Steel Market Update (SMU) has adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to reference spot prices as moving higher from this point over the next 30 days. Our decision to move our indicator is due to the continued high prices for steel mill inputs, such as 62% Fe iron ore fines in China being sold at $91.50/dmt […]
US Steel Corporation is suing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for failing to complete the pollution permitting process for the company’s Minntac mining facility in Mt. Iron, Minn. US Steel filed a Mandamus claim which asks a judge to require MPCA to take action on a specific request. US Steel said it has been […]
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 February 17th (Figure 1). The dollar had a recent peak of 128.963 on January 3rd which was the […]
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 […]
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 article is the opinion of John Packard, Publisher, Steel Market Update. I haven’t gone back and reviewed the records as to how many times flat rolled steel prices moved higher after a quick run up followed by a stable to slightly down market for a couple of weeks. Probably less than the fingers […]
It has been four weeks since the last HARDI galvanized steel conference call. The call provides a forum for the HARDI HVAC wholesalers and other associated HARDI members to discuss trends affecting galvanized steel prices. Over the past four weeks market prices have eased a bit but many of the factors that drive prices are […]
Iron ore has seen a huge spike in pricing, soaring $5.61 to $92.23 per tonne on Tuesday, Feb. 14 for a 30 month high. Iron ore stockpiles are up at ports but not the high grade ore that is being sought by Chinese steelmakers. Efforts to reduce pollution and curb overcapacity has led to the […]
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 […]
The following article was prompted by a report coming out of a consulting group working for Greenpeace. SMU understands they have a political agenda but we wanted to provide our readers with what was being said and then some commentary at the end from one of our trading friends located in Asia who works with […]
The following article is from one of our close iron ore & steel trading friends located in Asia: The market has changed or is in turmoil, if you want to call it that, here in SE Asia and China continues to out price themselves whereas the China domestic indicators lead to a different scenario. Ore […]
We have a number of articles in tonight’s newsletter about China and Chinese steel and iron ore prices. Why do we pay so much attention to one country? China controls 50 percent of the world’s steel production. The country has somewhere around 300 million metric tons (330 million net tons) of excess capacity. They have […]
The US Steel Granite City hot strip mill is back in action as promised. US Steel has called 225 employees back to work to restart the facility’s idled hot mill. For the present, only the hot mill will be restarted which reheats steel slabs, sourced from other US Steel mills, to process them into coil. […]
“Sanity is back in the seabourne iron ore market,” said Cliffs Natural Resources CEO Lourenco Goncalves in comments during the Cliffs earnings call on Thursday. After the departure of three key executives in the Australian ore market, iron ore prices doubled and Rio Tinto, Vale and BHP are exhibiting disciplined behavior which will support strong […]
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. Looking back from the […]
Today is the last day in the month of January 2017. The following is our monthly review of key data collected by Steel Market Update during the month including a number of our own proprietary indices and indicators. SMU Price Momentum is ending the month pointing toward higher prices ahead. We do admit that there […]
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 January 20th (Figure 1). The dollar had a recent peak of 128.9627 on January 3rd which was the […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) received the following question from one of our readers: “We are a galvanized sheet metal fabricator. We purchase around 5 million pounds a year (mostly 26ga-14ga). I was hoping you could help us out. We have not had to raise prices in years but galvanized pricing has steady risen over the […]
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 article has been revised as of 1-25-2017. Net income/loss was incorrectly reported. SMU apologizes for the confusion. AK Steel reported a net loss of $62.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to net loss of 145.4 million in Q4 2015. Sales totaled $1.42 billion with an average selling price of $998 […]
The Chinese government is attempting to make a stand against the extreme pollution plaguing the country. One of the largest polluting industries is the steel industry through its use of coal. The march against pollution is expected to have mixed results when it comes to iron ore and steel prices. Iron ore prices were reported […]
Our next Steel 101 workshop will be held in Toledo, Ohio on April 11-12th. Included will be a tour of the North Star Bluescope steel mill. We should have details and registration available on our website by the end of the week. Late today I received a note from one of my pig iron sources. […]
Chinese finished steel exports are beginning to drop month over month. In December, finished steel exports were down about 4 percent from November to 7.8 million tonnes. In comparison to a year ago, December exports had fallen approximately 27 percent from a record 112.4 million tonnes. Looking at the data by quarter finished steel exports […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As Flack Steel’s 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 articles for […]
In the first eleven months of 2016, total ferrous steel scrap exports were 11,428,000 tonnes, down by 11.8 percent from the first 11 months of 2015. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages for 2016 and on the annual monthly average for previous years. The graph shows that exports […]
Essar Steel Minnesota is suing Essar Global Group for $1 billion in damages for financial misconduct related to its uncompleted iron ore-facility. Essar Minnesota alleges that parent company Essar Global Fund failed to provide necessary operating funds and make investments needed to complete the iron ore pellet plant under construction at ESML. The motion also […]
I got a note from one of my Asian trading sources yesterday explaining the reason for some of the price volatility seen in the Chinese markets earlier this week. He told us, “We see Ore at below USD50/mt in 2017. Reasons being that China is shutting down capacity big time, probably about 150 million MTS […]
OK, don’t get freaked out (yet) as the new flat rolled steel base price increases aren’t really impacting the numbers for this week. However, there were a couple of steel mills already seeking higher hot rolled, cold rolled and coated prices prior to the announcement. We did collect some of that data in tonight’s steel […]
Shipping wound down for 2016 with mixed reports. Seaborne rates hit bottom and began an upward climb. U.S. river traffic was sluggish due to holidays and weather. U.S. rail volume, down overall for 2016, picked up in the final week of December. U.S. truck rates increased and shipping volume surged due to holiday delivery and […]