Barge volumes continue to be high on the US river system although rates have softened slightly, according to the latest MID-SHIP Report. Grain shipments this year are at the highest level since 2010 and are loading 45-50 seaborne vessels each week in the Gulf. As of the beginning of November, 83 percent of the soybean […]
I was at the Cowen & Company Global Metals, Mining and Materials Conference in New York City earlier this week. I always find it interesting when meeting with members of the financial community as their questions and concerns can many times be much different than those of the steel community. The constant question was how […]
I have been in New York City since Sunday. I am participating in a panel on Wednesday at the Cowen & Company conference. Steel people don’t get to attend most of the financial related conferences. The attendees tend to be hedge fund managers and investors. Their perspectives of the steel industry can be quite different […]
ArcelorMittal reported $20 billion in sales for third quarter on 21.5 million tonnes (23.7 million tons) of steel shipments. Net income for the quarter was $22 million, compared to $52 million in Q2 2014 and a net loss of $193 million in Q3 2013. Total crude steel production for the company was 23.9 million tonnes […]
The Association of American Railroads reported 305,389 carloads for the week ending Nov 1, 2014, up 4.3 percent year over. Intermodal volume increased 5.9 percent y/y to 279,819 units for the highest volume ever. “America’s railroads are moving an enormous amount of freight today,” said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. “In the first […]
One thing that we learned from the earnings conference calls which were conducted over the past two weeks: the domestic steel mills will be entering 2015 with all of their blast furnaces online, maintenance completed and (hopefully) running well. Barring any unforeseen circumstances we should have plenty of domestic supply going into the traditionally strong […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early November flat rolled steel market survey this week. We invited approximately 600 companies to participate in the process. Of those participating 44 percent were manufacturing companies and 44 percent were steel service centers. The balance of the respondents was comprised of 6 percent trading companies, 5 percent steel […]
Andre Marshall, well known commodity futures trader, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and instructor for our Managing Price Risk I and II workshops has written today’s HRC futures article. Today he comments on the financial markets, steel, iron ore and ferrous scrap markets. Financial Markets: All time highs again in the stock markets. We are […]
China has a number of taxes on steel, both domestically and for exports. This is one of the misunderstandings many countries have (including the United States). We have been speaking about the subject with one of our key Asian trading contacts over the past few days as we asked about possible suspension of Boron added […]
Chinese steel trade data was recently released for the month of September 2014, providing updated data on iron ore imports, steel scrap imports, and flat rolled imports and exports. Chinese imports of iron ore in September were 84,695,000 metric tons, an increase of 13.1 percent from the previous month and an increase of 13.6 percent […]
Nucor Corp. is reportedly one of the steel mill in talks with Cliffs Natural Resources over an investment plan for the Bloom Lake iron ore mine in Canada. Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said in the company earning calls that Cliffs would seek three investors, to partner at 10 percent each, to develop Phase 2 of […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered has been increased by one this month to thirty six. We have added the price of coking coal FOB the Australian East Coast to the raw […]
Today’s hot rolled coil and ferrous scrap futures article is written by Bradley Clark, Director of Steel Trading at Kataman Metals. The market seems to have bottomed out with the CRU coming in at $640 yesterday. Positive sentiment has outweighed any negatives in the market with AK Steel recently announcing a price hike of $20/ton […]
US Steel announced in their earnings conference call that Carnegie Way benefits now total $495 million for 2014 due primarily to improvements in manufacturing processes, supply chain and logistics, and SG&A reductions. “While our operating difficulties in North America in the first half of the year made it difficult to see the results of our […]
Commercial Metals Company (CMC) reported net earnings of $34.9 million for its fourth quarter ending August 31, 2014. Net sales increased 12 percent year over year to $1.9 billion. For the full fiscal year 2014, net earnings were 115.6 million on net sales of 7 billion. In comparison, FY 2013 net earnings were 77.3 million […]
