Just about all of the steel indices monitored by Steel Market Update have benchmark hot rolled coil at, or very close to, $660 per ton ($33.00/cwt) as of this past week. Prices have risen by approximately $5 to $10 per ton during the week. The short term trend is for prices to remain firm and […]
The combination of higher spot prices and adjustments to contract negotiations has caused some buyers of flat rolled steel to seek alternatives to their normal domestic source of supply. Steel Market Update is beginning to get confirmations from both manufacturing companies and service centers of larger foreign tonnage purchases being made for 1st and early […]
Pencil them in as non-believers. During our monthly steel conference call held with HARDI wholesalers who distribute steel sheet and coil, we were advised that it is only a matter of time before steel prices begin to falter. One of the wholesalers told the group, “…Forty dollars per hundredweight – How many months out of […]
In our recent steel market survey which we conducted this past week, 56.4 percent of those responding to our questions (all respondents) told us the current contract negotiations on their 2014 flat rolled steel needs represented a “game changer” for the U.S. steel industry. Manufacturers We asked manufacturing companies if their contract negotiations included reduction […]
The domestic mills pushing for customers to switch to Platts indices may shudder when they realize that Platts benchmark hot rolled coil index is the lowest of the five followed by Steel Market Update.Even so, all of the indices are now within $6 per ton of each other. The average price for hot rolled, using […]
The following information was in a press release received by SMU from CRU. We have requested more information from CRU regarding the audit, how it has impacted their data providers and any other pertinent information they were able to gather through the process. We will follow up with another article when we receive information from […]
A note from one of my long-time readers, “You need to get more controversial in your final thoughts. Tell us what you think.” I have taken a relatively low profile (although some might disagree) regarding my opinions on mill price negotiations – both contract and spot. So the way I will respond to my long-time […]
There is a lot going on regarding contracts, contract negotiations and the timing of when orders/commitments need to be placed with the domestic steel mills. SMU has had direct conversations and seen email correspondence which suggests at least one of the integrated steel mills is pushing for remaining 2013 tonnage to be placed right away […]
Financial Markets: Two weeks back we suspected that the SP 500 and other US equities markets would struggle with all this Government Shutdown shenanegans. Sure enough, the SP 500 dropped progressively down to a low of 1646 yesterday from the 1697 level we had two weeks ago. However, since the announcement today of the preverbial […]
A certain level of frustration appears to be hitting the service centers in both the spot and contract markets. In the spot market we have heard from a number of service centers that their attempts to raise spot prices are being met with a certain level of disbelief as end users evaluate how to perceive […]
The various steel indices followed by Steel Market Update showed very little change in their pricing assessments of flat rolled steel coils. Most of the indexes saw prices as moving sideways as we wait for buyers to digest the latest offerings from the domestic steel mills. In the case of Steel Market Update we collected […]
September ended with the SMU Price Momentum Indicator pointing toward Neutral. In light of the price increase announcements beginning to come out of the domestic steel mills we will continue our Neutral position allowing all the mills to announce (or not) and buyers to react before making a change toward one direction or another. SMU […]
With the exception of SteelBenchmarker, which is only published twice per month, benchmark hot rolled pricing was between $640-$645 per ton (Steel Orbis did not report prices to SMU this week). Platts, which is being mentioned by some mills as replacing the CRU indices for future price adjustments, did take their hot rolled and cold […]
Over the past week we have been receiving a number of calls and emails regarding both John Anton’s (IHS Global Insight) forecast for higher steel prices as we move into 2014 and Andre Marshall’s (Crunch Risk, LLC) hot rolled futures article where he points out that the market fundamentals will force flat rolled steel prices […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has received a large number of comments and inquiries regarding the subject of contract negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their end user and service center customers. Here are some samples: “I think the bucket deals are gone and the 6 percent deals are gone. I think the mills are […]
When I last wrote two weeks back the SP 500 had failed to break down as expected and technicals suggested we were headed to 1775 as next long term target. Well within one week of that report the SP 500 hit 1730 from that Sep 12th 1685 area. This rally was in large part due […]
Our survey results from this past week pointed to a weakening in the resolve of a number of service centers. There are a group of distributors who believe that prices have only one direction to go from here – lower. Fed by the belief that their inventories will depreciate from here, a number of service […]
One of our service center contacts told Steel Market Update recently, “The ending of indexed pricing for many is just around the corner which is a major positive but hearing little of this from SMU. [The] mills still trying to make something – they cannot continue to withstand the losses they have incurred. In fact, […]
Prices this week are slightly lower over what we saw last week. For all of the companies below, prices fell or remained steady for all four products followed. We saw slight movement from $10 per ton lower or no change at all. Benchmark hot rolled prices range from $635 to $645 per ton (average $640.50 […]
None of the indexes watched by Steel Market Update (SMU) on a regular basis saw flat rolled steel prices rising this past week. We saw very modest movement lower ($1-$5 per ton) or no change. Benchmark hot rolled prices range from $645 to $652.50 per ton (average $648.90 per ton). We have discussed this issue […]
Financial Markets Two weeks back we were 1640 on SP 500 and technically it looked like we were headed to 1550-1560 zone as part of a larger retracement. Well the market has dumbfounded the chartists again, and we have since rebounded to today’s level of 1682. We are likely headed now to the 1770-80 zone […]
It has been an eerily quiet week. A number of mills have been in meetings and the MSCI is holding their forecasting summit in the Chicago area on Monday and Tuesday of this week. We did capture a few interesting numbers (such as HR at $610) but not in enough volume to warrant making any […]
Based on a number of conversations Steel Market Update (SMU) has had with service centers over the past couple of working days, there appears to be concern that the domestic steel mills are actively looking to take end user contract business away from the distributors. While it is still early in the negotiation process SMU […]
Earlier this year a number of mills announced that they would no longer accept CRU minus based steel contracts. Since at the time most flat rolled steel contracts were negotiated to go through the end of the calendar year we did not see how the mills were going to approach the subject until just recently. […]
Sentiment Continues to Trend Higher (more optimistic) Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index was measured earlier today at +40, down 3 points from the middle of August and well within the optimistic range for the index. Compared to one year ago buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are feeling much better about […]
Picking up where we left off at the end of July – during the month of August we saw relatively modest movement in flat rolled pricing out of the various indices we track on a regular basis. SMU is the only index showing some erosion in the benchmark hot rolled and cold rolled indices. The […]
We are starting to spot slight gyrations in the other indexes that we monitor on a regular basis. Most of the items reported this past week were unchanged from the week prior. It is important to remember there are differences in both the collection techniques of the various indexes as well as different FOB […]
By the end of August SMU had adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Higher to Neutral, SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index averaged +40 which is higher than the average from June and July and well within the optimistic range of our Index. Benchmark hot rolled prices moved essentially sideways as the numbers show below. […]
Financial Markets: Since last week’s writing the SP 500 has since rallied to test the old support above at 1670 to then fail and drop to 1627 before rebounding in the last two days to 1642. As I mentioned, we are likely in a retracement move down to the 1550 target before we can find […]
We got a taste of everything this past week from the various steel indexes we monitor on a regular basis. Platts, which recently has been on the leading edge of higher flat rolled steel prices, scaled their numbers back on both hot rolled and cold rolled this week. CRU budged ever so slightly higher on […]