Imports of tool chests and cabinets from China will likely be subject to countervailing duties once the International Trade Commission makes its final injury determination. The U.S. Commerce Department issued its affirmative final determination on Nov. 22, calculating final subsidy rates ranging from 14.03 percent to 95.96 percent. As a result of this decision, Commerce will […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce and its Secretary Wilbur Ross did something today that has not been done in the last 25 years–they self-initiated an antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) suit. In this case, it was against aluminum imports from China, but steel buyers should take note. The DOC already has a Section 232 […]
Argentinian steel pipe manufacturer Tenaris has begun full operations at its new Bay City, Texas, mill. The $1.8 billion facility southwest of Houston will provide seamless pipe for shale and gas wells in the region. “Tenaris is the architect of a new business model in the steel pipe sector,” said Germán Curá, Tenaris’ president for […]
Keith Gunter, Vice President of Purchasing at McElroy Metal (and a part-time poet) shares his annual special holiday retrospective on the past year and his wishes for a prosperous 2018 for all. T’was soon to be Christmas, when all through the land, Pricing ought to be stable, wouldn’t that be so grand. During the fourth […]
U.S. demand for steel sheet products continued to expand through September, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Apparent supply is a proxy for market demand. Demand momentum for sheet products in total was negative in the three months through […]
Were you surprised by the price increases announced this week by the major mills? If you were, don’t feel bad. You were among the majority of steel buyers who could foresee no clear direction for steel prices. On Monday, Steel Market Update sent its market trends questionnaire to 650 steel buyers asking, among other questions, […]
Cold-drawn mechanical tubing imported from China, Germany, India, Italy, Korea and Switzerland was determined by Commerce to be sold below fair value. In its Nov. 16 preliminary antidumping determination, Commerce assigned dumping margins ranging between 5.10 percent and 186.89 percent. Commerce also found that “critical circumstances” exist with respect to Dalmine S.p.A. and Metalfer S.p.A. […]
We asked a question about Section 232 in last week’s flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire. The question was, “Do you think President Trump will invoke Section 232 and add duties on steel imports early next year on national security grounds?” Relatively few steel buyers elected to answer this question, which either suggests they don’t […]
Despite all the uncertainty regarding possible trade action and steel prices, the Steel Market Update Steel Buyers Sentiment Index is holding steady, and at a higher level than last year. Steel buyers’ sentiment appears to have bottomed out in October and November and, in Steel Market Update’s opinion, is poised to pick up along with […]
Domestic steelmakers got a taste of good news this week when the U.S. Department of Commerce released foreign steel import license data for the first 14 days of November. Steel Market Update sees the trend for November imports to be 2.6 million net tons or lower. If correct, this would be the first month during […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Director of Risk Management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pushed back at critics of the Section 232 investigation this week, saying steel-consuming businesses don’t “deserve” dumped steel. Associations such as the American Institute for International Steel and U.S. Chamber of Commerce assert that Section 232 restrictions on steel could lead to economic disaster for the steel supply chain, ports and […]
A dispute over OCTG dumping duties assigned by the U.S. on imports of Korean OCTG drew mixed conclusions from a World Trade Organization dispute panel. The WTO sided with South Korea on claims that the U.S. violated rules in the Antidumping Agreement regarding the calculation of fair value of OCTG. The panel determined that Commerce […]
Will the rest of the domestic steel mills announce new coating extras in first-quarter 2018, raising the price on galvanized steel? There was no clear consensus among members of the Heating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) during their monthly conference call earlier today. Recent mill price announcements have stemmed the decline in galvanized prices, […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of September totaled 9,144,648 net tons, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished U.S. steel imports, then subtracting total U.S. steel exports. September apparent steel supply […]
The Commerce Department announced a preliminary finding of dumping in the investigation of metal tool chests and cabinets imported from China and Vietnam. The investigation was initiated by a petition from Waterloo Industries, in Sedalia, Missouri. The investigation covers all metal tool chests and cabinets, including top chests, intermediate chests, tool cabinets and side cabinets, […]
As I move around the flat rolled steel industry, communicating with manufacturing companies, service centers, traders and steel mills, I am receiving mixed messages about the market. A good example is the HARDI steel committee conference call that was held earlier today. HARDI wholesalers, the companies who supply the HVAC mechanical contractors in the building […]
Total rolled steel imports declined by 14.0 percent in the three months through October, compared to the three months through July. Sheet products were down by 12.6 percent on the same basis, based on final license data for October reported by of the U.S. Commerce Department on Nov. 7. The data is reported within the […]
This Steel Market Update analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled steel products by district of entry and source country through September 2017. We believe that misinformation (or a lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of […]
ArcelorMittal reported its best third-quarter shipment performance since 2008. Shipments of 21.7 million tons were 1.0 percent higher than second-quarter due to a 1.2 percent increase in Brazil shipments, a 4.3 percent increase in NAFTA shipments, and a 3.2 percent increase from the ACIS segment. Shipments from the three segments offset a decline of 3.3 […]
Oil prices have topped $63 in recent weeks, up from $43 in June, but don’t expect a big uptrend in the price per barrel in 2018. Experts expect oil to continue trading in a tight range, keeping demand for oil country tubular goods in check at least through the first half next year. High energy […]
There was a surge in foreign steel imports during calendar year 2014. That high rate continued into the first half of 2015 at which time the domestic steel mills filed antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cases on CORE (coated steels), cold rolled and hot rolled steels. The U.S. Department of Commerce investigation found most […]
Ryerson Holding Corp. posted net income of $1.7 million in the third quarter, up from $600,000 in the second quarter, but down from $8.2 million in third-quarter 2016, as commodity challenges pressured margins. “The third quarter of 2017 can best be described by margin compression, driven primarily by nickel and chrome deflation in the second […]
Foreign steel imports for the month of October 2017 were just over three million net tons, based on the license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) earlier this week. The 3,110,002 net tons were essentially unchanged from the Final Census Data released for the month of September when the U.S. imported 3,086,196 […]
Republican legislators are too worried about passing tax legislation to stand up to Trump on NAFTA, reports Inside U.S. Trade. Although legislators are receiving heavy pressure from the business community to stop the president from withdrawing from NAFTA, behind closed doors Republicans say they won’t publicly intervene due to possible negative consequences from the White […]
Chinese steel production and consumption took a downturn in September, though they trended ahead of 2016 for the first three quarters of this year. China’s exports to the rest of the world are down considerably in 2017, however, according to data from the China Iron & Steel Association and Bradford Research. Year to date, China’s […]
The real news coming out of this week’s flat rolled steel market trends analysis is the jump in the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index when looking at the index as a single data point, as opposed to a three-month moving average, which is our preference. Measured as a single data point, the average among those […]
With the notable exception of AkzoNobel, leading suppliers of paint and coatings to the prepaint market have announced price hikes of 5-7 percent, effective in January. And some coil coaters and their customers are not happy about it. One prepaint buyer who closely tracks raw material costs questions whether the current hike is justified. “While […]
U.S. manufacturing slowed a bit from September but remained robust in October, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business from the Institute for Supply Management. The headline PMI registered 58.7 percent, a 2.1 percentage point decrease from September’s score of 60.8 percent. A reading above 50 indicates growth. Comments from respondents suggest that […]
Today the U.S. Department of Commerce released foreign steel import license data for the month of October. Based on the license data imports for October will be approximately three million net tons. This is essentially unchanged from the 3,050,618 net tons reported as Preliminary Census Data for September. As you can see by the table […]