The Architecture Billings Index slipped below the neutral point in August indicating a decrease in construction design planning. The August ABI score registered 49.1, down from 54.7 in July. The new projects inquiry index dropped to 61.8, down from 63.7. The slip is “not a cause for concern” according to AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker: […]
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 […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. anticipates improved profitability in third quarter from modestly increased margins that were offset by slightly lower shipments. Earnings will be higher than second quarter which was impacted by the closing of the Minnesota Iron operations and a planned maintenance outage at Iron Dynamics. SDI expects overall average product pricing to be flat […]
Based on Steel Market Update (SMU) analysis of the recently released MSCI service center inventory and shipment data, total service center carbon steel shipments decreased by 126,600 tons in August to 3.160 million tons. Shipping days at 21, were down one from July. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments increased from 149,400 tons […]
Total housing starts in August were at an annual rate of 1,126,000 which was the third best since October 2007. In August, the three month moving average (3MMA) was 1,166,000 which was the best result since December 2007. Total starts are still on track to reach 1.6 million units annualized by the end of 2018 […]
Nucor guidance for third quarter 2015 beat analyst estimates. Results are expected to be in the range of $0.45 to $0.50 per diluted share, up from $0.39 in second quarter but a decrease from 2014 Q3 earnings of $0.76 per diluted share. Nucor said margins have benefited from lower inventory costs in third quarter. The […]
Steel Dynamics announced expansion of its product offerings through the purchase of steel decking facilities from Consolidated Systems, Inc. The facilities and net working capital of approximately $30 million was purchased by SDI for $45 million and will become part of New Millennium Building Systems, LLC, a wholly owned fabrications operations subsidiary. Mark Millett, President […]
Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out its series of producer price indexes, for thousands of goods and materials. For an explanation of this program see the end of this piece. The latest release last Friday reported results through August. We run this analysis every three or four months to give readers […]
This report compares domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market. It quantifies market direction by product and enables a side by side comparison showing the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce with analysis by SMU. Table 1 shows both […]
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 […]
Construction firms are finding it increasingly difficult to find qualified craft workers, according to a new report by the Associated General Contractors of America. More than 2 million construction workers were laid off in the 2008 recession with many of those never returning to the industry. In a survey of 1,358 construction firms, 86 percent […]
Planning for nonresidential construction increased in August according to the Dodge Momentum Index by Dodge Data & Analytics. The Index rose 2.8 percent from July to register 128.3. The Momentum Index is a monthly measure of the first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) analysis of non-farm employment reported on Friday that 173,000 jobs were added in August which was slightly below Moody’s Analytics expectation. The number will likely be revised upward in subsequent months. June and July payrolls were revised higher by a combined 44,000. The unemployment rate, calculated from a different […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. July data was released on Tuesday September 1st. Construction Put in Place is based on spending work as it occurs, estimated for a given month from a sample of projects. In […]
Earlier this week, Steel Market Update hosted our 5th Steel Summit Conference. We had a record crowd in attendance tipping the scales at close to 300 people. We had 26 speakers over the course of the two day conference (including Peter Wright and John Packard of SMU) and, from our perspective, the longer term forecast […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to remain optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market conditions. However, we have seen a weakening of that position especially when we look at the numbers based on a 3-month moving average. The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index measures how flat rolled […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in this analysis is currently 36. Please refer to Table 1 for the view of the present situation and the quantitative measure of trends. Readers should […]
Steel buyers continue to report flat rolled steel prices as being stagnate (or stable) and our steel ranges remained the same on all but galvanized (which was influenced by data coming from light gauge construction products market segments). Our Price Momentum Indicator continues to be pointing to a sideways pricing trend with a slight “negative” […]
The following is the Chicago Federal Reserve statement followed by our own graphical analysis. The CFNAI is an excellent reality check for much of the economic analysis that we routinely provide in The Steel Market Update and is also a reasonably good predictor of steel demand with a six to nine month lead. For example […]
Big River Steel announced a series of leadership appointments today following the unexpected death earlier this week of CEO John Correnti. Dan Murray, a member of the board, was appointed as chairman of the board of directors. Jim Bell, construction manager at Big River Steel, was elected to the board of directors. Dave Stickler, […]
Not much new activity to report for metalforming companies. The August 2015 Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report showed members expect little change in business conditions for the next three months. Overall economic activity is expected to be slightly better with 26 percent predicting an increase in activity, up from 18 percent in July. […]
The Architecture Billings Index for July slipped slightly to 54.7 from 55.7 in June but still reflects strong and continuing demand for design services for nonresidential construction. Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings for design services. The new projects inquiry index was 63.7 in July, up from 63.4 the previous month. “On […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. This month we have revised our data back through 1994 to account for massive revisions to the G17 data. Incidentally this is why many analysts question government data out of China who never revise their historical information. The US sometimes revises data […]
A huge hole has been made in the heart the US steel industry. Big River Steel CEO John Correnti died this morning while on an out-of-town business trip. John Correnti, 68, was no stranger to the development of steel mills. His plan to build the mini-mill in Osceola, Ark. was backed by almost 50 years […]
Big River Steel CEO John Correnti died this morning. He was found dead while on an out-of-town business trip. John Correnti was the driving force behind Big River Steel, the new flat rolled mini-mill under construction in Arkansas. Prior to Big River Steel he oversaw the construction of the SeverCorr steel mill in Columbus, Mississippi […]
Steel Market Update publisher, John Packard, participated in the monthly galvanized steel conference call held by HARDI for their wholesalers and other HARDI member companies. The wholesalers supply galvanized steel sheet and coil to the mechanical contractors who are involved in the residential and commercial HVAC markets. The group discussed a number of key market […]
Sales of new single-family houses in June 2015 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 482,000, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 6.8 percent below the revised May rate of 517,000, but is 18.1 percent above the June 2014 estimate […]
SMU requested a comment from the president of Steelscape regarding the challenges the mill will face if their parent companies’ supply of hot rolled coil is potentially cut off. We received the following note regarding their sources of supply which are named in the hot rolled antidumping and countervailing duty petition filed last week: “I […]
I was speaking with the owner of a manufacturing company late last week. He told me his company had a number of union plants and he has negotiated a number of union contracts over the past few years. “People don’t strike anymore,” he said, “unless someone puts a line in the sand and forces the […]
On Tuesday six steel mills located east of the Rocky Mountains filed an antidumping and countervailing duty petition against seven countries: Australia, Brazil, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. What makes this suit of particular interest to those on the West Coast USA is the source supply for two […]