In the last three months the US dollar has strengthened against fourteen of the currencies of the major sixteen steel trading nations. In the last one month, that trend has reversed and eleven of the steel trading currencies have strengthened against the US dollar. Table 1 shows the number of currency units that it takes […]
Prices continue to erode on all flat rolled steel and buyers expect the trend to continue as iron ore, met coal and scrap prices retreat in their markets. One domestic flat rolled steel buyer pointed out, “The cost of production is coming down.” The expectation is that lower scrap prices will translate into lower hot […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been writing about the building of the iron ore bubble in China for some time now. Our iron ore trading contact in Asia has been warning us of the massive inventories being built and now the crackdown by the Chinese government and banks on bad loans to both public and […]
Steel Market Update has been writing about the iron ore pricing and inventory bubble growing in China. We have been forecasting that it is only a matter of time before the bubble will burst and iron ore prices will collapse. The issues are a slowing Chinese steel sector, pollution issues plaguing the Chinese government, bank […]
Steel Market Update has been writing about the iron ore pricing and inventory bubble growing in China. We have been forecasting that it is only a matter of time before the bubble will burst and iron ore prices will collapse. The issues are a slowing Chinese steel sector, pollution issues plaguing the Chinese government, bank […]
Iron ore spot prices in China plummeted for the third week. During the past three weeks 62% Fe fines dropped by 6 percent and 58% Fe by 5 percent, according to data compiled by The Steel Index (TSI). Since the beginning of the year iron ore has fallen by 12 percent and is at the […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) received an email from one of our readers regarding his concerns as the iron ore spot prices drop in China and ore inventories rise. The writer’s belief is that United States flat rolled steel prices will be impacted eventually. This service center executive wondered what our Asian iron ore and steel […]
Iron ore inventories in China are bloated with 100.91 million metric tons of ore now sitting at the 40 major ports in China. This number has grown since the 86 million metric tons reported prior to the beginning of the Chinese New Year in January. This growth continues despite a slowdown in the Chinese steel […]
This article was originally published on Thursday, February 27th and was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk, LLC. Andre is an expert in the futures/derivatives markets. Financial Markets: Two weeks back on the 13th the S+P 500 was approx 1825, and, as I mentioned, headed to test 1846 again. We bounced of that […]
The early sentiment has scrap prices dropping during the month of March but not as strong or as wide-spread as forecast a couple of weeks ago. Flows into the scrap yards have been impacted by the severe weather in the North and this is tempering the drop which, according to at least one SMU scrap […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index averaged +39.5 which was down from the +43.5 reported during the month of January. Our SMU Price Momentum Indicator went from Neutral to Lower as we adjusted our indicator to reflect the dropping steel prices which we expect to continue over the next 30 days. Benchmark hot […]
Financial Markets: Two weeks back on the 13th the S+P 500 was approx 1825, and, as I mentioned, headed to test 1846 again. We bounced of that 1846 on the 19th only to retest it again on the 24th with better results, reaching our 1858 all time high. Since then, we are essentially sideways in […]
The following article on the status of the Asian ferrous scrap markets was written by Damon Sun of Daido International. Mr. Sun is a regular contributor to Steel Market Update and an active scrap trader into the Asian markets. Here is how he sees the ferrous scrap markets in Asia this week: Asian markets are […]
Steel Market Update has been in constant contact with one of our Asian trading sources who is a trader of iron ore to Chinese steel mills and exporter of finished steel out of China around the world. We have been discussing the iron ore “bubble” which continues to inflate and our source believes it will […]
Chinese imports of iron ore in January were 86,830,000 metric tons (MT), an increase of 18.3 percent from the previous month and an increase of 32.5 percent from January 2012. Total iron ore imports for 2013 were adjusted to 819,410,000 MT. January imports of steel scrap were 160,000 MT, down 48.4 percent from December and […]
