As the upward slope of the green bars in the charts below clearly illustrate, the bargaining position in steel price negotiations has been steadily shifting in favor of steel buyers for the past three months. Since September 2020, it had been a seller’s market, with steel in short supply. Until lately, the mills have had […]
A&T Stainless – a joint venture between Allegheny Technologies and China’s Tsingshan Group – has filed a request with the Commerce Department asking for a Section 232 tariff exclusion to import hot-band coils from Indonesia. If granted, A&T intends to restart the Midland, Pa., Direct Roll Anneal and Pickle (DRAP) line that was idled in July […]
Tubular products producer PTC Alliance has agreed to purchase the business of Metal-Matic Inc., another maker of welded and drawn over mandrel (DOM) carbon steel tubing. The transaction, which will strengthen the company’s foothold in the Midwest, is expected to close by the end of the year. The deal will add four production facilities employing […]
Continuing its aggressive growth through acquisition, Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. has purchased Rotax Metals, Inc., a metals service center specializing in copper, bronze and brass alloys. This is the third deal announced by Reliance just this month, extending its reach in various regions and product categories. Founded in 1947 and located in Brooklyn, New […]
Market forces are beginning to restore equilibrium to some parts of the economy, but not to others, said supply-chain expert Tom Derry, CEO of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Supply constraints will continue to be a drag on economic recovery in 2022, along with inflation and labor issues, he said during Steel Market Update’s […]
Just as steel mill lead times are leading indicators of steel prices, steel industry lead times may prove to be leading indicators of price trends for other commodities. As my colleague Michael Cowden reported Wednesday during SMU’s Community Chat with Tom Derry of the Institute for Supply Management, mill lead times on spot orders of […]
Nucor Corp. expects earnings this quarter to be the highest in the company’s history, surpassing the previous quarterly record of $7.28 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2021. The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker predicted fourth-quarter earnings would be in the range of $7.65 to $7.75 per share. “Steel mill segment earnings in the fourth quarter of 2021 remain robust and […]
Backlogs at the nation’s ports are improving, but it probably won’t be until mid-2022 before the bottlenecks clear and shipments of steel and other imports begin to return to normal. “I think it will get better by the middle of next year,” predicted Doug Wray, vice president commercial for Ports America, who will be a […]
Steel Technologies, Louisville, Ky., has agreed to purchase the assets of Calstrip Industries, Inc., expanding Steel Technologies’ North American steel processing platform to 31 facilities, including joint-venture operations, located throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The transaction is expected to close late this month. Calstrip – a flat-rolled processor with operations in California, New […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. announced two more acquisitions this month, bringing the total to 70 since the service center giant’s IPO in 1994. The latest additions to Reliance’s portfolio are Admiral Metals Servicecenter Co. Inc. and Nu-Tech Precision Metals Inc. Admiral Metals, Woburn, Mass., is a distributor of nonferrous metal products serving the semiconductor, […]
Inflation and COVID have something in common. Both are invisible to the naked eye yet will color the economic picture in 2022. And both may make their presence known next year with painful consequences. Turns out Steel Market Update readers are more fearful of the fiscal bug than the physical one. Steel Market Update’s questionnaire this […]
Mill Steel Co., one of the nation’s largest distributors of flat-rolled carbon steel, now offers its full line of flat-rolled carbon steel products for purchase through its e-commerce website. The website features 65,000+ tons of steel available for purchase with full physical and chemical certifications provided for each coil, the company said. The user-friendly e-commerce […]
With 2022 just around the corner, steel buyers are looking back at one of the most profitable years in their history – thanks to all-time-high steel prices seen in 2021. That explains some of the staying power of lofty readings in Steel Market Update’s Sentiment Index. SMU surveys buyers every two weeks and asks how they view […]
Lead times for steel sheet and plate continued to decline over the past two weeks, shortening by an average of more than a week. The move correlates with a sharp downtrend in steel prices. Steel Market Update’s latest check of the market shows the average lead time for hot rolled orders nearing five weeks. Cold rolled […]
The pendulum has passed bottom and finally begun to swing the other way in price negotiations. Steel mills no longer hold a dominant bargaining position over spot buyers. That shift is consistent with the shortening lead times and declining prices reported by Steel Market Update. SMU asks buyers every two weeks whether mills are willing […]
