As of late Friday, Steel Market Update ferrous scrap sources reported that scrap negotiations were ongoing and had not yet settled for the month of January. We heard late in the week of one Detroit-area mill paying up $20 per gross ton on prime grades and up $30 per gross ton on cut grades. We […]
Our team has been working diligently on our 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We have expanded the space we are using at the Georgia International Convention Center, we have changed the space that will be used for breaks and for our exhibitors, and we have expanded the audio/visual segment of the program as we continue […]
You may or may not be aware that we updated our Steel Market Update website over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. We updated software that controls a number of the functions of our website in order to speed up the site and to make sure that it is up-to-date over the next few years of use. […]
Recent price increases on prime steel have pulled secondary steel prices up along with them, challenging distributors to pass the added cost along to their customers. Secondary steel products include coils that have defects or otherwise fail to meet the specs of the original buyer, but may be suitable for other uses. “Our volume has […]
Tomorrow, Monday, Aug. 28, the steel event of the year will kick off in Atlanta. With over 650 steel and manufacturing executives registered, expectations are for this conference to truly be the most dynamic steel conference in North America for 2017. Welcome to the Steel Market Update Steel Summit Conference. This is what the fuss […]
One of the reasons why the SMU Steel Summit Conference is successful and growing at a time when most conferences are not is due to the options we are given through the support of our sponsors and exhibitors. The cost to put on a three-day conference is truly staggering. Nonetheless, one of our goals has […]
On Monday, August 28, the steel event of the year will kick off in Atlanta. With less than four weeks to go and 575 steel and manufacturing executives already registered, expectations are for this conference to truly be the most dynamic steel conference in North America for 2017. Welcome to the Steel Market Update Steel […]
On Monday, Aug. 28, the steel event of the year will kick off in Atlanta. With four weeks to go and 560 steel and manufacturing executives already registered, expectations are for this conference to truly be the most dynamic steel conference in North America for 2017. Welcome to the 7th Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel […]
This is my gut feeling, my opinion based on what I have been reading and watching in the news like everyone else. The world is trying to figure out if President Trump is going to start a trade war and the first bullets are made with flat rolled steel, pipe and long products. I am […]
The Association of Steel Distributors is now a technical affiliate of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International, Elgin, Ill. ASD functioned as an independent, nonprofit service center trade group for 75 years, but changing market conditions and flagging membership forced the association to ally with a larger organization to ensure its continued survival. “This is […]
Scrap, scrap, scrap, scrap and scrap…that is what everyone is going to be talking about for the next week to ten days. David Feldstein in tonight’s HRC Futures article suggested prime grades could go higher in March by as much as $80 per gross ton. I have read articles that suggest the numbers could be […]
We have a number of articles in tonight’s newsletter about China and Chinese steel and iron ore prices. Why do we pay so much attention to one country? China controls 50 percent of the world’s steel production. The country has somewhere around 300 million metric tons (330 million net tons) of excess capacity. They have […]
I debated about just changing our Price Momentum Indicator to Neutral just on hot rolled and cold rolled and leaving galvanized at Higher. The pricing pressure on coated products spot negotiations does not appear to be necessary when looking at the lead times. The question then becomes are the lead times perhaps a bit “padded,” […]
A special thank you to the companies who have stepped up early to be sponsors at this year’s Steel Summit Conference: Our Conference Sponsor – Pacesetter as well as our two Corporate Sponsors – Bank of America and Mill Steel. We also have one break sponsor at the moment – Kenwal and we have two […]
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Steel Market Update conducted our 6th Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was the largest for us with 428 steel executives participating. I will let a few of the comments I got this morning speak for themselves: “Great conference John. Very well put together…..best one […]
I expect the next seven days will be quite hectic in my life and those of our SMU team as we make final preparations for the 2016 Steel Summit Conference. I will actually be traveling to Georgia on Wednesday and will work from there until the conference has concluded. We do have a few spots […]
Two steel mills announced price increases today. This is the beginning of the 6th round of increases since the first announcement in early December 2015. However, unlike past announcements this one just doesn’t “feel” the same. We are not seeing a rush to buy (unless it was a special deal at much less than the […]
The Association of Steel Distributors (ASD), which in March celebrated its 73rd anniversary, swore in Andrew (Andy) Gross, President & CEO of Alliance Steel as the new President of the ASD during its spring meeting held in Naples, Florida earlier this month. The new ASD president told SMU that he wants to expand the exposure […]
We only have a few spots left for our upcoming Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop. If you or your company has interest in attending the May 17-18, 2016 workshop, which will be located in Sylvania, Ohio (just outside of Toledo) at the Wingate Hotel, please register online or contact our […]
We have been asked about the possible restart of the blast furnace at AK Steel or the furnaces at Granite City as steel prices rise and lead times remain extended. We spoke with a couple of analysts over the weekend who told us they did not see the AK Steel furnace running at any point […]
A quick reminder that our next Steel 101 workshop which will be held just outside of Toledo, Ohio on May 17-18th of this year, is about half full. We already have an excellent group of manufacturing companies, service centers and steel mills attending. On the afternoon of the first day we will tour the North […]
Ted Cruz said it best the other night while debating Donald Trump, “breathe, breathe, breathe….” While speaking to one of my longtime steel buying contacts we began discussing the mentality to this market as there are many “unknowns” such as exactly what the heck is going on in China. We were discussing the difference between […]
Alliance Steel LLC announced it has acquired the working capital assets and customer list of Standard Steel & Wire Inc. (SS&W) based in Chicago, IL. Alliance Steel will concurrently form the Specialty Steel Division of Alliance Steel which will be headed by Dennis Barista, formerly of SS&W. Alliance Steel’s Specialty Steel Division will provide all […]
Our office is overwhelmed with the response we have had to our 5th Steel Summit Conference which is only our 2nd two day conference. As of this afternoon we had 272 people registered. The facility we have can comfortably seat 292 people… We will have a full house. Thank you. For those coming to the […]
In just five weeks the hoard will be arriving in Atlanta and making their way to the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway Hotel which is located next to the Georgia International Convention Center where our 5th Steel Summit Conference will be held on September 1st and 2nd. We don’t know what the final numbers will be […]
We will begin our mid-July flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) on Monday at 8 AM ET. If you receive an invitation, please click on the link and spend a few minutes helping us better understand the flat rolled steel markets, trends and pricing. If you are not on the invite list but would like […]
Our ferrous scrap sources told us that Detroit scrap prices were settled earlier today where all of the prices were reported as being sideways (no change from June pricing) with the exception of shredded scrap which was reported as being down $10 to three mills, sideways to another and one mill being undecided. We will […]
Take the time to read the article in tonight’s issue about what the new trade legislation will mean to how injury or material injury is determined. I spoke with one of my sources last week who told me that this legislation will be a “game changer” for those who import foreign steel. No longer will […]
I was speaking with someone associated with one of the Korean trading companies earlier today. I was told that the Koreans will continue to quote and ship coated steels as they do not believe their mill(s) were involved in any dumping. I was also told by the same trader that they were placing business with […]
I was able to pick up a number of sponsors for our Steel Summit Conference. We now have commitments from: Magic Coil Products, Pacesetter Steel, Alliance Steel and Cargill. We thank those who support our efforts to produce quality steel workshops and conferences. Sponsors, such as the ones named above, help us keep our conference […]