The steel buyers and sellers of steel who responded to our first flat rolled steel market trends survey of the New Year foretold the move by AK Steel to raise flat rolled steel prices late on Friday. Eighty-one percent of the respondents reported that they were expecting another flat rolled steel price increase (the 5th […]
Welcome back to any of you who managed to extend your New Year Holiday until the 9th of January. The year started slow but increased speed once we got toward the end of this past week. Ferrous scrap prices are up $30-$45 per gross ton and AK Steel has started the ball rolling with a […]
When we ended 2015 benchmark hot rolled base prices averaged $375 per ton ($18.75/cwt), cold rolled base average was $515 per ton ($25.75/cwt) and the spread between HRC and CRC base prices was $140 per ton ($7.00/cwt). Galvanized base prices averaged $510 per ton ($25.50/cwt) and the spread between HRC base and that of Galvanized […]
AK Steel has been awarded a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a new grade of energy efficient steel for electric motors. Under the scope of the project AK Steel will explore different chemical compositions added in to the existing composition of standard electrical steels to increase the resistivity of […]
Steel buyers and executives associated with the service center industry are reporting to Steel Market Update that end users are accepting that we are in a higher priced flat rolled steel environment and most have placed their first quarter 2017 tons. The expectation is for the market to “pause” here due to the holidays which […]
There are a number of players in the market that are overly concerned (in my opinion) about the restart of the USS Granite City hot strip mill (they are not yet restarting the two idled blast furnaces so they are not adding any new raw steel production into the market) and Mingo Junction (reported to […]
Bankrupt iron ore producer Magnetation LLC has a buyer. Tom Clarke owner of ERP Iron Ore has made an offer for the iron ore operation that closed its last plant in October 2016. Magnetation was a joint venture of Magnetation Inc. and AK Steel. The company recovered waste tailing for conversion into iron ore pellets […]
Flat rolled steel service centers and wholesalers sell material into what is called the “spot” market. The spot market is where a service center customer buys material at whatever price the market will bear in order to fill a short term need. Over the years Steel Market Update has found that when flat rolled steel […]
On Monday ArcelorMittal USA announced their third flat rolled steel price increase in less than a month. The mill informed their customers of their intention to raise base prices on all flat rolled products. On Tuesday NLMK USA followed the AM lead while Nucor and AK Steel came out with a $40 per ton price […]
According to the results of our most recent flat rolled steel market trends survey, service center spot prices have taken a dramatic turn in response to the spat of domestic mill price increase announcements. We have consistently seen, through the use of our surveys and our analysis of market price cycles, when flat rolled steel […]
Good evening from Memphis, Tennessee and Ocseola, Arkansas home of Big River Steel. Earlier today our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop held our class on the steel making and rolling process. The morning session was then followed by a trip to Osceola and a tour of the brand new (so […]
On Wednesday of this week I participated in the monthly HARDI conference call (see article in tonight’s newsletter). During the call one of the executives from an east coast HVAC wholesaler told the group that he didn’t believe prices could or would move much higher from here. I disagreed with him. One of the justifications […]
After ArcelorMittal USA announced specific minimum base price levels on Monday we had three steel mills come out with flat rolled steel price announcements on Tuesday. However, none of the mills advised of specific base price levels but rather announced dollar per ton increases. The three mills are Nucor, AK Steel and NLMK USA. Nucor […]
On Monday the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated an investigation against China for trying to circumvent antidumping and countervailing duty orders. The DOC was responding to petitions filed by the domestic steel industry on cold rolled. The DOC also initiated an investigation on CORE (corrosion resistant) which SMU will cover in a separate article. There […]
On Monday the U.S. Department of Commerce, responding to petitions from ArcelorMittal, Nucor, US Steel, AK Steel, Steel Dynamics and California Steel, initiated an inquiry of circumvention of the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders against China. The probe will be for hot rolled and cold rolled substrate supplied by China to Vietnam for […]
