SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index has reversed trend and is rising (getting more optimistic) as we prepare to move into the New Year. On Monday of this week Steel Market Update (SMU) began conducting our mid-December flat rolled steel market trends analysis. We completed our inquiries earlier today (Thursday, December 22, 2016) and we are […]
The Architecture Billings Index made a small gain in November with a score of 50.6, basically unchanged from October’s reading of 50.8. Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings for design services. The new projects inquiry index rose to 59.5 from 55.4 in November indicating future growth in construction activity. “Without many details […]
The following analysis was done by Steel Market Update for our Premium level customers. We are sharing the article with everyone (as well as our Apparent Excess article), well, because we would like all of our readers to upgrade to Premium… The WSA released their November update of global steel production on Tuesday. Production in […]
M&M Manufacturing, a subsidiary of MiTek Industries and a leading producer of sheet metal products, for the air distribution and ventilation markets, has acquired Snappy Company. Snappy is a leading supplier of metal duct systems for the residential HVAC market, with manufacturing facilities in Detroit Lakes, MN; Medina, NY; and corporate offices in Marietta, GA. […]
Steel Dynamics is expecting fourth quarter profitability to decline from third due to lower shipments and metal spread compression. Shipments were down in both the flat and long products categories. In addition, lower steel pricing more than offset savings realized from lower ferrous scrap costs. Impairment charges for the quarter are still being assessed related […]
Housing starts retreated in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,090,000. The rate is 18.7 percent below the revised October estimate of 1.34 million and 6.9 percent below the November 2015 rate. Sequentially, single family starts fell 4.1 percent and multifamily starts plunged 43.9 percent. On a year over year basis single family […]
November service center daily shipments declined by 3.7 percent from October which was disappointing because since 2009 on average November has declined by 2.1 percent. Carbon steel shipments decreased by 107,400 tons, the number of shipping days was unchanged at 21 and tons/day shipments decreased by 5,100 tons. Intake and shipments In November total carbon […]
Big River Steel announced that operations have begun at its melt shop and hot strip mill. The first hot rolled coil was purchased by Zekelman Industries and will be sent to Atlas Tube in nearby Blytheville, Arkansas. The coil was purchased for $100,000 with the entire amount jointly contributed by Big River and Zekelman Industries […]
Steel buyers and executives associated with the service center industry are reporting to Steel Market Update that end users are accepting that we are in a higher priced flat rolled steel environment and most have placed their first quarter 2017 tons. The expectation is for the market to “pause” here due to the holidays which […]
US Steel announced today that it will begin processing slabs on the currently idled hot strip mill at Granite City Works in Granite City, Ill., in mid-February 2017. The slabs for the mill will be sourced from US Steel’s own domestic facilities. US Steel said in a press release that it is making the adjustment […]
As you think about your business and where you think benchmark hot rolled prices will be in 2017 and 2018 one of the areas you need to consider are the energy markets. The energy markets have been in the doldrums for the past few years due to low oil and natural gas prices. The net […]
SMU Sentiment Index Sees Renewed Optimism The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index has seen a renewed spurt of optimism based on our latest data. Sentiment, which had been trending lower since the beginning of July based on our three month moving average (3MMA) reversed course and moved higher this week. Our 3MMA for Current Sentiment […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As Flack Steel’s director of risk management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing Futures articles for […]
House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans removed the Buy America provision from the Drinking Water State Revolving fund sparking controversy among legislators in the House and Senate. The Buy America legislation in the Water Resources Development Act, introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), passed the Senate in September with broad bipartisan support. Said Baldwin, […]
Early December logistic reports show no major problems in the shipping markets. Shipments on most transportation modes are expected to slow as the holiday season approaches. A new Secretary of Transportation has been appointed by President-elect Donald Trump. Elaine Cho, former Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush and Deputy Secretary of Transportation under […]
The Dodge Momentum Index gained 0.3 percent in November after breaking a five month streak of increases in October. The Dodge Momentum Index, published by Dodge Data & Analytics, is a monthly measure of the first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential […]
Earlier today Dr. Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trends Research spoke to the HARDI annual conference in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He started by telling the 1300 people attending the conference, “We did not change our forecast due to the election.” He went on to say that in government things don’t happen quickly, “The economy […]
Nucor Corp. announced today that it will acquire Southland Tube, a manufacturer of hollow structural section (HSS) tubing for $130 million. Southland Tube is located in Birmingham, Alabama and is the third largest provider of HSS steel tubing in the HSS market with annual shipments of approximately 240,000 tons. HSS is used in structural and […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. October data for CPIP was released on Thursday December 1st. The tables in this report don’t look so good but in fact the single month of October looked a lot better […]
In November net job creation was 178,000 which was about in line with analysts’ expectations. The employment situation is strong enough for the Fed to likely go ahead with a target rate increase later this month. September employment numbers were revised up by 17,000 and October down by 19,000. Using a three month moving average […]
Lack of infrastructure projects has led to a decline or stagnation of construction employment in one third of U.S. metro areas in October said the Associated General Contractors of America. The press release from AGC follows: Construction employment declined or was stagnant in one-third of metro areas between October 2015 and October 2016 amid diminishing […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. This will explain the difference between our view of the present situation which is subjective and our analysis of trends which is based on the latest facts available. At the end of […]
NLMK USA has gotten the go-ahead on a new walking beam furnace for the Pennsylvania plant. Some pre-construction has already begun. James Baker, Jr. told us in an email, “We will be installing a walking beam furnace in Farrell. We have already started on initial site prep with target completion date of September 2018. There […]
Steel Market Update went out to a couple of hundred steel buyers and executives today as we probe for information about flat rolled steel prices. At the same time we asked questions about price direction and demand. Tonight we will cover price direction (prior to AM increase announcement) and on Thursday we will cover their […]
Once each quarter we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Currently available GDP data is through the third quarter, other data included here is through October. Many analysts don’t believe these Party self-serving figures but we include them in our reports because of the importance […]
Twice per month Steel Market Update conducts an analysis of the flat rolled steel market. One of the proprietary products that comes out of this effort is the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index. Our index measures how steel buyers and those that sell flat rolled steels feel about their company’s ability to be successful both […]
October service center daily shipments improved 1.0 percent from September which is better than it seems because since 2009 on average, October has declined by 2.3 percent. Carbon steel shipments increased by 29,700 tons, the number of shipping days was unchanged at 21 and tons/day shipments increased by 1,400 tons. Intake and shipments In October […]
Licensed data for October was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on November 8th. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in short tons. Total rolled […]
The Architecture Billings Index rebounded modestly in October, registering 50.8 after dipping below the neutral point in September and August. Fewer firms, however, reported an increase in new inquiries or in value of design contracts signed during the month. Both inquiries and design contract indexes fell for the second month in a row with the […]
On Tuesday of this week Steel Market Update (SMU) and one of our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshops toured the Big River Steel facility in Osceola, Arkansas. We conducted the classroom portion of our program in Memphis and then drove to the mill for our tour and then we moved […]