Steel Market Update has been pulling out all of the stops as we prepare to host the fastest growing and the largest steel conference in North America at the end of August. This year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference is expected to attract 750+ executives in manufacturing, steel service centers, steel mills, steel trading companies, toll […]
We are working on an article about what companies are doing with the tax windfall they will be receiving this year. We have noticed a couple of companies like Mill Steel that are giving their employees a bonus check. We would like to include your company in our article should you be doing something special […]
Flat rolled steel inventories being held on service center floors dropped as of the end of January, according to the Steel Market Update (SMU) Flash Report. SMU reached out to the companies registered to participate in our inventory analysis today to produce our initial “Flash Report.” This report provides early guidance on changes in inventory […]
Steel prices continued to head into “lofty” levels with hot rolled, the strongest product, moving up another $10 per ton this week. Cold rolled bucked the trend as its average remained the same as one week ago. Galvanized and Galvalume prices were also seen as higher this week. Plate prices were mixed with our average […]
The Chinese government is changing the accounting procedures at both banks and the companies they loan money to, saying there can no longer be two sets of books. Steel Market Update has learned from one of our trading sources inside of China that the latest hot rolled price, Ex-Works (FOB Mill) for ASTM A36 in […]
Another note regarding our SMU Service Center Flat Rolled Steel Inventories report. This information is provided first to those companies who supply data. So, if you are a service center or wholesaler selling prime flat rolled and/or plate products and you would like to participate as a confidential data provider, please contact me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. […]
Hot rolled, cold rolled and plate prices increased last week, according to the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled prices, which recently passed through the $700 per ton barrier, reached $715 per ton on the SMU index and $718 per ton ($717.75) on Platts. SteelBenchmarker did not report prices last week […]
It’s Super Bowl Sunday so my remarks will be very short this evening. Good luck to both teams and their fans. We have a busy week coming up, which will begin at 8 AM tomorrow (Monday) morning with the invitations to our early February flat rolled steel market trends survey. If you receive an invitation, […]
It is not enough to know a steel mill’s base price. When doing a comparison of galvanized transaction pricing, a steel buyer must understand the extras being added to the base price as well as freight and other considerations that could impact the total delivered cost to your facility. During our Steel 101 workshop we […]
I am excited about this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. The pieces of the puzzle are carefully fitting into place. As always, our program will be cutting edge as we address issues of the day, as well as those that will change the steel and manufacturing industries very soon. Much is happening, and you will […]
Steel Market Update publisher John Packard is excited about this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. The pieces of the puzzle are carefully fitting into place. As always, our program will be cutting edge as we address issues of the day, as well as those that will change the steel and manufacturing industries in the weeks, […]
The flat rolled and plate steel mills were busy this week announcing new rounds of price increases. Steel buyers who spoke with Steel Market Update today reported offer prices as being much higher than their most recent transaction pricing. For that reason, we have included a note about what was being reported as the latest […]
The steel community was probably disappointed this evening when President Trump failed to mention anything about the Section 232 investigation that has been hanging over the heads of the industry for one year. We will all need to wait to see if the president will do anything on the subject of steel and aluminum imports. […]
On Wednesday and Thursday of this past week a sold-out group of attendees and six Steel Market Update instructors, one event coordinator and a potential future instructor traveled to Mobile, Alabama to participate in the first Steel 101 workshop of 2018. The workshop was a success aided by the generosity of the SSAB plate mill […]
Three weeks ago, the expectation for February ferrous scrap was for prices to be firm to slightly higher than January. This was due to rising prices on exports of ferrous scrap to Turkey, as well as cold weather in the north and large buys by the domestic steel mills as they restock after running inventories […]
Flat rolled steel prices and those of plate fluctuated in both directions this past week depending on the steel index viewed. Benchmark hot rolled prices were up across all three of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update. SMU was the highest at $705 per ton ($35.25/cwt) with Platts ($700) and SteelBenchmarker ($668) following close […]
The following article was written by George F. Will as an opinion piece in the Washington Post. It was originally published on Jan. 26, 2018. Like Horatius at the bridge, or the boy who stood on the burning deck whence all but he had fled, or the Dutch boy who saved the city by putting […]
On Wednesday and Thursday of this past week, a sold-out group of attendees and six Steel Market Update instructors, one event coordinator and a potential future instructor traveled to Mobile, Ala., to participate in the first Steel 101 workshop of 2018. The workshop was a success, aided by the generosity of the SSAB plate mill […]
I am hearing from some of AK Steel’s customers that the hot end of the mill will be back up early this week. One told me on Friday, “I spoke with AK yesterday and was told there will be little impact from the ladle accident…” I got a question from a steel buyer dealing with […]
The wheels are moving and things are happening that are going to affect the momentum behind this market. First, there are new price increase announcements being made, first out of California and now by ArcelorMittal USA, which has put new base prices into the market. Second, Big River Steel put their customers on allocation for […]
Steel Market Update forecast December 2017 flat rolled steel shipments from U.S. service centers would be 87,850 tons per day. The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported last week that sheet distributors shipped 87,805 tons per day. We missed being perfect by 45 tons per day. Receipts coming into the service centers has been harder […]
We have mentioned this elsewhere in today’s newsletter, but it bears repeating. The recent Section 201 decision by President Trump on residential washers and solar equipment may well be a blueprint for what we might see when the Section 232 decision is made on steel. The formula seems to be pointing toward some form of […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices moved higher last week, based on the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled is quickly approaching $700 per ton (average) with SMU having the highest pricing while Platts, which was at $695.75 on Friday morning, dropped to $694 ($693.50) when we checked again over the […]
If you received an email welcoming you to a free trial of Steel Market Update, please disregard. Somehow, that email was sent in error (I received one as well) and we believe it to be a glitch associated with the updated software we have on our website. Sorry for the confusion. I have been told […]
Steel buyers recognize that flat rolled prices are moving higher and momentum is clearly on the side of the steel mills. Hot rolled price offers, which Steel Market Update identified earlier this week as being $650 to $710, have moved higher based on information gleaned from steel buyers today. The new spread is $680 to […]
On March 28 and 29, 2018, Steel Market Update will conduct our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop in Merrillville, Ind. This workshop will include a tour of the NLMK USA Portage, Ind., steel mill. Why do companies send employees to our Steel 101 workshops? Because they receive a broader […]
On March 28 & 29, 2018 Steel Market Update will conduct our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop in Merriville, Indiana. This workshop will include a tour of the NLMK USA Portage, Indiana steel mill. Why do companies send employees to our Steel 101 workshop? Because they receive a broader […]
I was “chatting” (by email) with a financial analyst about a number of items earlier today. (How long will price momentum remain with the steel millls? Will a downturn in Chinese numbers creep into the U.S. market, etc.?) One of the items discussed was Section 232 and whether Trump will do anything that would actually […]
The January import licenses are catching what one domestic mill callls, “Taiwanese January onslaught on Galvalume” as it trends toward 100,000+ net tons for the month (from less than 40,000 tons in December). This is what the mill had to say about pricing in general: “We keep moving our HR and CR up. Coated is […]
Over the past six months, Steel Market Update has been canvassing flat rolled steel service centers as we try to better understand the number of months of supply being held as of the end of each month. Steel distributors now hold three months (3.03 month’s supply) based on the responses we have received from our […]