Steel Market Update’s next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop will be held in Merrillville, Ind., on March 28-29, 2018. The two-day session will include a tour of the NLMK USA steel mill. • Do you have new employees who would benefit from learning about steel making (EAF and Integrated Process), […]
Our team has been working diligently on our 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We have expanded the space we are using at the Georgia International Convention Center, we have changed the space that will be used for breaks and for our exhibitors, and we have expanded the audio/visual segment of the program as we continue […]
Happy Holidays to everyone. I know I have told you on a number of occasions that I am now no longer at my desk, but rather slowly moving out to sea for an extended period of rest. Well, as much rest as a workaholic can possibly get. The rest of the SMU team is busy […]
Service centers continue to hold flat rolled inventories steady at 2.89 months of supply at the end of November, according to the proprietary Steel Market Update Service Center Inventories Index (SSII). This is now the third consecutive month we have found flat rolled steel distributors’ inventories close to the three months of supply level. Contrast […]
Both flat rolled and plate steel distributors saw only a very modest drop in inventories as of the end of July. Inventories continue to be “balanced” at 2.7 months of supply on flat rolled and 2.1 months of supply on plate, according to Steel Market Update’s proprietary inventory data. Flat Rolled Spread Tightens Although our […]
You may or may not be aware that we updated our Steel Market Update website over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. We updated software that controls a number of the functions of our website in order to speed up the site and to make sure that it is up-to-date over the next few years of use. […]
Flat rolled steel prices jumped this week as buyers and sellers of steel react to the latest round of price increase announcements. Last week, there was a $50 per ton increase announced on steel plate and then later in the week the sheet mills announced a $30 per ton price increase on hot rolled, cold […]
Steel Market Update recently adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to “Higher” as, in our opinion, steel buyers should anticipate flat rolled steel prices to move up over the next 30 to 60 days. During last week’s analysis of the flat rolled steel market, 78 percent of the respondents agreed with SMU, sensing that pricing momentum […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released new import license data this evening. Steel Market Update has done a quick analysis of the data and foreign steel imports for the month of December are trending toward a 2.6 million net ton month (November license data was very similar at this time of the month yet […]
I have been working on our new service center months of supply report and I hope to have it to the distributors who provide the data tomorrow (Wednesday, Dec. 13). I will then publish for our Executive newsletter readers on Thursday evening. I continue to entertain adding more service centers to the mix as we […]
On the heels of its $50 per ton increase on carbon plate prices on Wednesday, Nucor announced an additional $30 per ton increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel products on Friday, effective immediately. U.S. Steel, NLMK USA and California Steel matched the Nucor sheet price increase of $30 per ton. ArcelorMittal USA, […]
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early December 2018 flat rolled steel market trends survey. Invitations were sent to 640 people representing about 625 companies located in the United States and Canada. We invite manufacturing companies, service centers, steel mills, trading companies and toll processors/suppliers in the industry and ask them questions about […]
Flat rolled prices moved higher as the domestic mills announced yet another price increase this past week. There is now a large division between Platts and Steel Market Update (SMU) steel indexes as we prefer to wait a few days to let the dust settle after an increase has been announced. Benchmark hot rolled, prior […]
I have been pointing to the circumvention ruling as one of those “Black Swan” events that could come back to haunt the way importers do business. The section of the ruling that could potentially have the most teeth is the definition of what constitutes “significant transformation,” which allows substrate from one country to be converted […]
Economist Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics spoke at the HARDI annual meeting where he advised HARDI wholesalers to expect good results during the first half of 2018. After that, there will be a slowing in the rate of growth that will continue into 2019. He told the group that 2019 could be a test year […]
With the exception of U.S. Steel, all of the domestic steel mills have announced new coating extras for galvanized steel. The coating extras, which were last changed in April/May 2017 (announcements went out in February/March 2017), are rising due to the higher costs associated with zinc, which is the main ingredient used when making galvanized […]
Final October imports were reported to be 3,148,243 net tons, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data released earlier this week. Total October imports were up 2.0 percent over September, and up 16.0 percent compared to levels one year ago. The Commerce Department also released license data this week that now suggests foreign steel imports […]
As a result of this week’s preliminary circumvention ruling, Vietnamese traders here in the United States must pay the Chinese duties on the substrate used to produce cold rolled and CORE (corrosion resistant) steels if they are unable to prove the substrate used was from another country. Here’s the actual ruling: “The Department of Commerce […]
Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to Higher from Neutral earlier today. It is our opinion that flat rolled steel prices will rise over the next 30 to 60 days. We last adjusted Momentum on Oct. 18, 2017, when we moved from “Lower” to “Neutral.” We are hearing from buyers and sellers of […]
Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to Higher from Neutral earlier today. It is our opinion that flat rolled steel prices will rise over the next 30 to 60 days. We last adjusted Momentum on Oct. 18, 2017, when we moved from “Lower” to “Neutral.” We are hearing from buyers and sellers of […]
Flat rolled steel prices are firming and heading higher. SMU found hot rolled prices over the past week remaining the same as the week before. All of the other flat rolled products saw their averages move higher. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $590-$640 per ton […]
The ferrous scrap market is heading higher. In a surprise to scrap experts (and probably the mills), prices are rising with some early deals done at +$20 per gross ton on prime grades and +$30 per gross ton on everything else. That is where Detroit settled earlier this week. Steel buyers need to be aware […]
Late this afternoon, the U.S. Department of Commerce released their positive determination that Vietnam and China circumvented existing antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on cold rolled and corrosion resistant (galvanized/Galvalume) steels. This is a significant ruling and will create issues for some trading companies and steel buyers as the ruling goes back to November […]
We had yet another week of “mixed” spot pricing in flat rolled and plate products, according to the Steel Market Update (SMU), Platts and SteelBenchmarker steel price indexes. Benchmark hot rolled was down for the week, according to the SMU and Platts steel price indexes. SMU saw the HRC price average as $615 per ton, […]
I am sitting in the airport in Fort Lauderdale waiting on my flight to Las Vegas. I am on my way to attend the HARDI annual conference. If you are planning on and would like to meet with me during the conference, you can email or text me. My email address is John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and my […]
Imports of foreign steel will be much lower in November than at any time since April 2016. Based on the most recent license data released on Tuesday, Nov. 28, imports will be approximately 2.6 million tons. This is down from 3.1 million tons in October and is also less than the 2.8 million tons imported […]
Flat rolled steel Price Momentum ended the month as it began, pointing to a sideways or “mixed” market. Our flat rolled steel price indices averages over the past three months show very little movement in steel prices. Benchmark hot rolled averaged $610 per ton, which is actually lower than the $620 average we saw at […]
I have been out of the office all day, so I apologize if my Final Thoughts this evening are less than inspiring… Our website designers have been busy working to resolve some of the bugs that arose when we updated our website over the weekend. The login issues have been resolved. We know there is […]
We launched an updated version of our website over the weekend. Since then, we have been working diligently to fix the last remaining kinks in the system. The goal of this update is to make all news, blog posts, and other content much easier to read on a mobile device and tablet. We also upgraded […]
We launched an updated version of our website over the weekend. Since then, we have been working diligently to fix the last remaining kinks in the system. The goal of this update is to make all news, blog posts, and other content much easier to read on a mobile device and tablet. We also upgraded […]