By Anh Nghiem, CRU Steel Prices Lead, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The iron ore price was stable last week but increased sharply on Monday after the news on suspension of mining activities at Vale’s Itabira mining complex during the weekends due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The mine produced 36 Mt […]
Cargo shipments on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway were impacted during the coronavirus pandemic, with ports seeing lower volumes. Tonnage on the St. Lawrence Seaway was down 10 percent year over year in the period from March 15 through May 31 to 7.7 million metric tons, said the Marine Chamber of Commerce. “Road […]
Cleveland-Cliffs will resume construction on its Hot-Briquetted Iron plant in Toledo earlier than expected. Construction was halted on March 20, 2020, due to the pandemic, but will resume with newly implemented safety measures. Cleveland-Cliffs plans to complete the HBI facility during the fourth quarter of this year. The Tilden mine that supplies AK Steel Middletown […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The suspension of iron ore production at Vale’s Itabira Complex resulted in prices surging after the weekend. On Tuesday, June 9, CRU has assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $105.0 /dmt, up $4.5 /dmt w/w. In China, demand has remained robust as […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor In the past week, iron ore has fallen by $11 /dmt, the largest price drop since August 2019. The price fall comes after declining steel margins and slightly lower steel production levels in China. At the same time, offloading activities at Chinese ports have […]
John Packard is working on another project. Steel prices have been on an upward trajectory, albeit a gradual one, since bottoming out in late April when the benchmark price of hot rolled hit a low of $460 per ton. The market plunged by $120 per ton in just six weeks from its mid-March high of […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Sheet prices in the U.S. Midwest market have continued to rise with HR coil assessed at $510 /s.ton, a w/w gain of $23 /s.ton. While prices are higher, overall volume of transactions has been limited. This is due not only to low demand and plentiful […]
SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors (davidfeldstein@rocktradingadvisors.com, twitter @TheFeldstein). In addition to market analysis, RTA provides price risk management not only for ferrous products, but also base metals, energy and interest rates. RTA also trains sales staff and creates the infrastructure necessary for firms to offer their customers fixed pricing on […]
Editor’s note: SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors. David has over 20 years of financial market trading experience and has been active in the ferrous futures space for eight years. David earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in economics, statistics and analytical finance. Since […]
Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers the following update on events in Washington: As an international trade attorney, I work hard to explain why we as a nation engage in international trade; this week, two senior administration officials weighed in on that subject. Everyone should take note. I think Ambassador Robert […]
Ferrous scrap remains in limited supply, prompting predictions that scrap prices will settle still higher in June, on top of the big increase in May. Steel Market Update sources forecast an increase of $10-20 per ton for obsolete grades and $20-30 per ton for prime grades in June from May levels. Higher scrap prices may […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor Iron ore prices contracted in the past week as China’s “Two Sessions” concluded with a disappointing outlook while Brazilian exports registered their strongest week of the year. On Tuesday, May 26, CRU assessed the 62% Fe fines price at $97.0, a $1.3 /t […]
By CRU Analysts Ryan Smith, Andrew Gadd and Ben Carstein Oil markets have had a torrid 2020, with the combination of demand losses due to Covid-19 and the breakdown of coordination between major producing countries resulting in plummeting prices. In this Insight, we assess how the oil price shock influences steelmaking costs through both raw […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in weaker global demand for steelmaking raw materials. However, the cost of producing and delivering many of these commodities has also fallen. Strong demand in China is helping to buoy prices for iron ore and other materials. Table 1 summarizes the price changes through May 21 of the five materials […]
The U.S. dollar weakened against 11 of the 16 steel trading nation currencies in the last 30 days, through May 18. The biggest change was that the Brazilian real headed in the other direction and declined by 9.2 percent. The effect of the coronavirus pandemic was not evident at the three-month level when the dollar […]
SMU contributor Tim Stevenson is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Tim’s previous role, he was a Director at Cargill Risk Management, and […]
U.S. Steel announced a four-year agreement to sell a “substantial volume” of iron ore pellets to Algoma Steel in Ontario, Canada. The purchase agreement runs from 2021 through 2024 and provides a new long-term customer for U.S. Steel’s Minnesota mines. Monday’s announcement follows an iron ore purchase agreement with Stelco in April that gives Stelco […]
SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors (davidfeldstein@rocktradingadvisors.com, twitter @TheFeldstein). In addition to market analysis, RTA provides price risk management not only for ferrous products, but also base metals, energy and interest rates. RTA also trains sales staff and creates the infrastructure necessary for firms to offer their customers fixed pricing on […]
Cleveland-Cliffs expects operations to normalize during the second quarter as end-markets begin recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Although the pandemic effect led to automotive plant shutdowns over the past six weeks, the timing and pace of production restarts as well as consumer sales data have both exceeded our expectations,” said Cliffs’ Chairman, President and CEO […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from the CRU Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor In the past week, the iron ore price has risen to $88.8 /dmt as seaborne supply displayed some temporary weakness while China’s steel production remained at a high level. The current iron ore price, $5.3 /dmt higher than last week, sits at […]
By CRU Senior Consultants Amir Sabet and Josefa Carrere, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor The Covid-19 pandemic has generated significant uncertainty in the commodities market. For the steel sector, this has resulted in a fall in demand and steelmakers have responded by taking a wide range of capacity-related actions. In this Insight we show […]
By CRU Principal Consultant Laura Brooks and Senior Consultant Amir Sabet, from CRU’s Crude Steel Market Outlook The market impacts of Covid-19 are unknown in scale, varied and staggered in time across the world. The steel raw materials markets are being affected to a lesser or greater extent depending on the demand-side and supply-side regional […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth and Analyst Alexander Ordosch, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service The global Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in sharply falling steel demand all over the world. For the steel industry, it is a challenging task to reduce production levels as ~75 percent of global output is produced through the BF/BOF, […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor In a quiet week, iron ore prices have remained steady as Chinese buying activities were muted during the country’s Labor holiday. On Tuesday, May 5, iron ore prices were trading at $83.5 /t, $1.0 /t higher than the prior week. China’s recovery has […]
Prices of steelmaking raw materials all declined in April, reflecting the initial impact of coronavirus shutdowns and the idling of steelmaking facilities all over the world. Generally speaking, rising supplies and lower demand are likely to keep downward pressure on iron ore, coking coal, pig iron, scrap and zinc in the months to come. Table […]
U.S. Steel remains focused on its acquisition of Big River Steel even as the COVID-19 crisis forces the idling of U.S Steel operations and layoffs of employees. The success of U.S. Steel depends on having the best of integrated and EAF steelmaking, said the company during its first-quarter earnings call. “Make no mistake, our ‘best […]
Canadian steel mill Stelco has entered into a new eight-year pellet sale and purchase agreement with U.S. Steel. The eight-year contract runs until Jan. 31, 2028, and will provide 100 percent of Stelco’s iron ore pellet requirements at Lake Erie Works including volume required to support the expansion in production projected after the upcoming blast […]
SMU contributor Tim Stevenson is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Tim’s previous role, he was a Director at Cargill Risk Management, and […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor In the past week, iron ore prices have declined as we are seeing mixed sentiment in the Chinese market leading up to the country’s Labor Day holiday (May 1-5). Seaborne supply remained strong as Brazilian exports improved, particularly from the southern part of […]
The global Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in sharply falling steel demand all over the world. For the steel industry, it is a challenging task to reduce production levels as ~70 percent of global output is produced through the BF/BOF, or integrated steelmaking, process route. Blast furnaces (BFs) suffer from low operational flexibility—they cannot typically be […]