On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including current and future steel prices, inventory strategies, supply, demand, and new mill capacity. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing some of them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! […]
The US and EU affirmed their intention to reach a common framework on carbon emissions in steel and aluminum by October at the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting in Luleå, Sweden, on Wednesday. At the meeting the EU and US said that via the Transatlantic Initiative for Sustainable Trade they are “strengthening engagement towards […]
The US will extend for another year an exemption for Ukrainian steel from Section 232 tariffs. “The United States has provided a much-needed market for the steel that Ukraine is able to export,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in statement on Wednesday, May 31. “In doing so, Americans are directly supporting the people of Ukraine, […]
Swedish steelmaker SSAB is urging ambitious standards for the steel industry’s transition to green steelmaking as the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting takes place in Luleå, Sweden, on May 30-31. Martin Lindqvist, president and CEO of SSAB, said that to succeed in the transition, effective frameworks, political leadership, and action are needed. “It is also […]
An anticipated surge in flat-rolled steel imports due to higher domestic pricing has yet to be reflected in government data. For monthly imports, the International Trade Administration’s US Steel Import Monitor tracks license applications (a first look showing licenses to import but not necessarily the actual tonnages that entered during the month), a preliminary count, […]
Sheet prices came down harder than I expected this week. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. For starters, mills are still making money at these levels, so there is not a lot of friction to lowering prices to get an order. Also, lead times are or will soon be overlapping with a period when we’re […]
SMU’s domestic hot-rolled coil price has fallen below $1,000 per ton ($50 per cwt) for the first time since early March as a broad-based sheet price decline picks up speed. Our HRC price now stands at $990 per ton on average, down $50 per ton from $1,040 per ton last week and off $170 per […]
Foreign cold-rolled coil remains much less expensive than domestic CRC even as prices in the US fall roughly in tandem with those abroad, according to SMU’s latest check of the market. Domestic CRC was, on average, $77 per ton ($3.85 per cwt) more expensive than imported steel in the four regions we track as recently as early February. […]
Two separate developments suggest that the Biden administration may have concerns that more tariffs would damage the US economy by harming consumers. First, we saw the president suspend action to impose additional tariffs on solar cells and modules from four countries in the face of an antidumping “circumvention” proceeding. Circumvention determines whether operations in third […]
A weary market worn down by the absence of any positive demand reports ran below the critical $2,300-per-tonne trading line. Falling all the way to $2,200 before settling in the $2,270 – 2,290 range, the LME is in a new lower range as of the week ending May 19 as bearish sentiment pervades the market. […]
A lot of steel companies are talking about being carbon neutral by 2050. But how are we going to get there? And how do we get the rest of the world to come with us? As we proceed with decarbonization, what actually qualifies as “green steel,” and who gets to decide? A conversation today with Kevin […]
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects, including current and future steel prices, inventory strategies, supply, demand, and new mill capacity. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing some of them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! […]
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) imports are lingering at a notable price discount to domestic hot band tags despite repeated price decreases in the US market, according to SMU’s latest foreign vs. domestic price analysis. Domestic tags are still markedly more expensive than imported product, as both offshore and US steel prices continue to ease. The price advantage domestic […]
Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ chairman, president, and CEO—as well as the newly elected AISI chairman—and Kevin Dempsey, AISI president and CEO, discussed issues ranging from Section 232 tariffs and hydrogen in steelmaking, to steel imports from Mexico, along with a host of other topics on Tuesday at the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) General Meeting press […]
By CRU senior analyst, Ryan McKinley Supply has become increasingly available to sheet markets around the world. In many cases, this in coinciding with weak demand, creating a supply glut over the near term and increasing competition among exporters in major sheet-producing regions. The key for markets to retighten lies with China, with exporters there […]