On Friday morning US Steel got the ball rolling by announcing a $30 per ton price increase on all spot sales of flat rolled steel (hot rolled, cold rolled and coated products). Before the afternoon was out two other steel mills followed: Nucor and California Steel Industries. On Monday a number of mills were heard […]
Steel Market Update has been reporting flat rolled steel service centers had reached the point of “capitulation” earlier this month. History has shown that when the service centers reach the point of capitulation they tend to support flat rolled steel price increases being made by the domestic steel industry. Essentially, the steel distributors are attempting […]
AK Steel’s efforts to focus on higher value products, cut costs and reduce exposure to commodity products has resulted in a net income of $50.9 million and the company’s best third quarter since 2008. Adjusted EBITDA margins improved to 10.8 percent from 7 percent a year ago. “De-emphasizing commodity products and introducing new products, such […]
The final three holdouts in the Standard Iron Works v. ArcelorMittal et al. antitrust litigation have come to a settlement. Steel Dynamics, Nucor and SSAB have agreed to settle price-fixing claims for a combined total of $30 million. Steel Dynamics issued an announcement on Tuesday that it will pay $4.6 million in the class action […]
The conversation has begun regarding when flat rolled steel prices will end their slide and reverse course. Flat rolled steel prices have been in a steep decline since mid-June 2016 when benchmark hot rolled prices peaked at $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt, SMU index average) FOB domestic mill. Since then steel prices have retreated $145 per […]
The Vietnam steel industry is between the proverbial rock and hard place. U.S. steel manufacturers claim that Vietnamese exporters are party to China’s circumvention of antidumping and countervailing duties on cold rolled steel and are calling for AD duties to match those on China products. Vietnam’s influx of Chinese steel is also a concern for […]
Both manufacturing companies and flat rolled steel service centers are reporting more than 75 percent of the distributors as offering ever lower spot steel prices. The 75 percent level is important to Steel Market Update as we have pegged it as the level, when reached and maintained, as being the point of Capitulation. That point […]
Final approval was received from a federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday to wind down operations at Magnetation’s iron ore plant in Grand Rapids, MN and pellet plant in Reynolds, IN. “Now, our focus shifts to safely shutting down the Pellet Plant and Plant 4 in order to preserve their value for a potential buyer of […]
Steel Market Update spoke with two sources regarding the most recent complaint filed by the domestic mills against Vietnam and China for circumvention of duties (China) on cold rolled and CORE (corrosion resistant steels such as galvanized and Galvalume) products. One of the tenants behind the accusations made by the domestic steel mills is the […]
Last week Steel Market Update invited just under 600 steel executives to participate in our flat rolled market trends survey. As is normal with SMU surveys, we intentionally invite manufacturing companies and service centers to lead the way. Last week 45 percent of the respondents came from manufacturing and 44 percent from the steel distributors. […]
On Thursday, September 22, 2016 four steel mills: ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor, AK Steel and US Steel submitted petitions asking the US Department of Commerce to review imports of cold rolled and corrosion resistant steels (galvanized and Galvalume) arriving in the United States from Vietnam as actually being a way for China to circumvent antidumping and […]
Over the past few weeks the pace of the flat rolled spot price decline has quickened and many buyers believe benchmark hot rolled coil prices are poised to drop below $500 per ton for the first time since mid-April 2015. Or, are they? At this moment, SMU has our HRC index average at $525 per […]
The uncertainty in the market (called the “blahs” by a number of our steel sources) is affecting both buyers and sellers of steel. Steel mills have been doing all that they can in an attempt to keep flat rolled steel prices from slipping too far. One of our mill sources had a sense of humor […]
Much has been made about the number of shutdowns there will be at various steel mills due to planned maintenance outages. Steel Market Update has been working with a number of our buyer sources to come up with a tentative schedule of the various projects due in the 4th Quarter 2016. This is our “best […]
The Department of Commerce announced an affirmative preliminary decision in the investigation of dumping of imports of stainless steel and strip from China. The China-wide rate assigned was 76.64 percent due to a failure of producers and exporters to respond to Commerce’s request for information. Non-selected separate rate respondents received a dumping rate of 63.86 […]