West Chester, OH, August 22, 2016—AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) announced today it is launching NEXMET™, an innovative family of high strength steels for use in automotive lightweighting applications. These products are specifically designed to assist automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in meeting 2025 U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) targets. AK Steel’s NEXMET family of […]
As I wander around the industry talking to buyers and sellers of steel I am always asking and listening for the signs of change. These are “warnings” to my ears and I heard one earlier today that needs to be pursued further and I think we will have the opportunity to do so at our […]
At SMU we almost always use three month moving averages to mitigate situations like the dismal and not credible May job creation statistics. In the July report May was revised up slightly from 11,000 to 24,000 and June was revised up from 287,000 to 292,000. This week’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported […]
Ryerson Holding Corp, a leading metals distributor and processor, reported net income of $5.6 million for second quarter 2016. Sales of $739.8 million declined 12 percent year over year due to lower average selling price, but increased 5.3 percent from Q1. Tons shipped increased 3.5 percent. Ryerson expects manufacturing growth to remain slow in the […]
Steel Market Update speaks with dozens of companies on a daily basis and hundreds over the course of a week. We also receive a large number of emails, facebook and LinkedIn posts. Every so often we like to share some of the comments being made in an article we call “Bits ‘N Pieces.” We learned […]
PITTSBURGH, AUGUST 10, 2016 – Esmark Steel Group, one of the nation’s largest processors and distributors of flat-rolled steel, steel fabrication manufacturing and tinplate production, today announced that Michael Ogrizovich, currently President of Esmark Steel Group, has been named a Director to the company’s Board of Directors and been promoted to Vice Chairman of Mill […]
On Wednesday morning I received a couple of emails regarding our newsletter that I would like to share with our readers: “Your newsletter is solid. Lots of real information and educated analysis. Great job. See you soon in Atlanta. Best, Lourenco Goncalves” Mr. Goncalves is the CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources and he and I […]
NLMK USA flat steel product sales grew by 11 percent in second quarter 2016. Sales for the first half of 2016 were up 9 percent to 1 million tonnes (1.2 million net tons). One hundred percent of NLMK USA products are sold domestically to the processing, pipe, and automotive industries. North American sales for second […]
Olympic Steel announced net income of $3.6 million in the second quarter 2016, up substantially from the $22.3 million loss in Q2 2015. Consolidated net sales for the quarter were $273.6 million. Second quarter shipments of carbon flat products totaled 272,000 tons, up 2 percent from first quarter, and 2 percent below Q2 2015. Net […]
ArcelorMittal posted net income of $1.1 billion second quarter 2016 compared to a net loss of $400 million in first quarter. Second quarter EBITDA nearly doubled from first quarter due to higher steel selling prices and volumes. Crude steel production was 13.1 million tonnes with shipments of 22.1 million tonnes. Sales increased to $14.7 billion […]
Durable goods orders fell sharply in June to $9.3 billion or a seasonally adjusted 4.0 percent. Orders were down for the second month with transportation equipment leading the decrease. May’s estimate was revised downward to 2.8 percent. Demand was weaker in June for civilian aircraft and defense, which fell 58.8 percent, and 20.7 percent, respectively. […]
I have been receiving a large number of calls asking my opinion about steel prices and specifically can steel prices remain at the current levels for an extended period of time. The financial community is convinced that the numbers will come down over the next month to two months and that we will see mid […]
AK Steel reported net income of $17.3 million for second quarter 2016 compared to a net loss of $64.0 million a year ago. Net sales were 1.49 billion a decrease from $1.69 billion in in Q2 2015 as a result of lower automotive contract pricing as well as a decrease in shipments. Shipments totaled 1,555,500 […]
Light vehicle (LV) sales in June were 16.7 million units, down from 17.4 million in May and from 17.0 million in June last year. All sales numbers in this analysis are at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Figure 1 shows the auto and light truck components since January 2004. In June auto sales were 6.8 […]
SSAB Americas results in improve in second quarter due to higher volumes and prices. Sales were SEK 2.8 billion ($323 million) compared to SEK 2.4 billion ($277 million) in first quarter. Shipments improved 11 percent to 526,000 tonnes from 475,000 tonnes in Q1. The company reports good demand from steel service centers and the wind […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. reported net income rose 11.9 percent to $100.9 million in second quarter 2016. Sales of $2.20 billion were down 9.1 percent from a year ago but up from first quarter by 1.9 percent. Gregg Mollins, President and CEO of Reliance, said, “The metals pricing environment for carbon steel products was […]