Ferrous scrap prices for December settled mostly sideways across the U.S. following a big jump in November as export demand slowed and as mills sought to reduce year-end inventories. Steel Market Update sources generally put December scrap in the following ranges: Shred $520-540/GT; Bush $600-640/GT; and HMS $470-490/GT. “It was an unusual, and frankly unexpected, […]
Steel prices continued to slide this week with the benchmark hot rolled number down another $40 per ton to an average of $1,730 per ton. That’s a decline so far of $225 per ton, or 11.5%, from the peak of $1,955 per ton in early September. In our questionnaire this week, SMU asked buyers where […]
(Editor’s note: This is a corrected version of Final Thoughts. The original misstated a hot rolled peak of $1,995 per ton, not $1,955.) In our questionnaire this week, we asked steel buyers: Do you sense that the market is changing, and in what ways? Not surprisingly, many referenced shortening mill lead times and declining steel prices. […]
Evraz is a major supplier of plate and tubular goods for the traditional oil and gas markets. At the same time, it is a leader in the use of renewable energy, with an electric arc furnace mill in Pueblo, Colo., powered primarily by solar. Jefferson Shaw, vice president of strategy for Evraz North America, sees […]
Reibus, the independent metals marketplace, has raised $75 million in Series B funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. With this investment, Reibus claims total funding in excess of $100 million and a valuation of $750 million. The funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 adds to prior investment by Canaan Partners, Nosara Capital, Battery Ventures, […]
Coming off a year of strong growth, Reibus is looking to 2022 with guarded optimism. John Armstrong, president and CEO of the Atlanta-based online marketplace, anticipates more volatility ahead for the metals market. “We have budgeted for a 25% decrease in steel prices next year. That is our forecast, and we have built our business […]
With almost 11 months in the record books, domestic raw steel production is up nearly 20% versus last year when the market was dogged by various pandemic disruptions. Adjusted year-to-date production through Nov. 27 totaled 86,274,000 net tons – up 19.7% from the 72,053,000 net tons during the same period in 2020. The average mill utilization […]
With steel prices trending downward as 2021 comes to a close, there is a different tone to annual contract negotiations, respondents to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire said. Talks are more contentious, reported many buyers, as mills seek to lock in volume near current prices for 2022, while service centers and OEMs are reluctant to […]
Engineering and construction costs continued to rise in November, though at a slower rate than in October, according to IHS Markit and the Procurement Executive Group (PEG). The November 2021 headline IHS Markit PEG Engineering and Construction Cost Index declined from 74.2 in October to 67.4 in November. The sub-index for materials and equipment costs drove […]
Steel Buyers Sentiment saw a notable dip this week, as did steel prices. Industry sentiment tends to track with steel price tags – the stronger the prices, the more optimistic service center and OEM executives who respond to SMU’s surveys. While sentiment remains near record levels, the downtrend suggests optimism, like prices, may have peaked. SMU […]
December ferrous scrap prices are expected to trade sideways or up slightly after a surprise jump higher in November, Steel Market Update sources said. “December scrap is likely to move sideways, particularly for sales done at the higher end of the November range. For sales at the lower end, a $10-20 per ton ‘catch-up’ increase […]
Friedman Industries reported the most profitable quarter in the company’s history with earnings for its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 of $13.2 million on sales of $92.6 million. That’s a big turnaround from the same quarter last year when the company lost $250,000 on sales of $24.9 million due to the pandemic. Results for […]
Federal Steel Supply, a stocking distributor of carbon steel and chrome-moly tubular products, has acquired Process Piping Materials, a distributor of industrial pipe, fittings, valves and flanges. Terms of the deal were not released. PPM’s founders will remain active in the business. Federal Steel Supply is headquartered in Chesterfield, Mo., with a distribution facility in […]
At the direction of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Commerce Department will continue to investigate oil country tubular goods (OCTG) imports from Argentina, Mexico and Russia that are allegedly being subsidized and dumped in the U.S. at below fair value. In a Nov. 19 vote, the USITC ruled there is reasonable indication that […]
With 2022 right around the corner, it’s time to reflect back on an unusual and eventful year for the steel industry. Following is Steel Market Update’s Top 10 News Events of 2021: #10 – Economy Rebounds from COVID: No one could have predicted when the virus crippled commerce in the spring of 2020 that the […]