On Tuesday of this week, SMU produced an article about the recent changes in coating extras by most (by not all) of the domestic mills. Within 30 minutes of publishing the article we knew we had made a couple errors of omission as we had The Techs with different extras that their parent company: Steel […]
For weeks SMU procrastinated about taking the time to attend this year’s METALCON exhibition in Tampa, Florida. We ended up flying to Tampa yesterday morning (Wednesday) for the opening of the show and then returning to our offices last night. With all of the uncertainty which has enveloped the flat rolled steel industry over the […]
Contract negotiations continue to progress at ArcelorMittal and US Steel but at a very slow rate. The USW reported that the ArcelorMittal bargaining committee reached a “basic understanding with the company on some non-economic issues.” At US Steel talks are at an impasse with the USW resisting concession demands. The bargaining committee headed home last […]
Our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop will be held in the Columbus, Mississippi area on January 19 and 20, 2016. This workshop will include a tour of the SDI Columbus steel mill. We are working on hotel information right now and hope to have the hotel selected by early […]
A debate has begun as to when flat rolled steel prices will bottom and begin to reverse course. Part of that dialogue is what will supply look like should US Steel go through with balancing their production by temporarily taking down their Granite City Works. This would be on top of the trade suits which […]
Cliffs Natural Resources has terminated its iron ore supply agreement with Essar Steel Algoma alleging Essar made multiple and material breaches under the agreement. “While the agreement has been terminated, Cliffs remains open to discussing supplying Essar with pellets on commercially reasonable terms consistent with a just-in-time iron ore supply arrangement,” said Cliffs in a […]
I, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and a number of steel people are all in Davenport, Iowa enjoying the warmer than normal weather and great conditions to do a mill tour which is exactly what we did this afternoon (without Hillary and Jeb). I want to thank everyone at SSAB for their hospitality and for doing […]
The following article is written by Spencer Johnson of FC Stone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer will rotate weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. […]
Flat rolled steel prices have been slipping on a regular basis for a number of months. This has created a market where buyers expect lower prices each time they order steel, even if there is only a week or two between orders. This tends to keep order sizes modest and develops a feeding frenzy between […]
The USW updated the membership on Monday after returning to the bargaining table with US Steel in Pittsburgh. The two sides met for several hours to discuss a wide range of issues including active and retiree health care, contracting out and health and safety. “While significant differences remain on each of these issues, we believe […]
As the Oct. 1 contract deadline approaches, labor negotiations at Cliffs Natural Resources are slowly progressing. The USW bargaining committee presented a proposal on Sept. 19 to the company which was discussed at meetings on Sept. 25. “We are beginning to see some progress and top table talks will continue through the weekend,” said the […]
All the focus has been on labor talks between the USW and US Steel and ArcelorMittal, but there are several other USW contracts that are up for renewal such as Cliffs Natural Resources and Alton Steel. Alton Steel, an SBQ steel producer located in Alton, Ill., is represented by USW Local 3643. The contract agreement […]
U.S. Congressman Pete Visclosky (D) addressed the International Trade Commission (ITC) hearing on cut-to-length carbon steel plate today, calling for the ITC to maintain the existing antidumping orders on cut-to-length steel plate from China, and the suspension agreements from Russia and Ukraine. “As a representative and resident of Northwest Indiana, one of our nation’s foremost […]
All the focus has been on labor talks between the USW and US Steel and ArcelorMittal, but there are several other USW contracts that are up for renewal such as Cliffs Natural Resources and Alton Steel. Alton Steel, an SBQ steel producer located in Alton, Ill., is represented by USW Local 3643. The contract agreement […]
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 24, 2015 – The Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI), a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), has launched a new website that focuses on using steel for building construction. The new site, located at www.buildusingsteel.org, provides information for engineers, architects, owners, building contractors, code officials and other construction […]
