Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton gave Essar Steel Minnesota a week to agree to a terms of proposal to repay $66 million in loans. Essar received the loans in 2004 in return for promises to build a $1.9 billion iron ore processing plant and steel mill in Nashwauk, Minn. The taconite plant is still under construction […]
US Steel Corp announced it will postpone construction of the electric arc furnace at its Fairfield Works operation in Alabama due to “continued challenging market conditions in both the oil and gas and steel industries.” The $230 million EAF was scheduled for completion next year, giving US Steel the flexibility of its first EAF. The […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of November 2015, providing updated data on iron ore imports, scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in November were 82,130,000 metric tons, an increase of 8.8 percent from the previous month and an increase of 21.9 percent from […]
The USW and US Steel reached a tentative agreement late Saturday on a new contract for the more than 18,000 workers at US Steel’s flat-rolled, tubular and iron ore mining facilities in the United States. “This tentative agreement represents a major step forward from the position we found ourselves in earlier this summer when we […]
On Friday, SMU was speaking with the CEO of a Midwest-based service center who was advising us that, in his opinion, based on the conversations he was having with his mill suppliers, we should expect more flat rolled steel price increases to come. The mills were already asking his company for more and the mills’ […]
We will conduct our mid-December flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) beginning on Monday of this week. If you are on the invite list, please take a few moments to click on the link (button) and respond to our online questionnaire. If you were on the invite list in the past and for some reason […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets: The stock market is taking a […]
In the first ten months of this year bulk scrap exports were 10,889,000 tonnes for an annual rate of 14,519,000 tonnes, down by 15.6 percent from the first ten months of last year. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages (3MMA) for 2015 and on the annual monthly average […]
As the domestic mills announce price increases in the hopes of changing market momentum, one of the negatives is the spot price of iron ore in China (the largest seaborne ore buyer). Iron ore prices have been collapsing for the past two years with 62% Fe fines reaching $37.5/dmt today (TSI data). As you can […]
Navigation for freighters on the Great Lakes is winding to a close. This winter is expected to be warmer which may mean less ice on the Lakes and fewer delays of ore to mills when the shipping season reopens. The past two winters saw unusually high levels of ice coverage that persisted into April and […]
Essar Steel Minnesota met a deadline set by Governor Mark Dayton to repay $66 million in incentives owed the state after failing to complete a $1.9 billion integrated iron ore-to-steel mill. The governor gave Essar a deadline of Friday, December 4, to make payments to vendors on the project and provide assurances that future debts […]
The month of November saw a continuation of lower flat rolled steel prices, Momentum and Sentiment as buyers and sellers struggle to find a bottom to what has become an extended slide going back to May 2015. November benchmark hot rolled prices (SMU average) Dropped $15 per ton during the course of the month and […]
US Steel Corp is realigning its flat-rolled operations and management as part of its Carnegie Way transformation. The flat-rolled facilities will report through three consolidated commercial entities: Automotive Solutions, Consumer Solutions, and Industrial, Service Center and Mining Solutions. “The commercial entities have worked to position our company to be best-in-class in innovation, customer service and […]
Last week we received information about the expectation for ferrous scrap price negotiations between the domestic mills and their scrap suppliers for the month of December. Over the weekend one of our east coast scrap sources provided us more details as to what they expect this week as negotiations begin in earnest: I am not […]
Essar Steel Algoma is asking that courts in Ontario and Delaware order Cliffs Natural Resources to reinstate shipments of ore that were terminated two months ago. Cliffs canceled its contract with Essar Steel Algoma in October claiming breach of contract and triggering Essar Algoma’s filing for CCAA protection. The steel mill is concerned that it […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets The S+P 500 remains strong despite […]
Tonight’s issue should have plenty of “meat on the bone” for everyone to read and re-read over the Thanksgiving Holidays. Due to the Holidays we will not publish our Thursday and Sunday evening issues. Our next full issue will be Tuesday, December 1st. However, as always, if news breaks that we feel needs your attention […]
Global steel production in 12 months through October totaled 1.609 billion tonnes with a capacity of 2.3 billion tonnes. Production in the month of October was 133,640 tonnes up from 130,998 in September or 2.0 percent, however on a tons/day basis production was 4.311 million tonnes, down from 4.367 in September and from 4.518 in April […]
Magnetation LLC announced it may temporarily idle its Plant 2 facility in Bovey, Minn. A WARN notice has been issued to employees of the facility. If the production curtailment is followed through, the closure will take place on or after January 31, 2016. “While any operating curtailment is unfortunate, we must balance our current production […]
A note to our Premium level members, we will have another supplemental issue out tomorrow which will contain our Apparent Excess/Deficit forecast for carbon flat rolled service centers in the United States. We also expect to have our Power Point presentation regarding this week’s flat rolled steel analysis (survey) online by early afternoon. We will […]
The HARDI wholesalers held their monthly galvanized steel conference call earlier today. During the call the wholesalers provided insights into business conditions affecting the companies and discussed the status of the flat rolled steel markets. HARDI wholesalers supply galvanized sheet and coil steels to the mechanical contractors associated with residential and commercial construction in North […]
Cliffs Natural Resources announced today that it will temporarily idle iron ore production at its Northshore Mining operation in Minnesota. Pellet production will cease Dec. 1 and continue through Q1 2016. Existing customer demand will be satisfied from current inventory. The adjustment in production is due to dumping of foreign steel that has negatively impacted […]
Trade protection is a driving concern for the U.S. steel industry that has seen prices and domestic demand plummet as low priced steel imports flooded American shores. Steel mills, unions and legislators have lobbied for stronger enforcement of trade policies and the additional safeguards from dumped and subsidized imports and currency manipulation. Currently the focus […]
This article was originally published in Steel Market Update newsletter dated November 15, 2015. We provide our members up to date analysis of the status of antidumping and countervailing duty trade cases affecting the flat rolled and plate steel markets. Trade protection is a driving concern for the U.S. steel industry that has seen prices […]
Essar Steel Algoma announced Monday that it has entered Companies Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection. It is the third time Algoma will seek restructuring under CCAA—the first time in 1991 and again in 2001. In November 2014 Algoma completed a recapitalization and refinancing plan supported by Essar Global Fund Ltd. Essar Algoma has struggled to […]
In the first nine months of this year bulk scrap exports were 9,968,048 tonnes for an annual rate of 13,290,731 tonnes, down by 13.8 percent from the first nine months of last year. The tonnages shown in Figure 1 are based on three month moving averages (3MMA) for 2015 and on the annual monthly average […]
I am here in New York City participating in the Cowen & Company Global Metals and Mining Conference. Day one was dedicated to the steel industry and the various commodities (scrap, iron ore, metallurgical coal). I thought I would provide a snapshot into some of the comments made during the conference by various CEO’s. Lourenco […]
On Thursday we reported scrap prices moved sideways on certain grades in the east and were down by as much as $30 per gross ton the further west you went. Chicago ended up the week with the weakest prices as many mills did not buy due to tepid demand and a desire to drive inventories […]
Steel Market Update saw a note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch metals and mining research group out of the UK regarding takeaways from their recent trip to China. In the note the group was skeptical of the push by the Chinese central government to remove another 80 million metric tons (88 million net tons) […]
Olympic Steel reported a net loss of $600,000 for third quarter but managed to expand gross margin 21.2 percent, compared to Q3 2104, despite pressure on pricing and volume. Olympic lowered operating expenses by almost $20 million so far in 2015 as well as lowering debt by a total of $60 million. Sales volume decreased […]