Flat rolled steel prices slowly moved higher this past week according to the revisions made to the SMU and Platts steel indexes. Benchmark hot rolled prices were rose $5 per ton on the SMU index taking our number to $405 per ton. Platts kept their $410 per ton number the same on HRC from the […]
Based on the results of our flat rolled steel market analysis, all of the flat rolled lead times are averaging longer lead times than what we measured one year ago. The SMU steel market questionnaire found the average lead time on hot rolled coil (HRC) was 3.91 weeks, up from a 3.63 week average reported […]
As lead times move out (see article above) we traditionally find the mills less willing to negotiate flat rolled steel prices. We asked those taking our mid-January flat rolled steel market survey to provide us information regarding the willingness of the U.S. steel mills to discount or negotiate steel prices. Hot rolled, which has been […]
The domestic steel mills announced a new round of price increases earlier this month. Steel prices are responding by moving higher, at least by a portion of the second increase. We are hearing from our sources that the mills have been able to collect $40-$50 or essentially all of the first price increase by this […]
With all of the key flat rolled products, hot rolled, cold rolled and corrosion resistant steels involved in antidumping and countervailing trade suits and the results of the preliminary determinations coming out it can be daunting to keep track of where each case rests at this point in time. Steel Market Update reached out to […]
Flat rolled steel prices are beginning to catch some wind behind their backs this past week according to the various steel indices followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled prices moved from a low of $4 per ton (SteelBenchmarker at $386) to as much as $20 per ton (Platts at $410). What is undeniable […]
This report compares domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market. It quantifies market direction by product and enables a side by side comparison showing the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce with analysis by SMU. Table 1 shows both […]
On Tuesday evening ArcelorMittal advised their customers of their intention to raise carbon flat rolled sheet prices. In an email to their customers the mill advised that they would be raising prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels (galvanized and Galvalume). The mill told their customers: “Effective immediately with all new quotations, ArcelorMittal […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated January 2016 foreign steel import license data earlier this week. For a number of months Steel Market Update has been comparing the data to see how the current month’s numbers compare to prior months in an effort to get a better handle on the trend. January’s number may be […]
The prices we have referenced in tonight’s issue do not reflect the new price increase announcements. We understand that there are new prices floating in the marketplace that has galvanized and Galvalume base prices at $28.50/cwt and hot rolled well over $400 per ton. However, the numbers we have been collecting since Monday are showing […]
SMU has developed a series of reports that cover hot rolled, cold rolled, HDG, other metallic coated, coiled plate and semi-finished slabs. These reports are a detailed drill down into tons by source country and port of entry which will enable you to determine exactly what is going on in your area for whichever product […]
We are seeing small adjustments higher in hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized pricing based on what our index, along with that of Platts, reported this past week. Hot rolled averages range from a low of $380 per ton (SMU) to $390 per ton (Platts). Both indices were up, resulting in our CPI average for […]
We discussed mill lead times a little earlier this week based on the first two days of data received by our flat rolled steel market analysis (survey). We also reported on what we were seeing from the mills themselves last week when we went through and analyzed a number of the lead times being published […]
Licensed data for December was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on January 5th. At SMU we perform a detailed analysis of this data, an explanation of our methodology is given at the end of this write up. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of December […]
We saw very modest movement in flat rolled steel prices since we last reported prices on Tuesday, December 29th. With most buyers and steel mill commercial people on holiday our new flat rolled market analysis picked up some movement at the upper end of our range in hot rolled, a reduction of the lower end […]
When SMU was at the recent HARDI conference in December we remember that many of the executives were not interested in taking inventory positions as they felt there still could be more room to fall. From our perspective, looking at prices from a historical perspective, the domestic mills had already suffered lower prices than what […]
The winner of the 2015 Steel Man of the Year is Lisa Goldenberg, the first woman to receive the award from the Association of Steel Distributors. The press release from ASD follows: The Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) is proud to announce Lisa Goldenberg has received the 2015 Steel Man of the Year Award. Since […]
The first thing that jumps out at you when taking a look at the December steel and economic data is the change in the direction flat rolled steel prices took early in the month as the domestic steel mills raised prices for the first time since the Spring 2015 (which resulted in a dead cat […]
This is normally the week when many buyers (and sellers) of steel tend to take an extended holiday and this year is no exception. Without a large number of price points to reference we have chosen to keep our prices in line with what we reported this past week. Here is how we see spot […]
Steel Market Update and Platts both saw hot rolled prices as rising modestly by the end of last week. Platts is now $12.5 per ton higher than SMU as we are still getting reports of prices struggling to move higher on HRC. SteelBenchmarker did not report pricing this past week as they only report twice […]
Based on the Preliminary License Data recently released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, foreign steel imports for the month of November were 2,350,942 net tons. This is the lowest total seen for any month since December 2011 when 2,064,143 net tons were reported. November 2015 imports were 1,343,207 tons less than November 2014 when […]
Last week the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the Preliminary Determination of the Antidumping (AD) portion of the CORE (corrosion resistant – galvanized, Galvalume, aluminized, etc.) trade suit. We have received a number of questions/comments regarding the actual impact of the various rulings and what the ultimate cash deposits (not duties yet) will be. Last […]
Late this afternoon the US Department of Commerce released their Preliminary Determination regarding antidumping of corrosion resistant steels from China, India, Taiwan, Korea and Italy. China was smacked the hardest and received margins of 255.80 percent while India (6.64-6.92%), Korea (2.99-3.51%) and Italy (0.0-3.11%) were slapped on the wrists. Taiwan received no antidumping margin what-so-ever. […]
Steel Market Update is seeing prices as being modestly higher than they were both two weeks ago as well as last week. On average, cold rolled and coated steels have the most strength with lead times on many of these products having extended into February (and some coated into March) at most of the mills […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released import license data through the 22nd of December. The data continues to show the trend to be similar to that of November when approximately 2.7 million net tons of foreign steel were exported to the United States. In the graphic below we have highlighted hot rolled (trending lower), cold […]
We are at the point of the turn and watching how quickly each index reports the change. From Steel Market Update’s view, we saw all flat rolled products pricing rising this past week and we expect most, if not all, of the price increase announcements made to be collected by the domestic steel mills and […]
This will be a busy week – at least the beginning of the week. We have the US Department of Commerce scheduled to release Preliminary Determinations on Heavy Walled Rectangular Welded Carbon Pipes and Tubes from Turkey on Monday. On Tuesday (vote will be on Monday) the US DOC is scheduled to release antidumping (AD) […]
The domestic steel mills began raising flat rolled steel prices late last week and into this week. We saw a mild rise in our hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume indices as the domestic mills began to collect at least a portion of the announced increases. As we canvass the buyers and sellers of […]
Flat rolled steel lead times, according to those responding to this week’s market analysis questionnaire, have begun to move. The question now becomes will they continue to move and will they move out far enough to force buyers back into the market? Our respondents reported hot rolled lead times as having extended slightly from the […]
There was a significant change in the willingness of the domestic steel mills to negotiate pricing with their customers after the price announcements were made. According to the results of this week’s flat rolled market analysis conducted by Steel Market Update all products saw the percentage of those reporting the mills as willing to negotiate […]