Cliffs Natural Resources is a leading producer and supplier of iron ore pellets to the Great Lakes regions. CEO Lourenco Goncalves spoke at length about the iron ore market during the Cliffs earnings conference call this week. “Our U.S. Iron Ore pellets are often incorrectly compared with seaborne iron ore fines. Fines require additional processing […]
Cliffs Natural Resources reported a net loss of 5.9 billion for third quarter. Consolidated revenue fell by 16 percent year over year to $1.3 billion due primarily to significantly lower prices for iron ore and metallurgical coal. Adjusted EBITDA for third quarter was $233 million, 45 percent below third quarter 2013. Cliff’s has had a […]
MID-SHIP Group reports that the two biggest factors impacting the dry cargo freight market right now are U.S. and South American agricultural products and Chinese imports and exports. Expectations for strong exports of agricultural products are high but not much has hit the export market yet. Iron ore imports into China have slowly started to […]
Statistical data out of China is always questioned for a number of reasons, not least is, “Is the data politically motivated.” Other suspicions arise because China gets their data out faster than any other major economy and the data is never revised. Figure 1 shows published data for the growth of GDP, industrial production and […]
The following article comes from one of our contributing writers, Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Andre is a well known trader/broker in the hot rolled coil (HRC) and other commodities futures markets. He is also our instructor for the SMU Managing Price Risk I and II workshop series. Tonight Andre speaks to the financial […]
A proposal by Transport Canada may be devastating for U.S. cargo ships delivering raw materials on the Great Lakes. The proposal would require lakers to be equipped with ballast water treatment systems like their oceangoing sister ships. The water treatment systems are designed to eliminating invasive species from being introduced to coastal waters through ballast […]
Nucor beat guidance forecasts with earnings of $245 million for the third quarter of 2014, up from $147 million in both Q2 2013 and Q3 2013. Consolidated net sales increased 8 percent to $5.70 billion. Strong third quarter earnings were attributed to improved performance in sheet steel, structural, bar, and plate steel that was partially […]
Steel Dynamics admitted in their conference call with analysts earlier today, that the timing is not right for a trade case against cold rolled and coated steels (the question asked was about Chinese the answer did not reference any specific country). We thought our readers would be interested in the complete dialogue between two of […]
The steel market seems fragile right now said members on this morning’s monthly steel conference call hosted by the Heating, Air conditioning, Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI). Pricing is beginning to slip as demand remains steady was the consensus of most callers. A HVAC wholesaler noted the mills are “negotiating more readily than they were at […]
After the recent sell off of HRC futures, it appears the market has reached a critical support level with Cal 15 trading at $620. Near months aren’t much higher with Nov14 trading around $623 and Dec14 at $621. The selloff came as concerns over the global economy came to light in recent weeks. The International […]
Besides working on flat rolled steel pricing for most of the week, I have also been interviewing companies by email and over the phone to learn more about demand and how demand is holding up as we get deeper into 4th Quarter 2014. This becomes an even more important topic when considering rising inventories at […]
Cliffs Natural Resources will begin using trucks to transport taconite pellets to the docks from its Minnesota facility due to rail congestion in the upper Midwest. In an announcement on Friday, the company said it will immediately begin utilizing 100 trucks per day to ship iron ore pellets from Hibbing Taconite to the Duluth-Superior harbor […]
The following article was produced by SMU contributing writer Peter Wright for our Premium level members. However, we felt that the current strengthening trend of the U.S. dollar is important for all of our readers to understand as it is impacting both commodity and steel prices and will continue to do so in the future. […]
We are in a very interesting market as many factors are influencing domestic scrap and steel prices. We discuss currency issues in tonight’s issue as the appreciating dollar means less competitive exports out of the United States but it also makes foreign steel imports more attractive to buyers. We have falling iron ore (which is […]
Contributing writer, Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC, provides a glimpse at the financial, copper, steel (hot rolled coil), iron ore and scrap markets for our readers. Mr. Marshall is well known within the futures community and is the instructor for our Managing Price Risk I & II workshops. Financial Markets: Rethinking Island Mentality The […]