As we write this article we are aware that the US Department of Commerce will be releasing their “Final Determination” on corrosion resistant steels tomorrow (Wednesday). We will cover their announcement in a special edition of SMU once the announcement is made. We thought our readers would be interested in seeing both the build-up of […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of April 2016, providing updated data on iron ore imports, scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in April were 83,920,000 metric tons, a decrease of 2.2 percent from the previous month but an increase of 4.6 percent from […]
The following article was written by Lisa Reisman, Managing Director and CEO Of Azul Partners, Inc., on May 24, 2016 and is reprinted with permission of MetalMiner: Jennifer Diggins is the director of Government Affairs at Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor Corp., the largest steelmaker in the U.S. and North America’s largest recycler of any material (Nucor […]
Last week the Department Commerce slapped AD/CVD duties totaling over 500 percent on China cold rolled steel flat products. China immediately challenged the determination, calling for removal of the penalties and reaffirming the rebates awarded to its industry to help with solving the steel and coal overcapacity. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce confirmed that it […]
We received this letter from a very large manufacturing company located in the United States. We are unable to identify the company but we think the questions posed to SMU should be aired and a dialogue begun within the manufacturing and steel industry. This is a topic which will be discussed at our Steel Summit […]
In this evening’s issue we have quite a bit of information about China and the debate regarding Chinese exports, over-capacity and perhaps implosion of steel prices by the end of June. We also have a letter from a manufacturing company who asked the question, why don’t we accept the transfer of wealth from China to […]
Our scrap sources are a little less optimistic today about June scrap price negotiations than they were a couple of short weeks ago. Those pesky Chinese are once again mucking up the waters with their billet offers to Turkey (billet can be used in place of scrap and cost less to convert to long products […]
Production in the month of April at 134,874,000 metric tons was down by 2.0 percent from March but the three month moving average (3MMA) that we prefer as a measure was up by 2.0 percent. Capacity is 2.3 billion tonnes per year and capacity utilization in April was 70.5 percent. There has been a significant […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through March 2016 and year on year changes. It then compares domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market. It quantifies market direction by product and enables a side by side comparison of the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron […]
March ferrous scrap exports totaled 1,096,231 net tons (994,485 metric tons) with Turkey, India, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan being the top five countries receiving scrap from the United States. These five countries accounted for 73.5 percent of all scrap exports. Total March ferrous scrap exports were 3.6 percent lower than previous month. March figures were […]
“U.S. Steel Sinks as Another Wave of Cheap Imports Predicted” was the headline in Bloomberg on Friday morning. The article cites Axiom Capital Research analyst Gordon Johnson who wrote to his clients, “A boat load of imports are likely on the way.” This opinion permeates the financial community and the pessimism is, in our opinion, […]
US Steel has spearheaded an attempt to exclude all Chinese steel products from the U.S. market. But as is usually the case with drastic actions, there are a number of opponents to the move. Companies that use foreign steel in their products have asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to throw the complaint out. Steel […]
Seven bidders are known to be in the running for Tata’s UK steel business. According to media reports the last bidder to be identified was Endless, a UK turnaround specialist. The other bidders include Liberty House, Greybull, the Excaliber management buyout led by Port Talbot Chief Stuart Wilkie, and JSW Steel. Bloomberg reported that China’s […]
On the 24th of May the US Department of Commerce is scheduled to announce their Final Determinations regarding the corrosion resistant trade suits against China, Korea, India, Taiwan and Italy. There is an expectation that the announcement may actually be more supportive of the domestic mill position than what was seen in the Preliminary Determinations. […]
The following is the March steel exports report from the American Institute for International Steel: Falls Church, VA. May 11, 2016. Steel exports changed little from February to March, though they remained well below the level of a year earlier. The 775,270 net tons of exports were 0.5 percent less than the previous month and […]
If things weren’t tight enough there have been a couple of accidents at steel mills, one in the United States (North Star BlueScope) and one in Brazil (CSN), which are impacting the domestic flat rolled steel order books. CSN (Brazil) Affecting Galvanized Markets About two weeks ago, CSN in Brazil had a breakout with their […]
If things weren’t tight enough there have been a couple of accidents at steel mills, one in the United States (North Star BlueScope) and one in Brazil (CSN), which are impacting the domestic flat rolled steel order books. CSN (Brazil) Affecting Galvanized Markets About two weeks ago, CSN in Brazil had a breakout with their […]
According to the latest data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of March 2016 was 8,716,178 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. March apparent […]
March steel exports totaled 775,270 net tons (703,314 metric tons), down 0.5 percent over February and down 13.5 percent from March 2015. Total March figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA, average of January 2016 through March 2016 figures) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA, average of April 2015 through March […]
The annualized GDP growth rate in the first estimate of the first quarter of 2016 was 0.54 percent, down from 1.38 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2015. Normally there are two revisions of the first estimate and sometimes three. Revisions to the four quarters of 2015 were +0.4 percent, +1.59 percent, +0.5 percent and […]
Licensed data for April was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on May 3rd. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of April were […]
Flat Rolled Steel Service Centers Comment About Their Relationship Customers Late last week Steel Market Update started canvassing flat rolled steel distributors about their customer base in an effort to better understand the psyche of their customers. We found there are essentially three camps buying from the domestic steel service centers: 1) Contract customers tied […]
The Broad Index value of the US $ peaked on January 20th at 126.2, and on April 15th (latest figure available) was rated at 119.7, a decline of 5.2 percent. This is the lowest value since November 3rd 2015 (Figure 1). On March 15th the Fed held rates constant and cut its projection for the […]
This may come as a surprise to some but, there are many who think 2016 may be one of those years where flat rolled steel price volatility, maybe even extreme volatility, could become the norm. We are now in the midst of a five month upswing in flat rolled steel prices which has taken benchmark […]
The United Steelworkers filed a petition this week under Section 201 of U.S. trade law to attempt stem imports of primary unwrought aluminum. We are reporting on this because a number of companies/organizations having begun calling for the use of Section 201 to help stem unwanted steel imports (see article in tonight’s newsletter written by […]
NLMK USA crude steel production of 160,000 tonnes was a 94 percent increase quarter over quarter and a 68 percent increase year over year. The jump in production was due to the re-launch of steelmaking at NLMK Indiana after repairs at the end of 2015 as well as from improved steel demand. Capacity utilization improved […]
There have been a number of questions about whether steel prices have the staying power to continue to move higher from here. We thought we would bring in another opinion on the subject. MetalMiner published an article on the subject just yesterday and they have allowed us to reproduce the article in tonight’s newsletter. Lisa […]
Last week hearings were held in Washington, D.C. regarding the plight of the domestic steel industry, world over-capacity of steel production (with a special emphasis on China). During the hearings a number of trade remedies were mentioned such as Section 201 and Section 232 along with the antidumping and countervailing duty flat rolled steel trade […]
China has agreed to eliminate some export subsidies on products exported to the United States, said U.S. officials this week. The subsidized products gave advantages to small firms in seven industries, including textiles and seafood, and were in violation of World Trade Organization rules. It is estimated that government subsidies for the program totaled about […]
The Empire State Manufacturing Survey reached its highest level in more than a year in April. The headline general business index rose 9 points to 9.6, continuing a second positive month with respondents reporting business conditions have improved. New orders picked up two points to register 11.1 after making strong gains in March. Shipments continued […]