By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen, from CRU’s Global Economic Outlook Since lockdown restrictions eased in May the global recovery has been strong, but with marked differences across countries and sectors. The strong recovery in China is partly due to its better virus trajectory over the summer, which has allowed confidence to return. This has […]
The benchmark hot rolled steel price has jumped back over the psychological line of $500 per ton, to $515 by SMU’s current estimate, which is a positive sign for steel demand, but it begs the question: How high will it go and for how long? SMU asked steel buyers how much of the $40-60 per […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Raw Materials Monitor The iron ore price has risen again in the past week as offloading activities have continued while demand from China’s steel mills has been robust. On Tuesday, Sept. 1, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $124.5 /dmt, up by $1.5 /dmt […]
Following on a similar move by the plate mills earlier in the week, flat rolled mills announced price changes Wednesday and Thursday ranging from $40 to $60 per ton. Nucor’s Sheet Mill Group notified customers today, Aug. 27, that it has increased base prices on new orders of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel […]
This week’s comparison of foreign and domestic hot rolled prices shows that U.S-produced steel continues to hold a heavy price advantage over foreign imports, albeit slightly less than mid-August, according to SMU and CRU indices. After slightly shrinking in May, the differentials between domestic HRC compared to German, Italian and East/Southeast Asian imports widened over the last […]
The SMU Steel Summit 2020 was off to a strong start on Day 1 covering a wide variety of topics from new capacity to international trade. SMU President John Packard officially opened the conference on Monday leading a panel discussion about the steel industry in Mexico, the Middle East, Turkey and China. Ternium CEO Maximo Vedoya […]
First, the link to the SMU Steel Summit Virtual Conference platform is www.smusteelsummit2020.com From there you enter your email address and the password which was sent to you. Here is what you can expect to happen on Monday, Aug. 24. There will be people available live on the site to assist you (green button in […]
First, the link to the SMU Steel Summit Virtual Conference platform is www.smusteelsummit2020.com From there you enter your email address and the password which was sent to you. If you have not yet registered for the conference please click here or go to www.smusteelsummit.com Here is what you can expect to happen on Monday, Aug. […]
After knocking it out of the park during the first day of our conference, we are going to shift into cruise mode as we hit on the economy and the major end-use segments affecting the industry. We have two “new” mill CEO’s joining our conference for the first time. The Nucor and U.S. Steel exec’s […]
After knocking it out of the park during the first day of our conference, we are going to shift into cruise mode as we hit on the economy and the major end-use segments affecting the industry. We have two “new” mill CEO’s joining our conference for the first time. The Nucor and U.S. Steel exec’s […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service U.S. sheet steel prices hit their lowest point of the year on Aug. 12 and are slated to rise as steel consumption has been increasing. Steel mill capacity utilization reached 61.5 percent in the week ended Aug. 15, up from 60.4 percent the […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices have held steady in the past week as import restrictions on Australian ore have disrupted the supply chain and reduced the availability of Australian fines. As a result, port inventories of fines products remain at the lowest level in years. […]
The latest CRU Global Economic Outlook indicates that Mexican auto production will not reach 2019 levels until 2023, with expectations that 2020 volumes will be down about 23 percent in 2020 and recover 19 percent in 2021. There is some near-term upside to the Mexican market as production returns to normality after the Covid-19-related shutdowns, […]
By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen from CRU’s Global Economic Outlook Our global economic forecast has stabilized as our understanding of the economic impact brought on by the virus has improved. In August, there have been some offsetting changes across regions with the USA and China data a little stronger than expected and the EU […]
Last week Steel Market Update adjusted all of the flat rolled price momentum indicators from Neutral to Higher. We made the decision to move hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume to higher due to prices already beginning to track up from the low levels achieved over the past couple of weeks. We also made […]
A lot has changed since we all roamed the exhibition hall last year at the Georgia International Convention Center. Most of us are not roaming anywhere this year, out of caution over the coronavirus. In response, Steel Market Update and our parent company the CRU Group have pivoted quickly and embraced the challenge of producing THE best “virtual” […]
It has been almost 12 months in the making and, due to the pandemic, one of the most carefully crafted agendas ever presented for an SMU Steel Summit Conference. Here is the final agenda for this year’s “virtual” conference. All times referenced are Eastern Time. The programs on the agenda prior to 10:00 AM are […]
It has been almost 12 months in the making and, due to the pandemic, one of the most carefully crafted agendas ever presented for an SMU Steel Summit Conference. Here is the final agenda for this year’s “virtual” conference. All times referenced are Eastern Time. The programs on the agenda prior to 10:00 AM are […]
SMU and the CRU events teams have been working for months on the 2020 version of the SMU Steel Summit Conference, and now it is time to go live. The note today should say seven days to go before the opening of the 2020 SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference, but that is not how this […]
SMU and the CRU events teams have been working for months on the 2020 version of the SMU Steel Summit Conference, and now it is time to go live. The note today should say seven days to go before the opening of the 2020 SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference, but that is not how this […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Sheet prices in the U.S. Midwest market were led lower by declines in HR and CR coil. The price of HR coil is now back down to the low reached in early May, though market participants have noted that low priced offers have become scarce. […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices continued their upward trajectory and traded at $123.0 /dmt on Tuesday, Aug. 18, a $3.0 /dmt increase w/w. Chinese demand remains strong and the challenges of delivering ore from vessels to steelmakers remain in place. Chinese domestic steel prices have […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Steel markets have recovered from the depths of Covid-19 global disruption, but this has varied in pace across regions and has been stop-start in many. Indeed, as measured by CRU’s global finished steel CRUspi, finished steel prices bottomed in May at 129.3, the lowest reading […]
This week’s comparison of foreign and domestic hot rolled prices shows that U.S prices now hold the widest price advantage over foreign imports in our limited 10-year data history, according to SMU and CRU indices. After slightly shrinking in May, the price gap between domestic HRC compared to German, Italian, and East/Southeast Asian imports has widened over […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors. David has over 20 years of financial market trading experience and has been active in the ferrous futures space for eight years. David earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in economics, statistics and analytical finance. […]
We have passed through 700 registered attendees for this year’s SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference. Activity has been high and we are confident we will reach our 800+ registered attendee goal. We will be the largest steel conference (live or virtual) in North America this calendar year. Those who have seen our platform are excited. […]
We have passed through 700 registered attendees for this year’s SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference. Activity has been high and we are confident we will reach our 800+ registered attendee goal. We will be the largest steel conference (live or virtual) in North America this calendar year. Those who have seen our platform are excited. […]
Seventy percent of the steel buyers polled by SMU last week said they believe prices are near the bottom of the current market. SMU pegs the current benchmark price for hot rolled at around $440 per ton, slightly lower than the consensus view of $460 per ton because SMU learned of some low-$400’s deals late […]
By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen and Economist Ippolito Tarabini, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor The economy is in the midst of a recession triggered by a health crisis. That makes this recession unusual and different. Here we examine how this recession compares to previous recessions. From that we infer key features of the […]
Our friends at ITR Economics warn us to be wary of economic misreporting, especially when the media is so full of dramatic headlines about the state of the pandemic. It’s easy for reporters to misinterpret the data, which is confusing to nearly everyone. ITR continues to predict U.S. GDP will move into a recovery mode […]