Iron ore inventories in China are bloated with 100.91 million metric tons of ore now sitting at the 40 major ports in China. This number has grown since the 86 million metric tons reported prior to the beginning of the Chinese New Year in January. This growth continues despite a slowdown in the Chinese steel […]
Latin America steel producer Ternium reports net sales of $2.1 billion on 2.23 million tons of steel shipments and 994,000 tons of iron ore shipments in the fourth quarter 2013. Steel shipments were down 3 percent from third quarter but up 3.0 percent from fourth quarter 2012. Net income was $171.1 million, up from $136 […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) received an email from one of our readers regarding his concerns as the iron ore spot prices drop in China and ore inventories rise. The writers belief is that United States flat rolled steel prices will be impacted eventually. This service center executive wondered what our Asian iron ore and steel […]
In the month since this analysis was last published, the US dollar has strengthened against 12 of the 16 nations that we consider to be major players in either the iron ore market or in steel product trade or both. Most notably, the Russian Rouble and the South African Rand have declined by 4.7 percent […]
Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC shared the following information about iron ore and busheling futures trading for the past week. Iron Ore: As always traders make a big deal about the Chinese post New Year’s holiday making a big buying push upon their return, but it appears whatever buying has been done hasn’t been […]
Lourenco Goncalves, former CEO of Metals USA, is being nominated by Casablanca Capital, an activist fund, to replace James Kirsch as CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources. Casablanca has called for Cliffs to spin off its international ore business to shareholders and convert its North American assets to a master limited partnership (MLP). Casablanca Capital announced […]
Essar Steel Algoma posted a net loss of 38.6 million for the third quarter FY 2014, ending December 31, 2013, compared to a net loss of $25.1 million for third quarter FY 2013. Severe winter weather slowed incoming raw material shipments affecting production for the quarter. Steel shipments were 590,837 tons, down from 642,000 tons […]
On Monday, Steel Market Update revised our SMU Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral to Lower. The adjustment means we anticipate flat rolled steel prices will move lower over the next 30 to 60 days. At the time of the change, SMU benchmark hot rolled coil was published at $660 per ton. The last adjustment to […]
Steel analyst Charles Bradford of Bradford Research spoke at the Port of Tampa Steel Conference this past week. He presented a relatively upbeat analysis of the domestic steel industry. He began by referring to a recent McKinsey and Company report which basically said, “The steel industry has had it, it’s over. The industry doesn’t make […]
During the month of January we saw scrap prices rise $5 to $16 per gross ton compared to December 2013 pricing. Iron ore prices dropped on both 62% Fe and 58% Fe (spot prices are based on Chinese spot sales). Zinc and aluminum prices used to coat galvanized, Galvalume, Galfan, aluminized, ZAM both dropped by […]
During the month of January Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Higher to Neutral. Benchmark hot rolled prices averaged $673 per ton ($33.65/cwt) according to the Steel Market Update index. CRU posted their monthly average at $676 per ton ($33.80/cwt). You can find the balance of our weekly and monthly averages […]
The following HRC futures article is written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunchrisk, LLC and the instructor of our new Managing Price Risk 2 – Strategies & Execution workshop. Well the S+P 500 took a turn down starting Thursday and Friday of last week, dropping from 1850 down to a 1770 low yesterday. We have […]
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 by Steel Market Update at present is thirty six. The present situation of twelve of the indicators based on historical standards was positive on January 28th […]
US Steel reported a net loss of $122 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to a Q3 net loss of $1,791 million and $50 million net loss in Q4 2012. The fourth quarter loss was due mostly to $302 million of charges related to the shutdown of the Hamilton steel making facility. Adjusted […]
HSBC Holdings and Markit released the preliminary (flash) Purchasing Managers’ Index this morning. The reading of 49.6 disappointed the financial markets as any reading below 50.0 indicates the Chinese manufacturing economy is contracting. Meanwhile, world benchmark iron ore spot prices have been falling over the past few weeks with The Steel Index (TSI) reporting 62% […]