About 72 percent of the service center and OEM executives polled by Steel Market Update this week said they expect the economy in 2021 to be better than 2020. The other 28 percent was evenly split between those who expect more of the same and those who see next year being even worse. No surprise, […]
Steel Market Update’s service center inventories data for September shows supplies on hand at very low levels. At the same time, the percentage of inventory on order is at very high levels. That suggests, say some observers, that some service centers may have waited too long to replenish their inventories, then did some panic buying […]
Lead times for hot rolled steel now average longer than six weeks, and coated steel orders longer than eight weeks, as the mills remain busy in a market adjusting to business in a pandemic. Lead times are an indicator of steel demand—longer lead times indicate the mills have more orders to process and are less […]
Resilient construction demand enabled Commercial Metals Company to weather the COVID-19 crisis without disruption to productivity. CMC’s fourth-quarter FY 2020 earnings totaled $67.8 million, a 6.5 percent increase from the third quarter. Consolidated net sales totaled $1.4 billion, with sequential increases in both the North America and Europe segments. Net sales for the year reached […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary The U.S. economy saw an impressive overall rebound through Q3, following severe Covid-19 disruption in Q2. We estimate that U.S. industrial production contracted 7.5% y/y in Q3, following a decline of 14.4% y/y in Q2. However, the momentum of the recovery is slowing as fiscal stimulus and the effects […]
By CRU Multi-Commodity Analysts Zanna Aleksahhina and Will Young Over the summer and into Q3 2020 commodity prices staged a remarkable recovery from Q2 lows and in October many prices are comfortably above where they started the year. Given that the major economies are still struggling to control the spread of Covid-19, underlying demand is […]
By CRU Economist Anissa Chabib, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service 2020 has seen an unusual recession that was brought on by a pandemic. To match this, the shape of the recovery is likely to be equally unusual. The U.S. recovery is starting to lose momentum, with more slowing to come in 2021. Large uncertainties lie […]
Nearly three out of four (72 percent) of the service center and OEM executives responding to Steel Market Update’s questionnaire last week said they feel upbeat about their company’s prospects in the fourth quarter. Yet SMU received twice as many negative comments as positive ones. Clearly, even the optimists are concerned about COVID and the […]
The Cleveland-Cliffs/ArcelorMittal merger may throw a curve at the Steelmageddon theory, said Bank of America steel analyst Timna Tanners during Wednesday’s Steel Market Update Community Chat Webinar. The Cliffs/AM combination includes two mills that are more than 100 years old and another that is 50 years old. A move by Cliffs to permanently close some older blast […]
Nonresidential construction projects in planning rose in September. The Dodge Momentum Index gained 3.7 percent, climbing to 130.8 last month. Planning for commercial projects jumped 3.9 percent, while institutional projects moved 3.2 percent higher. The index has increased at a slow and steady pace since its low point in June, gaining 2.2 percent in the […]
The tightness of the flat rolled steel market, and when that tightness might dissipate, are topics being actively discussed within the industry. Lead times are already into January at some mills, slabs are limited to the converters who were buying from Brazil, maintenance schedules are pushing lead times, and demand is up whether from rising […]
By CRU China CEO John Johnson and CRU Senior Consultant Ashley Wang from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor On Sept. 22, in a statement to the United Nations General Assembly, President Xi Jinping announced to world leaders that China “aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060”. The part of this statement concerning CO2 was brief […]
By CRU Principal Analyst James Campbell from CRU’s Long Products Monitor Global long product prices increased in many markets this month as strengthening demand combined with higher costs and for some products in particular. Strength was not uniform however; prices were weaker in Southeast Asia and China, the latter due to weaker sentiment following lower […]
Swedish initiative HYBRIT has received $2.5 million from the Swedish Energy Agency for a comprehensive study of steelmaking using hydrogen for the direct-reduction of iron ore. HYBRIT is a collaboration of steelmaker SSAB, iron ore producer LKAB, and electricity producer Vattenfall. HYBRIT seeks to replace coking coal used in ore-based steel making with hydrogen to create steel with […]
Industry sentiment, as measured by Steel Market Update, has seen little change in the past month, but has stabilized at relatively healthy levels. Every two weeks, SMU asks steel buyers how they view their company’s chances for success in the current environment. The Current Sentiment reading was unchanged at +56 this week. Compared with the […]
