SSAB Americas felt the effects of the winter freeze in the first quarter of 2014. Sales for the Americas segment were SEK 3,685 million ($559 million), down 2 percent from fourth quarter 2013 but 7 percent higher than Q1 2013. Higher prices and a favorable product mix were offset by lower volumes. External steel shipments […]
SMU has been hearing anecdotal reports about difficulties with finding truck transport as companies try to catch up on winter weather delayed orders. The MID-SHIP Report has been reporting for months that truck availability is at a premium, mostly due to a shortage of drivers. Comments we have been hearing range from product sitting on […]
Nucor announced consolidated net earnings of $111 million for first quarter 2014, up from $84.8 million a year ago but down from $170.5 million in the previous quarter. Net sales were up 12 percent to $5.11 billion year over year and 4 percent from fourth quarter 2013. Tons shipped to outside customers increased 8 percent […]
Steel Market Update is a member of an association connected to the construction industry called HARDI. HARDI stands for Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International. HARDI and The Institute for Trend Research (ITR), an economic forecasting company, work together to gather economic data to provide a forecast to the HARDI members located in the United […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum, the largest metals service center in the United States, announced earnings earlier today. The company reported net income of $87.2 on sales totaling $2.09 billion. Sales included the recent acquisitions of Metals USA and Haskins Steel. The company reported an 8.4 percent improvement in same store sales over the same quarter […]
This seems to be a week of disappointing economic indicators. The Architecture Billings Index turned negative this month after climbing up from a reading of 48.6 in December. The March reading was just 48.8, down from 50.7 in February and 50.4 in January. The American Institute of Architects Architecture Billings Index, an indicator of future […]
Caterpillar reported that, excluding restructuring costs, earnings were flat in first quarter compared to first quarter 2013. Sales and revenues totaled $13.241 billion. North American sales for Machinery, Energy & Transportation were up 16 percent year over year to $5,219 million in the first quarter of 2014. Construction industry sales were up 36 percent to […]
Sales of new residential homes and sales of existing homes were both released this week. Sales of new single family homes continued to soften reaching the lowest level in eight months. March sales came to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, down 14.5 percent from the revised February rate of 449,000 and 13.3 […]
The enormous undertaking by the US and Canadian Coast Guard to clear the Great Lakes of ice this year underscores the need for passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). Over 200 million tons of cargo, including iron ore and coal for steel mills, are shipped every year through the Great Lakes, according to […]
AK Steel CEO James Wainscott, in the company’s earnings conference call with analysts, reported that their blast furnaces were running at reduced capacities due to the ice problems on the Great Lakes. US Steel has been upfront by reporting their Gary Works steelmaking operations are running at less than capacity as they struggle to get […]
Steel Market Update is a member of an association connected to the construction industry called HARDI. HARDI stands for Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International. HARDI and The Institute for Trend Research (ITR), an economic forecasting company, work together to gather economic data to provide a forecast to the HARDI members located in the United […]
Will 2014 be a breakthrough year for construction? That was the premise of a webinar presented by Reed Construction Data paneled by Bernie Markstein, US chief economist at Reed Construction Data; Kermit Baker, chief economist at the American Institute of Architects (AIA); and Ken Simonson, chief economist at Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). The […]
Northwest Pipe was selected to provide 108-inch diameter pipe for a Texas water project. The 81,958 feet of pipe translates into 23,000 tons of hot rolled substrate with production slated to begin as early as May 2014 according to SMU sources. VANCOUVER, WA – Northwest Pipe Company, an industry leader of engineered welded steel pipe […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index reached new highs this week. Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel were the most optimistic we have seen since SMU first began measuring Sentiment in October 2008. Our Sentiment Index was measured at +58 which is up 15 points since early April and exceeded the previous […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments in March rose by 283,700 tons to 3.515 million tons, more than making up for the February decline. Shipping days increased from 20 in February to 21 in March. Tons per day (t/d) shipments rose from 161,600 tons in February to 167,400 in March, both on a non-seasonally adjusted […]
Severe winter conditions negatively impacted Steel Dynamic’s first quarter earnings causing a 25 percent drop in consolidated operating income as compared to the previous quarter. SDI reported net income of $39 million for first quarter 2014, on net sales of $1.8 billion, down from $55 million on net sales of $1.9 billion Q4 2013. Steel […]
We were somewhat in disbelief when we analyzed the March housing data this week but on checking the formulas in our spread sheets it appears that our first impression was correct. Table 1 shows building permits and housing starts data for Q1 2014 compared to Q1 2013. Total construction starts were down by 3.6 percent […]
All of the current production issues are relegated to the northern fully integrated steel mills. One of our service center contacts laid out the production scenario and how it is impacting the other northern steel producers: “The Great Lakes outage, and then accident during repair, and the Gary reduction in output is the important factor […]
The following article is one that we would normally just provide to our Premium Level members. We thought that those who have Executive level members would be interested in some of the detail we are providing our Premium Level members. If you have questions about Premium Level membership please feel free to contact our offices: […]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch gave their quarterly global steel outlook on April 8. BofAML predicts demand for finished steel in China will grow 4.4 percent in 2014. Chinese crude steel production is expected to increase 4.6 to 815 million tons. The outlook is for a trend of slowing but positive growth. Despite mill closings […]
This week was a tough one to figure out where transaction prices actually are at this moment in time. What makes it challenging is mill offers appear to be firm from mill to mill with very little wiggle room at this moment. The second issue making things tough to evaluate pricing is we had a […]
Building permits authorizations for construction of single and multi-family dwellings in Canada fell 23.8 percent in February and 0.6 percent year over year, according to data by Statistics Canada. Total permits were 14,011 units compared with 18,398 in January and 15,650 in December. Multi-family authorizations fell sharply during the month to 8,289 units, plummeting 29.3 […]
The Senate Finance Committee passed a bill on Thursday that would restore key tax credits for the wind industry. The renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit were included in the Committee’s final tax extender package after the PTC was passed over in the first draft. Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) sponsored the […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its construction put in place (CPIP) data on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. February data was released on April 1st. Total Construction: February expenditures were $63.369 billion which breaks down to $46.647 B of private work, $14.945 B state and locally financed and $1.777 B […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on non-farm employment came close to expectations in March with a net gain of 192,000 jobs. In addition January and February were revised up by 15,000 and 22,000 respectively. The three month moving average, (3MMA) rose to 178,000 after declining for three straight months (Figure 1). The growth […]
Steel Market Update received the following “Letter to the Editor” from the West Coast: Here is my view of the flat rolled market. Just my opinion of the state of the industry. You may or may not agree but these are points I think customers should carefully consider: We are seeing a long term shift […]
The situation at US Steel Great Lakes, and now Gary Works, has not bridled the enthusiasm which has been growing within the flat rolled steel markets. We are seeing buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continuing to be optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in both today’s market as well as three […]
The month of March proved to be an interesting month for the flat rolled steel industry and related commodities associated with the industry, both within North America and around the world. The biggest news was the move by the domestic mills to raise flat rolled steel prices. ArcelorMittal led the way on March 17th when […]
The word out of U.S. Steel has been silence since they reported a collection pipe (collector main) falling onto and collapsing part of the roof over their #2 BOP Shop at Great Lakes Works on Thursday evening. Our understanding continues to be that all three blast furnaces are in hot idle (not producing pig iron) […]
The following article was written by contributing writer David Phelps. Mr. Phelps is recently retired from his duties as the Director of the American Institute for International Steel. In that capacity he had occasion to interact with the domestic steel mills. The following article contains the viewpoint of Mr. Phelps regarding Big River Steel and […]