Tag: Lead Times

Nucor lowered its weekly base spot price for hot-rolled (HR) coil by $10 per short ton (st) this week.

What a difference a month makes. In late March, it seemed like the US hot-rolled (HR) coil market was poised to cycle upward. Large buyers had re-entered the market and placed big orders earlier in the month. Several outages were underway or upcoming. And expectations were that lead times would continue to extend. Cliffs said […]

Foreign cold-rolled (CR) coil remains much less expensive than domestic product, according to SMU’s latest check of the market.

The latest SMU market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Historical survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]

Hot-rolled coil and plate lead times contracted this week, with most other products remaining flat, according to SMU's most recent survey data. Cold-rolled products, however, saw lead times extend 0.1 weeks to an average of 7.5 weeks vs. two weeks earlier. Hot rolled and plate lead times both contracted 0.3 weeks from our last market check.

US hot-rolled (HR) coil remains more expensive than offshore hot band, though with a tighter premium as prices stateside and abroad have ticked lower in recent weeks.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) executives said the company's Sinton, Texas, sheet mill should be able to increase melt capacity after an outage earlier this month. Sinton should see "additional improvements in production" after taking "several maintenance days in April," Barry Schneider, SDI president and COO, said in a Q1 earnings conference call on Wednesday.

We've used the word "unprecedented" a lot over the last four years to describe steel price volatility. Over the last two months – despite earlier predictions of a price surge - we've seen unprecedented stability.

Steel Dynamics Inc.'s (SDI's) earnings fell in the first quarter of 2024 as the company cited steel order volatility early in the quarter and lower scrap prices.

Sheet prices were again mixed this week – all seemed to highlight the momentum shift seen over the past two weeks.

Nucor executives explained their recently introduced hot-rolled (HR) coil consumer spot price (CSP) is a way to serve their customers and deal with market volatility.

Nucor is holding its hot-rolled (HR) coil consumer spot price (CSP) flat this week.

Steel sheet prices in many regions of the world were steady week over week in the week ended April 17.

Foreign cold-rolled (CR) coil remains less expensive than domestic product, according to SMU’s latest check of the market.

To the surprise of many — myself included — flat-rolled steel prices appear to be in a holding pattern… again. This is not familiar territory for hot-rolled (HR) coil, at least not over the past few years. Its pricing volatility (as my colleague Michael Cowden has noted in past columns) may rival the elastic moves […]

US hot-rolled (HR) coil has become gradually more expensive than offshore hot band in recent weeks, as stateside prices have stabilized while imports moved lower.

Earlier this week, SMU polled steel buyers on an array of topics, ranging from market prices, demand, and inventories to imports and evolving market chatter.

Sheet prices varied this week. While hot-rolled (HR) coil pricing was largely flat, cold-rolled (CR) coil and tandem product pricing eased slightly reflecting the momentum shift seen last week for HR coil. SMU’s average HR coil price was flat from last week at $835 per short ton (st) – potentially emphasizing the tension between competing […]

Flat Rolled = 58.3 shipping days of supply Plate = 60.6 shipping days of supply Flat Rolled US service center flat-rolled steel inventories edged up in March as shipments remained low. At the end of March, service centers carried 58.3 shipping days of supply on an adjusted basis, up from 56.6 shipping days in February. […]

Last week was a newsy one for the US sheet market. Nucor’s announcement that it would publish a weekly HR spot price was the talk of the town – whether that was in chatter among colleagues, at the Boy Scouts of America Metals Industry dinner, or in SMU’s latest market survey. Some think that it could Nucor's spot HR price could bring stability to notoriously volatile US sheet prices, according to SMU's latest steel market survey. Others think it’s too early to gauge its impact. And still others said they were leery of any attempt by producers to control prices.

The latest SMU market survey results are now available on our website to all premium members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the pricing and analysis tab and look under the “survey results” section for “latest survey results.” Historical survey results are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the survey results, or if […]

The market appears to be taking a pause after the heavy buying that occurred in March.

Steel buyers said mills are more willing to talk price on spot orders on all the products SMU covers, according to our most recent survey data.

Steel prices continued to ease lower in early March – a trend seen since mid-January –  before showing signs of bottoming and inflecting up. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator for sheet products shifted from lower to neutral mid-way through the month after Nucor, Cleveland-Cliffs, and ArcelorMittal all targeted new base minimums between $825-840 per short […]

US hot-rolled (HR) coil has become increasingly more expensive than offshore hot band as stateside prices have moved higher at a sharper pace vs. imports.

Sheet prices saw a slight momentum shift this week after consecutive gains in the prior two weeks. Plate edged lower on greater competition off easing demand, according to our latest check of the steel market.

Nucor said its new weekly hot-rolled coil spot price is not meant as a substitute for any current price indices.

Directors of Swedish steelmaker SSAB have decided to replace blast furnace-based steelmaking at Lulea with a ‘green steel’ mini-mill process.

Sheet prices continue to inch higher. That’s a welcome development for many. But it’s also a far cry from the price surge many predicted about a month ago. Remember the theory that supported a spring surge: Sheet prices would soar on a combination of mill outages, stable-to-strong demand, restocking, mill price increases, and (potentially) trade action against Mexico as well.

It has been six weeks since Flack Global Metals wrote our last SMU column, and if you simply look at the futures curve from then (blue) until now (white), you could argue that very little has changed.