We will be in Iowa next week for one of our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshops. We are looking forward to working with SSAB again, as we did a workshop in Mobile, Alabama and toured their Alabama facility. This is our first trip to Iowa. We are working on ironing […]
Flat rolled steel prices have been dropping lately and Steel Market Update (SMU) can no longer ignore the direction of market prices at this time. We are, therefore, adjusting our Price Momentum Indicator to Lower from Neutral, meaning that our expectation is for prices to move lower over the next 30 days. There are a […]
ArcelorMittal announced it will invest $11.1 million its premier tubular facility, ArcelorMittal Monterrey, in Monterrey, Mexico. Construction of an additional tube mill and installation of downstream value-add processing equipment will enable the facility to supply high quality straight and formed tubes used in the production of automotive seating and head rest applications. The updated facility […]
Contract negotiations are set to resume again at ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel. The USW informed its membership on Wednesday that the negotiating committees will be heading back to Pittsburgh on Sunday, Sept. 27 with meetings scheduled for Monday, Sept. 28. “Although the parties remain far apart on key issues, we are committed to bargaining a […]
Allegheny Technology workers are in their sixth week of lockout by management with no word on when negotiations will resume. The USW is currently arguing with ATI over medical benefits for locked out salaried office and technical workers in Harrison. The union filed a lawsuit on August 28 charging that the “company breached the union […]
Flat rolled steel buyers reported a weakening flat rolled steel market this week. Large buyers are now able to buy spot hot rolled at $410-$420 per ton with medium sized buyers seeing prices closer to $420-$440 per ton. We are seeing cold rolled and coated products as doing a little better as they have been […]
Steel Market Update participates in a monthly steel conference call with HARDI wholesalers who supply galvanized sheet and coil products to the HVAC mechanical contractors across the United States and Canada. The wholesalers also supply other products such as air conditioners, furnaces and many other products to companies working on residential, multi-family and commercial construction […]
We finally got our Flat Rolled Steel Service Center Apparent Excess/Deficit Inventory forecast model back on track. As we mentioned last month, SMU had been operating under a much more optimistic frame of mind and this past month we pulled back on our expectations and by doing so we came very close to nailing both […]
Labor negotiations continue to pause at US Steel, ArcelorMittal and ATI. The USW bargaining committee has been holding meetings at US steel locations to review the union’s most recent proposal and the status of negotiations. “Though there has been no significant progress to report on bargaining [with US Steel] in recent days, talks will continue, […]
Once one of the largest corporate giants in the United States (if not the world), United States Steel (USS) continues to shrink its workforce as demand for its products shrink. SMU has learned that an unknown number of white collar workers have been advised that they will be losing their jobs. USS Spokesperson Courtney Boone […]
It appears that very slowly steel buyers are slowly starting to come to a realization that there may be a lockout at US Steel and possibly ArcelorMittal as well. As many of you know, these two mills are not huge players in the spot markets so the immediate impact may be slightly muted should one […]
Over the weekend ArcelorMittal walked away from the negotiating table with the United Steelworkers. The question now becomes, if the two sides are committed to their positions – especially on health care coverage and worker contributions (there are currently none)—will there be a lockout? The union will not strike because they are being asked to […]
ArcelorMittal USA has walked away from the bargaining table following submission of a proposal by the USW that “meets our members’ needs and protects benefits.” The union called the move by management “disappointing but not surprising.” The negotiating committee is returning to the plants and has scheduled informational meetings Tuesday in Weirton at 3 p.m. […]
As expected, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has made a preliminary determination that cold-rolled steel produced in seven foreign countries (Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and UK) is causing or threatening to cause injury to the domestic steel industry. The Netherlands, which was also named in the antidumping suit, was dropped from […]
My opinion (and many of the items discussed in my Final Thoughts articles are just that – my opinion) is that we are getting close to seeing a disruption of services at one mill and we probably are close to possibly seeing two mills (ArcelorMittal and US Steel) lockout the USW members at their mills. […]