Steel prices continued their upward trajectory in September as demand rose further and mills announced more increases on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized products. Steel Market Update’s hot rolled price averaged $568 per ton in September, an increase of more than $100 month/month, and has since topped the $600 mark. Average prices for prime […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Chris Asgill, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service China has banned steel scrap imports for the past year as part of its solid waste management policies that affect imports on a wide range of metal scrap and plastic waste. Recently, policymakers announced that a review on these policies will be sped […]
Construction spending rose 1.4 percent in August primarily due to a robust residential construction sector, said the Associated General Contractors of America. AGC cautioned that without federal support, nonresidential construction will continue to stagnate. “The August spending report shows a stark divide between housing and nonresidential markets that appears likely to widen over the coming […]
Construction jobs in metro areas fell by two-thirds from August 2019 to August 2020, said the Associated General Contractors of America in their latest analysis of government data. Construction employment decreased in 241, or 67 percent, of 358 metro areas during the period. “Although residential construction is picking up in many areas, public and nonresidential […]
Cleveland-Cliffs is about to become the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America. The company announced Monday that it will acquire the operations of ArcelorMittal USA and its subsidiaries for a purchase price of approximately $1.4 billion in equity and cash. The transaction includes 78.2 million shares of Cleveland-Cliffs common stock valued at $500 million, […]
Cleveland-Cliffs is about to become the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America. The company announced Monday that it will acquire all of the operations of ArcelorMittal USA and its subsidiaries for a purchase price of approximately $1.4 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020. The ArcelorMittal assets include […]
From one of our SMU readers to John Packard, President & CEO of Steel Market Update, “Welcome back… Regarding steel, wow. What a difference a month (or, a month and half) makes!” A second reader told us, “Market pricing and lead-times have moved aggressively…and rapidly. Many are finding themselves too late to the party.” It […]
Steel Market Update has had conversations/communications with Robert Miller, CEO and James Banker, Jr., Executive Vice President of NLMK USA as we endeavor to learn more about the status of the strike against the Farrell, Pennsylvania facility, status of slabs for the Farrell mill, and gain a better understanding of the general flat rolled steel […]
Strong demand in auto, residential construction and consumer products benefited Worthington Industries in the first quarter of FY 2021. The company reported net sales of $702.9 million, an 18 percent decline from the first quarter of FY 2020. Net earnings totaled $616.7 million which included a net pre-tax gain of $746.6 million related to Worthington’s […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary and found in CRU’s Zinc Monitor US steel mills have reportedly been taking more refined zinc over the past few weeks and the outlook for Q4 is looking slightly more positive according to market contacts. There have been suggestions that the uptick in spot demand from mills could be […]
The Architecture Billings Index remained stuck at a score of 40 for the third consecutive month in August, indicating a prolonged decline in billing activity at architecture firms. The new project inquiries index provided a glimmer of optimism, rising for the first time since February to a positive score of 51.5. The value of new […]
Wholesalers who sell HVAC and galvanized steel products to the construction sector have been pleasantly surprised by the resilience of demand in a market dealing with the COVID pandemic. They have been downright shocked by the spike in galvanized steel prices, which have jumped by about $7/cwt or $140 per ton in just the past […]
Wholesalers who sell HVAC and galvanized steel products to the construction sector have been pleasantly surprised by the resilience of demand in a market dealing with the COVID pandemic. They have been downright shocked by the spike in galvanized steel prices, which have jumped by about $7/cwt or $140 per ton in just the past […]
Galvanized steel prices have skyrocketed by more than $200 per ton since August, leaving wholesalers who serve the HVAC market to wonder how much higher the price can possibly go before it begins to cut into demand. On a conference call this morning, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) said […]
Demand remains strong even as galvanized steel prices have topped $900 per ton, reported members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International in a conference call this morning. But the HARDI members—wholesalers who serve the HVAC market—expressed concern about the tight availability of galvanized steel and fear of running low on supplies. “We are […]