Metalforming companies are expecting somewhat weaker business conditions during the next three months. The July survey by the Precision Metalforming Association showed only 22 percent of participants are expecting an improvement in conditions (down from 27 percent in June); those expecting no change remained relatively steady in July at 56 percent compared to 55 percent […]
Steel Dynamics announced second quarter 2016 net income of $142 million on net sales of $2.0 billion. In comparison, net sales in Q1 totaled $1.7 billion with net income of $63 million and year ago sales were $2.0 billion with adjusted net income of $53 million. A decline in imports of flat rolled steel and […]
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. has developed a new automotive steel that is 20-30 percent lighter and 25 percent stronger than any high-tensile steel now on the market. The highest tensile strength currently available is 1400 megapascals with the industry average around 1200 MPa. NSSMC’s new steel has a grade of 1470 MPa and […]
What impact will Brexit have on the U.S. steel industry? Not much, says Metal Miner authorities Lisa Reisman, CEO & Executive Editor and Stuart Burns, Editor at Large, during a webinar presented July 13. The exit of the UK from the European Union is not likely to impact ferrous prices said Reisman. Instead steel prices […]
PPG industries announced that it has completed its acquisition of MetoKote Corporation and its affiliates. MetoKote is a U.S.-based coatings services business with 2015 global sales of approximately $200 million. The transaction closed on July 1 for an undisclosed sum. MetoKote is headquartered in Lima, Ohio, and has more than 1,500 employees. MetoKote applies coatings […]
The statement of Erica L. Groshe Commissioner Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released on Friday morning reads as though the increase in net non-farm employment of 287,000 in June was a fact as was the downwardly revised May number of 11,000. We at SMU don’t believe the May result has any credibility which is particularly […]
Flat rolled steel industry participants continue to be optimistic about the markets, according to the recent flat rolled market trends analysis conducted by Steel Market Update. However, we are seeing a slightly less optimistic trend for this time of year compared to what we were reporting at the same point in time in 2014 and […]
Despite a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase in June, U.S. automotive sales were slower than the 4.0 percent expected by most analysts. WardsAuto reports sales totaled 1.5 million units last month but the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 16.6 million units, well below the 17.0 million in June 2015 and at the slowest sales pace of […]
We purposely did not begin this article on where our sources are seeing ferrous scrap prices with an attention grabbing headline as we think readers would be confused. The confusion comes from the pressure the domestic steel mills are expected to put on obsolete grades, like shredded scrap and HMS (heavy melt scrap). Those of […]
Light vehicle (LV) sales in May were 17.5 million units, about the same as April but down from 17.8 million in May last year. All sales numbers in this analysis are at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Figure 1 shows the auto and light truck components since January 2004. In May, auto sales were the […]
One of the articles in this evening’s issue of Steel Market Update is based on questions being asked during a conversation we had with a number of steel executives in New York City last week. About one quarter of our articles are prompted by questions or comments we receive from buyers and sellers of steel […]
Nucor Corporation says flat rolled-trade cases are having a positive impact on reducing steel imports. The expectation is that final determinations in all three flat rolled cases will result in higher duties than currently being collected from the preliminary decisions. Second quarter results are expected to be significantly improved from first quarter due to higher […]
Here are some of the comments made to SMU over the past few days both in New York City and upon our return to our offices. Regarding scrap prices, one of our sources was telling us that the domestic steel mills are making a mistake by attempting to push ferrous scrap prices lower, especially when […]
ArcelorMittal is set to expand its portfolio of automotive steels by launching two new products in 2017, Usibor®2000 and Ductibor®1000. According to a spokesperson at ArcelorMittal , Usibor® 2000, which has been under development for some time, is a new Aluminum-Silicon coated high strength steel that will be even stronger than its predecessor Usibor® 1500. […]