The steel world (which is not as large as it used to be) is in New York City this week to attend (lobby call) the Steel Success Strategies Conference hosted by World Steel Dynamics and their AMM partners. It is the one place (other than SMU Steel Summit Conference – hint, hint) where one can […]
According to Investopedia, a subsidy is “a benefit given by the government to groups or individuals usually in the form of a cash payment or tax reduction. The subsidy is usually given to remove some type of burden and is often considered to be in the interest of the public.” The example accompanying the definition […]
The “not if but when” question has been settled as the long awaited trade case filing on galvanized steel finally occurred on Wednesday. Six domestic steel mills submitted a petition to the Department of Commerce asking for the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on certain corrosion-resistant steel products from China, the Republic of Korea, […]
Steel Market Update will have a number of articles in today’s issue of our newsletter about the corrosion resistant trade cases filed yesterday by six U.S. steel mills. We will discuss what has to be proved, the timetable that a case goes through at both the Department of Commerce (DOC) and the International Trade Commission […]
Steel Market Update has written numerous articles about the corrosion resistant trade case filed by six domestic steel mills against five foreign countries. The petition which called for anti-dumping and countervailing duty action will now go through the proper channels at the US Department of Commerce (anti-dumping) and the International Trade Commission (countervailing duty). There […]
I was pleased to hear from a number of our readers who had used the search function at the top right hand side of our website in order to find old articles that we had written on the subject of dumping suits and the process that the suit has to go through. I used the […]
The world’s steel producers managed to pump out 1.665 billion metric tons of steel (1.84 billion net tons) during 2014 according to the World Steel Association (WSA) which released their 2014 data book earlier today. According to the WSA, the United States was the third largest steel producing country behind China and Japan. This is […]
Steel Market Update sources: mill, service center and others are advising us that anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) trade cases on coated products will be filed yet this week. We have heard that the filing could come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3rd) or on Thursday of this week. Any trade filing on coated […]
Construction of Essar Steel’s Minnesota taconite operation is accelerating now that the project is fully financed. The $1.9 billion project near Nashwauk involves the construction of a taconite plant with a total annual production capacity of 7.0 million tons of iron ore pellets. The pellets will be initially sent to Essar Steel Algoma and to […]
Today SMU is not only going to discuss where flat rolled steel prices were this past week based on our analysis of steel pricing from our steel index as well as CRU, Platts and SteelBenchmarker, we are also going to discuss price momentum which our SMU Price Momentum Indicator currently points to higher prices over […]
ArcelorMittal Dofasco has been fined CAN $130,000 (US $104,379) after pleading guilty to two separate safety violations. On September 6, 2012, four workers were a changing a tuyere (a pipe/nozzle that blows air into the furnace) and blow pipe assembly on the #3 Blast Furnace. One of the workers fell off a tow motor used […]
Based on channel checks with our scrap sources, we are hearing that many of the steel mills have been actively buying as much scrap as possible during the month of May. The extra tonnage being added to the early May tons are being purchased at higher prices. Prices are up as much as $10 to […]
Steel Market Update participated in the monthly galvanized steel conference call sponsored by HARDI for their wholesalers who supply sheet and coils to the HVAC mechanical contractors. The focus of the conference call is to discuss how the wholesalers see demand and market forces which impact galvanized steel supply and prices. This was the first […]
AM/NS Calvert will be producing Ultra High Tensile Strength Cold-rolled and Coated steel sheets with high formability by the end of 2016. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), which is a joint partner with ArcelorMittal in the Calvert operations, says the materials of up to 1.2 gigpascals (GPa) tensile strength will be used for […]
There are going to be two main themes which SMU and other steel periodicals will be writing about over the coming months (between now and our Steel Summit Conference at the beginning of September). The two themes are: anti-dumping suits on light flat rolled products and union contract negotiations between U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal USA […]
