By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Throughout 2019, steelmakers’ willingness to pay higher prices for premium quality steelmaking raw materials has diminished. For iron ore, the spread between 65% and 62% Fe fines has fallen to $8 /t in Q4, well below the $28 /t peak in 2018 Q3. […]
By CRU Principal Analyst James Campbell, from CRU’s Long Products Monitor Steel longs prices have changed direction this month with rises now observed in many markets. Although underlying demand has improved in some regions it is still weak elsewhere. Buyers in many regions have restocked in the last month while producers exposed to scrap and […]
By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service This piece sets out insights gained from a visit to CRUs Beijing office. The trade war has been an unexpected headwind to China’s economy and there is a real concern about the risks of a sharper than desirable growth slowdown. In response the government […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor Sheet prices in the U.S. have risen at a strong rate, yet the underlying volume behind the prices is near the lowest level for the year. This low volume may be attributed to the holiday-shortened week, but more likely it reflects the fact […]
In the last month, the prices of three of the five raw materials tracked by Steel Market Update in this report declined, one advanced and one was unchanged. Table 1 summarizes the price changes through Nov. 20 of the five materials considered in this analysis. It reports the month/month, 3 months/3 months and 12 months/12 […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan Smith and Senior Consultant Sarah Macnaughton, from CRU’s Crude Steel Market Outlook Climate change is moving up the political agenda and putting increasing pressure on heavy industry to reduce their CO2 emissions. As the largest producer of global industrial CO2 emissions, the steel sector has a clear role to play in meeting […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Dmitry Popov, from CRU’s Iron Ore Market Outlook After two weeks of increases, iron ore prices moved marginally lower this week by $1 /t w/w as CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $89 /t, CFR China. The end of the upward momentum in iron ore prices was primarily […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores, from the CRU Steel Monitor President Trump sent three tweets this morning that said, effective immediately, he would restore the steel and aluminum tariffs on Brazil and Argentina because the countries “have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies, which is not good for our farmers.” No […]
Nucor’s Sheet Mill Group and Canada’s Algoma Steel have matched last week’s price increases by U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal USA. Nucor informed customers on Monday that is has increased based prices on new orders of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel by a minimum of $30 per ton ($1.50/cwt). LIkewise, Algoma notified its flat […]
Ferrous scrap prices settled up $30-40/GT in December for most regions and most grades, on top of the $15-20/GT increase in November, lending further support to rising finished steel prices. Not only did prices find support from seasonally tighter scrap supply, but mill demand was stable or higher month over month for most regions, said […]
Stelco’s strategy to get into the merchant pig iron (MPI) market is getting high marks from the experts. As one of the Canadian steelmaker’s strategic growth initiatives, it plans to construct a new pig iron making facility at its Lake Erie Works to coincide with a blast furnace reline scheduled for Q2 2020. Stelco claims […]
By CRU Steel Prices Lead Anh Nghiem, from the Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices have been gradually increasing over the past week with improving steel prices and positive signals from the Chinese futures market. According to a market source, market participants’ confidence has improved significantly since steel prices started to increase and this […]
On Friday morning, SSAB announced another steel plate price increase. In a letter emailed to customers, SSAB advised their intention to raise “transaction prices by a minimum of $40 per ton effective immediately for all new non-contract orders.” The increase, which is the second $40 increase announced by SSAB so far this month, applies to […]
On Friday morning, SSAB announced another steel plate price increase. In a letter emailed to customers, SSAB advised their intention to raise “transaction prices by a minimum of $40 per ton effective immediately for all new non-contract orders.” The increase, which is the second $40 increase announced by SSAB so far this month, applies to […]
Steel buyers are clearly split on whether demand is sufficient to support the recent mill price increases or whether the market can expect another dead cat bounce. Following are results from this week’s Steel Market Update market trends questionnaire.(Note that the following responses were gathered prior to the mill price increase announcements on Friday.) Dead […]
So, tonight I thought I would write about a couple of text messages that I received over the past 24 hours. Both messages have to do with steel prices, just looking at information out of SMU and other publications or indices differently. The first message was from the president of a Midwest-based service center. They […]
CRU has underlined its commitment to ensuring “The CRU,” its U.S. Midwest HRC price, remains the most reliable and trusted reference in the industry by initiating a second audit of its data providers. The audit will be conducted by third-party audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). It has been in planning for some time as a […]
By Senior Analyst Manjot Singh, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The past week was characterized by improving sentiment in the Chinese and Indian steel industry. Chinese HRC and rebar prices increased substantially w/w (see data below) on the back of higher demand. Even the HRC prices in India witnessed a $7 /t increase w/w, […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service Although profitability for domestic sales in China has fallen sharply in 2019, steel exports from the country have not risen. Historically, when domestic profitability dropped, exports would rise. Prior analysis has shown that the strength of the domestic market is a key driver […]
By CRU Analysts Kevin Bai and Iris Speelmanns, from CRU’s Iron Ore Costs China has launched a probe into steelmaking capacity to understand the true state of the industry. If the government views the current state as detrimental to its reform agenda, orders to curb supply could be forthcoming. If enough capacity is curbed, this […]
It’s not too soon to save the date for next year’s SMU Steel Summit 2020, set for Aug. 24-26 in Atlanta. Just click the image below for details. We are delighted to announce details of the 10th SMU Steel Summit, which will again be held in Atlanta in 2020. Widely regarded as the premier steel […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth Profitability in the steel industry is highly volatile with the last few years particularly seeing a huge swing in profits. Some producers saw margins hit ten-year highs only to see them quickly fall away, with many becoming loss-making in recent months. As steelmakers navigate the ups and downs of […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
The following article discussing the global ferrous derivatives markets was written by David Feldstein. As an independent steel market analyst, advisor and trader, we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Note that Steel Market Update does not take any positions on HRC or scrap trading, and any recommendations or comments […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Crude Steel Market Outlook The iron ore market in 2019 has been dominated by supply disruptions. The Vale accident in January was followed by cyclones in Australia and, more recently, quality issues affecting Rio Tinto, the second largest iron ore producer in the world. The company has […]
By Principal Analyst Josh Spoores, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor Global sheet prices remain in a downtrend for November, though are starting to recover in some markets. Overall, CRU’s Global Flat Products Price Indicator (CRUspi flats) fell 3.3 percent m/m in November to 137.7, the lowest level recorded since October 2016. This indicator of global […]
By Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Metallics Monitor The CRU metallics price indicator (CRUmpi) rose by 7.5 percent m/m to 195.7 (see chart) after prices rose in most markets. The most pronounced rebounds were in the U.S. and European scrap markets, while prices in Asia either rose or were stable. Prices in regions […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Chris Asgill There has been a marked rise in Chinese imports of pig iron and HBI this year. This has been primarily due to limited domestic scrap supply that cannot be offset by external supply due to restrictions in scrap imports. Limited scrap supply relative to demand has meant that scrap prices in […]
Needle coke and graphite electrode availability has been under pressure since 2017 following substantial financially and environmentally driven capacity closures, particularly in China. With prices under pressure in 2019, and margins rapidly falling, the graphite electrode and needle coke markets appear to be at a crossroads with many questions about the future for these markets. […]