License data for October was updated on November 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. 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 October were […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts an analysis of the flat rolled steel market from the perspective of active buyers and sellers of sheet and coil products. We invite approximately 560 companies to participate through the use of a questionnaire that we have been using since 2008. One of the areas probed is […]
Our flat rolled steel survey respondents reported the domestic steel mills as willing to negotiate flat rolled steel prices on virtually every product. The results of our flat rolled steel market analysis conducted throughout this week saw 93 percent of our respondents reporting benchmark hot rolled pricing as being negotiable. This is just about the […]
Based on the most recent import license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, October import licenses totaled 3,399,248 net tons. We anticipate when the final census numbers are released for the month of October total steel imports will be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4 million tons (net tons not metric tons). Imports of […]
We found flat rolled prices so far this week at about the same levels seen one week ago. Our hot rolled average remained at $390 per ton ($19.50/cwt) with both the upper and lower parts of our range at the same levels seen one week ago. The lower end of the cold rolled price range […]
On Friday, October 30, 2015, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced their Preliminary Determination that critical circumstances existed on corrosion resistant steels from certain mills in the Peoples Republic of China (China), South Korea (Korea), Italy and Taiwan. Critical circumstances were not found for any company from India and only ILVA was identified from Italy. […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to erode at a moderate pace this past week. Steel Market Update reviewed the results of three other steel indexes as well as our own for the week ending October 30, 2015. We found, with the exception of the Platts indices, all of the other indexes saw prices down by […]
October was the second month in a row where SMU had our Pricing Momentum Indicator pointing toward lower pricing. SMU reports hot rolled coil, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume pricing every Tuesday evening. During October we produced our steel prices indices four times. HRC was reported at $420 per ton the first Tuesday of the […]
I am aware that on October 23, 2015 the domestic steel mills filed allegations of critical circumstances on exports of hot rolled coil from four countries: Brazil, Australia, Japan and The Netherlands. I will have more details and statements from both buyers and sellers later this week. I wanted to spend time studying the affirmative […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) asked a manufacturing company when they thought prices will stop dropping? Their response was both classic and profound, “Prices will stop going down, when they go up. Prices can’t go below absolute zero. Question then becomes as to what defines absolute zero…?” Flat rolled steel prices continued their march lower this […]
Hot rolled prices are poised to crash through the $400 per ton ($20.00/cwt) barrier and head toward lows not seen since 2009 when SMU’s HRC average briefly reached $380 per ton ($19.00/cwt). This past week SMU saw flat rolled steel and plate prices drop on all of the indexes followed by SMU except SteelBenchmarker which […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are reporting average lead times on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels as being essentially unchanged from what we reported at the beginning of the month. However, when looking at the graphic below you can clearly see lead times have been in decline since the early […]
SMU spoke with a service center executive earlier today. During our conversion this Midwest based service center expressed his opinion regarding the ability to negotiate domestic steel prices in the current market environment when he told us, “I am beginning to think that with a firm bid you could get a better deal domestically than […]
Flat rolled prices dropped $5 to $10 per ton this week as the psychology of the market works against the sellers of steel. Hot rolled continues to be the weakest of the flat rolled products due to the energy, mining and agricultural markets. Other products are faring better (regarding demand) but not to the point […]
Steel Dynamics reported decreased third quarter profit as a result of high levels of low priced imports and elevated domestic inventory. SDI posted net sales of $2.0 billion for a net income of $61 million in Q3. The three percent drop in sales was due to lower pricing and reduced volume in the recycling and […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their downward spiral this past week based on our analysis of the four steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. We will be watching prices closely over the next week or two to see if we breach the psychological $400 per ton number on benchmark hot rolled coil. We have […]
For weeks SMU procrastinated about taking the time to attend this year’s METALCON exhibition in Tampa, Florida. We ended up flying to Tampa yesterday morning (Wednesday) for the opening of the show and then returning to our offices last night. With all of the uncertainty which has enveloped the flat rolled steel industry over the […]
As I was sitting at my desk this evening (around 8 PM ET) thinking about what I was going to write about in my Final Thoughts article, I flipped over to my second computer screen to look at the U.S. Department of Commerce site dealing with foreign steel imports. The site is normally updated every […]
Flat rolled steel buyers and industry executives reported steel mills in both Canada and the United States as “aggressively looking for business” to run across their lines. Steel Market Update spoke with a manufacturing company on Monday who told us their company had been approached by a domestic mill not usually associated with cheap hot […]
SMU watches service center spot flat rolled steel prices to their end user customers very closely. As markets ebb and flow we have found that steel service centers reach a point of “capitulation,” which is seen as a point when distributors will support a change in the market environment – including accepting mill price increases. […]
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 […]
Our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop will be held in the Columbus, Mississippi area on January 19 and 20, 2016. This workshop will include a tour of the SDI Columbus steel mill. We are working on hotel information right now and hope to have the hotel selected by early […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued their slide according to the various flat rolled steel market indexes followed by Steel Market Update. The greatest movement was found with benchmark hot rolled which was down double digits on all of the indexes reporting last week. We saw mixed results when reviewing cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and plate […]
SMU has developed a series of foreign steel import reports that enable steel buyers and company executives to see exactly how much imported steel has entered their immediate vicinity and where it came from. This series of reports includes hot rolled, cold rolled, Hot Dipped Galvanized, other metallic coated (mainly Galvalume) as well as semi-finished […]
Licensed data for September was updated on October 6th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is available to our […]
Flat rolled steel mill lead times remain historically short as the domestic mills struggle to keep their mills full. Based on the results from this week’s flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) we are seeing lead times at least one week shorter than this time last year on all products with the exception of Galvalume. […]
Flat rolled steel prices were mixed over this past week based on data reported in our survey as well as the channel checks we were able to make during these past two hectic days. We are aware of offers on hot rolled under $400 per ton but we have not reported the numbers as readily […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released new license data for the month of September and the latest number for foreign steel imports is 2,891,217 tons (net tons). September appears poised to drop 224,000 tons below the August number. The September license data was released at the same time the US DOC reported Final Census Data […]
According to the various flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and plate prices continue to be weak this past week. Benchmark hot rolled was the most stable with all four indexes reporting last week. SMU and Platts were showing the HRC average as being $430 per […]
I recently had dinner with the owner of a Midwest based flat rolled steel service center. During the course of the conversation the subject of steel sales and, specifically, the development of new sales leads came up. I am sure this is a topic that many service center managers reflect upon on an almost daily […]