Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of the monthly Key Market Indicators shows that our Present Situation markers have seen little change when compared to the month prior, while the Trend change saw a visible shift upward during the same period. Overall, the marketplace continues to recover from the pandemic as key metrics show further improvement. […]
Spring has sprung including a bounce in economic activity, according to the latest Federal Reserve Beige Book. The April survey of federal districts showed a moderate increase in activity from auto sales to tourism, along with heightened optimism. Spring break, vaccine rollout and stimulus payments gave the tourism industry a boost from late February to […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito is very bullish on the metals market, comparing the industry to a baseball game that’s just getting started: “I think we are in the first couple of innings of a really good market and cycle,” he said during Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat. