Tag: economy

US manufacturing activity contracted again in June, as reported in the latest release from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

The Congressional Steel Caucus have expressed concern regarding the US government’s potential trade status change for Vietnam.

Uncertainty surrounding demand, the US presidential election, tariffs, and taxes is weighing on North American metalforming companies.

We have heard ominous warnings about a flood of Mexican steel threatening the US market. It's the kind of rhetoric that gets thrown around often with little regard for the facts. The reality is that the Mexican steel surge is simply not happening, and the US steel industry has consistently maintained a significant trade surplus in finished products with Mexico. In 2023 alone, this surplus exceeded $3 billion.

Nearly 800 people have registered to attend Steel Summit on Aug. 26-28 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta.

Former President Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill last week made a lot of news. One proposal directly involves international trade and tariffs. While the specifics are hazy, President Trump allegedly talked about replacing the federal income tax on individuals with tariff increases. Let’s check that out.

SMU’s monthly at-a-glance articles summarize important steel market metrics for the prior month. This May report contains data updated through June 7. Steel prices for sheet and plate products continued to edge lower throughout May. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator was adjusted from neutral to lower at the beginning of the month. We saw a […]

Steel Market Update’s Steel Demand Index moved up 2.5 points last week, though it remains in contraction territory and at one of the lowest readings in nearly a year, according to our latest survey data.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on an array of topics, ranging from market prices, demand, and inventories to imports and evolving market events.

Sometimes, words can lead you in interesting directions. Specifically, crosswords. For the last six weeks we have been making steel-themed crosswords in the lead-up to SMU's Steel 101 course in Fort Wayne, Ind., which is taking place today and tomorrow. I’ve learned snippets of steel history and educated myself on the finer points of sponge iron.

The USMCA is an important trade agreement, as long as the member countries honor its requirements. These were the sentiments echoed by top officials of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) and Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) during a press conference at their annual meeting last week in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Where do sheet prices go from here? How is the state of steel demand? And is the dip in prices we've seen just a case of the summer doldrums, or is it something more significant?

When it comes to steel decarbonization, we do not need to compromise our climate ambition to make the types of demanding steel products needed for our 21st-century economy. Nevertheless, many of the world’s highest-emitting steel producers and their allies would have you believe that one cannot be done without the other. They are wrong. They […]

Germany's Speira is investing €40 million (USD$43.3 million) for additional recycling capacity to drive the transformation of its Rheinwerk facility and achieve a total saving of up to 1.5 million metric tons (mt) of CO2 per year at the site, it was announced today.

When you step out of the airport in Phoenix in June, the heat tends to focus your mind. I was in town to attend the Steel Manufacturers Association/Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. The desert locale with palm trees, swimming pools, and the obligatory high-powered air conditioning was fitting for 2024. Between the presidential election and the geopolitical situation, things have definitely been heating up.

US manufacturing activity contracted in May for the second month in a row, according to the latest report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). After a brief expansion in March, ISM’s manufacturing index has since returned to contraction, where the manufacturing sector has been for 18 of the last 19 months. The ISM Manufacturing […]

Most metalformers expect economic activity to be level to down over the next three months, according to the May Business Conditions Report from the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA).

U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC) said they have received all regulatory approvals outside of the US for the proposed sale of USS to the Japanese steelmaker.

Earlier this week, SMU polled steel buyers on an array of topics, ranging from market prices, demand, and inventories to imports and evolving market chatter.

Let's take a collective deep breath ::in:: and ::out::... And we're back. But where exactly are we? Are steel prices going up or down? Is demand really decelerating or is it an illusion? How is the market navigating the new mill pricing mechanisms?

In conjunction with President Biden’s visit to Vietnam in September 2023, Vietnam’s government petitioned the US Department of Commerce (DOC) for “market economy” treatment. This would be a major trade concession, as DOC has recognized for years that Vietnam’s economy does not operate according to market principles. However, graduating Vietnam to market economy status would […]

Sometimes even in a bit of chaos there is complacency. And it seems that since March 2020, “a bit of chaos” has been the order of the day. That means in the world at large, and in steel specifically.

The free market operates best when it is freest. But all governments intervene in markets in response to conditions that threaten peaceful progress. President Biden decided last week that market intervention was justified. He approved a report from the US Trade Representative (USTR) that recommended continuing the “Section 301” tariffs on Chinese imports into the United States.

Roughly halfway through Q2, flatbed rates are holding firm, currently showing no change from April to May and a slight increase quarter-over-quarter (q/q).

SMU surveyed our market contacts this week about steel prices, demand, and the overall marketplace. Below are some of the buyers' responses in their own words to help you get a feel for current and future market conditions. Demand is a big topic of discussion currently. Is it steady, falling, or on the upswing with summer construction heating up? As you can see from the answers below, it depends on who you ask. One buyer’s response sums it up pretty well: “I still see the marketplace as soft/stable with some segments busy, while others tread water.”

What's the tea in the steel industry this week? Here's the latest SMU gossip column! Just kidding... kind of. Yes, some of the comments we receive in our weekly flat-rolled market steel buyers' survey are honestly too much to put into print. Some make us laugh. Some make us cringe. Some are cryptic. Most are serious. We appreciate them all. Below are some highlights from our survey results this week. Some of the comments that we can share with you are also included, in italics, in the buyers' own words, with minimal editing on our part.

The Mexican federal government backed down on the application of tariffs on raw non-alloyed and alloyed aluminum decreed on April 22.

Tariffs on unfairly traded steel and other products help to stabilize America’s most important industries, safeguard tens of thousands of jobs, and protect national security. My union, the United Steelworkers (USW), never seeks these remedies lightly. And presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, implement them only after diligent investigations documenting the harm that foreign adversaries intentionally inflict upon our country with dumping, overproduction and other kinds of trade cheating. I don’t think Lewis Leibowitz considered these points while criticizing tariffs in his excessively pro-free-trade column, “Where is the voice of the consumer?” on May 5.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the summer doldrums might have arrived a little early? I could be wrong there. It’s possible we could see a jump in prices should buyers need to step back into the market to restock. I’ll be curious to see what service center inventories are when we update those figures on May 15. In the meantime, just about everyone we survey thinks HR prices have peaked or soon will. (See slide 17 in the April 26 survey.) Lead times have flattened out. And some of you tell me that you’re starting to see signs of them pulling back. (We’ll know more when we update our lead time data on Thursday.)

The election campaign is white-hot right now, and the Biden administration is touting its protectionist message. Just this past week, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) touted this message. In a release entitled “What They are Saying,” USTR quoted many of the usual protectionist groups praising government action against Chinese steel exports and shipbuilding. Consuming industries in the United States, which employ many times the American workers as the industries seeking trade protection, were not mentioned.