Cleveland-Cliffs is preparing to lay off approximately 300 workers at its Weirton, W.Va., tin mill operations in June due to “dumped and subsidized imports,” according to a press release from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). The Cleveland-based steelmaker invested more than $50 million over two years in the Weirton plant to increase production. Census data indicates that […]
The drop in sheet prices we’ve seen at the mill level is now spreading downstream – an abrupt shift from just a few weeks ago, according to our latest survey data. More and more service centers are cutting prices. I had expected to see an increase in the number of service centers reporting that they […]
Flack Global Metals (FGM) founder and CEO Jeremy Flack will be the featured speaker on our next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, May 17, at 11 am ET. The webinar is free. You can register here. We’ll talk about the increased volatility that has characterized the steel market since 2020. Remember when hot-rolled coil used to […]
US apparent steel supply rose 6% in March to 8.03 million net tons compared to the previous month, according to data from the US Department of Commerce and the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Apparent steel supply is determined by combining domestic steel mill shipments and finished US steel imports, then deducting total US […]
Since 1997, the US Department of Commerce has had a regulation permitting an “expedited review” of subsidy determinations in countervailing duty investigations. The importers of subject merchandise in these cases are often denied individual subsidy rates because Commerce lacks the resources to investigate every company. To compensate for the department’s insufficient resources, any company not […]
The Congressional Steel Caucus (CSC) has urged the US Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative to take action to address what it calls a “surge of Mexican steel imports” into the US. The CSC claims the imports are in violation of the US and Mexican 2019 Joint Statement on Section 232 Duties on Steel and Aluminum, […]
After surprising the market watchers of HR futures in the first week of May, the index finally gave back $40 per short ton (ST) in the second week, coming in just shy of $1,130/ST. Interestingly, the May futures settlement was almost unchanged from April 10 . While the market may be in a hurry for price […]
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) imports remain a feasible alternative despite repeated price decreases in the US market, according to SMU’s latest foreign vs. domestic price analysis. Domestic tags are still notably more expensive than imported product, as offshore steel prices and US prices decline in tandem. The price advantage domestic HRC had enjoyed over imported material as recently […]
A much-anticipated bleeding in US flat-rolled steel prices has begun. On the hot-rolled coil side, we’ve been losing approximately $20-25 per ton per week since mid-April. That’s a boo-boo. Steel might need a Band-Aid. Does it become a wound that needs a tourniquet? I ask that question because the high end of our HRC price […]
Steel prices peaked at the start of the month, with hot-rolled coil reaching $1,160 per ton ($58 pet cwt) on average on April 10. Tags began to decline near the month’s halfway mark and closed out the month $40 per ton lower at $1,120 per ton. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator for sheet products was […]
Flack Global Metals (FGM) founder and CEO Jeremy Flack will be the featured speaker on our next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, May 17, at 11 am ET. The webinar is free. You can register here. We’ll talk about the increased volatility that has characterized the steel market since 2020. Remember when hot-rolled coil used to […]
We have a few confrontations this week. President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy are scheduled to meet this week on resolving the debt ceiling confrontation. Some sort of compromise seems likely, but a cataclysm involving government default is hardly out of the question. The time for agreement is nigh—US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has moved […]
Licenses to import steel into the US declined from March to April, with all major flat-rolled product categories showing month-on-month (MoM) declines, according to the latest figures from the Department of Commerce’s US Steel Import Monitor. Import licenses totaled more than 2.292 million net tons in April. This was a 12% drop from March’s final import […]
First, the important stuff: May the fourth be with you! Second, steel market participants tell us that several domestic mills have become significantly more aggressive on prices of late. I’m not sure of a Star Wars analogy for that. Prices being slashed with light sabers? I’m open to suggestions. Let’s say it takes tens of […]
Hot-rolled coil (HRC) imports remain attractive to US buyers despite the current price correction in the domestic market, according to SMU’s latest foreign vs. domestic price analysis. Domestic tags are still significantly more expensive than imported product, namely because offshore steel prices are declining concurrently with US tags. The price advantage domestic HRC had enjoyed over imported […]