By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg and Prices Analyst Rory Knight In the past four weeks, freight rates have nearly doubled as Brazilian iron ore shipments have increased while an increasing proportion of global exports are being shipped to distant markets, reducing fleet availability. This is benefiting European steelmakers, while hurting iron ore miners, particularly […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary, from CRU’s Zinc Monitor U.S. industrial production increased by only 1.4 percent in May, well short of expectations, but market sentiment is generally positive as the Fed has confirmed it will do “whatever it takes for as long as it takes” to help get the economy back on track […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service U.S. automaker restarts in May drove an increase in steel demand and helped to prop up sheet prices. There is concern, however, over whether there is enough new demand to support mills restarting or if manufacturers are mainly managing pent-up demand. We’ve heard […]
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I hope you got to enjoy some quality time with your kids earlier today. There has been a call on the Commerce Department to review exports of steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico. There is a question if exports of these products have “surged” since […]
U.S apparent steel supply fell to 6.54 million net tons in April, according to recent U.S. Department of Commerce and American Iron and Steel Institute data. This is the lowest supply level in our limited 10-year history. Apparent steel supply, a proxy for demand, is determined by combining domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel […]
United States steel exports slumped to a 21-year low in April, down 39 percent from March and down 33 percent from one year prior, according to recent U.S. Department of Commerce data. April steel exports totaled 403,949 net tons, just a hair above the December 1998 low. Recall that March export levels were at a five-month […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The suspension of iron ore production at Vale’s Itabira Complex resulted in prices surging after the weekend. On Tuesday, June 9, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $105.0 /dmt, up $4.5 /dmt w/w. In China, demand has remained robust as […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor In the past week, iron ore has fallen by $11 /dmt, the largest price drop since August 2019. The price fall comes after declining steel margins and slightly lower steel production levels in China. At the same time, offloading activities at Chinese ports have […]
China’s steel exports in May decline by 23.3 percent compared with May 2019 to about 4.4 million tons. Global demand for Chinese steel products remains weak as economic activity around the world is hampered by the coronavirus. “Customers in each country are losing their willingness to buy,” said a Steel Market Update source in the […]
Imports of rolled products through May, year over year, were not affected by the pandemic, but the longer-term decline continued, according to the latest Commerce Department data. Year over year, total rolled product imports in May were down by 24.8 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This was the seventh consecutive month where […]
Section 232 tariffs will likely remain in place no matter who is the White House in January, said trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz during the SMU Community Chat on June 3. Legal challenges to the tariff measures, however, could cause a change. Firms are challenging the Section 232 exclusion process that appears skewed toward U.S. steel […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Sheet prices in the U.S. Midwest market have continued to rise with HR coil assessed at $510 /s.ton, a w/w gain of $23 /s.ton. While prices are higher, overall volume of transactions has been limited. This is due not only to low demand and plentiful […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: Editor’s note: Lewis Leibowitz will be the featured speaker during the next SMU Community Chat at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Register for the free webinar by clicking on this link. It is hard to believe that three months […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: As an international trade attorney, I work hard to explain why we as a nation engage in international trade; this week, two senior administration officials weighed in on that subject. Everyone should take note. I think Ambassador Robert […]
Ferrous scrap remains in limited supply, prompting predictions that scrap prices will settle still higher in June, on top of the big increase in May. Steel Market Update sources forecast an increase of $10-20 per ton for obsolete grades and $20-30 per ton for prime grades in June from May levels. Higher scrap prices may […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices contracted in the past week as China’s “Two Sessions” concluded with a disappointing outlook while Brazilian exports registered their strongest week of the year. On Tuesday, May 26, CRU assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $97.0, a $1.3 /t […]
United States steel exports totaled 664,129 net tons of steel in March, up 4 percent from February and up 13 percent from one year prior, according to recent U.S. Department of Commerce data. March export levels are the hightest seen since October 2019 when 709,496 tons were exported to other countries. Prior to October, the […]
U.S apparent steel supply rose to 8.66 million net tons in March, according to recent U.S. Department of Commerce and American Iron and Steel Institute data. Although up over the previous month, March supply remains on the low-side historically and is the fourth lowest supply level seen in the past three years. Apparent steel supply, […]
Bank of America is forecasting a slow recovery from the coronavirus crisis, one that will take years not just months, said Metals and Mining Analyst Timna Tanners, who was the featured guest speaker during Steel Market Update’s Community Chat on Wednesday. Bank of America economists anticipate a global recession in the second and third quarters. […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth and Analyst Alexander Ordosch, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service The global Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in sharply falling steel demand all over the world. For the steel industry, it is a challenging task to reduce production levels as ~75 percent of global output is produced through the BF/BOF, […]
The Department of Commerce will self-initiate a Section 232 investigation into whether laminations for stacked transformer cores, stacked and wound transformer cores, electrical transformers and transformer regulators are being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten or impair national security. The laminates for transformers are made of […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: First, to all you moms out there, this is your day. You deserve a lot more just like it. Happy Mother’s Day! Like most of you, I am trying to make sense of the world during the pandemic; […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: It’s hard to blame Roberto Azevedo for quitting. The Director General (Chief Executive) of the World Trade Organization is leaving in September, one year before his term runs out. The WTO is in turmoil because of U.S. hostility […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor In the past week, iron ore prices have declined as we are seeing mixed sentiment in the Chinese market leading up to the country’s Labor Day holiday (May 1-5). Seaborne supply remained strong as Brazilian exports improved, particularly from the southern part of […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in the news a lot lately. I’ve followed the WTO for a long time, and I’ve had several cases there (dispute settlement). Recently, I have been asked about the future of the […]
Phil Raimondo, President & CEO of Behlen Manufacturing in Columbus, Neb., counts his state lucky for having less than a 1,000 people test positive for COVID-19. “Sometimes, with our businesses, we are frustrated with being a fly-over state, but with this virus, we are happy to be a fly-over state,” said Raimondo. Nebraska is one […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The iron ore price rose by $3.0 /dmt in the past week, driven primarily by optimism in the Chinese market, where both rebar and HRC jumped sharply from the bottom. On Tuesday, April 14, the 62% Fe fines price has been assessed at […]
In a new trade outlook by the World Trade Organization, WTO Director Roberto Azevêdo called the global economic situation “ugly.” “The unavoidable declines in trade and output will have painful consequences for households and businesses, on top of the human suffering caused by the disease itself,” said Azevêdo. “The immediate goal is to bring the […]
Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on how to upgrade to a Premium subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Total rolled product imports in March were down by 25.6 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis year over year. This was the fifth consecutive month where imports were […]
Total rolled product imports in April were down by 26.3 percent year over year on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This was the sixth consecutive month where imports declined by more than 20 percent compared to the same month last year. This early look at April’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license […]