The domestic steel mills continue to walk prices higher with all flat rolled products except cold rolled moving up by double digits this week. We understand that at least one mill and perhaps more are trying to collect $880 per ton ($44.00/cwt) on cold rolled and coated products. But, we did not hear from any […]
Whenever SMU speaks to steel buyers about flat rolled steel pricing cycles we inevitably hear about how the domestic steel mills have a tendency to over-correct to both the low and the high sides of the cycle (boom/bust). In the process there seems to be an assurance that market volatility will continue to be significant […]
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 […]
We tend to see the various steel indexes become more “in tune” with one another once the steel mills decide to take a wait and see attitude about the market. Over the past few weeks, U.S. steel mills have (once again) managed to expand the spread between U.S. steel prices and those of foreign steel […]
On Monday of this week, Steel Market Update began canvassing the flat rolled steel market as part of our mid-May flat rolled steel market trends analysis. One of the areas we probe is that of mill lead times, the amount of time it takes to get an order produced for new orders placed this week. […]
As the thunderstorms erupt around our offices one of our indices is quite calm. The calming blue color of our bar graph depicts what buyers and sellers are telling us is happening during the negotiation process between mills and their customers: take it or leave it. Respondents to our mid-May flat rolled steel market trends […]
Flat rolled prices took a bit of a breather this week as buyers and sellers evaluate what will happen next. The expectation is for prices to continue to move higher from here. But, maybe with the potential for a pull back in scrap coming next month, and with the amount of the increases we have […]
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 […]
Flat rolled prices have been very dynamic over the past few weeks with double digit price changes and, at times, more than one price change during the course of one week. This has kept the steel price indexes busy and has shown the strength and weaknesses of the collection techniques used by each index. Flat […]
Supply is the over-riding issue affecting steel buyers today. Supply is constrained for a number of reasons, some expected and some by chance. We wrote an article earlier this week about two situations affecting steel buyers in the United States. The accident at CSN in Brazil took out their lone blast furnace costing them about […]
We hope the contract customers are paying attention to what is going on in the flat rolled steel spot markets. When the adjustment comes at the end of this quarter there will be some very shocked purchasing people. Spot flat rolled steel prices rose again this week by large double digits. Over the past two […]
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 […]
Domestic mill lead times: the amount of time it takes to receive flat rolled steel on an order placed this week, continue to be extended and are averaging at least one week longer than one year ago according to those participating in this week’s SMU flat rolled market trends analysis. Earlier this week we began […]
Steel Market Update asks our flat rolled steel market trends analysis participants to comment on the status of negotiations between their company and their steel mill suppliers. We want to know how stringent are the mills being when it comes to collecting the announced or original quoted steel price and are they able to collect […]
In an email to their customers earlier today, ArcelorMittal USA became the first mill to announce new base price minimums on flat rolled steel with the opening of their July order book. The new steel price minimums set by AM are as follows: Hot Rolled = $610 per ton ($30.50/cwt)Cold Rolled = $800 per ton […]
In case there is some confusion, flat rolled steel prices are moving higher and, with today’s announcement by ArcelorMittal it is only a matter of time before benchmark hot rolled breaches $600 per ton and cold rolled and coated breach $800 per ton (base plus extras). It has been a very difficult market to gauge […]
Double digit flat rolled steel price moves seem to be a weekly occurrence over the past few weeks. Steel mills are controlling their flat rolled steel order books and restricting spot tons. Those buyers who did not recognize things were changing back in the fall when Steel Market Update began pointing out the changes in […]
What makes indexing flat rolled steel prices so difficult right now is you have steel mills quoting lead times that may be in May, June or even July for the same product. A hot rolled order placed on SDI last week is actually being produced at the same time as one placed on AK Steel […]
Earlier today CSN began informing their U.S. customers importing flat rolled steel from them that there has been an accident at their #3 blast furnace in Brazil. The blast furnace, which was just coming back into operation after a 10-day scheduled maintenance outage, will now be down for an “undetermined” amount of time. SMU sources […]
According to our latest flat rolled steel market survey which was conducted last week, steel mill lead times have continued to move out on every single one of the flat rolled products. The extended mill lead times are one of the primary reasons behind the increases in flat rolled steel prices, pressure on deliveries, allocations […]
The steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update showed flat rolled steel spot prices continuing their climb higher as all products moved by double digits. Both Platts and SMU took hot rolled prices up by $15 per ton, although there is a $15 per ton spread between the two indexes. Based on the SMU index, […]
Steel prices continued to rise over the past week. A number of buyers are reporting mills as being on allocation (or not open at this time) which is keeping prices very close to the announced levels made over the past two weeks. In some cases, buyers are reporting mills as asking for premiums above the […]
The following is a quick update on the status of the flat rolled trade cases (hot rolled, cold rolled and corrosion resistant) and what are the next important dates to remember. The corrosion resistant, which covers galvanized, Galvalume and related products such as galvanneal and aluminized, are scheduled to have the Final Determination by the […]
All of the steel indexes we follow reported flat rolled steel prices this past week with each showing major double digit gains for the domestic steel mills hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and plate. Hot rolled prices surged with each index reporting at least a $34 per ton increase (+$35 for Platts and +$40 […]
Mill Steel Company, one of the nation’s largest distributors of flat-rolled carbon steel, announced the appointment of Pam Heglund to President. Heglund will be the first female president of a steel service center of this size. Heglund was Mill Steel’s first intern, starting at the company in 2000 and serving the past five years as […]
This was one of the most difficult weeks to analyze flat rolled steel prices due to a number of factors. There were some “deals” available a few days ago (but after last Tuesday when we last indexed pricing) that no longer exist. How much weight do we give those deals? There are a number of […]
Licensed data for March was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on April 5th. 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 March were […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through February 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 and […]
Steel buyers were pulling out their hair earlier today due to the number of mills holding tons off the market as they try to determine what the new pricing should be on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products. As of early this afternoon (Thursday) steel buyers were informing Steel Market Update of a […]
Steel mill lead times on all four flat rolled products have become more extended, according to those who responded to our most recent flat rolled steel market analysis. As lead times extend, steel buyers have to place more orders in order to protect their inventories. The more orders placed, the better chance for the domestic […]