The United Steelworkers challenged the president to reduce the trade deficit after Commerce released its deficit report today. The Department of Commerce reported that for 2017, the goods and services deficit increased $61.2 billion, or 12.1 percent, from 2016. Exports increased $121.2 billion or 5.5 percent and imports increased $182.5 billion or 6.7 percent. Specifically […]
The steel industry stands to be a major beneficiary of the $1.5 trillion in infrastructure improvements proposed by President Trump in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, but don’t count on the extra government business anytime soon. Not unlike his plan to build a border wall paid for by Mexico rather than the […]
U.S. steelmakers sent a letter to President Trump on Feb. 1 urging the administration to take action against steel imports under Section 232. The letter from the American Iron and Steel Institute stressed that immediate action is needed to prevent imports from recapturing nearly a third of the U.S. market as they did last June. […]
Inaction by the Trump administration leaves the market to wonder if the Section 232 investigation will lead to new tariffs or quotas this year on steel imports. Steel buyers contacted by Steel Market Update are concerned that additional restrictions on foreign imports may create a shortage and make steel prices even more volatile. Following are […]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees market conditions lining up for a strong first quarter with hot rolled coil prices that could even hit $800 per ton. “Even without Section 232 support, a weaker U.S. dollar, good demand, Chinese supply curtailments and recent trade case action can support prices well through the second half,” predicts […]
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI was only slightly lower in January than December’s near seven-year record. Inching down to 54.4 from 54.5, manufacturing is off to a good start for 2018. The Global PMI is produced monthly by J.P. Morgan and IHS Markit in association with the Institute for Supply Management and the International Federation […]
Those who were hoping the State of the Union address would offer some indication of how President Trump will act on Section 232 were left disappointed. His speech was long on patriotism and short on specifics when it came to trade policy. The steel industry is left to speculate on whether the administration will further […]
Manufacturing activity slipped slightly in January, according to the latest Report on Business from the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM Index edged downward to 59.1 percent from 59.3 percent in December, but remained higher than its average reading of 57.4 for 2017. Indexes for new orders fell 2 points to 65.4 percent and production […]
The flat rolled and plate steel mills were busy this week announcing new rounds of price increases. Steel buyers who spoke with Steel Market Update today reported offer prices as being much higher than their most recent transaction pricing. For that reason, we have included a note about what was being reported as the latest […]
Of the four raw materials tracked by Steel Market Update, scrap and zinc prices advanced in January, iron ore took a small step back and coking coal declined by 10 percent. Each January, Bloomberg and U.S. Global Investors compile their Periodic Table of Commodity Returns. Figure 1 shows the returns of commodities each year of […]
Planned maintenance outages at AK Steel contributed to a net loss of $107.9 million in the fourth quarter. Net sales during the quarter increased 5 percent to $1.5 billion, however, driven by incremental sales from recently acquired Precision Partners. Flat rolled shipments declined to 1,337,100 tons in the quarter from 1,385,500 tons in Q4 2016 […]
“We don’t just sell to each other–this is a kind of unique relationship in the world…we make things together,” said Canada International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne in a recent speech. Center for Automotive Research analyst Bernard Swiecki referred to the quote as a summary of what NAFTA means to the North American automotive industry. “We […]
The sixth round of NAFTA talks closed on Monday with the U.S. Trade Representative rejecting proposals by Canada and lamenting the slow pace of the renegotiations. “We finally began to discuss the core issues, so this round was a step forward,” Robert Lighthizer said. “But we are progressing very slowly. We owe it to our […]
Steel imports into the United States declined by 10 percent in December, compared with the prior month, to 2.45 million net tons, according to preliminary Census data. This followed an 11.4 percent slide from October to November. But despite the late-year declines, annual steel imports increased by more than 15 percent in 2017. The American […]
The steel community was probably disappointed this evening when President Trump failed to mention anything about the Section 232 investigation that has been hanging over the heads of the industry for one year. We will all need to wait to see if the president will do anything on the subject of steel and aluminum imports. […]
