The new year is off to a great start, and there’s still time to register for the Tampa Steel Conference as you make your travel plans for 2023. The event will be at the Tampa Marriott Water Street hotel again, so mark your calendar for Sunday-Tuesday, Feb. 5-7. Nearly 300 of you have registered already. We’re on track […]
At the start of each year, CRU continues to feature top expectations and outliers for the year ahead. This annual list of expectations is a thought piece, meant to stimulate internal discussions, scenario analysis, and strategic planning around potential risks to the markets we cover. This 2023 edition covers six expectations and three potential outliers. […]
With 2022 now in the past, the door has closed on one of the most volatile years for the aluminum industry. Supply chain disruptions as a residual fallout from Covid-19 and elevated levels of geopolitical risk raised uncertainty throughout the value chain. The shift in import trends has also been a major topic and is […]
This is the final Final Thoughts of 2022. We made it! This time last year I was talking to customers about processing orders. This year I’m writing about market tends. So things are a bit different. But I still notice the steel industry’s typical holiday lull. This week we saw that consumer confidence increased, the USW […]
The US economy’s growth was even better than expected in the third quarter, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said in its third and final review. Gross Domestic Production (GDP) accelerated to a 3.2% annualized pace in Q3. That’s an improvement from the previously estimated government reading in November, which showed 2.9% […]
In our column of Nov. 4, we updated you on the progress that Novelis and Steel Dynamics (SDI) were making on executing on their planned two mills. Since that time, nothing has really changed. That perhaps is profound in and of itself, in that we have nothing new to tell you about the status of […]
Worthington Industries is building cash to strengthen its balance sheet as it prepares to move its Steel Processing segment into a separate business. The Columbus, Ohio-based company said it had had $129.6 million of cash at the end of its fiscal second 2023 quarter ended Nov. 30, an increase of $95.1 million from May 31, […]
Nucor plans to build a new, $370-million continuous galvanizing line at California Steel Industries (CSI) to serve construction markets in the western US. The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker said the galv line would have annual capacity of 400,000 tons per year (tpy), and would increase CSI’s total hot-dip galvanizing capacity to 1.2 million tpy. The project […]
Donald Trump has been out of office for nearly two years. But some of his most unsustainable policies live on. Hostility to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is one. Tariffs that violate the rules of global trade is another. Immigration policy is a third. Trade is one of the most remarkable. Smart and experienced people are saying things […]
Monthly Key Market Indicators (KMI) deteriorated over the past month after steadily improving since July, while steel buyer sentiment inched up after it had tumbled to a 26-month low, according to the latest analysis by Steel Market Update. Positive and neutral indicators have eased, while negative indicators rose. Despite recent improvements, headwinds remain. The economy […]
Producer prices grew more than expected in November, thwarting hopes that inflation could be easing, the US Labor Department reported. Last month’s Producer Price Index (PPI), a measure of the prices received for final-demand products, advanced 0.3% month-on-month (MoM) and 7.4% from a year ago, the smallest annual gain since May 2021, according to data […]
US Steel said hot commissioning is underway, and the first small batch of pig iron was cast at its Gary Works in northwest Indiana. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said it has cast several full ladles of hot iron and produced over 1,000 tons of pig iron. This occurred months ahead of schedule, while maintaining a perfect […]
Steel sheet prices have bottomed or soon will, according to most respondents to our latest market survey. We’ve also seen an uptick in expectations about future prices. The chart below provides a quick before/after snapshot of expectations for prices ahead of Thanksgiving and then following price hikes of $60 per ton ($3 per cwt) announced […]
Commercial Metals Co. (CMC) has selected Berkeley County, W.Va., as the site of its fourth rebar micro mill. The project, budgeted at approximately $450 million net of incentives, is expected to have an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons, and employ about 230 fulltime employees, the company said in a statement. This micro mill will […]
The US economy added 263,000 new jobs in November, again outperforming consensus expectations but slightly decreasing from October’s upwardly revised 284,000, according to data from the US Department of Labor. November’s job growth was much better than expected despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive efforts to slow the labor market and tackle inflation. The jobless rate […]
