When I think about selling steel what I am actually doing is thinking about the sales process. The process is the various steps needed to identify, qualify, quantify, engage and close business with any prospective account. Successful salespeople, no matter what the industry or product, understand the various steps that they follow as they pursue […]
SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment, which measures how buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market environment, continues at very optimistic levels. However, our Index has seen some erosion of enthusiasm as our Index has dropped 9 points since we recorded our record high of […]
Both manufacturing companies and service centers reported similar results regarding the status of spot pricing out of the distributors into their end user customers. Manufacturers reported distributors spot pricing as being either stable (no change) which gathered 73 percent of the responses or rising which attracted 23 percent of those manufacturing companies who responded to […]
TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline has been on hold since 2008 waiting for U.S. presidential approval of the permit to allow the pipeline to cross the U.S./Canada border. President Obama has said he would approve the pipeline only if it did “not significantly exacerbate the climate problem.” Opponents of the pipeline are concerned the pipeline will […]
American Iron and Steel Insitute (AISI) President and CEO Thomas J. Gibson spoke about currency manipulation at a press conference at the City Club in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday. American steel producers are “under attack from surging imports benefitting from unfair trade practices—like currency manipulation,” said Gibson. Gibson was joined by former Missouri Governor Matt […]
Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out its series of Producer Price Indexes (PPI) for thousands of goods and materials. The latest release on Friday reported July results. These statistics are a useful way to evaluate any changes in the competitive position of steel against competing materials and rail vs truck transportation. […]
Current manufacturing conditions in New York slipped in August according to the latest Empire State Manufacturing Index. The headline index for general business conditions dropped 11 points to register 14.7 after reaching a four year high of 25.6 in July. The survey still indicates manufacturing growth but not as widespread as previously, said the Federal […]
Pricing in the HRC futures market has continued slightly upward this week stemming from positive economic data and a bullish outlook within the steel industry. September prices have been trading around $655-667, October prices have been trading between $640-657, and Q4 has traded between $645-651, all about $5-10 improvements week on week. Further down the […]
Metalforming companies surveyed in the August Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report are expecting growth in business activity and new orders for the next three months. The August 13 press release is as follows: CLEVELAND, OH—August 13, 2014—According to the August 2014 Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report, metalforming companies expect a spike […]
I got a note from a manufacturing company regarding the size of the Nucor move on galvanized coating extras. The comment that was made was, “Zinc average for 2014 is up 8.6% since average of 2012. Nucor increase is way too high.” This steel buyer went on to comment, “Aluminum average in same time period […]
We spent the last two days canvassing as many buyers and mill sellers of steel as we possibly could. Our goal was to gather enough information so we could speak to the development of this market and the direction prices should go from here. What we found is a market that is perhaps stronger than […]
Truck freight volume rose 7.5 percent in the last week of July according to DAT Trends. Load to truck ratios increased across all three truck categories while the average spot market rates remained stable. Flat bed truck demand increased by 6 percent while capacity declined 7.1 percent. The load to truck ratio for the week […]
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early August flat rolled steel market survey. We emailed invitations to approximately 600 companies who are actively involved in either buying or selling flat rolled steels. This past week 45 percent of the respondents were from steel service centers, 43 percent were manufacturing companies, 7 percent were […]
As mentioned in a previous article in this newsletter, during our flat rolled steel market survey process we break out the different market segments into questionnaires that are dedicated to their industry. This allows us to compare market trends to see if they match. A good example is manufacturing demand. We asked manufacturing companies if […]
This afternoon, Steel Market Update reported the SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index +68 for early August 2014. This is the highest level ever recorded and the most optimistic we have seen buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel since the Sentiment Index began in November 2008. Positive numbers (above zero) indicate an optimistic attitude exists […]
Based on the latest flat rolled steel market survey conducted by Steel Market Update since the beginning of this week, steel buyers and sellers reported the domestic mills as being less willing to negotiate hot rolled steel prices and continue to be less willing to negotiate cold rolled prices. When we reviewed the data on […]
Steel buyers in the July ISM Steel Buyers Survey are expecting increased orders for the next three months. The percentage of buyers who expect an improvement in orders increased from 33.3 percent to 50 percent in July with the remaining 50 percent expecting order levels to remain the same. Forty percent of buyers still say […]
The Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI), a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced that Dr. Jody N. Hall will succeed Ronald P. Krupitzer as Vice President Automotive Market following Mr. Krupitzer’s retirement at the end of the year. Dr. Hall is a former Technical Integration Engineer at General Motors Company […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. June data was released on August 1st. Construction put in place is based on spending work as it occurs, estimated for a given month from a sample of projects. In effect the […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on non-farm employment indicated that 209,000 jobs were added in July, June was revised up by 10,000 to 298,000 and May up by 5,000 to 229,000. The three month moving average, (3MMA) declined to 245,000 in July after four consecutive months of growth beginning in February at 150,000, […]
US automotive sales were hot in July with double digit increases for many automakers. WardsAuto estimates 1.43 million vehicles were delivered in July, a 9.1 percent over July 2013. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16.4 million came in lower than the consensus range forecast of 16.6 million to 17.2 million. Summer sales incentive helped […]
The July ISM Report on Business indicates that activity in the manufacturing sector increased last month. The July PMI rose 1.8 percent to 57.1 for the highest reading since April 2011 and the 14th consecutive monthly increase. A PMI reading in excess of 43.2 percent, over a period of time, also indicates an expansion of […]
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI registered 52.5 in July, down just 0.1 point from June and indicating moderating growth. Indices for new orders and output were nearly unchanged from the prior month. The exports index increased at a faster rate, up 0.4 points to 51.5 in July. The employment index decreased by 0.4 points […]
At the end of each month Steel Market Update takes a look back at the data we have compiled and does a quick analysis for our readers. This is different than our SMU Key Market Indicators which is also included in this newsletter. Benchmark hot rolled coil prices averaged $667 per ton (SMU) for the […]
US Steel did surprisingly well in the second quarter, coming back from a weather impacted first quarter to narrow losses and show operating profit. US Steel reported a net loss of $18 million in the second quarter, performing better than expected. Income from operations came to $132 million. Net sales were $4.40 billion as compared […]
The SMU Key Market Indicators is a Premium Level product produced by Peter Wright in collaboration with Steel Market Update. Our Executive Level members have been getting access to all of the Premium Level data for the month of July (today is the last day). This includes access to all of the Premium data which […]
Today is the last day of July. During the past 30 days or so we have been giving our Executive Level subscribers (our normal newsletter members) access to Premium Level content and supplemental newsletters/articles. There are two Premium articles in tonight’s newsletter and you can recognize them as we have put a premium logo in […]
The past couple of days have been ones full of mixed messages. As we report in our article about HARDI wholesalers (see below) their buyers reported galvanized prices as having increased by $20 per ton since the middle of July. We are hearing from a multitude of sources that flat rolled prices have firmed on […]
Big River Steel CEO John Correnti says government should “stay out” of private industry. What appeared to be a contradiction after receiving more than $125 million in incentives from the state of Arkansas, Correnti stated in an interview with Arkansas Business that states have to invest in big business in order to stay competitive, but […]
Balance appears to be the word of the week, well at least for this past week while we were canvassing the flat rolled steel industry during our mid-July survey. Steel Market Update invited slightly more than 600 people representing approximately 590 companies to participate in our survey. Of those responding 44 percent were manufacturing companies […]