Updated April 28, 2016 – The United Steelworkers announced Wednesday that they have a tentative agreement contract agreement with ArcelorMittal USA. “After almost a year of difficult bargaining that continued eight months past the expiration of our previous contract, our committee’s hard work and dedication have resulted in a tentative agreement with ArcelorMittal,” said USW […]
The American Institute for International Steel reports monthly on steel import levels. We thought our readers might enjoy looking at the data from the AIIS point of view. Here is the press release for imports in March: Falls Church, VA. April 28, 2016. Steel imports increased 12.8 percent in March and have now expanded by […]
The Broad Index value of the US $ peaked on January 20th at 126.2, and on April 15th (latest figure available) was rated at 119.7, a decline of 5.2 percent. This is the lowest value since November 3rd 2015 (Figure 1). On March 15th the Fed held rates constant and cut its projection for the […]
US Steel maintains that Chinese manufacturers and distributors use false documents and transship products through other countries to disguise the country of origin. Numerous antidumping and countervailing duty orders have been placed on Chinese steel products over the years. US Steel maintains that China continues to circumvent these orders by using such methods in violation […]
AK Steel announced earnings on Tuesday and the big question in everyone’s mind was if AK Steel Ashland would be restarted. The answer is no, not at this time. CEO Roger Newport said the company does not want to get “hung up in the short term volatility” in the marketplace. AK Steel will be looking […]
Steel Market Update received the following email from a large service center in the United States. This executive, who wished to remain anonymous, enjoyed the article we produced in Sunday evening’s edition of our newsletter entitled, “2016 To be a Year of Volatility?” This executive discussed the issue of supply and the possible reversal of […]
First, Steel Dynamics Industries (SDI) reported an increase in steel shipments (+17%) and that they were continuing to grow, “…across all divisions but most significant in flat rolled.” They went on to report customer inventory levels are now “better aligned with actual demand, which is supporting increased domestic steel production and now also flat rolled […]
The United Steelworkers have retracted their petition to bring Section 201 action on imports of primary unwrought aluminum. The USW filed the petition on April 18 but is suspending it due to lack of industry support. The April 22 statement from the USW follows: “We have decided to suspend our petition seeking action to restore […]
SSAB Americas reported sales of SEK 2,428 million ($297.5 million) for first quarter 2016 up from 2,321 in Q4. Shipments increased 9 percent from Q4 to 475,000 tonnes. Operating profit, or EBIT, was SEK 55 million ($6.7 million) compared to a loss of SEK 100 mill in in Q4 and profit of SEK 296 million […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum posted net income of $92.2 million on sales of $2.16 billion for first quarter 2016. Tons sold were up 8.9 percent from Q4 2015 with average selling price down 15.6 percent from a year ago and down 2.4 percent from the previous quarter. Reliance sold 1,216,700 tons of carbon steel in […]
Steel Dynamics announced a strong quarter with net income of $63 million on net sales of $1.7 billion for first quarter 2016. Steel operating income increased 104 percent to $136 million from fourth quarter due to a 17 percent improvement in shipments which totaled 2.12 million tons. Average steel selling price dropped $40 from Q4 […]
It is still a little early to get a solid read on the ferrous scrap market and May pricing, but the indicators are pointing toward higher pricing. We heard from a number of our scrap sources over the past 24 hours and their guidance has been toward the scrap markets moving anywhere from $10 to […]
The United Steelworkers filed a petition this week under Section 201 of U.S. trade law to attempt stem imports of primary unwrought aluminum. We are reporting on this because a number of companies/organizations having begun calling for the use of Section 201 to help stem unwanted steel imports (see article in tonight’s newsletter written by […]
There have been a number of questions about whether steel prices have the staying power to continue to move higher from here. We thought we would bring in another opinion on the subject. MetalMiner published an article on the subject just yesterday and they have allowed us to reproduce the article in tonight’s newsletter. Lisa […]
Last week hearings were held in Washington, D.C. regarding the plight of the domestic steel industry, world over-capacity of steel production (with a special emphasis on China). During the hearings a number of trade remedies were mentioned such as Section 201 and Section 232 along with the antidumping and countervailing duty flat rolled steel trade […]
During the Steel Caucus hearings last week USW International President Leo Gerard articulated the plight of more than 13,500 U.S. steelworkers that are currently holding layoff notices and the need for immediate action to address the flood of foreign steel imports and global overcapacity. “The current steel crisis is primarily caused by unfair foreign trade […]
One of the issues confusing the sheet (flat rolled steel) marketplace is the Raw Steel Production report produced by the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI). This report is produced on a weekly and then again on a monthly basis. The weekly report is released every Monday afternoon and Steel Market Update publishes the data […]
Manufacturing companies are questioning the run up in steel prices with some wondering if now is a good time to pull back and wait out the market. SMU, with the help of a few of our manufacturing and service center sources, will try to put a historical perspective into the market in an effort to […]
The global steel industry situation and its impact on U.S. steel industry is the topic of discussion this week at hearings held by the United States Trade Representative and Department of Commerce in Washington DC. Representatives from the steel industry, manufacturing, mining and Congress are giving their opinions and suggestions during three days of hearings, […]
The surge in steel imports is a threat to national security according to a new paper released by the Alliance for American Manufacturing. AAM says steel is essential to national security, as it equips the military and builds infrastructure. The report’s findings were commented on at the Congressional Steel Caucus this week. “Steel from Northwest […]
“Antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) measures are unable to fix the low-price problem afflicting U.S. steel producers because they amount to no more than a band-aid that can’t heal the wound.” That is the opinion of Daniel R. Pearson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Steife Center for Trade Policy Studies. With […]
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she will crack down on Chinese steel dumping if elected president. Clinton vowed to triple the number of trade enforcement officials, pursue countervailing duties on subsidized imports, confront currency manipulation and appoint a new trade prosecutor that reports directly to the president. Chinese steelmaking overcapacity continues to be a […]
The following analysis was done by Peter Wright who writes a number of analytical articles for Steel Market Update. The energy markets are key markets for steel so it is important for our readers to understand oil and gas prices as well as the tubular products associated with drilling and transportation of oil and gas. […]
US Steel CEO Mario Longhi criticized the European Union and United Kingdom for being “negligent” in in addressing dumping of steel from China and blamed the UK steel crisis on “misguided policies.” In an interview with the Financial Times, Longhi said the willingness of the British government to grant market economy status to China will […]
India has initiated an antidumping investigation into HRC, steel sheet and plate imports from China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia. The products under investigation include HRC of width up to 2100mm and thickness up to 25mm, HR sheet and plates of a width up to 4950 mm and thickness up to 150mm. India steelmakers […]
Licensed data for March was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on April 5th. An explanation of the methodology that we at SMU use to analyze the trade data is given at the end of this piece. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of March were […]
This report summarizes total steel supply from 2003 through February 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 and […]
A week ago Steel Market Update reported that three domestic steel mills would file an antidumping suit against a number of foreign countries who have been exporting cut-to-length (CTL) plate to the United States. On Friday the three mills identified in our earlier reporting filed their petition. A trade petition against 12 countries was filed […]
According to the latest data released from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute, apparent steel supply for the month of February 2016 was 8,269,164 net tons. Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. February apparent […]
The ocean bound freight market had a bit of good news last week—the Baltic Dry Index rose to 517 on April 7 and closed the week out on April 9 at 539, nearly an 86 percent increase from mid-February’s historic low of 290. MID-SHIP Report says a celebration is not yet warranted since the BDI […]