On Tuesday evening we published an article regarding the HARDI wholesaler steel conference call. During the call one of the wholesalers referred to Kloeckner Metals Corporation as one of the service centers they were having competitive issues with. An executive with Kloeckner saw our article and responded to the comment made and quoted in our […]
Steel Market Update asked steel buyers how they were seeing the flat rolled steel market so far this week. One large Midwest based service center told us, “Eerily quiet.” Other buyers basically provided the same guidance. Hot rolled order books continue to be weak to moderate while cold rolled and coated lead times are extended […]
Once a month HARDI wholesalers conduct a conference call for those member companies who are involved in the sale of galvanized sheet and coils to the mechanical contractors involved in residential and commercial construction. Steel Market Update publisher, John Packard, has been involved with the HARDI organization for many years going back to his steel […]
“We will follow the market,” is what Mark Bula, Chief Commercial Officer at Big River Steel, told SMU during a phone interview late last week. We asked Bula to outline the progress of the mill and when they anticipate beginning production. We learned that with the strength of the cold rolled markets, Big River Steel […]
There has been too little attention paid to the passage of the ENFORCE Act by the U.S. Congress a few weeks back. At least that is how trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz sees it. He warned those at our 2015 Steel Summit Conference that the domestic steel mills were trying to build a “dam” against steel […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated foreign steel import license data this afternoon (February 23rd). Based on a daily license rate of 81,355 tons, February is trending toward 2.2-2.3 million tons. This is slightly lower than the 2.4 million ton pace we saw based on license data through the 16th of February. At 2.3 million […]
We have been hard at work on our 2016 Steel Summit Conference. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be the best conference program we have ever assembled and one of the finest networking opportunities for those involved in the steel industry. I want everyone to know that I am open to […]
Flat rolled steel prices have been slowly rising since the domestic mills made price increase announcements in early December 2015. Even though the trend has been for higher steel prices for almost three months now, 37 percent of those responding to our flat rolled steel market trends analysis this past week believe prices will rise […]
We actually saw some pull back in hot rolled and cold rolled pricing. The amounts were minimal and, in our opinion, do not represent a deteriorating or change in market direction. The hot rolled market is not as strong as that of cold rolled which is not as strong as that of coated steels. Some […]
One of the questions being asked in the marketplace is how much foreign steel is being ordered and will there be a flood of imports as we move into the months of May and June. There is a portion of the market who believe there will be a flood while others are of the opinion […]
I received a comment/question over the weekend regarding our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. The comment came in the form of a LinkedIn comment to one of our posts regarding the most recent Sentiment Index announcement. The question was from a financial analyst who asked us why our Sentiment Index did not reflect the WARN […]
As part of your Premium level service, Steel Market Update (SMU) analyzes the service center shipment and inventory data and provides a short term forecast for carbon flat rolled steel shipments, inventories and how they will impact pricing over the next four months. This is done through a proprietary model and the results provided are […]
Steel Market Update conducted our mid-February flat rolled steel market trends analysis over the past four days. The SMU Steel Sentiment Indices are one of a group of proprietary products which are derived from this particular analysis which we conduct twice per month. When reviewing the data we found that our “Current” Sentiment Index dropped […]
Steel Market Update conducted our flat rolled steel market trends analysis this week, a portion of which is dedicated to understanding domestic mill lead times from a group perspective. These lead times shown in the graphic below have nothing to do with the mill lead time sheets produced by the domestic mills. The data shown […]
Hot rolled continues to be the weakest product according to those responding to this week’s flat rolled steel analysis. We found 82 percent of our respondents reporting the domestic mills as willing to negotiate hot rolled pricing. This is much higher than the 54 percent we reported two weeks ago and takes us back to […]
I attended the Port of Tampa Steel Conference (their 27th) and it was one of the strongest programs I personally have seen the Port of Tampa produce over the past eight years or so. This being an election year, the Port provided an exceptional speaker to put the whole process of selecting a president in […]
All is quiet in the flat rolled steel markets as prices essentially moved sideways, even though we picked up on slightly different ranges which affected our averages slightly. Steel buyers should not interpret this to mean there is weakness in the current market. Instead it is just a normal ebb and flow that we pick […]
Steel Market Update received trade data from one of our sources regarding Chinese imports and exports of various products including steel. The number that the world markets are discussing is steel exports which totaled 112,400,000 metric tons for calendar year 2015 (123,900,000 net tons). These are big numbers. The U.S. domestic steel industry, which is […]
FORT WAYNE, Ind., Feb. 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ/GS: STLD) today announced the creation of three new leadership positions which will coincide with the retirement of Richard P. Teets, Jr., a co-founder of the company and its Executive Vice President of Steelmaking, and President and Chief Operating Officer of Steel Operations. Effective […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released foreign steel import license data through the 16th of February this afternoon. Licenses are running in line with what we saw during the month of January. January (which has 31 days) is looking like a 2.6-2.8 million ton month. February should be slightly less than that and currently is […]
On Sunday Steel Market Update published an article about the Carrier announcement that they would be moving their manufacturing and distribution facilities from Indianapolis, Indiana to Mexico. The announcement got the attention of Donald Trump who mentioned it during the debates on Saturday. Our article and the news also got the attention of a number […]
A reminder that our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop will be just outside of Toledo, Ohio and we will be touring a mill as one of the best run mini-mills in the country – North Star Bluescope Steel. You can find more details about our program, instructors, hotel and […]
Flat rolled steel prices are beginning to stabilize according to the most recent revisions in the flat rolled steel indices followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled remained stuck at $410 per ton ($20.50/cwt) at both SMU and Platts while SteelBenchmarker, which reports prices twice per month, published their new HRC number as being […]
I was very disappointed to hear the news that Carrier Corporation has decided to move their manufacturing and distribution operations in Indianapolis, Indiana to Monterrey, Mexico. As I heard the news I thought about the 2016 AHR Expo show (co-sponsored by ASHRAE and the AHRI) that I attended at the end of January. That show […]
Over the past few weeks Steel Market Update has been reviewing the lead times being published and/or provided to their customers in order to see if there are any significant changes. As a general statement we have found cold rolled and coated steels (galvanized, Galvalume, galvannealed) have extended lead times and are the tightest of […]
Sources are telling SMU that the Nucor Decatur EAF’s will be offline for 10 days in early March as the mill replaces one of the furnaces. This is added on top of the idling of the Granite City (USS) and Ashland (AK Steel) hot ends plus the closure of the USS Fairfield hot end. Note […]
Flat rolled steel prices remained relatively range bound over the past week with only one product, cold rolled, showing any movement other than sideways. While speaking to steel buyers around the country many of the discussions centered on lead times, demand and what will the mills do next regarding steel prices. The consensus of opinion […]
With the release of the December 2015 Final Census data we thought our readers would like to see not only how imports have fared over the past few years but, how those who are the largest exporters fared as well as those who are involved in the hot rolled, cold rolled and CORE (corrosion resistant) […]
We were reminded recently of an article we produced on February 24, 2015 regarding our theoretical marginal cost of Steel Making (cost will vary by mill and not included in our formula is any adjustment for running at less than 70 percent capacity levels, SA&G are not included, etc.). We were asked if we could […]
There seems to be little doubt that there is some strength in the cold rolled and coated products markets. The lead times are extended with ArcelorMittal being into May on galvanized according to one of their automotive service centers. We heard from a couple of the conversion mills who told us their orders books were […]