The agriculture market in the Midwest is on course for a profitable year despite the historic pandemic and a historic storm earlier this summer. Farmers are in the fields more than halfway done with a successful harvest. Grain prices are decent and, combined with government subsidies, “it sounds like net farm income is going to […]
By CRU Analysts Ben Carstein and Lize Wan On Oct. 9, it was reported that Chinese state-owned power plants and steel mills had received verbal notice from China’s customs to stop importing Australian metallurgical and thermal coal with immediate effect. In this article, we review the announcement and its potential implications. Has the Announcement Been […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices have fallen by $8 /dmt in the past month as seaborne supply has been robust, even during the start of the new quarter, which is typically a weak supply period. As a result, arrivals to China have remained strong and […]
By CRU Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service The spike in sheet purchasing activity pushed prices up $200 /s.ton over the last two months and mill lead times for HR coil over six weeks. Steel Market Update, which is owned by CRU, also reported CR and HDG coil lead times in the […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices have remained steady in the past week as a price increase last Thursday was met by similar falls in the past few days. Steel prices in China have risen after the holidays on an optimistic demand view, but iron ore […]
U.S. steel exports recovered further in August, rising 15 percent from July to 551,372 net tons, according to recent U.S. Department of Commerce data. August levels are up 30 percent from June, and are up 56 percent compared to May (when exports were at the lowest levels seen in SMU’s 24-year data history). Total August […]
U.S. apparent steel supply continued it’s recovery in August, up 2.6 percent from July to 7.17 million net tons, according to the latest U.S. Department of Commerce and American Iron and Steel Institute data. While supply levels have improved each month since May, recall that April and May were the two lowest levels seen in […]
By CRU Analyst Anh Nghiem, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Optimism from the steel market led to good buying interest of iron ore from Chinese steel mills last week. There was also post-holidays restocking demand as iron ore inventory at Chinese steel mills fell by 13% w/w last week. However, there was an announcement […]
Prices of aluminum, steel’s rival material, may get a boost from a new Commerce Department ruling that accuses 18 countries of dumping common alloy aluminum sheet imports on the U.S. market. In a preliminary determination announced on Friday, Commerce ruled that aluminum sheet from the following countries has been sold at less than fair value […]
Sales at NLMK USA plunged 33 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2020 due to lower production resulting from the strike at NLMK Pennsylvania. Compared to the previous quarter, USA sales jumped 11 percent to 370,000 metric tons following the completion of repairs at NLMK Indiana and recovery in steel demand. Weak steel consumption […]
The Cleveland-Cliffs/ArcelorMittal merger may throw a curve at the Steelmageddon theory, said Bank of America steel analyst Timna Tanners during Wednesday’s Steel Market Update Community Chat Webinar. The Cliffs/AM combination includes two mills that are more than 100 years old and another that is 50 years old. A move by Cliffs to permanently close some older blast […]
The World Trade Organization has adjusted its outlook on world trade volume to a more optimistic view. In its latest report, the WTO forecast global trade volume to fall 9.2 percent in 2020 instead of 12.9 percent as predicted in the April trade forecast. Trade volume will rebound in 2021 to 7.2 percent, but remain […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The turmoil in this country continues. The election is now 30 days away. The president has COVID-19; the debates may not continue. And, our economy continues to suffer from the pandemic and the economic impact of disease and […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Each week seems to bring new surprises, economically and politically. I was struck by the monthly trade report and question from readers—I thought I’d pull them together and try to respond. The August trade report was released last […]
Global manufacturing continued its road to recovery in September. The J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI rose to a 25-month high of 52.3 from 51.8 in August, for a third consecutive month of expansion. All of the index components were solidly above the 50 neutral point except for employment, which posted a PMI of 49.5. A […]
Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes fell by more than 40 percent in August compared to a year ago, said the Lake Carriers’ Association. Shipments transported by the U.S.-flagged fleet totaled 3.6 million tons and were 37.9 percent below the five year average for August. Year-to-date figures show a 25.9 percent decrease through August, […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to share this Premium content with Executive subscribers. For information on upgrading to a Premium-level subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Steel Market Update performs this quarterly analysis using data from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) in the UK. We believe that to improve our understanding of the gyrations of the […]
California Steel Industries notified customers on Monday, Sept. 21, that it has raised prices on its flat rolled products by $60-70 per ton ($3.00-3.50/cwt) due to changing market conditions. Effective immediately on all unconfirmed orders, prices for hot rolled, P&O and galvanized have increased by a minimum of $60 per ton, while cold rolled is […]
U.S apparent steel supply remained flat from June to July, up 0.8 percent to 6.98 million net tons, according to the latest U.S. Department of Commerce and American Iron and Steel Institute data. While June and July supply levels have both shown improvement, recall that April and May were the two lowest levels seen in […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: For international trade and politics, it’s hard to beat the past week. We saw numerous developments in the trade field—I’ll discuss a few of them: (1) an avalanche of lawsuits challenging the “Section 301” tariffs against $200 billion […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service A combination of increased seasonal demand, low service center inventories, unplanned outages, spike in scrap prices and government restrictions on Brazilian slab imports have added fuel to the usual seasonal uptick and turned it into a surge. After reaching a bottom in mid-August, […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices have stayed elevated in the past week and even exceeded $130 /dmt, before falling back on Tuesday to just below that level. Weakening margins in the Chinese steel industry held prices from rising further and seaborne supply improved in the […]
The global steel industry is one of the biggest culprits in the climate change debate, responsible for some 7 percent of harmful carbon dioxide emissions each year. Every ton of steel produced in 2018 released 1.85 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Thus the steel industry is under enormous pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. Fortunately, […]
By CRU Analyst Kevin Bai, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor Domestic sheet prices in China continued to reach new highs for the year alongside further improvement in underlying sheet demand in combination with limited supply. Domestic CR coil prices went up by RMB290 /t to RMB4720 /t and HDG sheet by RMB140 /t to […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth, from CRU’s Steel Raw Materials and Steel Costs CRU price and cost forecasts suggest that the steel sector generally will return close to steady-state, or “through-cycle,” levels of profitability over the five-year forecast period. However, as our analysis highlights, steady-state profitability of individual steel mills has varied widely in […]
Auto assemblies in North America have recovered rapidly since April. This report is based on data from LMC Automotive for automotive assemblies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The breakdown of assemblies is “Personal” (cars for personal use) and “Commercial” (light vehicles less than 6.0 metric tons gross vehicle weight rating. Heavy trucks and buses […]
Total rolled product imports in August were down by 28.0 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This was the 10th consecutive month in which imports were down by more than 20 percent compared to the same time last year. This early look at August’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license data […]
U.S. steel exports continued to recover in July, up 13 percent from June to 478,182 net tons, according to recent U.S. Department of Commerce data. This is up 35 percent from two months prior when exports were at the lowest levels seen in SMU’s 24-year data history. Although up, July exports remain low historically, down […]
By CRU Research Analyst Eduardo Tinti, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The iron ore price rose further last week and is now approaching the $130 /dmt mark as demand from Chinese steel mills remains strong and seaborne supply declined w/w. On Tuesday, Sept. 8, CRU assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $128.0 /dmt, […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Metallics Monitor The CRU metallics price indicator (CRUmpi) rose by 9.9 percent m/m in September to 225.5. Rising steel demand internationally in combination with tighter markets has driven relatively large price increases in every market we assess. Market sentiment is bullish for October and, barring any […]