The Art of Forecasting… This week I saw another milestone drop that I never thought I would live to see. Galvanized base pricing out of a domestic mill at $100.00/cwt (seems like there is an extra digit there for some reason). I go back far enough to remember galvanized steel prices around $10.00/cwt…. For the […]
The Art of Forecasting… This week I saw another milestone drop that I never thought I would live to see. Galvanized base pricing out of a domestic mill at $100.00/cwt (seems like there is an extra digit there for some reason). I go back far enough to remember galvanized steel prices around $10.00/cwt…. For the […]
SMU’s Community Chat webinar with Bank of America metals and mining analyst Timna Tanners last week was our second-best attended ever. Barry Zekelman, executive chairman and CEO of Zekelman Industries, still holds the title. But Tanners gave him a run for his money. We received more questions during the webinar than we were able to […]
United Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal Mines and Infrastructure Canada have ended their strike and ratified a new four-year labor contract with the company. “We are happy to turn the page on this conflict. The past few weeks have been a time to pause and start anew. We look forward to welcoming back our employees, and I […]
Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs marked sixth months of continued operation and production of hot-briquetted iron (HBI) at its direct reduction plant in Toledo, Ohio, with a ribbon-cutting celebration. In attendance for the June 9 on-site event hosted by Cliffs’ Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves were Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D, Ohio), and Toledo […]
ArcelorMittal completed its first XCarb™ innovation fund investment, investing $10 million in renewable energy technology company Heliogen to “unlock the power of sunlight to replace fossil fuels.” Heliogen’s technology harnesses solar energy by using a multi-acre field of mirrors as a magnifying glass to concentrate and capture sunlight. The sunlight can then be converted into […]
ArcelorMittal Mines and Infrastructure Canada have reached tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers on a new labor contract following government-mediated negotiations. If ratified, the four-year collective labor agreement will cover 2,500 members in five union locals working at ArcelorMittal mining operations in northern Quebec. Workers launched a strike on May 10 after voting to reject a […]
ArcelorMittal Mexico plans to start up its new hot strip mill in Lázaro Cárdenas in Mexico’s Michoacán state in the fourth quarter of this year, a company spokeswoman said. The hot strip mill cost $1 billion and is expected to have annual capacity of 2.75 million tons per year (tpy), according to an ArcelorMittal press […]
Nucor CEO and President Leon Topalian will serve as the next chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute, announced the AISI Board of Directors on Tuesday. Topalian will serve a two-year term at the head of the industry trade group, taking over the role from John Brett, CEO of ArcelorMittal North America. “Leon Topalian […]
Much attention has been paid to how much new electric-arc furnace (EAF) flat-rolled steel capacity is being added to the North American market. Less has been written about how many tons of integrated steelmaking capacity have been taken out. An analysis by Steel Market Update indicates that the latter figure is perhaps equally significant. It […]
Much attention has been paid to how much new electric-arc furnace (EAF) flat-rolled steel capacity is being added to the North American market. Less has been written about how many tons of integrated steelmaking capacity have been taken out. An analysis by Steel Market Update indicates that the latter figure is perhaps equally significant. It […]
Time for Good News… It is time for optimism as the pandemic begins to fade in the USA, reported a Washington Post article posted at 2:18 p.m. this afternoon. Today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stated that fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors. “Americans who are fully vaccinated […]
Lourenco Goncalves, chairman, president and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, will be honored as Steelmaker of the Year by the Association for Iron and Steel Technology at this year’s AISTech 2021 conference. The award recognizes Goncalves for his leadership in the iron and steel industry. Said AIST in a press release: “Goncalves is awarded Steelmaker of the […]
United Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal Mines and Infrastructure Canada went on strike Monday night after rejecting a May 7 offer by the company. The strike by 2,500 employees could have a “serious economic impact on the economy of the Côte-Nord and Quebec,” said Quebec Labor Minister Jean Boulet. ArcelorMittal and the USW executives of the five […]
“It’s a miserable boat, but at least we are all in this together.” Large manufacturing company A new hole in the boat today…NLMK USA lost their Farrell, Pa., hot strip mill for one to two weeks. Price becomes irrelevant when your customers need product and there is nowhere else to go. That is what one […]
