Raw steel production for the week ending June 16 totaled 1,740,000 net tons, a 0.4 percent decrease from the same period last year and down 0.7 percent from the previous week, but little changed from week to week since briefly topping the 1.8 million ton mark in March and April. The mill capability utilization rate […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest developments in Washington: The Trump administration announced new tariffs on China on Friday, covering about $36 billion in imports (2017 figures). Two lists were released. The first list consists of 863 tariff lines that will be subject to […]
Dan DiMicco is the outspoken chairman emeritus of Nucor Corp., a trade advisor to the president and current chairman of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, so it’s no surprise he is a strong defender of the 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods announced by the Trump administration this week. In […]
U.S. steel mills shipped 7,798,326 net tons in April, a 6.0 percent decrease from the 8,299,418 net tons shipped in the previous month, and a 5.0 percent increase from the 7,428,080 net tons shipped in April 2017, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute in Washington. Shipments in the first four months of 2018 totaled […]
U.S. steelmakers filed trade cases this week on cold rolled and corrosion resistant (CORE) steels alleging that Korea and Taiwan are guilty of using the same circumvention tactics as the Chinese–namely sending hot rolled and cold rolled substrate to Vietnam. As many predicted, the Commerce Department’s recent Chinese circumvention ruling has set a precedent that […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest trade developments in Washington: • The Section 232 investigation into automobiles and auto parts is in the comment phase. The deadline for written comments is June 22. The hearing in the investigation is on July 19 and 20. If […]
Editor’s Note: Not a Premium-level subscriber to SMU? See the sample Premium report below: Hot-rolled coil imports in the first four months of the year increased by 38 percent nationally, but saw big variations regionally. Imports can vary significantly from one region to another. Steel Market Update has produced import reports by product at the […]
Editor’s Note: Not a Premium-level subscriber to SMU? See the sample Premium report below: Overall, U.S. imports of cold rolled coil declined by 17 percent year to date through April, but some regions saw increases. Imports can vary significantly from one region to another. Steel Market Update has produced import reports by product at the […]
Editor’s Note: Not a Premium-level subscriber to SMU? See the sample Premium report below: Imports of hot-dipped galvanized sheet into the U.S. as a whole declined by 8 percent year to date through April, but the Great Lakes region was up by 14.1 percent and the South Pacific was down by 33.8 percent. Imports can […]
Steel Market Update canvassed industry executives this week to gauge their expectations for steel prices and to see if they have felt any effects yet from the Trump administration’s tariffs on steel from Canada and Mexico. Most anticipate fallout from the tariffs in the coming weeks and months, including upward pressure on prices. Following are […]
Jean Carroll Kemp may have been the speaker at the Association of Steel Distributors meeting in Chicago last Thursday, but it was ASD members who really delivered the message. The event was co-hosted by the Chicago Chapter of Association of Women in the Metals Industry (AWMI). Kemp is the Senior VP of Government Affairs and […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update receive reports on imports broken down into district of entry and source nation. This new report from SMU takes the analysis to the product detail level. Our rationale is that the more information steel buyers have about product coming into their region, the better job they can do of […]
Raw steel production for the week ending June 9 totaled 1,753,000 net tons, a 0.3 percent increase from the same period last year, but down 0.1 percent from the previous week. Weekly raw steel production has leveled out at an average around 1.77 million tons since briefly topping the 1.8 million ton mark in March […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following commentary on the latest trade news in Washington: Is there anyone out there who believes President Trump is not methodically alienating our closest allies? Yesterday, in what was clearly a deliberate attempt to provoke the other six members of the G7, President […]
Many of you are already customers of CRU but for those who don’t know us as well, John thought it would be useful to say a little about what we do. CRU has been growing our services since we were formed in 1969 in London, and we now have about 260 employees in 12 countries […]
Many of you are already customers of CRU but for those who don’t know us as well, John thought it would be useful to say a little about what we do. CRU has been growing our services since we were formed in 1969 in London, and we now have about 260 employees in 12 countries […]