A quick reminder that this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend and Steel Market Update will not publish our Sunday evening issue. The next time we will publish will be on Tuesday evening (unless something happens which warrants your immediate attention). For those of you in the United States enjoy your Memorial Day Holiday Weekend with […]
An electrical fire Friday at ArcelorMittal Weirton in West Virginia sent eight employees to the hospital. A transformer at the Weirton strip steel operation malfunctioned causing adjacent electrical equipment to catch fire said ArcelorMittal spokesperson Mary Beth Holford. The fire was extinguished quickly and employees working the area were evacuated as a precaution. Several employees […]
Short comments this evening as I am attending the Metals Industry Dinner (Boy Scout Dinner) in Chicago. The sentiment within the room was mostly optimistic, although there were a number of conversations about April not being a great month or not meeting expectations. This would help explain some of the weakness seen in the MSCI […]
This week Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to Higher from Neutral. Based on our checks of the steel buying community, prices are beginning to firm and the $20 per ton price increase announced by a number of the steel mills appears to be sticking. SMU is of the opinion as long as […]
The domestic flat rolled steel mill lead times have begun to move out, according to the results from our flat rolled steel analysis questionnaire conducted this past week. We are seeing movement on all four products: hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume. Lead times had bottomed in January and February and we started to […]
ArcelorMittal’s NAFTA segment, and in particular the US, saw a collapse in steel prices in first quarter. High levels of imports, a strengthening dollar, and a weak energy segment created significant headwinds for the company that are expected to continue in 2015. CFO Aditya Mittal hinted in the earnings conference call that cuts may be […]
ArcelorMittal reported a net loss of $728 million in first quarter 2015 compared to a loss of $955 million in fourth quarter 2014. EBITDA was $1.4 billion. Steel shipments were up 3 percent year over year to 21.6 million tonnes. Iron ore shipments rose 5 percent to 9.4 million tonnes. Total sales for the company […]
The 2015 Association for Iron and Steel Technology Steelmaker of the Year Award was presented to Mario Longhi, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Steel Corp. at the AISTech 2015 conference in Cleveland, Ohio on May 5, 2015. The award recognizes the contributions of a prominent individual to the steel industry. Longhi was honored […]
Nucor, SSAB, and ArcelorMittal USA have petitioned the Department of Commerce to overturn a suspension trade deal that excuses Russian producers of cut-to-length (CTL) steel plate from paying import duties. The three steel mills said increasing exports of low-priced CTL steel plate to the U.S. is injuring the domestic industry. A suspension agreement signed in […]
Despite significant decreases in iron ore, steel, and metallurgical coal pricing, Cliffs Natural Resources, Inc. was able to achieve revenue of $446 million (excluding North American Coal) with adjusted EBITDA of $94 million. US iron ore shipments of 2.9 million tons were less than the 4 million anticipated, but in the US iron ore business […]
Late last week AK Steel announced a $20 per ton price increase which matches the original increase announcement out of ArcelorMittal. As the week ended, the big mill missing from the charge at higher prices was U.S. Steel. The only mill to stick its neck out there and put specific base price levels on their […]
Late on Monday, ArcelorMittal sales people began informing their customers by email of their intention to raise flat rolled steel prices by $20 per ton ($1.00/cwt). The increase was to be effective with orders taken for June production and beyond. In an email seen by Steel Market Update, ArcelorMittal explained their reasoning for taking prices […]
Late last week one of the smaller mills (North Star Bluescope) not known to cold rolled and galvanized buyers since they only produce hot rolled coils, began moving spot prices higher. One of NS customers advised us toward the end of the week that the mill was looking for $465 per ton ($23.25/cwt) for new […]
The domestic mills were beginning to make moves late last week to increase steel prices. Those efforts accelerated earlier today with the announcements out of ArcelorMittal USA (internal memo), Nucor (verbal & later in a letter to their customers), NLMK USA (letter to customers). These moves have, at least temporarily, halted the slide in flat […]
AK Steel earnings in first quarter were challenged by high levels of imported carbon steel products, said CEO James Wainscott. “The first quarter of 2015 was certainly more challenging than we anticipated. That because of the extremely high level of imported carbon steel products–unfairly traded imports, in our opinion–that hit our countries shores at the […]