Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel responding to this week’s Steel Market Update survey reported steel mills as continuing to be receptive to negotiating flat rolled steel prices. However, we are seeing a moderation in the numbers as only 70 percent reported hot rolled coil (HRC) prices as negotiable compared to 92 percent just […]
It is still too early in the month of July to provide a trend analysis of where we think import numbers will fall by the end of the month. The first eight days (with three being holidays) of the month saw a relatively large number of license applications but we will wait until next Tuesday […]
The sense, the tone of the market, is that prices are firming a bit. The slide we experienced over the past few weeks (modest as it was) has been moderating and shrinking in size. That is the sense that we have been receiving as we spoke to both buyers and steel mills over the past […]
Many within the steel industry are looking toward Washington, D.C. to right was has been perceived as a wrong committed by South Korea against the OCTG manufacturers and supporting domestic steel mills. According to the US Department of Commerce website, the final determination is supposed to be announced on Thursday of this week so we […]
Steel Market Update did not publish on Sunday evening due to the extended 4th of July holiday here in the United States. We know that there are a number of our readers who enjoy our Comparison Price Indices (CPI) articles on Sunday evening. Here is what the CPI looks like as of Monday evening: Benchmark […]
During the month of June we saw all of the steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update decline by double digits ($10 per ton or greater). The only exception was on plate which saw two of the three indexes taking prices higher and one remaining the same. Looking at the indices as a whole […]
This month will be focused on foreign steel imports. The month will kick off on Thursday evening or Friday morning (July 10th or 11th) when the US Department of Commerce is slated to report their final determination regarding the oil country tubular goods (OCTG) dumping suits. This determination is critical to those mills who support […]
We are moving deeper into a holiday week and, with the exception of US Steel, all is quiet on the western (and eastern for that matter) front. The US Steel announcement of a $25 per ton base price increase on spot flat rolled prices has created some interest within the steel community. However, we are […]
For those buying coated products, zinc prices have been rising and by the end of the month of June were reported by the LME to be $1.0045 per pound. This is the first time zinc has exceeded $1.00 per pound since September 2011 just prior to the adjustment of the galvanized coating extras in January […]
With the exception of Platts, the balance of the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update dropped slightly with benchmark hot rolled coil now averaging $667 per ton, down $4 per ton for the week. When looking at cold rolled Platts was unchanged, SMU was up $5 per ton to $785 per ton with CRU […]
Steel Market Update spent an extraordinary amount of time on today’s price ranges and averages. There has been a lot written recently about demand supporting prices and the lack of supply supporting prices. However, the deeper we dug the more questions we began to ask about what is real and what is a little murky. […]
The SMU Comparison Price Indices saw prices dropping on all products except plate products. Benchmark hot rolled coil saw pricing drop anywhere from $2 per ton (CRU) to $10 per ton (Platts). The HRC average dropped $6 per ton for the week to $670 per ton. Cold rolled also dropped on all of the reporting […]
Flat rolled steel mill lead times continue to be extended compared to one year ago according to the results of the SMU steel survey completed late last week. Hot rolled lead times average 4.59 weeks, which is about the same as what was reported at the beginning of the month of June. One year ago […]
Based on the results of our survey from this past week, steel mills were actively discussing steel prices and our survey respondents were reporting mills as willing to negotiate pricing. When looking at hot rolled the percentage of respondents reporting mills as willing to negotiate pricing rose from 86 percent at the beginning of June […]
We have two markets developing for flat rolled steel imports: hot rolled imports are expected to actually begin to shrink from here as the offers out of Russia and Turkey for hot rolled pricing are approximately $600 per ton or higher. Since most foreign steel buyers tend to be buyers of large tonnage and thus […]
Based on the most recent import license data produced by the U.S. Department of Commerce, imports continue to be on pace to meet, or exceed, 3.5 million net tons. This would be the 3rd month in a row where foreign steel imports were at 3.5 million tons or above. Since the beginning of the year […]
Steel Market Update is seeing some slippage in flat rolled steel prices this week when compared to one week ago. Most of the changes came at the lower end of the range and the trend we are seeing is for prices to continue to slowly slip over the next 30 days. As we mentioned in […]
Two flat rolled steel price indexes, Steel Market Update and Platts, saw little movement in flat rolled steel prices this past week. The two indexes are probably the closest they have been in some time with SMU showing hot rolled pricing averaging $670 per ton ($33.50/cwt) while Platts has their benchmark HRC price at $675 […]
As you could probably sense from our last issue of Steel Market Update, we are concerned about the amount of foreign steel imports related to the strength of the overall economy. It is one thing to see imports surging when the economy is hot and steel usage is high like we saw in 2004, 2006 […]
Trying to keep up with steel prices and production is proving to be quite an exercise. As we were preparing to publish we were chasing a story about AK Steel having issues with their Ashland blast furnace. At the same time we are gathering data from large buyers that is taking the lower end of […]
Total shipments of sheet and strip products including hot rolled, cold rolled and all coated products were up by 0.8 percent year to date (YTD) compared to the first four months of 2013. In the period January through April compared to the previous three months, the total tonnage was up by 4.8 percent. Comparing YTD […]
Prices dropped on all flat rolled items with the exception of plate which remained the same as one week ago. Hot rolled prices dropped by an average of $5 per ton, cold rolled by an average of $10 per ton, galvanized by $3 per ton and Galvalume by $15 per ton. With the latest drop […]
It was an active month when it came to flat rolled steel prices, at least it was active on a week by week basis. However, when looking at the total month price movement compared against where the previous month ended, then the month of May should be considered rather tame. Hot rolled prices ended the […]
According to the results of our latest flat rolled steel market survey just completed earlier today, mill lead times are slowly beginning to move in (get shorter) on almost all products followed by Steel Market Update. Our respondents reported shorter lead times on hot rolled which were at 4.91 weeks on the 15th of May […]
As mentioned in the article on steel mill lead times included in this newsletter, we tend to see steel mills as more willing to negotiate steel prices as order books begin to get leaner and lead times begin to shrink. We are seeing some retrenchment of lead times and, at the same time, our recent […]
Steel prices are starting to slip. We have found a number of mills making price adjustments to their flat rolled steel offers over the past 24-48 hours. The steel mills are attempting to keep the reductions as minimal and quiet as possible. We are posting reductions in our averages, most occurring due to reductions on […]
With the exception of SteelBenchmarker which only supplies steel indices twice per month, all of the other indexes showed flat rolled steel averages as being either the same or down slightly compared to one week ago. Perhaps the most surprising has been Platts which by the end of this past week had taken its benchmark […]
SMU was told this afternoon that AK Steel has finally “caught up” on their hot rolled and cold rolled orders and, as our source put it today, “was out looking for orders.” There was no reference to AK dropping pricing at this time. We were told the mill was still sold out on coated products. […]
The break for the Memorial Day Holiday here in the United States took some of the pressure off both buyers and sellers of steel as both sides regroup and begin to look at July and beyond flat rolled steel pricing. One steel mill executive told us that they were seeing downward pressure on their mill […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data on steel imports into the United States for the month of April on Friday. As expected steel imports jumped by 20 percent compared to the previous month and by 36 percent year-over-year (days adjusted basis) to 3,726,199 net tons (3.4 million+ metric tons). This is for […]