When we conducted our flat rolled market trends analysis during the middle of February we found 20 percent of our respondents had concerns regarding supply during calendar year 2017. The majority of respondents (63 percent) expressed no concerns about supply. As we move forward to last week the majority is still expressing no concerns about […]
US steel exports rose in January according to the latest data analysis by the American Institute for International Steel. The press release from AIIS follows: Falls Church, VA. March 13, 2017. Steel exports started the year off strong, increasing 12.6 percent from December to January. The 818,431 net tons of exports were 4.6 percent higher […]
According to the latest data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of January 2017 was 9,236,140 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports, then subtracting total US steel exports. This is the […]
Turkey has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against U.S. countervailing duties placed on imports of pipe and tube products. Turkey requested the WTO initiate dispute consultation with the United States alleging the U.S. determination and imposition of duties was inconsistent with the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countevailing Measures (SCM Agreement) and […]
We believe that miss-information (or lack of) about regional import volumes is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis of tonnage by district of entry is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide a negotiating advantage for our premium subscribers. We are […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through January 2017 and year on year changes. It then compares domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market. It quantifies market direction by product and enables a side by side comparison of the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron […]
Total foreign steel imports for the month of January were announced this past week by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Imports totaled 2,814,081 net tons or about 120,000 tons more than December and slightly above the twelve month and three month moving averages. At the same time license data was updated for February imports and […]
US Steel announced it will permanently close the No. 6 Quench and Temper Mill at Lorain Tubular Operations. The line has been idle since March 2015 and will be permanently shut down by June 8. “This proposed action is a strategic decision for the company after considering a number of factors, including challenging market conditions […]
Licensed data for February was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on March 7th. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. All volumes in this analysis are reported in short tons. Total rolled […]
The following article was written by trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz for Steel Market Update readers: “Circumvention” is a loaded word suggesting evasion of responsibility or getting around something. It smacks of dishonesty, immorality, subterfuge. Frequently, loaded words are designed to create just such an impression. When you hear words like the “People’s Democratic Republic […]
We are continuing our investigation to quantify the players in the global steel trade of both hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC). In our first report published in February we provided an overview for both products. Later last month we published a report describing the major players in the export and import […]
Steel Market Update recently published a “letter to the editor” regarding the domestic mills need to compete in a world market. We received comments from a mill based source who asked they not be identified. The original letter is below with the response being the “bold” print below: I guess it’s fine for the US […]
Olympic Steel executives weighed in on steel demand, pricing, and government changes during the company’s earnings call last week. Olympic Steel CEO Michael Siegal attributes the rebound in steel pricing to “supply side dynamics combined with political optimism towards the business community after the very negative environment around the presidential campaign.” Said Siegal, “Entering 2017, […]
We at Steel Market Update (SMU) have been upbeat on the steel market for many weeks. We thought sharing our Key Market Indicators (KMI) with our readers would help everyone to understand our reading on the market and from where we get our core optimism. An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at […]
The U.S. International Trade Commission issued two new final determinations on Wednesday related to imports of steel products from China. The ITC determined that the U.S. industry is materially injured by the imports of carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from China. Countervailing subsidy rates of 251.00% and antidumping margins of 68.2 percent will be […]
Steel organizations were pleased by the first address by President Donald Trump to the joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening. Steel associations welcomed promises of trade enforcement, infrastructure spending and tax reform. Here is a sampling of comments following the President’s address. Thomas J. Gibson, president and CEO of American Iron and Steel Institute […]
Steel Market Update received the following “Letter to the Editor” from a reader who in the past has been associated with companies supplying products to the domestic steel mills. With all of the articles being written about the industry from President Trump’s point of view we thought it a good idea to air a different […]
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data for January showing steel imports were just shy 2.8 million net tons for the month (2,769,215 tons). The February license data, which was also updated through the last day of February was down slightly from the January levels at 2,614,907 net tons. Of interest […]
The Department of Commerce, on March 1, issued affirmative preliminary determinations on the antidumping investigations of imports of steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) from Japan, Taiwan, and Turkey. Japan received preliminary dumping margins of 209.46 percent; Taiwan dumping margins ranged between 3.48 percent and 29.47 percent; and Turkey margins ranged from 5.29 percent to 7.07 […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. This will explain the difference between our view of the present situation which is subjective and our analysis of trends which is based on the latest facts available. During February our view […]
Please see the end of this report for an explanation of data sources. The Broad Index value of the US $ is reported several days in arrears by the Federal Reserve, the latest value published was dated February 17th (Figure 1). The dollar had a recent peak of 128.963 on January 3rd which was the […]
In January US light vehicle sales fell to 17.6 million units from 18.4 million in December on a seasonally adjusted annual basis. The decline was almost entirely in the car sector as shown in Figure 1. Even though sales declined they were still a bit stronger than expected. Drivers are (no pun intended) employment gains […]
February 2017 steel import licenses are suggesting that foreign steel imports will be markedly higher than February 2016. Last year the U.S. imported 2.2 million tons of foreign steel. Right now, based on import licenses collected through February 21, 2017, the trend is for imports to reach 2.6 to 2.7 million net tons. This would […]
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 coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing Futures […]
Market segments tend to run in cycles and rarely are all segments clicking at the same time. A good example is during the Great Recession, which crushed most steel consuming market segments, we learned through Priefert Manufacturing that farm, ranch and rodeo equipment were quite strong. As the economy improved cycles shifted and over the […]
Tenth District manufacturing expanded in February achieving its highest index reading since June 2011, said the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The month over month composite manufacturing index was at 14 in February after registering 9 in January and December. New orders, order backlog and employment indexes were higher in February, while production and […]
Freight shipment by various transportation modes seems to be moving fairly well as February winds down. Seaborne freight is improving and barge traffic is resuming normal operations after the winter. Trucking saw some seasonal slowdown after the holidays and rail traffic was up year over year in recent weeks. The Association of American Railroads welcomed […]
North Star Bluescope Steel reported underlying EBITDA in the first half of FY 2017 of $180.2 million, an increase of 178 percent from 1H FY 2016 . Sales revenue was US$ 598.7 million. The mill operated at 100 percent capacity in the first half and benefited from lower conversion costs, particularly in utilities. Shipments for […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through December 2016 and year on year changes. It then compares domestic mill shipments and total supply to the market. It quantifies market direction by product and enables a side by side comparison of the degree to which imports have absorbed demand. Sources are the American Iron […]
This is the second in a series of new reports on global trade of hot rolled and cold rolled products. In the future these articles (the first one was published on Tuesday, February 14th) will be part of our Premium level products and will be published in our Premium supplemental newsletter. If you would like […]