In this Global Economic Outlook, we look ahead to 2023 and outline our top ten calls for the global economy. These include predictions on inflation, the war in Ukraine, electric vehicles and Covid-19 in China. No. 1: Global Growth Will Slow From 2022 We expect both the US and Europe to experience recessions over the […]
The US labor market added 263,000 jobs in November, down from an upwardly revised total of 284,000 payroll gains the month prior. Last month’s total, although better than expected, still marked the slowest pace of job gains since April 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The unemployment rate held steady […]
The construction industry added 20,000 employees in November month over month, after adding just 1,000 in October. A boost in wages for hourly workers vs. competing industries drove the sector’s unemployment rate lower, the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) said in a statement. The struggle to locate qualified workers continued, though, the report, released […]
Total construction spending declined in October driven by widespread decreases in most major categories, reported the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) on recent government data. While residential, commercial, highway, and manufacturing outlays fell during the month, contractors’ struggles to complete projects remain impacted by the lack of laborers. Open positions at the end of […]
2022: A Year of Unprecedented Change and Volatility We entered 2022 expecting plenty of change in aluminum and the market delivered more than its fair share of twists and turns. There were 3 macroeconomic effects that rippled through the entire global economy: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global energy prices soaring, as they “weaponized” their […]
Wolfe Research managing director Timna Tanners joined SMU for an Community Chat on Wednesday to talk about her forecast for 2023, including the calm before the sheet storm. Tanners is bullish about the first half next year. She forecast HRC prices would average $775 per ton ($38.75 per cwt) in Q1 2023, dip to $750 per ton […]
Cleveland-Cliffs is in the process of restarting the No. 7 blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago, Ind. “All good with the re-start procedure that is ongoing,” a company spokeswoman said in an email to Steel Market Update on Friday, Dec. 2. The Cleveland-based steelmaker said that there had been a […]
ArcelorMittal US has announced new, higher sheet prices with the opening of its 2023 order books. The company said it has also rolled out new grade extras, which will take effect on Jan 1., to reflect higher alloy costs. The price increases effectively apply to AM/NS Calvert, the Alabama mill jointly owned by Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor Michael D’Angelo is a researcher and trader at Marex. In his role, Mike performs fundamental and quantitative analysis, which directly leads to actionable trading/risk management strategies across the base, precious, and ferrous metals derivative spaces. Prior to joining Marex, Mike received a BA in economics with a minor in finance from Princeton […]
Nearly three-quarters of US metro areas added construction jobs year-over-year (YoY) through October, according to Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) figures. Despite the employment boost, job vacancies outpaced hiring as construction firms struggled to find enough qualified workers to hire, the report said. Construction employment increased in 268, or 75%, of 358 metro areas […]
The US economy’s growth was stronger than expected in the third quarter, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said in its latest report. Gross Domestic Production (GDP) accelerated to a 2.9% annualized pace in Q3. That’s an improvement from the initial government reading in October which showed 2.6% growth in economic activity. […]
Cleveland-Cliffs expects to resume operations this week on the No. 7 blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago, Ind., after a small fire, a company spokeswoman confirmed. The fire occurred over the weekend and at the beginning of a three-day planned maintenance outage, she told Steel Market Update on Monday, Nov. […]
Demand for design services from US architectural firms declined in October. The drop came after the pace of growth had slowed in recent months. The October AIA Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score slipped below 50, ending a 20-month run of growth following the pandemic-induced downturn in 2020. Recall that the ABI is an advanced economic indicator for nonresidential […]
Rumors of a holiday-season price increase continue to ping pong around the market. Will mills announce one on Wednesday ahead of Thanksgiving, in early/mid-December, or not until early next year? Let’s leave the timing aside for a moment and consider why those rumors have been so persistent. On the spot market side, we’ve seen some […]
As steel volumes continue to grow, the Port of Hamilton, Ontario, is receiving funding from the Canadian government to increase its steel handling productivity. Canada’s National Trade Corridors Fund is providing CAD $4.9 million (US $3.65 million) in funding to relieve supply chain congestion at the port. The waterway is a critical piece of infrastructure […]