Most Steel Market Update sources expect prime scrap to increase by about $10 per ton in July, with the price of obsolete grades moving sideways. “Strong demand and lagging deliveries are the driving factors in the July market. Mills will be reluctant to cancel outstanding orders for fear of losing scrap to other mills and […]
Are the markets’ fears of a trade war exaggerated or are their concerns justified? Popular economist Alan Beaulieu, president of ITR Economics, offers the following macroeconomic perspective: Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. from Canada, Mexico and the EU are a hot topic, and with good reason. The extension of […]
Mill lead times for hot rolled steel appear to have peaked in the current market cycle, while lead times for coated steels extended a bit in the past few weeks, according to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends data. Lead times for hot rolled now average about five and a half weeks, cold rolled about […]
Steel mills appear less willing to negotiate spot prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steel than two weeks ago, according to respondents to this week’s Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire, perhaps reflecting events on the trade front. Mills may anticipate less competition from imports as a result of Trump’s tariffs. Every two […]
Nearly three out of four respondents to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire this week say they predict flat rolled steel prices will move even higher from here. No doubt views were influenced by the Trump administration’s decision to stand firm on tariffs, even on imports from close trading partners in Canada, Mexico and the […]
The market was shocked when President Trump revoked the exclusions and implemented tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the United States’ closest trading partners Canada, Mexico and the EU. In this week’s canvass of the market, Steel Market Update asked industry executives if they expect any direct impact on their businesses as a result. […]
Lewis Leibowitz, trade attorney and contributor to Steel Market Update, offers the following update on trade events in Washington: Canada, Mexico and the nations in the European Union threatened to retaliate against Trump administration tariffs they consider grossly unfair and, true to their word, have announced tariffs of their own on a host of exports […]
Two venerable Chicago-based metals distributors are joining forces, marking the latest big merger in the consolidating service center sector. Ryerson Holding Corp. has agreed to acquire Central Steel & Wire Co. in a transaction valued at $140 million. Acquisition of Central Steel and Wire will solidify Ryerson’s position as the second largest service center organization […]
United States Steel Corp. announced Tuesday that it will restart the second of two blast furnaces at its Granite City Works, an integrated steelmaking plant in Granite City, Ill. The restart of the “A” blast furnace will support increased demand for steel manufactured in the United States, while allowing the company to continue to support […]
Steel production for the week ending June 2 totaled 1,755,000 net tons, a 1.7 percent increase from the same period last year, but down 1.9 percent from the previous week. The mill capability utilization rate for the June 2 week averaged 74.9 percent, down from 76.3 percent the prior week but up slightly from 74.0 […]
High graphite electrode prices will soon start to show up in the price of steel, reports West Coast scrap exporter Damon Sun of Daido International, who offers the following observations on the market: “The Asian markets will likely take a back seat to U.S. scrap as mills start adjusting for the extremely high graphite electrode […]
Canada’s Samuel, Son & Co., a leading metals distributor and industrial products manufacturer, has invested $18 million in its Brantford, Ontario, automotive metals processing center. It expects to complete the expansion by the fourth quarter, ramping to full production in early 2019. Samuel’s Brantford facility is currently a 141,000-square-foot metals processing operation equipped with blanking […]
The U.S. packaging industry, which relies on imports of tinplate, is among the many concerned about the effects of President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The Can Manufacturers Institute estimates that 42 percent of tinplate steel needs to be imported to manufacture food cans for American consumers. More than 60 percent of primary aluminum […]
CRU Group, the global leader in steel analysis, prices and consulting, has acquired the highly successful U.S.-based Steel Market Update (SMU) conference, training and newsletter business. The SMU Steel Summit, which takes place Aug. 27-29 in Atlanta, is the premier steel conference in North America while the SMU Newsletter is an industry leader, providing independent […]