Something has to give. US Steel announced during the month of June the closure of two of their OCTG production facilities. The McKeesport facility has a capacity of 315,000 tons of OCTG per year while the Bellville operation capacity is 100,000 tons of OCTG on an annual basis. Total US Steel production capacity of oil […]
“Following the doubling of steel production from 849 million tonnes in 2000 to 1.6 million tonnes in 2014, we are likely entering a period of consolidation, or at the very least, much reduced growth.” That is the opinion of Becky Hites, analyst and president of Steel-Insights, LLC in a June 7, 2014 report, Fixed Asset […]
The HRC futures market has been stuck in a rut over the past couple of weeks in terms of both volumes and price volatility. The market remains backwardated with the spot price now at 670 and the July futures value around 650, Q3 630 and Q4 630. While prices in the physical market have softened […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. We have made two changes this month to try to make this even more representative of the market. Both the long and flat products shipment rows have been changed from “shipments” to […]
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI rose moderately to 52.7 in June from 52.1 in May, an expansion of the manufacturing sector for the 19th month. Production increased at the fastest rate since February due to a flow of new orders. International trade volumes were subdued in June reported JP Morgan and Markit. The June […]
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimate of US GDP growth was a shocker at negative 2.9 percent, this came after the first estimate which was positive 0.1 percent and the second estimate at negative 1.0 percent. This raises the question of whether early estimates are worth considering. The first estimate for the second quarter […]
“USW members and non-union workers alike know firsthand the pain inflicted by foreign predatory, protectionist and unfair trade practices,” said Leo W. Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers (USW) before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance on June 25. Gerard told Senate members that the only way the USW wins at its efforts to counter unfair […]
Steel imports in May increased 7.4 percent from April to 4 million net tons, a 41.5 percent increase over May imports in 2013. The year-to-date total is now 17.5 million net tons, 31.7 percent higher than the same period last year. Steel imports have been a headline issue for the steel industry in the last […]
Figure 1 shows historical gas and oil prices since January 2000. West Texas Intermediate closed at $107.08 and Brent at $115.19 on June 19th. In 10 days prior to the 19th WTI increased by $1.99 and Brent by $4.64 as the ISIS situation in Iraq increased market uncertainty. Oil and gas prices have both been […]
The HRC futures market has been stuck in a rut over the past couple of weeks in terms of both volumes and price volatility. The market remains backwardated with the spot price now at 670 and the July futures value around 650, Q3 630 and Q4 630. While prices in the physical market have softened […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the HRC pricing […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the hot rolled […]
Hello from New York City. If you are in the steel industry and you have never attended a Steel Success Strategies conference (or been a lobby rat hanging out in the hotel lobby and talking to people as they pass in and out of the hotel) then you need to do it at least one […]
“Following the doubling of steel production from 849 million tonnes in 2000 to 1.6 million tonnes in 2014, we are likely entering a period of consolidation, or at the very least, much reduced growth.” That is the opinion of Becky Hites, analyst and president of Steel-Insights, LLC in a June 7, 2014 report, Fixed Asset […]
The Broad Index value of the US $ has been gradually strengthening for 18 months, (Figure 1) which favors imports to the US and depresses exports. See explanation at the end of this piece. The currencies of the steel trading nations have been fairly stable over the last month. Table 1 shows the number of […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk and our Managing Price Risk I & II workshops instructor writes about the financial and futures markets, including hot rolled futures and busheling scrap futures trading over the past week. You will also be able to see Andre speak at our Steel Summit Conference in September (3 & 4) in […]
Media sources from Serbia report that Esmark Steel Group is in negotiations for a partnership with steel company Zelezara Smederevo. Bojan Bojkovic, financial director of Zelezara, said Esmark representatives visited the factory last week, as reported by American Metal Market. According to sources at Esmark, negotiation information released in Serbia was in violation of confidentiality […]
Year to date steel scrap exports through April are down by 25.2 percent from the same period last year. Total YTD was 4,761,374 metric tonnes a decline of 1,603,386 tonnes. Figure 1 shows that the three month moving average (3MMA) picked up in April but was still below the monthly average of all years back […]
Funding for the FY 2015 appropriations bill that supports the US Army Corps of Engineers and projects in the WRRDA has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee. Funding for the Corps civil works projects is $5.493 billion. Below is a reprint of a press release by Waterways Council Inc. praising the Committee’s approval and […]
We are now one-third of the way through the month of June, far enough along to begin doing our analysis of the US Department of Commerce license data on imports. The data is showing us that the surge of imports grew during the month of May and will continue into the month of June. We […]
April ferrous scrap exports totaled 1,476,282 net tons (1,339,262 metric tons) with Turkey, Taiwan, Korea, Mexico, and China being the top five importing countries. These countries accounted for 73.2 percent of all scrap exports. Total April ferrous scrap exports were 0.7 percent higher than previous month and 36.7 percent higher than the same month one […]
Total shipments of sheet and strip products including hot rolled, cold rolled and all coated products were up by 0.8 percent year to date (YTD) compared to the first four months of 2013. In the period January through April compared to the previous three months, the total tonnage was up by 4.8 percent. Comparing YTD […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released final census data regarding exports of steel out of the U.S. steel mills this past week. According to the US DOC data, the domestic mills exported a total of 1,079,723 net tons of steel products during the month of April 2014. This is in line with the previous two […]
The U.S. steel mills exported 1 million tons of steel during the month of April. This is within the 12 month moving average and only slightly higher than the 1,041,387 net tons shipped in April 2013. During the same month (April 2014) foreign imports rose by 999,557 net tons compared to the same period one […]
Apparent steel supply for April was 9,925,287 net tons, the highest figure Steel Market Update has in its recorded history beginning in January 2010. April supply represents an 831,098 ton or 9.1 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This is primarily due to the massive spike in April imports, up 36.5 […]
A strike by Seaspan tugboat operators at the Westshore Terminal in Roberts Banks near Vancouver has been averted by last minute negotiations on Wednesday, June 3. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 400 voted 100 percent in favor of a strike earlier in the day but the union and Seaspan have now agreed […]
Something has to give. US Steel announced the closure of two of their OCTG production facilities. The McKeesport facility has a capacity of 315,000 tons of OCTG per year while the Bellville operation capacity is 100,000 tons of OCTG on an annual basis. Total US Steel production capacity of oil country tubular goods is 2.8 […]
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI made a modest uptick to 52.2 in May after dropping to a six month low of 51.9 in April. Faster expansion rates were seen in production, new orders and orders for new exports. Overall improvement, however, remains modest with the average rate of increase in business conditions lower than […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution instructor penned the following commentary on the financial, iron ore, scrap and steel markets and the results of trading on the HRC and BUS Futures markets over this past week. More information about futures can […]
Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and our Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution instructor penned the following commentary on the iron ore, scrap and steel markets and the results of trading on the HRC and BUS Futures markets over this past week (as of May 29th). More information […]