Prices moved sideways this week as buyers digest the $30 per ton of movement made in benchmark hot rolled pricing going back to the beginning of the month of April. Steel Market Update is aware there are a number of domestic mills who have made “internal” spot price adjustments, taking price offers from $34.25/cwt ($685 […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released preliminary steel import census data for March and reported total steel imports at 3,218,914 net tons (NT). Compared to February, March imports are down by 2.0 percent or 66,960 NT. Compared to the same month one year ago, total March 2014 imports are up 25.2 percent or 648,510 NT. […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to be firm as supply issues haunt the northern steel mills and lead times remain extended at most mills throughout the eastern United States and Canada. US Steel has issues with receiving raw materials into their Gary Works facility which has slowed steelmaking operations to approximately 50 to 75 percent […]
Foreign steel imports, for the month of April 2014 are projected by Steel Market Update to exceed 3.5 million net tons. Based on preliminary license data collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce through April 22, 2014 imports could reach as high as 3.7 million net tons. However, as our regular readers already know, license […]
All of the steel indices followed by Steel Market Update saw flat rolled steel prices increase this past week. Benchmark hot rolled coil saw the spread between the indices shrink while the average HR price increased by $17 per ton. Cold rolled was one item where the price spread increased across the various steel indexes […]
Steel Dynanics CEO Mark Millett and other officers of the steel mill provided their review of the company’s first quarter earnings as well as their insights into the various markets they serve as well as the challenges and opportunities they see in front of them. SMU found one comment interesting as Mr. Millett feels there […]
According to Steel Market Update most recent flat rolled steel market survey results, lead times at the U.S. and Canadian steel mills continue to extend on hot rolled, cold rolld and coated products with the exception of Galvalume. Hot rolled lead times are now averaging 5.49 weeks, up from 4.87 weeks just two weeks ago […]
Flat rolled steel mills have become less willing to negotiate flat rolled steel spot prices with their customers. During the analysis of the flat rolled steel market conducted by Steel Market Update earlier this week, we found large adjustments in negotiations on hot rolled pricing as well as spot galvanized steel pricing. Cold rolled actually […]
Severe winter conditions negatively impacted Steel Dynamic’s first quarter earnings causing a 25 percent drop in consolidated operating income as compared to the previous quarter. SDI reported net income of $39 million for first quarter 2014, on net sales of $1.8 billion, down from $55 million on net sales of $1.9 billion Q4 2013. Steel […]
All of the current production issues are relegated to the northern fully integrated steel mills. One of our service center contacts laid out the production scenario and how it is impacting the other northern steel producers: “The Great Lakes outage, and then accident during repair, and the Gary reduction in output is the important factor […]
Steel Market Update found flat rolled steel prices to be higher this week. As mentioned in our first article, pricing is not even across the country and we are seeing some flexibility in the numbers in the south compared to those in the Midwest. The Midwest is where all of the mill production disruptions are […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released license data through Tuesday, April 15th for imported steel scheduled to arrive into the United States during the month of April. Based on this early license data (knowing it can be misleading) we are projecting total steel imports will exceed the 3.5 million net tons forecast for March. Our […]
Total shipments of sheet and strip steel products, including hot rolled, cold rolled and all coated products, were down by 3.5 percent YTD compared to the first two months of 2013. In the period December through February compared to the previous three months, the total tonnage was down by 2.3 percent. Comparing YTD shipments for […]
Three of the four indices followed by Steel Market Update posted higher flat rolled steel averages through the end of this past week. CRU made the biggest catch-up move taking their benchmark hot rolled index to $654 per ton, up $21 per ton since the previous week. CRU and SMU HRC indices are now within […]
“Mills are stubborn this week. We’ll see what happens when US gets caught back up,” is how one steel executive pegged the market for Steel Market Update earlier today. Many of the steel service centers we spoke to over the past few days are indicating there is strengthening demand in portions of their business. What […]
This week was a tough one to figure out where transaction prices actually are at this moment in time. What makes it challenging is mill offers appear to be firm from mill to mill with very little wiggle room at this moment. The second issue making things tough to evaluate pricing is we had a […]
The following article is a continuation of our Steel Buyers Basics series and is written by Mario Briccetti. Mario is Principal of Briccetti & Associates, a Supply Chain consulting firm, and can be reached at Mario@mbriccetti.com In an earlier article I noted that the steel business is often subject to interruptions in supply and described […]
Mill lead times moved out over the past two weeks. We are seeing lead times extending by as much as one week on hot rolled and cold rolled and three quarters of a week on galvanized. We did some quick checking and HRC, CRC and GI lead times are the furthest we have recorded since […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are reporting the domestic steel mills as much less willing to negotiate prices this week as compared to two weeks ago. Our market analysis saw major contraction in each of the products with hot rolled moving from 85 percent down to 48 percent. Cold rolled halved their previous […]
The US Department of Commerce released Final Census numbers for the month of February 2014. The 3,285,874 net tons was the highest level for imports since July 2007 when they were 3,288,054 NT. In the table below we have provided updated twelve month and three month moving averages through the month of February. The March […]
The month of March proved to be an interesting month for the flat rolled steel industry and related commodities associated with the industry, both within North America and around the world. The biggest news was the move by the domestic mills to raise flat rolled steel prices. ArcelorMittal led the way on March 17th when […]
Every month we track a number of the other steel indexes including the two used the most for contract adjustments: CRU and Platts. We had some interesting results as the month of March closed as all of the indices showed declines (compared to the end of the prior month) in hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized […]
In an email sent late in the afternoon on Monday, March 17th, ArcelorMittal USA announced a price increase on all of their new flat rolled orders, with specific base prices at $33.00 for hot rolled, $39.50 for cold rolled, and $39.50 for galvanized. The mill justified their increase by stating “Despite the recent drop in […]
We have been hearing of a very strong booking week at many of the domestic steel mills this past week. With the hot end of USS Great Lakes down and other flat rolled steel production issues within the domestic steel mill ranks, we have seen a tightening of flat rolled steel pricing. We have heard […]
The word out of U.S. Steel has been silence since they reported a collection pipe (collector main) falling onto and collapsing part of the roof over their #2 BOP Shop at Great Lakes Works on Thursday evening. Our understanding continues to be that all three blast furnaces are in hot idle (not producing pig iron) […]
Steel Market Update has been projecting 3.5 million tons of total steel products as the target number for the month of March based on US DOC license data. The license numbers were updated again today (April 1st) and we continue to believe we will be quite close to the 3.5 million ton mark when the […]
Steel Market Update has been well aware, and has reported on, the prospect of new trade cases being levied by the U.S. steel industry against imports of cold rolled and coated (galvanized & Galvalume) steels. There have been suggestions that the dumping suits could be filed within the month. So, we wanted to get the […]
March was the month that saw the bottom to the flat rolled steel pricing cycle and signs of the first bounce as prices began moving higher. We are finding our monthly analysis of pricing fascinating as many become consumed by the weekly numbers and forget the bigger picture. Weekly gyrations many times equal little change […]
Imports of foreign steel increased during the month of February compared to the prior month. Steel Market Update carefully monitors total steel imports, slab imports, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume imports as well as plate (coiled and sheet) and oil country tubular goods (OCTG). The U.S. Government recently released preliminary census data for […]
US Steel has essentially lost a steel mill – Great Lakes in Ecorse, Michigan – for how long is the unknown question. Part of the roof collapsed in the building which houses their basic oxygen furnace (they called it a basic oxygen process or BOP). It is the most critical piece of equipment in the […]