During their earnings conference call with the financial analysts, ArcelorMittal spoke about excess Chinese steelmaking capacity which needs to be removed from the markets as well as demand outlook which they believe will improve in the United States and Europe during 2016. The following selected comments were taken directly from the ArcelorMittal conference call transcript […]
The year 2015 was a brutal one for the domestic steel mills as well as the distributors who service the end user markets on a spot basis. Many of the service centers who purchase secondary (non-prime or excess) steel have suffered and have had to change the way they conduct business in order to survive. […]
Flat rolled steel prices are moving higher albeit at a slow pace – especially for hot rolled coil which continues to be the weakest of the flat rolled products. SteelBenchmarker did not report new prices this week (they only report prices twice per month) so we will review what our index as well as Platts […]
On Friday the U.S. Department of Commerce released Final Census data for foreign steel imports for the month of December 2015. Imports totaled 2,342,582 net tons. We saw very low numbers on semi-finished (mostly slabs) which came in under 300,000 net tons. We also saw low numbers on OCTG, galvanized and other metallic (mostly Galvalume). […]
It’s Super Bowl Sunday so I will keep my final thoughts short and sweet. Congratulations to the Denver Broncos for winning the 50th Super Bowl (and giving hope to old football players everywhere). Now we get to concentrate on the next spectacle that we get to live through this year: the 2016 election (oh yea, […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel and the companies that use the products are becoming more optimistic about both the short term and medium term success for their companies. Earlier this week we began the process of collecting data regarding various trends involved with the flat rolled steel industry. One of the key proprietary […]
Pete Meyers, Vice President of Ferrous Scrap Sales & Marketing for Metalico advised Steel Market Update this morning as to what they saw for trading for the month of February: “The Feb scrap market has indeed traded sideways. There were instances of higher sales based on individual mills having to reach remote tons, and mills […]
Many of you have read that hot rolled is the weakest product and that there is a significant spread between domestic hot rolled base prices and those of cold rolled and galvanized steel. Even with the energy markets being in the so-called “crapper” impacting the hot rolled order books, we are seeing stronger steel mill […]
As we mentioned in our previous article, flat rolled steel mill lead times have moved out by a week on hot rolled and as much as two weeks on cold rolled and galvanized. Galvalume lead times have remained decent but have not extended at this time but, that is to be expected for seasonal reasons. […]
First, a note to our Premium level members (subscribers) we will produce another Premium supplemental issue of our newsletter for you tomorrow afternoon. The newsletter will contain the most recent CPIP (construction put in place) data. We also will release the results of this week’s flat rolled steel market trends analysis in the form of […]
We saw mixed results for flat rolled steel price ranges and averages this week. We saw modest gains in hot rolled, cold rolled and Galvalume while galvanized remained the same as last week. Lead times remained short on hot rolled which continues to be the weakest product. We are also beginning to see “inquire” only […]
One of the important keys to understanding the strength or weakness of the flat rolled market in the United States is to follow the steel mill lead time announcements made to their customers. We can then compare them against prior weeks (and the results of our market trends report which is conducted twice per month) […]
Correction: CME HRC settlement number for January was $389 per ton, not $398 per ton as we mistakenly identified in our monthly analysis table published in our Sunday evening edition. Unlike Platts and our own SMU hot rolled index, the index used by CME had hot rolled prices dropping by $7 per ton during one […]
Four U.S. steel producers announced earnings this past week. During their earnings conference calls held with analysts the steel mills addressed questions/concerns regarding foreign steel being exported to the United States. The domestic mills filed trade cases against corrosion resistant steels (such as galvanized and Galvalume) as well as cold rolled and hot rolled steels. […]
We spent some time combing through the latest foreign steel import trade data provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce by product to see what impact, if any, the trade suits have been having on tonnages coming into the U.S. In the tables we have provided, we are showing the months of November (Final Census), […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to move higher this past week, based on what we saw in the indices we follow on a regular basis (SteelBenchmarker reported prices this past week). The weakest product continues to be hot rolled which has broken above the $400 level as the mills are pushing for $400-$420 per ton. […]
We ended the month of January on a positive note. SMU Price Momentum Indicator continues to point toward higher prices over the next 30 days. Our Sentiment Index broke through an extended downward (growing pessimism) trend and is now heading higher (more optimistic). We believe a portion of the improvement is due to flat rolled […]
We will begin our early February flat rolled steel market analysis on Monday. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few moments to click on the link and respond to our questionnaire. We will produce a few articles on the results of our queries on Thursday for our Executive level members. Our […]
US Steel told analysts this week that the company was down to 3 steelmaking facilities and 5 finishing mills as they try to right size to the market conditions. U.S. Steel conducted their earnings conference call with financial analysts on Wednesday of this week. During the call, CEO Mario Longhi and other executives with the […]
Foreign steel imports for calendar year 2015 came in at 38,719,343 net tons. This represents a 12.7 percent reduction in tonnage compared to 2014. However, 2015 is still well above the average of imports seen over the past seven years. We saw large reductions in tonnage for semi-finished (mostly slabs), hot rolled, cold rolled, plates […]
Dealers are predicting (positioning?) that ferrous scrap prices will move sideways as we move into the month of February. We have been told Turkey is not buying much scrap as they have scaled back production levels to about 70 percent. The current market is a supply driven market (as opposed to demand from the steel […]
Hot rolled prices, which have moved $45 per ton (higher) since early December, did not move this past week. Hot rolled has been the weakest of products which both SDI and AK Steel alluded to in their earnings conference calls earlier today. However, we have seen lead times improve on cold rolled and coated steels […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released foreign steel import license data through the 26th of the month late this afternoon. Based on the data to date, January imports are trending toward a 2.5 to 2.7 million net ton level. This would be slightly higher than December’s 2.6 million tons and above November’s 2.4 million tons. […]
We are seeing a divergence in the normal spread between hot rolled lead times and those of cold rolled and coated products. Normally, we would see HRC lead times at just a couple of weeks less than that of the other “higher value” products. With the demise of the energy segment of the industry that […]
Yesterday (Monday, January 25th) I visited the AHR Expo (ASHRAE for us old timers) in Orlando. I had not attended one of these shows for probably six years or more. This show used to be a mandatory visit for me when I was a salesman peddling galvanized steel. I remember when the Carrier Corporations, York-Borg […]
Flat rolled steel prices slowly moved higher this past week according to the revisions made to the SMU and Platts steel indexes. Benchmark hot rolled prices were rose $5 per ton on the SMU index taking our number to $405 per ton. Platts kept their $410 per ton number the same on HRC from the […]
In the market analysis questionnaire concluded late last week we asked a number of questions regarding foreign steel and the potential for another uptick in foreign market penetration with the domestic mills raising flat rolled steel prices. We asked if the mill price announcements were opening the door and making foreign steel prices more competitive? […]
On Thursday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update we published an article about raw material prices. In the article, Peter Wright, a metallurgist, marketing specialist, contributing writer and Steel 101 instructor for Steel Market Update, referenced the relationship between WTI oil and scrap pricing. He said, “There is a close non causal relationship between the […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) produces our flat rolled steel market analysis. This is done through the use of an online questionnaire which is accessed by an invitation only link. SMU invites just under 600 companies associated with the flat rolled industry with a major focus on manufacturing companies and steel distributors. Our […]
I will be at the AHR Expo on Monday of this week (January 25th). I will only be there for one day due to other conflicts on my schedule. If you are planning on attending and would like to meet with me, the best way to find me is either through text or a phone […]