Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will indefinitely idle the No. 4 blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor steelmaking campus in northwest Indiana. The Cleveland-based steelmaker also announced that it was raising prices for April orders of carbon hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated flat-rolled steel by at least $50 per ton ($2.50 per cwt). Cliffs will transfer hot metal production […]
Prices for steel sheet have fallen across the board since September of last year. But the pace of declines for hot-rolled coil has been much faster than for galvanized products. The result: Spreads between HRC prices and galv base prices – which have been at record levels since late last year – continue to widen. […]
Prices for steel sheet have fallen across the board since September of last year. But the pace of declines for hot-rolled coil has been much faster than for galvanized products. The result: Spreads between HRC prices and galv base prices – which have been at record levels since late last year – continue to widen. […]
The Tampa Steel Conference has wrapped up, and I thank all of you who attended and who took the time to catch up with me on stage or along the sidelines. Below are five themes that I took away from the event. If I were to sum it up in a sentence, it’s this: Steel […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. might shut a blast furnace this year, the company’s top executive said. “When we make a move, we make a move. … You might see a blast furnace going down for good still in 2022,” Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said during a fireside chat at the Tampa Steel Conference this […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. could join other steel producers in adding electric-arc furnace (EAF) capacity, the company’s top executive said. The Cleveland-based steelmaker is considering that because the cost of relining a blast furnace – and investing in the supply chains needed to feed it – are roughly the same as those for of building a new EAF. […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. posted a near-record profit in the fourth quarter and predicted that the good times would continue to roll into 2022 thanks to fixed-price contracts resetting at higher numbers. That prediction comes largely because automakers, which typically buy steel on contract terms, were forced to limit production in 2021 because of the global chip […]
Algoma Steel Group swung to a profit in its fiscal 2022 third quarter thanks to steel prices rising faster than raw material and energy costs. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based sheet and plate producer also said that construction was underway for its transition to electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking. All told, the company recorded net income […]
On the price front, we’re below $1,200 per ton ($60 per cwt) for hot-rolled coil the first time in almost exactly a year, which had me going back and checking some of the headlines we had a year ago. A recurring theme is that just about everything that happened last year is happening in reverse […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is expected to take an approximately 80-90 day planned outage on the No. 5 blast furnace at its Cleveland Works starting in mid to late March, according to market participants. The outage is expected to last until roughly mid-June. It is not expected to impact customers because the Cleveland-based steelmaker can stock slabs […]
It’s not too late to register for tomorrow’s SMU Comminuty Chat webinar, starting at 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT). Majestic Steel USA CEO Todd Leebow will be our featured speaker, and we will discuss the big issues facing service centers in the face of unprecedented price volatility and technical change. Topics will include: How […]
It’s not too late to register for tomorrow’s SMU Community Chat webinar, starting at 11 a.m. ET. Our featured speaker will be Todd Leebow, CEO of Majestic Steel USA. We’ll discuss the big issues facing service centers in the face of unprecedented price volatility and technical change. Topics will include: How are service centers managing inventory at […]
The U.S. has announced that a deal has been reached with Japan to ease Section 232 national security tariffs on steel imports from the key U.S. ally. The U.S. Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced the deal at around 5 pm Eastern Time on Monday, Feb. 7, as SMU had […]
The United States and Japan are expected to announce this afternoon a new deal on Section 232 regarding Japanese steel exports to the U.S., according to sources familiar with the matter. The new agreement will be a tariff rate quota, or TRQ, broadly similar to one negotiated between the U.S. and the EU last year. […]
Plate prices have been remarkably steady in the face of sheet price declines of hundreds of dollars per ton. That trend probably can’t hold for much longer, and plate prices are overdue for a correction, according to market contacts and SMU data. For starters, look at the chart below: HRC prices have fallen from $1,600 […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has melted, cast and rolled the first coil at its new steel mill in Sinton, Texas. Employees of the Fort Wayne, Ind.-based steelmaker celebrated the occasion on social media platforms such as LinkedIn. The first coil both melted and rolled at Sinton was produced on Wednesday. SDI had previously been running […]
I was going to write something today about steel prices, lead times and the spreads between various products. There is a lot to write about there. And I’ll come back to it on another day. I’m tapping the brakes on prices today to touch on something just as important and just as disruptive: persistent shortages […]
Nucor has closed its $400 million deal for a majority stake in California Steel Industries (CSI). “We are excited to officially welcome our CSI teammates to the broader Nucor family,” said Rex Query, Nucor’s Executive Vice President of Sheet and Tubular Products. “This joint venture gives us a strong presence in the Western region and grows our ability to produce […]
Majestic Steel USA CEO Todd Leebow will be the featured speaker on Steel Market Update’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT). We’ll discuss the big issues facing service centers in the face of unprecedented price volatility and technical change. Topics will include: How are service centers […]
Majestic Steel USA CEO Todd Leebow will be the featured speaker on Steel Market Update’s next Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT). We’ll discuss the big issues facing service centers in the face of unprecedented price volatility and technical change. Topics will include: How are service centers […]
Steel prices continue to fall very, very quickly. Where they’ll bottom and when remains unclear. I wrote in an in-print magazine article last month that I hesitated to put pen to paper for fear that any prices I wrote would be out of date by the time the article was on the page. My fear now […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has closed its acquisition of a 45% stake in New Process Steel LP, a manufacturer and distributor that is also the company’s largest flat-rolled steel customer. The Fort Wayne, Ind.-based steelmaker announced the deal in mid-October. Terms were not disclosed. “This minority equity interest enables us to expand our exposure to […]
U.S. Steel isn’t letting current lower prices get it down after a record year in ’21 and in anticipation of more good times rolling into ‘22. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said it had expected the first quarter would be weaker but that such weakness would to be temporary. “Supply chain issues will ease, inflationary pressures will […]
U.S. Steel joined competitors Nucor Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) in posting record annual profits. But the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker’s fourth-quarter net earnings were significantly lower than those in the third quarter. U.S. Steel recorded net earnings of $1.07 billion in the final quarter of 2021, down 46.5% from $2.00 billion in the third quarter […]
I don’t want to lead prices down, but I don’t think it’s any secret at this point that sheet prices are falling fast. “The prophecies have been borne out,” is how one mill executive put it. What does that look like in practical terms? Some mills are offering hot-rolled coil at about $1,200 per ton […]
Nucor Corp. crushed annual profit records in 2021 and posted yet another quarterly profit record in the fourth quarter. The trend continues a 2021 pattern among domestic steelmakers of each quarter setting a record compared to that set in the prior quarter. All told, the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker posted an annual profit of $6.83 billion […]
Nucor Corp. crushed annual profit records in 2021 and posted yet another quarterly profit record in the fourth quarter. The trend continues a 2021 pattern among domestic steelmakers of each quarter setting a record compared to that set in the prior quarter. All told, the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker posted an annual profit of $6.83 billion […]
Nucor Corp. has announced that plate prices are unchanged for the second month in a row. The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker announced the “$0/per ton change” with the opening of its March order book for plate. The result: Nucor’s base price for cut-to-length A36 plate remains at $1,815 per ton ($90.75/cwt) ex works. The company’s price […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) expects that its new electric-arc furnace sheet mill in Sinton, Texas, will reach a run rate close to its rated capacity in the second half of the year, the company’s top executive said. “We are anticipating the final piece of the jigsaw to be put in place here in the next […]
The ongoing correction in steel prices is not a reflection of demand, which is strong now and is expected to remain so for the balance of 2022, Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) executives said. Hot-rolled coil prices are roughly in line with published price ranges of $1,300-1,400 per ton ($65-70 per cwt), although a limited number […]