Average mill lead times declined ever so slightly across all of the flat rolled steel products being watched by Steel Market Update. We have seen lead times bouncing within a relatively narrow range over the past couple of months as we continue to see a stable market. Hot rolled lead times averaged 4.30 weeks down […]
Based on our latest Steel Market Update analysis of the flat rolled steel markets, we are learning that the domestic steel mills were more willing to negotiate galvanized and Galvalume pricing than hot rolled and cold rolled steel pricing. The largest movement we saw was on Galvalume where 64 percent of our respondents reported the […]
“Everyone wants business,” is how the conversation began with one of our Midwest service center sources. “Everyone has steel to sell,” is what he told us. However, he admitted that the bottom has not dropped out of this market. That feeling of concern was heard in a number of places. Flat rolled steel prices seem […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) analyzes foreign steel import license data on a weekly basis. From the data we can see where import tonnages are trending although we are not comfortable calling a specific number as the license data can be suspect until after the month is over. For the second week August license data is […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been looking at the growth of each flat rolled product during the first six months 2014 vs. the first six months 2013. What we found is how foreign steel has been usurping much of the apparent steel supply growth from the U.S. steel mills. Hot rolled shipments out of the […]
Spreads between the indexes are beginning to narrow as the market has been trending sideways (with a slight upward bias) for a number of weeks. Benchmark hot rolled numbers were up $2 per ton due to SteelBenchmarker reporting new numbers this past week (SteelBenchmarker only reports prices twice per month). The average of all the […]
Early indications, based on steel import license data, are suggesting August steel imports will once again exceed 3.5 million net tons and could go as high as 4.0 million tons. The high so far this year was May at 4.033 million net tons. May 2014 was also the highest import level seen since prior to […]
Ohio-based service center Heidtman Steel announced production for its new slitting facility in East Chicago, Ind. is expected to begin in early September. Installation of equipment is nearly complete and trial runs will begin later this month. Full production is anticipated by October. The 120,000 sq. ft. facility houses an Alcos brand Advance High Strength […]
I got a note from a manufacturing company regarding the size of the Nucor move on galvanized coating extras. The comment that was made was, “Zinc average for 2014 is up 8.6% since average of 2012. Nucor increase is way too high.” This steel buyer went on to comment, “Aluminum average in same time period […]
The market continues to be firm and prices have remained relatively stable over the past few weeks. We are finding the number of outliers, those companies buying at the extreme highs or extreme lows has shrunk. Most products are being offered close to the averages referenced below. At the moment the weakest products appears to […]
We spent the last two days canvassing as many buyers and mill sellers of steel as we possibly could. Our goal was to gather enough information so we could speak to the development of this market and the direction prices should go from here. What we found is a market that is perhaps stronger than […]
Flat rolled steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update on a weekly basis saw prices continuing to be firm to slightly higher on most products. Benchmark hot rolled coil prices averaged $676 per ton, up $2 per ton compared to the previous week’s average. SMU HRC pricing remained stable at $675 per ton while […]
Total shipments of sheet and strip products including hot rolled, cold rolled and all coated products were down by 0.6 percent year to date (YTD) compared to the first half of 2013. In the second quarter of 2014 compared to the first quarter, the total tonnage was down by 0.7 percent and comparing Q2 2014 […]
Domestic steel mill lead times on flat rolled steel are starting to extend compared to what we measured two weeks back. For most of the year lead times have been running within a relatively narrow window (see graph). The new data is suggesting lead times may be breaking above normal patterns. Based on our latest […]
Based on the latest flat rolled steel market survey conducted by Steel Market Update since the beginning of this week, steel buyers and sellers reported the domestic mills as being less willing to negotiate hot rolled steel prices and continue to be less willing to negotiate cold rolled prices. When we reviewed the data on […]
Steel Market Update is conducting one of our flat rolled steel market surveys this week. Part of our survey deals with hot rolled pricing, cold rolled pricing, galvanized and Galvalume pricing and what is available in the spot market this week. We are market conditions as being firm but not too firm. Steel executives, buyers […]
Last week flat rolled steel prices moved higher by modest amounts, $5 per ton or less with a couple exceptions (see table below). Since the beginning of July our SMU steel price index has seen hot rolled prices move higher by $15 per ton, cold rolled prices by $10, galvanized prices by $10 and Galvalume […]
ArcelorMittal Dofasco is conducting a two phase upgrade of its galvanizing lines. Phase 1 includes a new heavy gauge galvanize line (#6 Galvinize Line) that will have AHSS capability and a capacity of 660ktpy. Phase 2 includes the conversion of the #4 galvanize line to a dual pot line. The #4 line is expected to […]
ArcelorMittal posted a profit of $52 million in the second quarter, following a string of quarterly losses that included a $205 million loss in Q1 2014 and a $780 million loss in Q2 2013. Steel shipments increased by 2.5 percent y/y to 21.5 million tonnes (23.7 million net tons). Net debt decreased to $17.4 billion […]
At the end of each month Steel Market Update takes a look back at the data we have compiled and does a quick analysis for our readers. This is different than our SMU Key Market Indicators which is also included in this newsletter. Benchmark hot rolled coil prices averaged $667 per ton (SMU) for the […]
The past couple of days have been ones full of mixed messages. As we report in our article about HARDI wholesalers (see below) their buyers reported galvanized prices as having increased by $20 per ton since the middle of July. We are hearing from a multitude of sources that flat rolled prices have firmed on […]
Flat rolled steel prices have been essentially trending sideways for the past couple of weeks and this past week was no exception. We saw our hot rolled average increase by $3 per ton to $673 per ton with the CRU having the lowest HRC pricing at $667 per ton and Platts the highest at $680 […]
Preliminary steel import data was updated late last week by the US Department of Commerce, reporting total June imports at 3,585,781 net tons, down 11.1 percent over May levels and down 4.1 percent over April levels. Compared to the same month one year ago, total June 2014 steel imports are up 45.8 percent or 1,125,697 […]
Mill lead times are an important indicator as to the strength or weakness of the mill order books. There are a number of ways to look at mill lead times. One is to go off the lead time sheets produced by some (not all) of the domestic mills. Steel Market Update does follow the lead […]
One of the most popular items produced out of our twice monthly flat rolled steel surveys is our Mill Negotiations data. We ask active buyers and sellers of steel how willing are domestic steel mills to negotiate pricing by product at this point in time. What our most recent survey results are telling us is […]
The steel market has been relatively quiet this week, according to one steel buyer we spoke to earlier today. Steel prices which we have been gathering both from our steel market analysis (survey) as well as through direct contact with buyers found flat rolled steel prices to be mostly unchanged from one week ago. There […]
The US Department of Commerce released steel import license data through the first 22 days of the month of July. The most recent license data supports our belief that steel imports will meet or exceed the 3.7 million net tons reported for June and could meet or exceed the 4.0 million net tons received during […]
Steel Market Update watches a number of flat rolled steel indexes and once per week we provide our readers an analysis of what movement has occurred in each during the prior week. This week we found small movements, mostly indicating higher prices, in most of the indices. Hot rolled saw two indexes moving prices by […]
Based on a quick analysis of the just released July steel import license data (through the 15th of July) we see the foreign steel imports continuing at very high rates. The import data suggests we will see July imports at levels similar to that of May and June. May had the highest level of imports […]
Spot zinc prices on the LME are closing in on $1.05 per pound as the metal has traded just above $1.04 over the past four business days. The metal has moved from $0.9508 per pound on the 16th of June to its current level at $1.04 per pound. It is important to watch zinc pricing […]