The Super Bowl is done, the Grammys are behind us, the Oscars selected a foreign film (Parasite from South Korea) for the first time as Best Movie. The Iowa caucus presented more questions than answers. Today is the New Hampshire primary and the first votes finally are being cast to see who the Democrats will […]
I have been spending time looking at market momentum, lead times (real, not from our survey), who is buying and who is not (and why), and what the market should be concentrating on over the next couple of months (not just today). I am going to start with comments I got from a couple of […]
Acknowledging that “it’s a lot easier to sell steel when the price is going up,” distributors of steel products to the HVAC sector reported strong sales in the first month of the new year despite galvanized base prices that have risen by about $130 in the past 12 weeks to the current $800 per ton. […]
As we worked through pricing data this week, it was evident that much of the spot buying has occurred over the past couple of months. In our HARDI steel conference call this morning, those on the call who reported their inventory levels told the group they were either carrying inventories that were higher than normal […]
On Monday, we will begin our mid-January flat rolled and plate steel market trends questionnaire, and by the end of the week we will publish our analysis. Our Premium level members will be able to review our analysis, which will be presented in a PowerPoint presentation on Friday. Those who participate in this week’s questionnaire […]
I have just returned from three days in New Orleans where I attended the HARDI annual conference. I spoke to the steel council on Sunday, and I referenced some of my comments in Sunday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update. I stayed until this morning because I wanted to hear Alan Beaulieu speak to see […]
On Friday, SSAB announced another plate price increase. Plate buyers were putting the new “aim to” base price around $700 per ton. Plate prices have been stubborn to move higher. SMU will watch momentum carefully this week to see if prices have finally turned the corner. This weekend I am in New Orleans attending HARDI’s […]
Steel Market Update will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 28, or Sunday, Dec. 1, due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. Our offices will be closed on Friday, Nov. 29, and will reopen on Monday, Dec. 2. Our early December flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey will begin on Monday, Dec. 2. We will also […]
So, tonight I thought I would write about a couple of text messages that I received over the past 24 hours. Both messages have to do with steel prices, just looking at information out of SMU and other publications or indices differently. The first message was from the president of a Midwest-based service center. They […]
The mills may have announced two increases in flat rolled steel prices in the past month, but you couldn’t tell from comments by members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International. The distributors of galvanized steel to the HVAC sector report little impact on prices so far, though demand remains healthy despite some […]
Today I was on a conference call with steel buyers associated with HARDI, the trade organization whose members sell galvanized steel and other products to mechanical contractors. We have an article about the call in this evening’s issue, but there was one fact that was brought up by multiple executives: the price increases “have not […]
Distributors of galvanized steel to the HVAC sector are paying higher prices to their suppliers, but having difficulty collecting the increase from their contractor customers, reported members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International during their monthly conference call earlier today. Since HARDI’s last call, domestic flat rolled mills have announced three price […]
Distributors of galvanized steel to the HVAC sector are paying higher prices to their suppliers, but having difficulty collecting the increase from their contractor customers, reported members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International during their monthly conference call earlier today. Since HARDI’s last call, domestic flat rolled mills have announced three price […]
Demand for HVAC products remains relatively strong in an otherwise lukewarm steel market, but members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) say they are challenged by declining galvanized steel prices and rising intensity from the competition. Polled six weeks ago, nearly all the HARDI members expected galvanized steel prices to stay […]
Distributors of galvanized steel to the HVAC industry remain surprisingly positive despite steel prices that have been on the decline for more than six months. While there is some variance by region and market segment, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International generally expect solid demand for their products at least through […]
I got a note from one of our readers today about the removal of the U.S. Steel blast furnace(s) and why the capacity utilization rates don’t reflect the change. The answer to that question is that as long as the furnace is still capable of producing (i.e. hot idle vs. being totally shut down cold) […]
The steel price increases announced by the major mills have not had much effect on the HVAC sector yet, but members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) are hopeful the market has bottomed and the value of their inventories has stabilized. “There hasn’t been much change in behavior on the street […]
Welcome back from the Fourth of July Holiday (at least here in the United States). Steel Market Update gave our employees a couple of days off as we prepare for the next big push all the way to Atlanta and the SMU Steel Summit Conference on Aug. 26-28. A few minutes after I told those […]
The construction segment of the market is booming. This is what we heard from the HARDI steel conference call we participated in last week, and it is what we heard from many companies over the two days SMU was in New York City earlier this week. Whenever we travel, one of the things we always […]
Suppliers of steel products to the HVAC industry find themselves stuck in a good news/bad news market. Demand remains good as the construction season ramps up, but pricing on galvanized steel continues to weaken. “Demand in the Southeast is still very good, even though there has been a painful devaluation of our inventory,” said one […]
Imported steel prices are no longer competitive with domestic steel mill pricing – even on light gauge galvanized and other specialty products that normally have gone to trading companies. Lead times are short, but as one steel executive put it to me this afternoon, “It’s not that the mills have no business. [For this time […]
Like everyone else in the steel industry, members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) are wondering what will happen to supply and prices now that the Trump administration has lifted the Section 232 tariffs on steel imports from Canada and Mexico and cut in half the tariffs on steel imports from Turkey. […]
The agreement to terminate Section 232 tariffs on Canada and Mexico and all retaliatory tariffs was welcomed by many industry associations. As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in his announcement remarks on Friday, it was “pure good news.” “On behalf of the membership of the CSPA, we thank the Government of Canada for its significant […]
Sales of HVAC products remain fairly strong in most parts of the country, but prices don’t fully reflect that demand, reported members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International in their monthly conference call. “I still think the market is fragile,” commented one HARDI member. “The mills have a lot of fundamentals in their […]
Members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International, wholesalers of galvanized sheet and coil products, reported steady and strong demand in the HVAC market so far in 2019, but also growing concern about the direction of steel prices. One HARDI member on the trade group’s monthly conference call today described conditions as “somewhat fragile.” The […]
We gathered mixed results regarding flat rolled and plate steel pricing over the past two days. When we say mixed, we don’t mean some prices falling while other prices were rising. What we found was pricing stable to rising. We heard from a number of buyers that there were mills still actively pursuing prices at, […]
The new year has gotten off to a positive start for members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), who supply steel products to the HVAC market. Most are optimistic about business, at least in the coming quarter, but comments during their monthly conference call today reflected some disagreement over steel prices. “We […]
The new year has gotten off to a positive start, though declining steel prices remain a concern for members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International, who supply steel products to the HVAC market. As one HARDI member commented during the trade group’s monthly conference call on Tuesday, “Some of us feel like Alabama’s […]
How long will this economic cycle last? That is the difficult question HARDInomics posed to Anirban Basu, Chairman and CEO of Sage Policy Group. Currently, the economy is at the peak of an economic cycle, said Basu, and is experiencing a “49-year low in unemployment, a monthly job creation winning streak that is unprecedented, surging […]
It has been a busy week for Steel Market Update. I spoke at the HARDI annual conference in Austin, Texas, on Sunday and I was in Atlanta on Tuesday evening and Wednesday working with our web developers. I am in the office on Friday. Next week I will be in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday through […]