The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the hot rolled […]
ArcelorMittal has agreed to pay a $90 million settlement in an antitrust lawsuit brought in the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. The class action lawsuit, filed in 2008 by Standard Iron Works on behalf of direct purchasers of steel products, alleged that eight U.S. steel producers violated federal antitrust laws by […]
AK Steel and Union members at Middletown Works settled contract negotiations three months early with a vote for ratification of a new labor agreement on Monday, June 10. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 1943 voted 663 to 243 to accept the new 42-month contract. The agreement will take […]
Trying to keep up with steel prices and production is proving to be quite an exercise. As we were preparing to publish we were chasing a story about AK Steel having issues with their Ashland blast furnace. At the same time we are gathering data from large buyers that is taking the lower end of […]
Those of you who know me understand that during my steel sales career I not only worked in the service center segment of the industry but I also represented a domestic steel mill and, during the last five years of my career I also represented two trading companies who were selling foreign steel into the […]
SMU Price Momentum Indicator Adjusted to Lower from Neutral: Steel Market Update conducted our early June flat rolled steel market analysis this past week. The results of our survey, coupled with information being gathered independently of our survey have prompted SMU to revise our SMU Price Momentum Indicator to Lower from Neutral. We now believe […]
The U.S. steel mills exported 1 million tons of steel during the month of April. This is within the 12 month moving average and only slightly higher than the 1,041,387 net tons shipped in April 2013. During the same month (April 2014) foreign imports rose by 999,557 net tons compared to the same period one […]
I was asked a number of times today – in a couple of different ways – why Steel Market Update has not adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral where it has been for about one month to Lower. The reality is we have been watching spot flat rolled pricing quite closely to see at […]
For those of you who are paying attention to our website you might have noticed we added a new sub-menu under the Resources tab. The new menu is called “The Truth About Selling Steel” and we have attempted to split out those articles associated with sales from our Steel Buyers Basics series of articles many […]
As usual we will spend a few moments taking a look at the month of May in our rear view mirror to see what transpired. SMU Price Momentum Indicator was adjusted during the month from Higher to Neutral as we detected a change in the supply/demand dynamics with the return to full production at US […]
A flurry of promotions has elevated the positions of five executives at AK Steel, effective May 30, 2014. David C. Horn has been named Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Administrative Officer, and Secretary. Mr. Horn was previously the company’s Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary and will continue to be responsible for all […]
SMU was told this afternoon that AK Steel has finally “caught up” on their hot rolled and cold rolled orders and, as our source put it today, “was out looking for orders.” There was no reference to AK dropping pricing at this time. We were told the mill was still sold out on coated products. […]
Steel Market Update attended SMDI’s “Great Designs in Steel” conference on May 14. This was the 12th year of the popular GDIS conference, and it was well attended with over 1200 auto steel players. The focus of the conference was on auto light weighting through the use of advanced high strength steels (AHSS). There were […]
Steel Market Update published our special data on March steel imports which are produced by product (slabs, plate in coil, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume), by port of entry and by the country of origin. The full data is available for review by our Premium Level subscribers. Below is a portion of the […]
We have been getting mixed messages regarding the Ecorse or USS Great Lakes steelmaking operations. Our sources have been advising us that there have been plans to bring the furnaces and #2 BOP back up over this past weekend (did not happen) and then again today (still not up). Other sources close to the situation […]
Steel Market Update conducted our early May flat rolled steel market survey this week and the results are raising some questions as to whether the tightness in supply is beginning to abate. We found hot rolled lead times as shrinking half a week and cold rolled a little more than what we had reported from […]
When Nucor announced their earnings on April 24th they held a conference call with analysts to discuss their business and to make statements about their company, the markets they serve and about the economy in general. John Ferriola, Nucor’s Chairman, CEO and President, provided an opening statement during which he made the following remarks regarding […]
April turned out to be a month where supply disruptions squeezed the life out of non-repentant steel buyers: flat rolled steel buyers who had run their inventories too lean or who hesitated when U.S. Steel Great Lakes went down, only to be ambushed by steelmaking curtailments at USS Gary Works (and elsewhere) due to iron […]
Each week during the month Steel Market Update (SMU) checks the license data from the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding imports of foreign steel. Based on the data compiled each week we then project where we think imports will end up at the end of the month. April license data is suggesting we could see […]
Each week during the month Steel Market Update (SMU) checks the license data from the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding imports of foreign steel. Based on the data compiled each week we then project where we think imports will end up at the end of the month. April license data is suggesting we could see […]
With the various flat rolled indexes reporting hot rolled pricing approaching $680 per ton in the mill spot market we are quite close to the $685 announced by Nucor on April 4th and matched by a number of the domestic steel mills. The question now is will the mills attempt to move prices up to […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released preliminary steel import census data for March and reported total steel imports at 3,218,914 net tons (NT). Compared to February, March imports are down by 2.0 percent or 66,960 NT. Compared to the same month one year ago, total March 2014 imports are up 25.2 percent or 648,510 NT. […]
Once per month, Steel Market Update provides a flat rolled service center inventory forecast for our Premium Level members. We thought in light of the recent numbers released by the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) to see how our forecast for April compared with the actual figures compiled by the MSCI. As indicated in our […]
The enormous undertaking by the US and Canadian Coast Guard to clear the Great Lakes of ice this year underscores the need for passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). Over 200 million tons of cargo, including iron ore and coal for steel mills, are shipped every year through the Great Lakes, according to […]
AK Steel CEO James Wainscott, in the company’s earnings conference call with analysts, reported that their blast furnaces were running at reduced capacities due to the ice problems on the Great Lakes. US Steel has been upfront by reporting their Gary Works steelmaking operations are running at less than capacity as they struggle to get […]
AK Steel reported a net loss of $86.1 million in the first quarter of 2014, compared to a net income of $35.2 million in the previous quarter. Net sales for Q1 were $1.38 billion on steel shipments of 1,262,100 tons, compared to Q1 2013 net sales of $1.37 billion on shipments of 1,289,800 tons, and […]
We learned today that ArcelorMittal will be taking down their #7 blast furnace at Indiana Harbor for two months: June & July 2014 (scheduled maintenance). The #7 furnace is capable of producing up to 11,500 tons of molten pig iron per day when ready at full capacity. Our assumption is US Steel Gary Works should […]
All of the current production issues are relegated to the northern fully integrated steel mills. One of our service center contacts laid out the production scenario and how it is impacting the other northern steel producers: “The Great Lakes outage, and then accident during repair, and the Gary reduction in output is the important factor […]
Service centers and steel brokers within the secondary (non-prime) segment of the flat rolled industry are advising Steel Market Update that prices on secondary are rising just as quickly as prime. Production problems at a number of mills, coupled with logistics problems holding back shipments from some mill locations, has helped tighten inventories of vanilla […]
To our Premium Level members – just a quick note to let you know that we publish Premium articles to the front of the website prior to sending them out in a supplemental newsletter. We have been waiting for imports by product, port and country to become available before we send out a supplemental issue. […]