Big River Steel plans to take a week-long plant-wide maintenance outage in October at its mill in Osceola, Ark., a company spokeswoman confirmed. The planned outage, for normal preventative maintenance and mill reliability, is scheduled to start on Oct. 10, she said. The scheduled maintenance includes both electric-arc furnaces (EAFs)—with annual production capacity of 3.3 […]
So much for the summer doldrums. After a brief pause following Independence Day (and Canada Day), sheet prices have resumed their sharp upward trajectory. Hot-rolled coil prices are now over $1,800 per ton ($90 per cwt) while cold-rolled and galvanized base prices are above $2,000 per ton ($100 per cwt). If this pace of gains […]
You may be tired of reading about it, but there is no ignoring the question: When will hot rolled coil prices finally peak? So many livelihoods depend on the answer. Unfortunately, Steel Market Update survey data clearly shows that no one knows. Roughly one-third of those polled this week believe steel prices will have peaked […]
You may be tired of reading about it, but there is no ignoring the question: When will hot rolled coil prices finally peak? So many livelihoods depend on the answer. Unfortunately, Steel Market Update steel survey data clearly shows that no one knows. Roughly one-third of those polled this week believe hot rolled steel prices […]
U.S. industrial production, manufacturing and durable goods orders continue to show improvement from the coronavirus pandemic downturn, indicating a strengthening manufacturing sector. The health of the manufacturing economy has a direct bearing on the health of the steel industry. Note that some of the historical data below has been adjusted by the U.S. Census Bureau […]
SMU found no evidence of a summer lull in our latest check of the market. Sheet prices were flat or up in a post-holiday period that in prior years has seen them slip. Hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil prices were unchanged. Galvanized and Galvalume prices were up $25 per ton and $50 per ton, respectively. […]
SMU found no evidence of a summer lull in our latest check of the market. Sheet prices were flat or up in a post-holiday period that in prior years has seen them slip. Hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil prices were unchanged. Galvanized and Galvalume prices were up $25 per ton and $50 per ton, respectively. […]
U.S. steel product shipments rebounded in May, up 3.1% following a 7.1% decrease the month prior. Steel product shipments have been irregular from month to month since bottoming out in May 2020. The seesaw pattern over the past year is attributable to several factors including mill outages, factory curtailments and seasonal disruptions as the marketplace […]
Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) and United Steelworkers (USW) union negotiators have reached a tentative four-year labor agreement, according to both the union and the company. The deal, if ratified by rank-and-file union members, would end a strike that began on March 30 – more than three months ago. The new contract – backdated to March […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) is in the process of starting up the coating lines at its new steel mill in Sinton, Texas, a company spokesman confirmed. The paint line at Sinton has been threaded, and painting is expected to begin in approximately two weeks, he said. The mill’s galvanizing line, meanwhile, is slated to start […]
There will be no Steel Market Update published on Sunday, July 4th, due to the national holiday (USA). We will resume coverage on Tuesday, July 6th. We wish everyone a safe holiday filled with family and friends (at least for those who have been vaccinated). Interesting comments received earlier this week from a steel executive whom I […]
Interesting comments received earlier this week from a steel executive whom I know well, and I respect his opinions. The topic of the day was one that I know drives the steel mills crazy – steel analysts’ price projections. Many of the analysts are calling for prices to peak within the next 60 days (in […]
The latest spread between foreign and domestic steel prices shows an increasing attraction for foreign imports, according to our most recent foreign versus domestic hot rolled steel price comparison. The price differentials (after taking freight costs, trader margins and tariffs into consideration) between domestic HRC and foreign imports had surged from February to March of […]
As steel prices around the globe surge in response to the war in Ukraine, the brief competitive advantage domestic prices held over foreign steel has flattened, according to SMU’s latest foreign versus domestic hot rolled steel price comparison. Select foreign HRC prices are anywhere from $138 per ton cheaper than domestic prices to $74 per ton […]
You’ll have to wait until the fourth quarter if you’re looking for flat rolled from California Steel Industries (CSI). The West Coast slab converter announced that it had closed its September order book on Thursday, July 1 – just a week after it opened the month and increased prices by $200 per ton ($10 per […]
