market Update has been measuring how buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel felt about their company’s ability to be successful in both the existing (current) as well as future (3-6 months into the future) market conditions. The result is our nationally known SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index which we believe […]
Last week Steel Market Update conducted our early May 2018 flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey. We sent invitations to 640 individuals representing approximately 620 companies mostly located in the United States and Canada. The purpose of our inquiries is to better follow various trends affecting the flat rolled and plate markets. We […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their mixed ways for about the fourth week in a row. Steel Market Update and Platts both saw benchmark hot rolled as up slightly and the two indexes are now $1 per ton apart in their assessment of the HRC market average. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this past week. […]
Some quick housekeeping regarding this week’s schedule. On Monday I will be going out with two requests via email. The first will be for those service centers who participate in our service center inventories index. I hope to have those emails out to each of the distributors between 7:30 and 8:30 AM ET. Around 9 […]
Compared to this time last year, flat rolled lead times are highly extended – on all products. Plate lead times, which is not on our graphic, are also highly extended, but we are treating it differently as the domestic mills are on controlled order entry/allocation with their plate customers. Hot rolled lead times are averaging […]
Extended lead times will generally lead to steel mills being stingy about offering “deals” below the company pricing guidelines. Flat rolled steel prices have essentially plateaued. There may be a small number of “deals” out there (is $860 HRC really a “deal?”), but most mills are sticking to their guns. In all four products (hot […]