Steel Market Update asked: When do you expect flat rolled steel prices to reverse course and begin rising? Judging by the widely varied responses to this week’s market trends questionnaire, there is no clear consensus among steel buyers on when prices will turn around. A small group, about 6 percent, said they believe prices will […]
Gaurav Chhibbar is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Gaurav’s previous role, he was a trader at Cargill spending time in Metal and […]
All is quiet on the eastern front (the western front announced increases yesterday – so, not so quiet there). Steel buyers have been telling Steel Market Update over the past few days that their inventories are stable to high, they are not comfortable with all of the uncertainty and concerned with the lack of transparency […]
California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS-POSCO Industries (UPI) announced price increases of $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt) on Monday, hoping to stem the slide in flat-rolled steel prices that began last summer. The announcements do not include plate. In its Jan. 21 letter to customers, CSI stated that it is opening its order book for flat-rolled […]
On Monday, California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS/POSCO (UPI) advised customers of their intention to take spot prices on flat rolled products produced by the two mills up by $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). This is the first price announcement out of either mill since October 2018. So far, there have not been any announcements out […]
On Monday, California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS/POSCO (UPI) advised customers of their intention to take spot prices on flat rolled products produced by the two mills up by $40 per ton ($2.00/cwt). This is the first price announcement out of either mill since October 2018. So far, there have not been any announcements out […]
Steel Dynamics is excited about its recently announced plans for a new steel mill in the Southwest. After an outstanding year, breaking records for shipments, sales, net income and cash flow, CEO Mark Millett is looking forward to filling a steel void in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. Steel Dynamics hopes to announce a site […]
California Steel Industries (CSI) and USS-POSCO Industries (UPI) announced price increases of $40 per ton on Monday, hoping to stem the slide in flat-rolled steel prices that began last summer. The announcements do not include plate. In its Jan. 21 letter to customers, CSI stated that it is opening its order book for flat-rolled orders […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores Scrap prices in the U.S. fell $30 /lt m/m in January, the first time since 2006 that prices have declined in the month. The fall was also the largest December to January decrease in at least two decades for obsolete grades. The unusual decline occurred because supply outpaced demand […]
Steel Market Update spoke with a number of foreign steel trading companies who service the North American market today. There was one very clear theme no matter who I spoke with – steel buyers are not willing to take any risk on foreign steel with spreads less than $60 per ton. A second common theme: […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
When we looked at the hot rolled coil market this week, it became apparent there were a number of pressures on that particular product. Pressures from short lead times, for one. Some of our sources reported HRC lead times around 2-3 weeks. We also have at least one mill looking for market share with numbers […]
When we go out for flat rolled and plate steel spot pricing, we do so in a number of ways in order to maximize the number of responses. This week SMU sent out an email inquiry requesting information on pricing, but also on lead times, inventories and foreign steel offers, and we solicited general open […]
If the prevailing view in the market proves correct, steel mills will announce a price increase soon—but it won’t stick. Two out of three steel executives responding to Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire this past week believe the mills will announce an increase in flat rolled prices by the end of January. But given […]
Mill lead times turned the corner on the new year little changed from mid-December. At less than four weeks for hot rolled and around six weeks for cold rolled and coated products, lead times for spot orders of most products are as short as they have been in over a year. While still in high […]
Steel Market Update’s first canvass of the new year shows a subtle shift in the price dynamic between mills and steel buyers. No doubt, buyers still have a lot of leverage and most mills are usually willing to talk price to secure the order. But SMU’s findings show a slight tightening in negotiations. In the […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) steel and financial futures markets was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk LLC. Here is how Jack saw trading over the past week: Steel Since the beginning of the year, the forward curve in CME HR futures has shifted down roughly $25/ST on average for […]
We captured some very low (market-share grabbing) hot rolled prices this week. We are seeing two domestic mills aggressively going after hot rolled orders. We saw spot HRC as low as $660 FOB one specific mill. However, we have decided not to include their offers in the market pricing yet. Our readers need to be […]
The new year has gotten off to a positive start, though declining steel prices remain a concern for members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International, who supply steel products to the HVAC market. As one HARDI member commented during the trade group’s monthly conference call on Tuesday, “Some of us feel like Alabama’s […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
January 2019 has begun and steel prices have taken up where they left off as Steel Market Update price ranges and averages dropped compared to where we ended 2018. Steel buyers are worried about inventory levels, which some service centers reported as having grown more than expected during the month of December. They also worry […]
Steel Market Update rolled flat rolled and plate steel prices for this past week (Dec, 26, 2018) due to limited data being available due to the holidays. We will produce new pricing on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Our Price Momentum Indicator continues to point toward “Lower” prices on flat rolled (hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized […]
So, we have our service center inventories at 2.5 months of supply, down slightly from the 2.6 months we got from our distributor data suppliers the previous month. This is not from our survey; we decided to put that data aside as it was suspect – it had both buyers and sellers contributing to the […]
Mill lead times suggest that demand for flat rolled steel products continues to bounce along the bottom as the year comes to a close, with no clear direction yet for the first quarter. Lead times for steel delivery are a measure of demand at the mill level—the shorter the lead time, the less busy the […]
We saw benchmark hot rolled prices slip this week. Hot rolled dropped to $745 per ton, which is down $15 per ton from what we measured one week ago. Cold rolled prices were unchanged. The lower end of the range on galvanized and Galvalume base prices slipped $20 per ton. The Steel Market Update Price […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Chief Market Risk Officer, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
The following calculation is used by Steel Market Update to identify the theoretical spread between foreign hot rolled steel prices (delivered to U.S. ports) and domestic hot rolled coil prices (FOB domestic mills). We want our readers to be aware that this is only a “theoretical” calculation as freight costs, trader margin and other costs […]
We are seeing steel price spreads, the range from low to high on a product, tighten this week. Part of the reason is the lack of SMU collecting low-ball orders this week as we did last on galvanized. A second reason is that the high end of the range is being compressed. The net result […]
Editor’s note: The following analysis of the U.S. rod and bar market was contributed by CRU Steel Analyst Ryan McKinley. Steel Market Update will periodically expand its coverage of the steel market with long products content from CRU as an added benefit to our members. U.S. mills announced wire rod price increases of $1.50/cwt across […]
Lead times for spot orders of hot rolled and cold rolled steels appear to have bottomed and extended a bit in early December. Lead times on HR and CR have not been this long since September, but are well below the levels seen when prices were spiking earlier this year. Lead times for steel delivery […]