Flat rolled prices have begun to climb out of the hole which has been almost a year in making. Steel Market Update and Platts both saw benchmark hot rolled prices as being up $10 per ton this past week while CRU had HRC up $1 per ton. The HRC average of the three reporting indexes […]
The domestic flat rolled steel mill lead times have begun to move out, according to the results from our flat rolled steel analysis questionnaire conducted this past week. We are seeing movement on all four products: hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume. Lead times had bottomed in January and February and we started to […]
The domestic steel mills are still willing to negotiate according to the majority of last week SMU flat rolled steel market survey respondents. However, for the first time in many months we are seeing a break in the “tell me what it’s going to take” negotiating tactic and more of the “here is our bottom, […]
Licensed data for April was updated on May 5th 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 […]
Late last week I asked the vice president of one of the steel mills which had announced price increases if they were indeed collecting higher prices and we received a one word response “Yep.” Earlier today we spoke with a conversion mill about the status of their pricing and they provided a more descriptive look […]
All of the domestic steel mills located east of the Rockies (except U.S. Steel) made flat rolled price increase announcements this past week. The first steel index to note an upward move in pricing was Platts where by the end of this past week had taken their hot rolled index up $5 per ton from […]
Steel Market Update spent time over the past few days speaking with trading companies and customers who buy foreign steel to see if the flow of orders has subsided or remains in place. We were especially interested in cold rolled and coated products (galvanized and Galvalume in particular) since so much has been made about […]
The domestic mills were beginning to make moves late last week to increase steel prices. Those efforts accelerated earlier today with the announcements out of ArcelorMittal USA (internal memo), Nucor (verbal & later in a letter to their customers), NLMK USA (letter to customers). These moves have, at least temporarily, halted the slide in flat […]
Service centers and wholesalers are making no bones about it – it is time for the steel mills to raise steel prices. A good example was comments made by incoming Reliance Steel & Aluminum CEO, Gregg Mollins during last week’s earnings conference call: ” I think personally we expect a price increase in the not […]
The slippage in flat rolled steel prices continued this past week but we are seeing signs that the end to the slide “may” be close. Hot rolled prices dropped $3 (SMU) to $5 (Platts and CRU) per ton with only $1 separating the indexes from one another. We normally see the indexes tightening up the […]
On Friday of this past week the U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) reported Preliminary License Data for steel imports into the United States. March steel imports (all products) were reported to be 3,587,949 net tons. This is down from the 3.7 million tons reported for February and below both the twelve month and three […]
Domestic mill lead times appear to have found bottom and are stabilizing at these lower than normal rates, based on the results of the latest Steel Market Update flat rolled steel market analysis (survey). Benchmark hot rolled lead times managed to eek above 3.0 weeks for the first time in a number of months (late […]
We saw a mixed market for flat rolled steel prices this past week with some items moving lower and one (cold rolled) slightly higher than what we reported one week ago. Steel Market Update, which continues to have our Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral, saw the lower end of hot rolled as being $5 per […]
As much as the steel industry would like to see foreign steel imports shrinking so far in April, that is not the case. Based on steel import license data through Tuesday, April 23rd, imports are on pace to come close to repeating March’s 3.7 million tons. At this point in time Steel Market Update believes […]
There has been a “calming” to the market although that has not stopped the slow trickle lower we are seeing in flat rolled steel pricing. We saw hot rolled break through the $440 level although we were told by steel buyers that were able to get those kind of numbers the last $5 per ton […]
The following article is was provided to our Premium customers on Friday afternoon, and we felt it would be a good article to share with our Executive members as an example of what a Premium level membership has to offer. We also published Imports by Product, Port, and Country and our Market Survey Results to […]
Licensed data for March was updated on April 7th 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 […]
This report compares domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market to enable a side by side comparison and 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 supply and mill shipments of sheet […]
This week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early April flat rolled steel market survey. Based on the results of our inquiries we learned that domestic mill lead times continue to be quite short and well below the lead times seen one year ago. However, when looking at last year’s lead times, we must remember […]
According to our survey respondents not much has changed when it comes to how willing steel mills are to negotiate hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steel pricing. Lead times continue to remain short and order books weak. This has created a situation whereby steel mills have to be competitively priced in order to […]
According to our survey respondents not much has changed when it comes to how willing steel mills are to negotiate hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steel pricing. Lead times continue to remain short and order books weak. This has created a situation whereby steel mills have to be competitively priced in order to […]
Prices eased off the hectic pace we have been watching and reporting on over the past few months. Benchmark hot rolled pricing remained the same as what we reported this past week at $460 per ton average. We are watching the lower end of the range carefully to see if the domestic mills will attempt […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to slide their slide this past week according to all of the steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled dropped to $460 per ton ($459 at CRU), down $10-$12 per ton depending on the index chosen. A number to keep in mind: $390 per ton. That […]
Based on the most recent license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (SIMA) on Tuesday of this week, steel imports appear to be trending toward the 3.6 million net ton level. This is less than what we saw earlier in the month when license data was trending toward a 3.8 million net ton […]
Last week Steel Market Update adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Lower to Neutral. We believe that change is coming and the wholesale slide we have seen in flat rolled steel prices will come to an end. We have not yet come to the conclusion that prices will reverse direction, rather that prices on hot […]
In the table below, Steel Market Update provides a snapshot look at various flat rolled steel pricing, commodities which impact steel prices and economic data of importance to the flat rolled steel industry. One of the first items you will notice on the end of month table provided is we moved our Price Momentum indicator […]
Benchmark hot rolled pricing has tightened, according to the various flat rolled steel indices we follow. With SteelBenchmarker reporting this past week all four indexes were within a few dollars of one another with SMU and Platts at $470 per ton, CRU $1 higher at $471 and SteelBenchmarker $3 higher at $473 per ton. Our […]
The current downward cycle is getting a little “long in the tooth” (old) and there are signs that even with the short lead times and excessive inventories at the service centers the domestic steel mills are not chasing business but rather negotiating for specific pieces of business with known tonnages and want dates. The mills […]
March imports are trending toward another very large month. We expect that when the final numbers are released, the month will come in about 3.6 to 3.8 million net tons which would be in line with our 12 month moving average of 3.7 million net tons. Last March imports were 3.2 million net tons. Note […]
One of the most import keys being watched by buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are the steel mill lead times on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products. Lead times, which are the amount of time it takes to get material produced once a purchase order is placed, have been running “short” […]