Steel Market Update is sharing the following Premium-level content on flat rolled imports with Executive-level members. For more information about upgrading to a Premium-level subscription, contact info@steelmarketupdate.com. Finally, the detailed steel trade data has been released for December. Again, we apologize for our lack of trade reports in the last few months. August was the […]
This is a report that we provided monthly through August 2018 data. The USITC then revamped their DataWeb and the new version didn’t work. Our SMU staff worked with the USITC to fix the problem, then the government shut down. The March 2019 data is the first available that has been released on time since […]
February’s employment report was not all bad news in spite of the surprisingly low job creation result. Net job creation in February at first glance was terrible, but our analysis of Friday’s reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was not so bad. Job creation in February, at just 20,000, was far below […]
Construction employment was promoted by good weather in January with a reversal in February, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In February, 25,000 jobs were created in the private sector and government lost 5,000. Table 1 breaks total employment down into service and goods-producing industries and then into private and government employees. […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update have reports available on our website that break out the import tonnage into district of entry and source nation for six sheet and plate categories. SMU has now developed reports that drill down the HRC and CRC into product detail both nationally and for each district. Using U.S. International […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update receive reports on imports broken down into district of entry and source nation. This drill down report takes the regional analysis to the level of product detail. Our intent is to report this drill down for CR sheet in the rationale that the finer the detail steel buyers have […]
Editor’s note: Steel Market Update is sharing the following Premium content with all its readers in this issue. For more information on how to upgrade to a Premium-level subscription, email info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. U.S. economic growth slowed to 2.6 percent in fourth-quarter 2018, down from 3.4 percent in the third quarter, according to the initial estimate of […]
Key market indicators were strong in February, but trends have been deteriorating for a year. This report summarizes 36 data streams that we believe critically describe the state of and provide forward guidance for the steel market. The government statistics departments are gradually catching up after the shutdown, but their revised schedules indicate that it […]
Steel Market Update is sharing this Premium content with Executive-level subscribers in this issue. For more information on upgrading to a Premium-level membership, email info@SteelMarketUpdate.com Key market indicators were strong in March and the trends have improved since January. This report is designed to provide a big picture summary of data we have covered in […]
Steel Market Update is sharing this Premium content with Executive-level subscribers in this issue. For more information on upgrading to a Premium-level membership, email info@SteelMarketUpdate.com Steel Market Update’s analysis of Key Market Indicators shows that U.S. economic trends deteriorated in April to the worst level in 27 months. This report is designed to be a […]
Global steel production in January was at an annual rate of 1.760 billion metric tons (Mt). Capacity is calculated to be 2.4 billion Mt and capacity utilization in January was 74.0 percent, according to the latest Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data. In three months through January, China grew by 7.8 percent […]
Consumer confidence rebounded in February as the negative effect of the government shutdown receded. The Conference Board measure of consumer confidence declined each month November through January and surged in February. It appears that the shutdown had a major effect on consumers’ expectations, but not so much on their perception of the present situation. The […]
In the last month, there has been a positive turnaround of raw materials prices. Table 1 summarizes the price changes through February of the five materials considered in this analysis. It reports the month/month, 3 month/3 month and 12 month/12 month changes and tells us that price movements with the exception of busheling have been […]
Oil production in the U.S. was at an all-time high in October last year and declined only slightly in the latest data for November. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil has recovered somewhat from its recent low of $44.48 on Dec. 27. The spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) FOB Cushing, Okla., […]
The government shutdown is over but much of the data that Steel Market Update uses in its regular analyses for Premium members is still not available. This is a brief summary of where we are today in the process of data recovery. The longest government shutdown in U.S. history, lasting 35 days from Dec. 22 […]
Economic indicators of manufacturing activity are strong, though the growth rate is slowing. This report summarizes 11 data streams that describe the state of U.S. manufacturing in general and the steel industry in particular. We have reported on most of these separately in our Steel Market Update publications, and therefore will be brief in this […]
The following statement was extracted from the Federal Reserve website: “Effective on Feb. 4, 2019, the Federal Reserve Board staff has made major changes to the methodology used to construct the trade-weighted dollar indexes in the H.10, G.5, and G.5A releases. These changes affect the calculation of index weights and country composition. The new dollar […]
Rolled product imports increased by 4.5 percent in January, calculated as a three-month moving average (3MMA) year over year. This early look at January’s import volume is based on Department of Commerce license data (see explanation below). Beginning in January 2018, we expanded this import analysis to include all major steel sectors: sheet, plate, longs […]
Employment gains were unexpectedly strong in January. The January employment release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) included huge historical revisions. We re-entered our data back to January 2010, but found that revisions extended even further back in time. Net job creation in January as reported by the BLS on Friday was 303,000, […]
Construction is pulling ahead of manufacturing as a job creator, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In January, 296,000 jobs were created in the private sector and 8,000 in government. Table 1 breaks total employment down into service and goods-producing industries and then into private and government employees. Most of the goods-producing employees work […]
Key Market Indicators in January, indicators of the present situation, remained strong, but trends deteriorated to the weakest level in two years. This report summarizes 36 data streams that we believe critically describe the state of and provide forward guidance for the steel market. Due to the government shutdown, 13 of the 36 indicators were […]
The U.S. government shutdown has had a negative effect on consumer expectations. The Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence declined each month from November through January. It appears the shutdown had a major effect on consumers’ expectations, but not so much on their perception of the present situation. The composite value of consumer confidence in […]
The growth of China’s economy has slowed partly as a result of the tariff war with the United States, and China may be in a mood for serious negotiation. Once each quarter, we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Many analysts don’t believe these self-serving […]
In Q3 and Q4 2018, the Pacific region regained the lead as the engine of national job creation. Fourth-quarter employment data by state was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday. The state data follows and confirms the strong employment situation that we reported earlier at the national level. In the fourth […]
Global steel production slowed in December, but this was purely a seasonal effect. Global steel production in December was at an annual rate of 1.765 billion metric tons. Capacity is calculated to be 2.4 billion tons and capacity utilization in December was 74.0 percent, according to the latest Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel […]
There has been a downward reversal in raw materials prices in the last month. Table 1 summarizes the price changes through January of the five materials considered in this analysis. It reports the month/month, 3 months/3 months and 12 months/12 months changes and tells us that price movements have been negative for all materials except […]
This article on the competitiveness of steel against other products was originally produced last week for Steel Market Update Premium members. We want our entire readership to review the analysis done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and then analyzed by Peter Wright on our staff. If you would like information about upgrading to Premium […]
The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has recovered from its recent low in December. The spot price of WTI FOB Cushing, Okla., recovered to $50.31 on Jan. 14 from its recent low of $44.48 on Dec. 27. WTI had a recent peak on Oct. 3 of $76.40 per barrel. The total number […]
Steel became less competitive in 2018 against aluminum, plastic and wood, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index data. The cost of carbon cold rolled sheet was up more than twice as much as aluminum sheet, and steel pipe was up by nine times as much as plastic […]
The U.S. dollar has retreated from the last Steel Market Update currency report when it had the highest value on the foreign exchange markets for over 16 years. In the last month, the dollar weakened against 13 of the 16 currencies that Steel Market Update tracks. This was a turnaround from November when it strengthened […]