Contributor: Michael Cowden

Sheet prices rose this week on the heels of a price increase announced by Cleveland-Cliffs last week that was quietly followed by other mills.

Will the sheet price hike announced by Cleveland-Cliffs (and quietly followed by at least some mills) stick?

Algoma Steel Inc. plans to ramp up production at its modernized plate mill toward the end of the year. Operations Update The Canadian sheet and plate producer said it in the meantime continues hot commissioning at the upgraded facility and has begun cold commissioning as well. The company said it has also run trials through […]

I didn’t see the Cleveland-Cliffs price increase coming on Wednesday. And I didn’t expect to see a target base price of $750 per ton ($37.50 per cwt) for hot-rolled coil. But I’ve since heard that other mills, even if they hadn’t publicly announced anything, had been quietly raising prices before Cliffs publicized its increase. Are […]

Worthington Industries Inc. on Wednesday reported net income of $96.1 million in its fiscal 2024 first quarter, up 49.9% from a year earlier despite net sales falling 15.3% over the same period. The Columbus, Ohio-based service center and manufacturer said the drop resulted mostly from lower average prices in its steel processing division as well as lower overall sales volumes.

Sheet prices declined less than usual this week. Does that mean we’re nearing a bottom, or is it just a pause before the market moves lower yet again?

Hot-rolled coil prices were down again this week, continuing a streak of week-over-week (WoW) declines that began in early/mid-July.

We’ve been busier than usual lately covering two major events (in addition to our pricing and data services) – the potential sale of U.S. Steel and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike. Let’s review some possible developments in each. U.S. Steel Sale – Back in the Headlines We learned last week that Stelco had […]

The United Auto Workers (UAW) significantly escalated its strike against General Motors and Stellantis on Friday.

A big "thank you" to Wolfe Research and Timna Tanners for organizing a lunch in today in Chicago with a group of steel industry participants and investors.

Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), will be the featured speaker on the next SMU Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, Oct. 4, at 11 a.m. ET. The live webinar is free. A recording will be available free to SMU members. You can register here. We’ll talk about the outlook […]

Ford's Canadian subsidiary and auto workers represented by Unifor - roughly the Canadian equivalent of the UAW - have reached a new, tentative labor agreement.

Sheet prices fell again this week, this time not on fears of a United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike but on the actual thing.

Sheet prices slipped again this week on news of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike and continued caution among some consumers.

U.S. Steel said on Monday it plans to temporarily idle blast furnace ‘B’ at its Granite City Works near St. Louis. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said it made the move in response to the United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike against “Big Three” automakers Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. “Following the announcement of UAW strike actions, […]

The United Auto Workers (UAW) launched its “stand up” strike just after midnight on Friday, according to posts on the union’s Facebook page. “We are the union! The mighty, mighty union,” UAW members with “On Strike” signs chanted in a video posted to the site. The move came after union president Shawn Fain suggested that […]

SMU Managing Editor Michael Cowden shares his Final Thoughts for the week on what happens to steel if the United Auto Workers (UAW) launch a series of “stand up” strikes at midnight tonight against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis?

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union will strike specific plants across all “Big Three” automakers if new labor contracts are not reached by midnight on Thursday.

Sheet prices fell across the board ahead of what many market participants predict will be a strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) later this week.

Sheet prices have fallen to their lowest point of the year - just below $700 per ton ($35 per cwt) when it comes to hot-rolled coil (HRC).

Kenwal Steel has hired Dean Kreuzer to the newly created position of vice president of strategy and business development.

The more of you I talk to, the more the question seems to be not whether the United Auto Workers (UAW) will strike later this week but instead for how long. You’re also asking whether the UAW will target one union-represented automaker or whether it might take the unprecedented step of walking out at Ford, […]

We’re just a week away from a potential United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against one, or potentially all three, union-represented automakers. The latest turn of the screw: UAW President Shawn Fain said an offer from Detroit-based General Motors was “insulting.”

The spot market remains quiet on fears of a potential United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike late next week.

Sheet prices declined again this week amid persistent concerns about a potential strike at union-represented automakers.

I headed back to the Atlanta airport after Steel Summit in 2022 hoping to catch up with a few colleagues and contacts only to learn that Cleveland-Cliffs had just announced a price hike. So, I set everything aside, opened up my laptop, and filed a short article about the $75-per-ton ($3.75-per-cwt) price increase from a […]

I learned a lot at Steel Summit this year. More than I can do justice to in one column. Below are four things that have stayed with me after the conference closed on Wednesday afternoon. Another, as I highlighted earlier this week, was electricity – who gets it, and which energy sources we use. 1. […]

Sheet prices were mixed this week after trending lower for most of July and earlier in August. SMU’s average hold-rolled coil (HRC) price slipped to $750 per ton.

At every Steel Summit, a few themes seem to emerge that I didn’t anticipate. In 2021, I remember the theme being that scrap would be the next precious metal. (And also that Cleveland-Cliffs planned to expand in to the scrap market.) This year, I expected that there would be a lot of discussion about decarbonization. What I didn’t entirely expect was that we’d be talking so much about electricity and power generation.

I’m excited to see pretty much the entire steel industry this week in Atlanta. I’m looking forward to the networking and to learning from our great lineup of speakers. I also what not draw your attention to some highlights from our latest steel market survey. (Full results are here.) Some of these topics will be discussed along the sidelines as well as up on the stage.