Tag: Automotive Production

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. continued to lose money in the first quarter, with the steelmaker blaming the loss in part on the idling of its tinplate facility in Weirton, W.Va.

North American auto assemblies ticked up in March vs. the prior month, according to LMC Automotive data. While assemblies were up month on month (m/m), they are down 4.5% year on year (y/y).

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. “To govern is to choose.” Those words, reportedly first uttered by the late French Premier Pierre Mendes-France in the 1950s, resonate vividly in our time. It means that choices have consequences and that priorities must be set based on goals. Interested parties, in and out of government, raise their voices in […]

Falling steel prices at present are not a symptom of demand but of imports arriving into the US and to some parts of Mexico, Ternium’s CEO Maximo Vedoya said this week.

Canada’s Unifor, which represents union-represented auto workers there, has opened negotiations with automaker Stellantis.

With solid demand and attractive margins, the North American market has been helping to prop up CMC’s results as its European operations struggle with weaker demand amid challenging market conditions.

Sheet prices declined less than usual this week. Does that mean we’re nearing a bottom, or is it just a pause before the market moves lower yet again?

Ford of Canada union workers represented by Unifor ratified a new, three-year labor agreement on Sunday.

A big "thank you" to Wolfe Research and Timna Tanners for organizing a lunch in today in Chicago with a group of steel industry participants and investors.

Sheet prices fell again this week, this time not on fears of a United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike but on the actual thing.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) and Mercedes-Benz have signed an agreement for the automaker to source 50,000 metric tons of C02-reduced steel for its plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

A Stellantis executive detailed today the progress the automaker is making with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union as a “good path” ahead of Thursday’s contract deadline.

The United Autoworkers (UAW) union said Friday its strike authorization vote passed “with near universal approval” from its members at the Detroit 3 automakers.

Ford Motor is getting white-collar workers ready to do blue-collar jobs at parts depots in the event of a strike, according to an article in The Detroit Free Press on Thursday.

Canadian union Unifor kicked off negotiations with the Detroit 3 automakers today, with its president saying the “talks will be the most consequential and closely watched in decades.”

General Motors (GM) has raised its full-year earnings guidance, but this depends on the outcome of its labor negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union in the US and Unifor in Canada.

Hot-rolled coil prices remain rangebound between roughly $850-900 per ton ($42.50-45 per cwt), according to our latest market check. You could say that’s not news. Our HRC index settled at $870 per ton on Tuesday afternoon. A week-over-week decline of $20 per ton from $890 last week might be little more than noise. You’d want to […]

Hot-rolled coil prices remain rangebound between roughly $850-900 per ton ($42.50-45 per cwt), according to our latest market check. You could say that’s not news. Our HRC index settled at $870 per ton on Tuesday afternoon. A week-over-week decline of $20 per ton from $890 last week might be little more than noise. You’d want to […]

What’s perhaps most shocking about Cleveland-Cliffs starting the week up $100 per ton ($5 per cwt) on sheet and targeting $1,200 per ton for hot-rolled coil (HRC) is that many of you didn’t find it shocking. In early February, we got used to prices going up by $50 per ton from one week to the […]

Economic conditions are still iffy at best. Housing data continues to suffer with new home sales plunging and inventory reaching the highest it has been since 2009. The Richmond and Kansas City Fed manufacturing indexes both plunged in July as well. The Richmond Fed’s manufacturing skill availability index, which indicates the demand for skilled labor […]

US Steel is trying to keep a stiff upper lip despite lower flat-rolled steel selling prices, continued supply chain problems, and an uneven economic outlook. “Let’s face it. There’s a lot of uncertainty. Some people say more uncertainty than ever before,” company president and CEO David Burritt said. “I’m not so sure that’s true. But […]

US light vehicle (LV) sales rose to 1.13 million units in June, up 1.8% from 1.11 million units in May. But LV sales in the US fell by 12.6% year-on-year (YoY), the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported. The YoY decline would have been steeper if it weren’t for the fact that sales were […]

By CRU Senior China Economist Henry Hao, from CRU’s Global Economic Outlook and China Macro Monthly In May, overall economic activity in China has improved marginally as the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions led to the resumption of production in late May. Export and infrastructure investment have regained momentum. However, prospects for construction remain weak. While the contraction […]

US light vehicle sales fell to 1.11 million units in May, down 11.2% from 1.25 million units in April. LV sales in the US shrank by 29.2% year-on-year (YoY). The annualized selling rate fell to 12.68 million units last month from 14.50 million units in April, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported. The […]

US light vehicle sales fell to 1.25 million units in April, down 18.2% year on year (YoY). The annualized selling rate rose to 14.29 million units from 13.41 million units, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported. Interest rates are rising. But what’s holding sales back is supply rather than demand, disrupting normal seasonality. The […]

North American auto assemblies grew by 18.1% in March, expanding for the third straight month despite ongoing supply hurdles. Though North American production has improved since last December, March’s recovery was just 1% higher year on year. And it’s still 13.5% below the pre-pandemic period of March 2019. At the onset of 2022, the global auto […]

US light vehicle sales fell to 1.26 million units in March, down 22% year on year. The annualized selling rate declined to 13.332 million units from 14.071 million units the month prior, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported. Interest rates are rising. But that’s probably not what’s holding sales back. It is supply rather […]

North American auto assemblies grew by 8.0% in February, expanding for the second straight month despite ongoing supply hurdles. Though last month’s production was 2.2% higher year on year, it was 21.1% below the same pre-pandemic period in 2020. Despite February’s production gains, the industry was met with strong supply-related headwinds. The ongoing supply-chain and […]

Toyota Motor Corp. will suspend Japanese automotive production on Tuesday, Mar. 1, because of a system failure at a supplier of plastic parts and electronic components, a company spokeswoman confirmed to Steel Market Update (SMU). Kojima Industries Corp, the supplier in question, said the complete system failure might be the result of a cyber-attack. An investigation […]

Editor’s note: SMU contributor Bryan Tice is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and the firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. Before joining Metal Edge Partners, Bryan held a variety of commercial […]