As plugged into Washington as they may be, the leadership of the Steel Manufacturers Association is in the dark on Section 232, just like everyone else. Queried by reporters last week during SMA’s board meeting in Florida, the trade group’s officers could offer no inside information on what to expect from President Trump as he […]
The following article was written by George F. Will as an opinion piece in the Washington Post. It was originally published on Jan. 26, 2018. Like Horatius at the bridge, or the boy who stood on the burning deck whence all but he had fled, or the Dutch boy who saved the city by putting […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled on Friday that imports of Canadian Bombardier civil aircraft do not injure the U.S. industry. The surprise unanimous vote was a disappointment to Boeing which called for stiff tariffs against their competitor for alleged unfair trade practices. In December 2017, the Commerce Department claimed the planes were sold at […]
The growth of U.S. Gross Domestic Product in the fourth quarter of 2017 declined from the strong performance of the second and third quarters, but the overall trend is good. The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its first estimate of GDP growth in the fourth quarter on Friday. Growth was reported to be 2.57 percent […]
I am hearing from some of AK Steel’s customers that the hot end of the mill will be back up early this week. One told me on Friday, “I spoke with AK yesterday and was told there will be little impact from the ladle accident…” I got a question from a steel buyer dealing with […]
January imports are trending higher than expected at 2.8 million net tons, similar to what was imported one year ago. This is a bit disappointing to many in the steel industry who were expecting total steel imports to drop as they did in November and December 2017. To get a more complete view, we look […]
The pile of unfinished paperwork on President Trump’s desk just got a little taller with Friday’s delivery of the Section 232 report on aluminum. It joins the Section 232 report on steel that hit the president’s desk on Jan. 11, starting the clock on a 90-day deadline for possible trade action. On Jan. 19, the […]
Steel is a core business for the port in Tampa, Fla., which handled steel and scrap imports and exports totaling about 900,000 tons last year. Hundreds of industry executives will also pass through the port as attendees of the 29th annual Tampa Steel Conference to be hosted by Port Tampa Bay and Ports America on […]
President Trump’s decision today to impose tariffs on imports of solar panels and large washing machines in a bid to help U.S. manufacturers has heated speculation the administration may take a similar tack on the pending Section 232 rulings on steel and aluminum imports. President Trump has approved recommendations by the U.S. International trade Commission […]
Steel Market Update forecast December 2017 flat rolled steel shipments from U.S. service centers would be 87,850 tons per day. The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported last week that sheet distributors shipped 87,805 tons per day. We missed being perfect by 45 tons per day. Receipts coming into the service centers has been harder […]
The pile of unfinished paperwork on President Trump’s desk just got a little taller with Friday’s delivery of the Section 232 report on aluminum. It joins the Section 232 report on steel that hit the president’s desk on Jan. 11, starting the clock on a 90-day deadline for possible trade action. On Jan. 19, the […]
Steel is a core business for the port in Tampa, Fla., which handled steel and scrap imports and exports totaling about 900,000 tons last year. Hundreds of industry executives will also pass through the port as attendees of the 29th annual Tampa Steel Conference to be hosted by Port Tampa Bay and Ports America on […]
Most steel buyers agree that prices are on the increase, it’s just a question of how high and how fast. About 92 percent of the respondents to Steel Market Update’s latest market trends questionnaire concur that steel prices are heading higher, while the remainder say they see no clear price direction. Following are some of […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update receive reports on imports with macro data broken down by product at the national level. SMU also provides reports that detail the import tonnage received by district of entry and source nation, available here on our website. This new report from SMU takes the analysis even further. Using U.S. […]
Steel buyers recognize that flat rolled prices are moving higher and momentum is clearly on the side of the steel mills. Hot rolled price offers, which Steel Market Update identified earlier this week as being $650 to $710, have moved higher based on information gleaned from steel buyers today. The new spread is $680 to […]