“It’s a miserable boat, but at least we are all in this together.” Large manufacturing company A new hole in the boat today…NLMK USA lost their Farrell, Pa., hot strip mill for one to two weeks. Price becomes irrelevant when your customers need product and there is nowhere else to go. That is what one […]
Cargill Metals and Canadian mining company Black Iron are teaming up to create a new iron ore plant in the Ukraine. The May 10 agreement gives Cargill offtake rights to the first 4 million metric tons of ore produced per year for the next 10 years along with profit sharing. On the profit share, Black […]
Record-high steel prices result not from Section 232 tariffs or industry consolidation but instead from uniquely strong supply-demand fundamentals, Cleveland-Cliffs’ top executive said. And an ambitious infrastructure package would go a long way toward keeping those fundamentals, and the resulting investment in the domestic steel industry, stronger for longer, he suggested. “We in this country […]
Record-high steel prices result not from Section 232 tariffs or industry consolidation but instead from uniquely strong supply-demand fundamentals, Cleveland-Cliffs’ top executive said. And an ambitious infrastructure package would go a long way toward keeping those fundamentals, and the resulting investment in the domestic steel industry, stronger for longer, he suggested. “We in this country […]
2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference Revised Agenda as of May 9, 2021 The 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 23-25. The convention center is conveniently located next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The center and the hotels surrounding it are at the first stop […]
2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference Revised Agenda as of May 9, 2021 The 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 23-25. The convention center is conveniently located next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The center and the hotels surrounding it are at the first stop […]
Steel Market Update has revised its blast furnace status chart to reflect that two furnaces at Cleveland-Cliffs’ Indiana Harbor steelmaking complex in East Chicago, Ind., have been razed. The No. 5 and No. 6 blast furnaces have not been operated since 2010, were decommissioned in 2015 and have since been demolished, a spokeswoman for the […]
ArcelorMittal’s joint venture AMNS Calvert ran at near capacity in the first quarter of 2021, delivering record first-quarter results. Hot strip mill production jumped 19.3% to 1.3 million metric tons from the fourth quarter. EBITDA nearly tripled to $159 million from $56 million in the prior quarter. The mill is currently supplied with slab sourced […]
I wish I could start off writing about something other than steel prices. That said, since I joined SMU from Fastmarkets AMM in early January, the news really has been the price. SMU’s average hot-rolled price on Tuesday, May 4, stood at $1,500 per ton ($75 per cwt). That’s a 12.8% increase from $1,330 per ton a month ago […]
Nucor, SDI and Cliffs all announced earnings last week. All of the CEOs are quite bullish as all of their flat rolled mills are running at full capacity. And with pricing now in excess of $1,400 per ton for benchmark hot rolled, the mills are reporting record or near record quarterly profits for first-quarter 2021. […]
Ford has extended downtime at assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada into May because of an ongoing microchip supply squeeze. “The global semiconductor shortage continues, presenting challenges to a number of industries – including automakers worldwide,” a Ford spokeswoman said. The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker will take outages the weeks of May 3 and May […]
Cleveland-Cliffs expects historically high steel prices and record profits to continue for the balance of the year. The integrated steelmaker forecasts that U.S. hot-rolled coil prices will average $1,100 per ton for the remaining three quarters the year, according to guidance released with first quarter earnings data on Thursday, April 22. That’s 21.5% below SMU’s […]
Cleveland-Cliffs expects historically high steel prices and record profits to continue for the balance of the year. The integrated steelmaker forecasts that U.S. hot-rolled coil prices will average $1,100 per ton for the remaining three quarters the year, according to guidance released with first quarter earnings data on Thursday, April 22. That’s 21.5% below SMU’s […]
Downstream metals M&A is back, and it could be bigger than ever – or at least as big as it’s been since the last metals super cycle in 2006-08, according to one investment banker. Deal volume in the metals service center and processing sectors was good in early 2020 and “cratered” following the COVID-19 outbreak. But […]
NOTICE: NO SMU PUBLICATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 4 DUE TO EASTER HOLIDAY Imports are coming. We are watching galvanized carefully as automotive production is being reduced due to the chip shortage, and we are seeing higher volumes of galvanized imports coming in. March 2021 license data is showing 240,000 net tons of galvanized, which is […]