The month of April began with SMU Price Momentum Indicator pointing toward higher prices and by the second week of the month we had moved our Indicator to Neutral which is where it is now as the month ends. Our 3MMA for the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index appears to be peaking at +74. The […]
Cliffs Natural Resources continues to shore up its balance sheet and focus on reducing its debt. A $72 million debt extinguishment/restructuring charge resulted in a net loss of $30 million for the quarter. Debt was reduced by $550 million during Q1 resulting in total debt at the end of the quarter of $1.6 billion. First […]
Produced by: Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report & Analysis On April 20, 2017, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum (“Memorandum”) directing the Secretary of Commerce (“Secretary”) to prioritize investigating the effects of steel imports on national security pursuant to Section 232(b) of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Under the Act, if the Secretary determines […]
This week the Trump administration initiated an investigation on the impact of steel imports on national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Section 232 has been initiated 26 times within the last 55 years but only two (1979 and 1983) found a threat to national security, both involving crude oil. […]
US Steel stunned analysts and the financial community on Tuesday/Wednesday when the company announced a large loss when the street was expecting the company to make money. During the conference call the mill advised that they essentially need to upgrade their facilities in order for the company to remain competitive. The stock price dropped 25 […]
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 […]
Earlier today, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order requesting the U.S. Department of Commerce conduct an investigation under the Section 232 statutes (national security) to see if steel and imports of foreign steel are important to National Security interests of the United States. “We’re going to use American steel, we’re going to use American […]
With consolidated sales of $4.82 billion which is a 30 percent increase over 1Q 2016 and net earnings of $356.9 million it was a good 1st Quarter 2017 for the company. The company reported that the second quarter earnings should exceed that of 1st Quarter. The overall operating rates at the Nucor steel mills was […]
The debate these days seems to be centered around how much inventory is really out there, how much is incoming (especially from foreign sources) and how much flat rolled will buyers need to buy come this summer? Earlier today I asked a small steel mill if they believed the low coated inventories (1.65 months) according […]
Freight shipment on the seas, rivers, rails and by truck moved without many complications in the past few weeks. The seaborne freight market spot rates are recovering and foreign steel industries are boosting cargos of coal and iron ore. Spot rates have caught up with demand for the trucking industry and rail traffic was up. […]
We managed to squeeze in an extra day off for our crew due to the Easter Holiday. So, if you were looking for a newsletter on Sunday evening – sorry, we skipped a day. But, we are making up for it today with an issue that if you printed it you could use as a […]
Mesabi Metallics has competition in its effort to take over the half-finished Essar Steel Minnesota taconite facility in Nashwauk, Minn. Chippewa Capital Partners, LLC, which includes the new owner of Magnetation, has thrown its hat into the ring along with Cliffs Natural Resources. Last Saturday, Chippewa Capital submitted a bid for $250 million. Cliffs’ non-binding […]
On Friday Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our flat rolled steel Price Momentum Indicator to Neutral from Higher. The key reason behind our decision to move our indicator is “indecision” in the marketplace. More about that in a moment. The current market cycle began on October 21, 2016 when the domestic mills were able to […]
For those who missed my comment earlier, Acero Junction hot strip mill is rolling at close to full right now. Our sources are advising us that the mill is running about 50,000 tons of HRC. They have prime slabs on the floor and incoming from Brazil (one of the reasons why semi-finished imports continue to […]
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 […]
I had a question from one of our readers regarding capacity utilization rates and if the Big River Steel tonnage is part of the AISI calculation. I have not spoken directly to the AISI on the subject (as of yet) but, I do know that Big River Steel is not a member of the AISI… […]
Flat rolled steel Price Momentum ended the month of March where it began – indicating higher prices for hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and now plate prices. The steel and manufacturing industries remain firmly entrenched in the Optimistic camp as the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index hit new highs for the three-month moving average […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel With HR spot hovering around $650/ST, HR futures prices declined in the latest week on modest trading volumes. Conflicting sharp price […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of February 2017, providing updated data on iron ore imports, scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in February were 83,490,000 metric tons, a decrease of 9.1 percent from the previous month but an increase of 13.4 percent from […]
The Association of American Railroads finds in a new report that freight railroads are at risk from trade policies that curtail international trade. In an assessment released Tuesday, the AAR said that at least 42 percent of all rail carloads and intermodal units and 35 percent of annual rail revenue are directly associated with international […]
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 March 17th (Figure 1). The dollar had a recent peak of 128.963 on January 3rd which was the […]
This is only our second ever write up of global scrap trade. In future we will report quarterly because we believe that to understand the gyrations of the domestic scrap market we should be aware of where the US stands as a global player. This data is not very current because some nations are slow […]
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 […]
The shipping season opened on the Great Lakes this month. In general, freight shipments within the U.S. are moving without complications in March. Rate increases have been noted for most seaborne freight with the Baltic Dry Index approaching highs last seen in November 2016. Seaborne Freight The Panama Canal continues to break monthly records for […]
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 […]
The following analysis of the steel markets in China is from Beijing Metal Import & Export Co.,Ltd and is being reproduced by Steel Market Update with permission. We edited the original copy to assist our readers in understanding what the group is trying to relay to us. Here is what they had to say (edited […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]