New orders and production picked up in June, while employment contracted, supplier deliveries slowed and backlogs lengthened, said the Institute for Supply Management in its June 2021 Manufacturing ISM Report on Business. The Manufacturing PMI fell a slight 0.6 percentage point to 60.6 after rising in May and indicates expansion for the overall economy. “Business Survey Committee panelists […]
Steel prices rose even higher through the month of June, now the 10th consecutive month prices have increased. Hot rolled steel prices increased an average of $30 per ton each week, reaching $1,770 per ton in SMU’s latest check of the market. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator has remained unchanged since the August 2020 adjustment […]
Ford plans to idle or reduce production at nearly all its North American assembly plants in July – and in some instances into early August – because of a shortage of chips and other parts. “While we continue to manufacture new vehicles, we’re prioritizing completing our customers’ vehicles that were assembled without certain parts due to […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to move higher with benchmark hot rolled coil spot prices now up for the 47th week in a row. But when we looked at HRC, we found prices up only by $10 per ton. This is the lowest rate of increase since mid-March/early April, when we saw HRC increase by […]
SSAB Americas President Chuck Schmitt joined SMU for a Community Chat webinar last week during which we talked plate, renewable energy and fossil-free steelmaking. We also got to some good questions from you about the hydrogen-based steelmaking SSAB is undertaking in Sweden through its HYBRIT partnership with iron ore miner LKAB and power producer Vattenfall. […]
Once Produced…Can We Even Get It Shipped? Transportation issues continue to plague the flat-rolled and plate steel markets. It’s bad enough that many steel mills are running one to four weeks late against their original promise date. We are hearing once the steel is produced it can take days to weeks of waiting for a […]
Once Produced…Can We Even Get It Shipped? Transportation issues continue to plague the flat-rolled and plate steel markets. It’s bad enough that many steel mills are running one to four weeks late against their original promise date. We are hearing once the steel is produced it can take days to weeks of waiting for a […]
Let’s talk about lead times. Because the results from our latest survey caught my attention. This is the first time in since January-February that you can maybe discern a potential peak in pricing – at least judging by that metric. Lead Times: Trend or Head Fake I’m going to display our lead latest lead time […]
Let’s talk about flat rolled and plate steel mill lead times. Because the results from our latest steel market survey caught my attention. This is the first time in since January-February that you can maybe discern a potential peak in pricing – at least judging by that metric. Lead Times: Trend or Head Fake I’m […]
The market is watching anxiously for a sign that rising lead times have finally turned and will begin to shorten as mill production catches up with demand. Indeed, Steel Market Update data shows a slight dip in the average lead times for spot orders of flat rolled steel products this week. But the same has […]
As it turns out, the slight downturn seen in steel mill lead times last month was not the beginning of a trend change. Lead times for all products but plate have inched higher in the last two weeks, indicating no relief yet from the tight supplies that continue to push steel prices higher. According to […]
If you’re seeking a peak, keep looking. Because it wasn’t this week. Steel Market Update found that spot prices for most sheet and plate products were again higher – despite scattered reports of increased availability for some contract buyers. SMU’s benchmark hot-rolled coil prices stands $1,760 per ton ($88/cwt), up $40 per ton from last […]
Plate prices have seen an astronomical rise, but the big gains have not been enough to keep the spread between sheet and plate from ballooning. And that spread is already the inverse of what is the norm. Normally plate prices carry a premium to sheet prices – now the reverse is true. Sheet carries around a […]
A Whimper or a Bang…? An interesting comment was made by one of the wholesalers on this morning’s HARDI galvanized steel conference call. I am paraphrasing here, but essentially the wholesaler was making the point that even when the mills catch up, the underlying demand is still there. From this executive’s perspective, as long as […]
The next three months will be challenging, said metalforming companies in the June 2021 Precision Metalforming Business Conditions Report. Only 36% of companies expect an improvement in economic activity during the period, down from 41% in May, while 12% anticipate a decline in activity, up from 10% in the previous month. The percentage of respondents […]