It has been four weeks since the last HARDI galvanized steel conference call. The call provides a forum for the HARDI HVAC wholesalers and other associated HARDI members to discuss trends affecting galvanized steel prices. Over the past four weeks market prices have eased a bit but many of the factors that drive prices are […]
As of late this afternoon www.Kitco.com was reporting zinc spot pricing around $1.22 per pound. Zinc recently reported prices not seen in the past 9 years and those of you buying galvanized and Galvalume steels need to be aware of how zinc is trading. The U.S. steel mills published new extras just as zinc pierced […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) and financial futures markets was written by Andre and Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: The bearishness was so thick 1-2 months ago you could cut it with a knife! The steel futures were getting crushed, […]
Inventories, and whether they are too tight right now, have been a topic of discussion lately. Eddie Lehner, CEO of Ryerson Holdings commented on this during the Ryerson earnings call last week. In his prepared remarks Lehner said, “Notwithstanding, the decline of CRU carbon sheet prices from a peak late in the second quarter of […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial 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. […]
The conversation has begun regarding when flat rolled steel prices will end their slide and reverse course. Flat rolled steel prices have been in a steep decline since mid-June 2016 when benchmark hot rolled prices peaked at $635 per ton ($31.75/cwt, SMU index average) FOB domestic mill. Since then steel prices have retreated $145 per […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to move lower as benchmark hot rolled broke through $500 per ton and is now averaging $490 per ton. We were relatively conservative in our range this week as we did capture at least one order placed for moderate tonnage at $440 per ton and we are hearing that the […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are becoming less enthusiastic about their company’s ability to be successful both now and into the near future. SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index has been steady decline since peaking with an all time high of +71 in early July 2016. Based on our latest market trends analysis Current […]
The complaint filed by the domestic steel mills against China for circumvention of duties by converting Chinese substrate in Vietnam and then shipping it to the U.S. as Vietnamese products goes against trade rules that have been in place for many years. It has been understood that transforming hot rolled into cold rolled and/or galvanized […]
The number of active steel buyers has definitely slowed over the past few weeks. Buyers are holding back as business has slowed for some, inventory levels are OK (and in some situations rising) and lead times are pulling back making the need to buy less urgent. When taking into consideration lead times, we are also […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index dropped 14 points since we last measured Sentiment at the beginning of the month. The 14 point drop took the Current Index to +49, the lowest point for our index since the +44 reported during the first week of January 2016. The 14 point drop is […]
Steel Market Update speaks with dozens of companies on a daily basis and hundreds over the course of a week. We also receive a large number of emails, facebook and LinkedIn posts. Every so often we like to share some of the comments being made in an article we call “Bits ‘N Pieces.” We learned […]
Buyers and sellers of hot rolled steel are holding back on making any new offers (buy or sell) until the final determinations are announced on HRC later this week. According to Steel Market Update sources, hot rolled steel spot prices were ranging from a low of $590 per ton up to $630 per ton. Lead […]
What we like to hear for our member companies: One of the largest service centers in the U.S. told us earlier this week after registering for our Steel Summit Conference, “Our guys tell me your conference is very good, I’m looking forward to attending. Also, several mills tell me that your conference is turning into […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by Dave 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. […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall and Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how they saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets: We are testing the highs, literally. The S&P is right up against the 2105-2210 resistance, […]
On Friday, I (John Packard) was the speaker on a conference call hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst, Timna Tanners. This is something that I try to do a couple of times per year to help the financial community and investors in the metals and mining space to better understand the flat rolled […]
Manufacturing companies are questioning the run up in steel prices with some wondering if now is a good time to pull back and wait out the market. SMU, with the help of a few of our manufacturing and service center sources, will try to put a historical perspective into the market in an effort to […]
The following article was written by SMU founder and publisher, John Packard with the assistance of Platts Content Director, Metals Americas, Joseph Innace. Shortly after Steel Market Update (SMU) became a real company I understood the need for the flat rolled steel industry to have an pricing index which was independent and not tied as […]
“It would be an understatement to say 2015 was a difficult year in the steel industry,” said Olympic Steel president and COO David Wolfort during the company’s earnings conference call. Olympic Steel reported a net loss of $5.0 million for fourth quarter 2015 and a net loss of $26.8 million for the full year 2015. […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Assisting Andre with tonight’s article is Jack Marshall also associated with CrunchRisk. Here is how Andre and Jack saw trading […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Assisting Andre with tonight’s article is Jack Marshall also associated with CrunchRisk. Here is how Andre and Jack saw trading […]
I hope that all of you will take a few moments to click on the links provided for the speakers and for the PGA National Resort & Spa to get a better feel for the quality of the program we will be putting on in March for a select few company executives. There is a […]
We are already seeing some signs of the “turn” as the flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update saw very little movement this past week. Both SMU and Platts saw hot rolled pricing as stable while CRU was down $5 per ton (SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this past week). Our average was […]
We will conduct our mid-December flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) beginning on Monday of this week. If you are on the invite list, please take a few moments to click on the link (button) and respond to our online questionnaire. If you were on the invite list in the past and for some reason […]
Over the past few weeks we have seen major movement in flat rolled steel prices. The question now is have we seen the end of the major moves lower (some suggest hot rolled has a way to go since lead times are not yet into January at most mills) or do we have a way […]
Holiday weeks tend to be “quiet” when it comes to steel price movement but, according to the flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update, last week was an anomaly. SMU saw the market as being relatively stable with either no movement or small adjustments of $5 per ton on hot rolled and hot […]
For our U.S. customers, welcome back from the Thanksgiving Holiday. We are a little more than three weeks from our next break for the Christmas and New Year Holidays. Then we plow into 2016 and my gut tells me by then things may begin to change. We still have our SMU Price Momentum Indicator pointing […]
Flat rolled steel and plate prices continued to slide this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. SMU saw prices as being sideways on hot rolled, down $10 on cold rolled, down $5 on galvanized and down $10 on Galvalume. Both CRU ($376) and Platts ($375) dropped their averages […]
Flat rolled and plate prices continued to erode this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. With the exception of SteelBenchmarker (who tends to be behind the other indexes due to it only collecting market price intelligence twice per month), all of the indexes are showing hot rolled prices […]