“Mills are stubborn this week. We’ll see what happens when US gets caught back up,” is how one steel executive pegged the market for Steel Market Update earlier today. Many of the steel service centers we spoke to over the past few days are indicating there is strengthening demand in portions of their business. What […]
More flat rolled steel mills have joined in and raised flat rolled steel prices over the past couple of days. On Friday, April 4th USS/POSCO sent a letter to their customers advising them that flat rolled steel base prices would rise by $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt) on all products. UPI opened their June order book […]
Steel Market Update received the following “Letter to the Editor” from the West Coast: Here is my view of the flat rolled market. Just my opinion of the state of the industry. You may or may not agree but these are points I think customers should carefully consider: We are seeing a long term shift […]
The month of March proved to be an interesting month for the flat rolled steel industry and related commodities associated with the industry, both within North America and around the world. The biggest news was the move by the domestic mills to raise flat rolled steel prices. ArcelorMittal led the way on March 17th when […]
In an email sent late in the afternoon on Monday, March 17th, ArcelorMittal USA announced a price increase on all of their new flat rolled orders, with specific base prices at $33.00 for hot rolled, $39.50 for cold rolled, and $39.50 for galvanized. The mill justified their increase by stating “Despite the recent drop in […]
For those of you paying attention to our website you are aware that we published an article first thing this morning about the US Steel Gary Works announcement. As we have mentioned in the past, one of the goals of the new website is to be able to get breaking news to our readers as […]
US Steel has essentially lost a steel mill – Great Lakes in Ecorse, Michigan – for how long is the unknown question. Part of the roof collapsed in the building which houses their basic oxygen furnace (they called it a basic oxygen process or BOP). It is the most critical piece of equipment in the […]
Usually the news about price increase announcements is regarding the ability of the steel mills to collect all, or a portion, of the announced flat rolled price increases. With the latest announcements made last week led by ArcelorMittal on Monday and then followed by the rest of the industry as the week progressed, the question […]
AK Steel expects to report a net loss of $0.44 to $0.49 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2014 due to outages and weather related energy costs, according to earnings guidance released by the company. Significant costs of $47 million resulted from the unplanned outage of the Ashland Works blast furnace and planned […]
In our Thursday evening issue, we published an article regarding recent price increase announcements out of Nucor, California Steel Industries (CSI), and AK Steel. We incorrectly stated the increase out of CSI as $40.00/cwt for all products, when it was really a $40 per ton increase. We apologize for the error. The image below is […]
Yesterday (Wednesday the 19th) Nucor announced a price increase on their new orders and listed base prices of $33.00/cwt on hot rolled, $39.50/cwt on cold rolled, and $39.50/cwt on galvanized. These are the same levels that ArcelorMittal, NLMK USA, and Severstal announced earlier in the week. California Steel Industries (CSI) also announced an increase on […]
A new $1.1 billion credit facility agreement is expected to improve AK Steel liquidity and strategic flexibility. AK Steel announced the it has entered into the 5-year revolving credit facility with a group of lenders led by Bank of America NA, JP Morgan Securities LLC and Wells Fargo Capital Finance. The new facility replaces an existing […]
Hello from Orlando where the weather is sunny with temperatures in the low 80’s… Come to think of it I believe today is the first day of spring – and it couldn’t have come at a better time. One of the complaints being picked up in this week’s steel survey has been the impact the […]
The steel market, in particular the steel service center market, has been anticipating a flat rolled price increase announcement for the past few weeks. The fact that it was ArcelorMittal USA leading the way should not come as a surprise. The mills that have few to no spot tons to sell are AK Steel, US […]
In an email sent late in the afternoon on Monday, March 17th, ArcelorMittal USA announced a price increase on all of their new flat rolled orders, with specific base prices at $33.00 for hot rolled, $39.50 for cold rolled, and $39.50 for galvanized. The mill justified their increase by stating “Despite the recent drop in […]
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day – it is also the beginning of the Steel Market Update flat rolled steel market analysis for mid-March. Invitations should be out around 8 AM ET. If you receive one please take a few minutes to click on the link contained in the email and respond to our questionnaire. John […]
One of our readers sent me an article produced by another steel-related publication about the state of Kentucky offering financial incentives to AK Steel. The Kentucky Industrial Revitalization Act is being extended with one of the hopes that AK Steel will use the incentives to help reline the Ashland blast furnace. The question asked by […]
There are situations at two mills which are causing sleepless nights for some flat rolled steel buyers. AK Steel is helping tighten the Midwest market and keeping prices from plunging perhaps further than they may have otherwise. As one of our steel sources put it to Steel Market Update today, “…the further reduction of melt […]
There are situations at two mills which are causing sleepless nights for some flat rolled steel buyers. AK Steel, through the loss of their Ashland blast furnace, is helping tighten the Midwest market and keeping steel prices from plunging perhaps further than they may have otherwise. As one of our steel sources put it to […]
Steel Market Update received the following steel market analysis from one of our member companies based on the Academy Awards. Sometimes it is better to look at the flat rolled steel market with a sense of humor so here goes: Current Market Perspective (inspired by the Academy Awards): The US Steel market continues to be […]
The domestic steel mills did not announce any flat rolled steel price increases during the month of February. The last price increase announcement was made by USS/POSCO to their West Coast customers on January 30th. The last announcement on the East Coast was ArcelorMittal Dofasco which adjusted prices to take into account the lost value […]
AK Steel lost their Ashland, Kentucky blast furnace on February 22nd. The furnace, which is called Amanda, is rated at 6,000 net tons per day according to AIST data. According to customers of AK Steel, the company found a crack in the bottom of the furnace and the expected repairs are expected to take three […]
The early sentiment has scrap prices dropping during the month of March but not as strong or as wide-spread as forecast a couple of weeks ago. Flows into the scrap yards have been impacted by the severe weather in the North and this is tempering the drop which, according to at least one SMU scrap […]
Based on local news reports as well as information from Steel Market Update flat rolled sheet sources, the blast furnace issue at AK Steel Ashland was due to a break out at the bottom of the vessel. A break out is when molten pig iron penetrates the outer wall of the blast furnace. Since the […]
Hot rolled prices continue to be the weakest of the flat rolled products with most buyers reporting $640 as readily available and we heard of only one mill (with limited to no spot tons available) holding firm at $660 (and we expect collecting few to no spot orders at that price level). Cold rolled continues […]
AK Steel has lost their Ashland, Kentucky blast furnace. The furnace, which is called Amanda, is rated at 6,000 net tons per day according to AIST data. According to customers of AK Steel, the company found a crack in the bottom of the furnace and the expected repairs are expected to take three weeks. When […]
There are always two sides of a coin. When looking at AK Steel, buyers are seeing a mill aggressively offering hot rolled at the lower end of the SMU HR pricing range while, at the same time, fully annealed cold rolled and galvanized are on an inquire only basis. Steel Market Update has received mixed […]
Perhaps one of my steel sources described the current environment surrounding the flat rolled steel industry best when they said, “Welcome to the Charles Dickens version of the steel industry – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the season of hope, it was the winter of despair…’ […]
On Monday, Steel Market Update revised our SMU Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral to Lower. The adjustment means we anticipate flat rolled steel prices will move lower over the next 30 to 60 days. At the time of the change, SMU benchmark hot rolled coil was published at $660 per ton. The last adjustment to […]
For those of you watching the weather you may be aware that Atlanta is suffering through another winter weather event. Since our offices are located north of Atlanta that means we are suffering as well. The good news for me personally is I decided to spend a few days in Florida after attending the Port […]