As usual we will spend a few moments taking a look at the month of May in our rear view mirror to see what transpired. SMU Price Momentum Indicator was adjusted during the month from Higher to Neutral as we detected a change in the supply/demand dynamics with the return to full production at US […]
Steel imports to the U.S. totaled 3.7 million net tons according to preliminary data from the US Census Bureau but the reaction to this data depends on one’s point of view. The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) and the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) both came out with reports on April imports, but […]
After a weak start to 2014 business activity is going strong in May said participants on the HARDI monthly galvanized steel call. Steel Market Update (SMU) joined HARDI wholesalers who supply galvanized steel to the construction trades to talk about concerns in the industry including domestic mill price trends as well as the impact of […]
SMU was told this afternoon that AK Steel has finally “caught up” on their hot rolled and cold rolled orders and, as our source put it today, “was out looking for orders.” There was no reference to AK dropping pricing at this time. We were told the mill was still sold out on coated products. […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary Census Data on steel imports into the United States for the month of April on Friday. As expected steel imports jumped by 20 percent compared to the previous month and by 36 percent year-over-year (days adjusted basis) to 3,726,199 net tons (3.4 million+ metric tons). This is for […]
The numbers are not looking good for the domestic steel mills as the latest license data from the US Department of Commerce shows May steel imports may well exceed the 3.7 million tons just reported for the month of April (Preliminary Census data for April). We remind our readers that the May tonnage shown in […]
Chinese steel trade data for April 2014 was released earlier this week, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in April were 83,390,000 metric tons, an increase of 12.8 percent from the previous month and an increase of 24.2 percent from […]
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal has decided that imports of hot-rolled carbon steel plate from six countries “has not caused but is threatening to cause injury to the domestic industry.” The complaint was issued by Essar Steel Algoma against plate steel originating in or exported from Brazil, Denmark, Indonesia, Italy, Japan and the Republic of […]
Every month, Steel Market Update calculates whether flat rolled steel distributor’s inventories are in excess or a deficit based on our proprietary formula. The Metal Service Center Institute released April data late last week and, based on our analysis, we believe the “apparent deficit” to be 251,000 tons. This represents an improvement of 101,000 tons […]
It is well known that Dan DiMicco, the former CEO of Nucor Steel, has been an advocate of holding the Chinese steel mills to tougher standards. He has been opposed to imports of Chinese steel into the United States since most of the industry is government controlled and, in his opinion, unfairly traded. In light […]
Iron ore spot prices in China have been falling and may continue to decline to the lows last seen in September 2012 when prices for 62% Fe fines reached into the $80’s (currently trading at $97.5/dmt). Steel Market Update has been reviewing the relationship between iron ore and ferrous scrap prices using shredded scrap as […]
For the week ending May 17, 2014, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported that the U.S. steel industry produced 1,838,000 net tons (NT) of raw steel, a 0.3 percent decrease over the previous week but a 0.3 percent increase over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 76.4 […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released updated import license data through the 20th of May. If we remember, the license data through the 13th projected that we would see May imports surpass 4.0 million net tons and could go as high as 4.5 million tons. We discounted that number as we have seen previous month’s […]
SteelBenchmarker released regional pricing earlier this week, putting the world export hot rolled price at $501 per net ton ($552 per metric ton). The spread between the SMU HR price and the world HR price went from $173 per ton two weeks ago to $184 as of Monday. With an estimated $70 per ton in […]
Steel Market Update published our special data on March steel imports which are produced by product (slabs, plate in coil, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume), by port of entry and by the country of origin. The full data is available for review by our Premium Level subscribers. Below is a portion of the […]
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the law firm of Stewart and Stewart recently released its publication “Surging Steel Imports Put Up to Half a Million U.S. Jobs at Risk.” The publication was released in support of the domestic steel industry and their unions and contends that unfairly traded imports are costing the U.S. jobs […]
U.S. and Canadian steel mills continue to keep a firm grip on pricing as supply (production) related problems keep lead times extended on most products. We are seeing the impact of foreign galvanized and Galvalume imports influencing at least one coated steel mill in the South. Domestic buyers appear to be accepting the higher prices […]
There will be a lot of news in the media today and tomorrow regarding foreign steel imports and their damage to the U.S. economy. We are seeing demonstrations across the country by union workers trying to influence policy and, particularly, the final determination of the OCTG dumping suits. Politicians are involved with Senator Sherrod Brown […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released their latest imported steel license data for the month of May 2014. The early indication is for May steel imports to remain at, or above the projected April imports of 3.7 million tons. March final imports came in at 3.2 million which is also our 3 month moving average. […]
The supply of all steel products in Q1 2014 was up by 5.9 percent from Q1 last year. Flat rolled was up by 4.5 percent and longs were up by 9.8 percent. The sources of this analysis are the Commerce Department trade statistics and AISI steel shipment data.The bad news is that imports of all […]
Steel Market Update watches foreign steel imports as closely as humanly possible as we look for trends to see how imported steel tonnages relate to past historical averages. We use a monthly average as opposed to a specific monthly number in order to smooth out the numbers and provide a clearer picture. As you can […]
The key highlight of first quarter was the Calvert acquisition, said ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal in the company’s first quarter earnings call. ArcelorMittal’s 50 percent ownership of AM/NS Calvert gives AM the capacity needed to supply AHSS solutions for the auto industry in the US and Mexico. ArcelorMittal has been focusing on light weight steels […]
Apparent steel supply for March was 9,753,954 net tons, a 9.6 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. This is due to an increase in domestic shipments and finished imports and a slight decrease in total US exports. The net trade balance between imports and exports was a surplus of 2,194,246 net […]
Apparent supply is defined as domestic mill shipments to domestic locations plus imports. Sources are the American Iron and Steel Institute and the Department of Commerce. The three month moving average of the total tonnage of sheet and strip supply in the 1st quarter was 4,603,548 tons, up from 4,426,649 tons per month in Q4 […]
The Broad Index value of the US $ has been gradually strengthening for 18 months (Figure 1), which favors imports to the US and depresses exports. See explanation at the end of this piece. Table 1 shows the number of currency units that it takes to buy one US $ and the percent change in […]
Last week was a busy week with scrap prices for May coming into focus, our beginning of May flat rolled steel survey having been completed and getting more information about the possible sale of the Severstal NA assets made for an interesting week. On top of that SMU conducted one of our Steel 101 workshops. […]
More than 200 Ohio steel workers and supporters gathered at a rally outside US Steel Lorain Tubular Operations on May 5 to urge the federal government to protect the Northeast Ohio steel industry from unfair foreign competition. “Northeast Ohio’s steelmakers and workers can compete against anyone in the world—when given access to a level playing […]
When Nucor announced their earnings on April 24th they held a conference call with analysts to discuss their business and to make statements about their company, the markets they serve and about the economy in general. John Ferriola, Nucor’s Chairman, CEO and President, provided an opening statement during which he made the following remarks regarding […]
April turned out to be a month where supply disruptions squeezed the life out of non-repentant steel buyers: flat rolled steel buyers who had run their inventories too lean or who hesitated when U.S. Steel Great Lakes went down, only to be ambushed by steelmaking curtailments at USS Gary Works (and elsewhere) due to iron […]
Based on revised domestic and world export pricing on hot rolled coil (SteelBenchmarker), the price spread between the two continues to grow. As you can see by the graphic shown below, the spread has been widening ever since domestic steel production issues began impacting flat rolled steel pricing in the U.S. and Canada. The spread […]