Total steel and flat rolled inventories declined during the month of March according to just released data provided by the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI). U.S. steel service centers shipped a total of 3,333,300 tons of steel products during the month of March. Based on a 23 shipping days this equates to a 144,900 tons […]
One of the issues confusing the sheet (flat rolled steel) marketplace is the Raw Steel Production report produced by the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI). This report is produced on a weekly and then again on a monthly basis. The weekly report is released every Monday afternoon and Steel Market Update publishes the data […]
On Friday, US Steel announced a $60 per ton flat rolled steel price increase. This was the first US Steel announcement done in public in some time. The increase came in the form of a letter emailed to their customers. U.S. Steel did not provide minimum base price guidelines in their announcement although minimum price […]
This was one of the most difficult weeks to analyze flat rolled steel prices due to a number of factors. There were some “deals” available a few days ago (but after last Tuesday when we last indexed pricing) that no longer exist. How much weight do we give those deals? There are a number of […]
Is Now the Time to Panic as Steel Mills Control Their Order Books? The flat rolled steel markets continue to march to their own drummer. Lead times are extending, spot flat rolled steel prices are rising and many of the mills are not opening their order books for spot business. There are a number of […]
Steel buyers were pulling out their hair earlier today due to the number of mills holding tons off the market as they try to determine what the new pricing should be on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products. As of early this afternoon (Thursday) steel buyers were informing Steel Market Update of a […]
Steel mill lead times on all four flat rolled products have become more extended, according to those who responded to our most recent flat rolled steel market analysis. As lead times extend, steel buyers have to place more orders in order to protect their inventories. The more orders placed, the better chance for the domestic […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel reported to Steel Market Update this past week that the domestic steel mills are less willing to negotiate steel prices. We believe this is due to strengthening order books, extending lead times, positive Sentiment and improving demand. In fact, we were learning throughout the day today that many […]
We have received a number of calls from sellers of steel asking for our help in trying to explain, from an independent source, why flat rolled steel prices are moving higher and why we expect this trend to continue. When looking at the history of Steel Market Update, our steel market intelligence publication was actually […]
With lead times extended and supply constrained any surprise outages, or the rumor of an outage, could have a dramatic impact on an already spooked flat rolled market. On Sunday, US Steel suffered a short term unexpected outage on their largest blast furnace, #14 at Gary Works. The two day outage is projected to have […]
Flat rolled prices continue to tighten and lead times continue to be extended, based on our analysis of the flat rolled steel markets and pricing this week. Buyers are reporting a shrinking of the range of offers available out there. So, even though we have a range of $440-$460 per ton on hot rolled, we […]
We have been asked about the possible restart of the blast furnace at AK Steel or the furnaces at Granite City as steel prices rise and lead times remain extended. We spoke with a couple of analysts over the weekend who told us they did not see the AK Steel furnace running at any point […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to firm and many buyers are convinced there could be more price increases to come with a tightening foreign market and higher offers for foreign steel coupled with the expectation that ferrous scrap prices will increase by a minimum of $30 per gross ton for April delivery. SMU has been […]
Flat rolled steel pricing momentum is clearly on the side of the domestic steel mills. You have a number of the integrated mills essentially out of the spot markets and lead times are extended. Even hot rolled lead times are moving out despite weakness in the energy markets. SMU Price Momentum Indicator continues to point […]
Flat rolled steel buyers are telling Steel Market Update that the domestic mills are getting more aggressive about collecting all, or at least a portion of the latest price increase. Hot rolled continues to be the weakest product, but even in HRC we are seeing the numbers starting to move and we expect them to […]
There have been four price announcements on flat rolled steel beginning in early December 2015. The first increase was for $40 per ton followed by a succession of $30 per ton announcements. The total of the four announcements is $130 per ton or, $6.50/cwt. Looking at the galvanized markets, when the first price increase was […]
“Welcome to March Madness..,” is what one HARDI member company had to say during the March 2016 HARDI galvanized steel conference call held earlier today. He went on to say, “Brackets are an indication of what we are seeing – a lot of chaos out there… The [index name removed] base price is up 23 […]
Manufacturing activity expanded in the Fifth District in March, according to the latest survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite manufacturing index registered 22, surging from -4 to its highest level since April 2010. Shipments and new orders both jumped this month. The shipments index gained 38 points climbing to a reading […]
Steel Mill lead times are important keys to watch. As lead times extend buyers have to place more orders and spend more time balancing their inventories in order to satisfy their customers. Longer lead times also support domestic steel mill pricing and create opportunities for steel mills to raise steel prices (which is exactly what […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel report to Steel Market Update whether the domestic steel mills are willing to negotiate pricing on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume steels. The less willing the mills are to negotiate prices the stronger the market (and potentially the higher prices go from here). Hot rolled negotiations […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to smile when asked about their company’s ability to be successful both in the current market environment as well as looking out into the future three to six months. The result has taken the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index higher and we are approaching record levels in […]
Earlier this week Nucor Plate Group and SSAB announced price increases on plate products (with SSAB also including hot rolled coil) of $40 per ton. Over the past few months we have seen the plate mills lead the charge with sheet mills following close behind. This week was no different. Three mills announced flat rolled […]
The following HRC and BUS futures market trading article was written by Jack Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Here is how Jack and Andre Marshall saw trading this week and what the forward curve looks like: HR futures continue to grind higher. While HR demand seems to be holding steady we are starting to see […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to move higher over the past week. We are seeing even the weakest product, hot rolled, gaining traction as lead times move out due to the shutdown of US Steel and AK Steel mills (Granite City and Ashland). SMU was advised by both steel mills and steel buyers that orders […]
Ryerson CEO Eddie Lehner called 2015 “one of the harshest and most difficult metal environments we have seen in terms of magnitude and duration.” Ryerson Holding, a service center company, announced fourth quarter and full year results on Thursday. The company posted a net loss of $20.5 million for the quarter. Revenue was down 23 […]
Mill lead times, especially on cold rolled and coated products, continue to be a concern as buyers navigate/negotiate pricing and deliveries on future orders. The longer the lead time the more steel that is needed in the pipeline at both manufacturing companies and distributors. The longer lead times provide ammunition to the domestic steel mills […]
Steel buyers are becoming resigned to the fact that steel prices bottomed back in December and the expectation is for prices to go higher from here – even benchmark hot rolled coil. Last week the domestic steel mills announced a $30 per ton price increase. Since then the discussion within the industry has been where […]
Steel mill lead times on all four flat rolled products have become more extended according to those who responded to our most recent flat rolled steel market analysis. As lead times extend, steel buyers have to place more orders in order to protect their inventories. The more orders placed, the better chance for the domestic […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel reported to Steel Market Update this past week that the domestic steel mills are less willing to negotiate steel prices. We believe this is due to strengthening order books, extending lead times, positive Sentiment and improving demand. The only product not following the rest of the market is […]
A quick note to our Premium level and free trial subscribers: We have just published the results from this week’s flat rolled steel market trends analysis (survey) on our website. It is available to you once you have signed into the www.SteelMarketUpdate.com website. The power point presentation can be found under the analysis tab. A […]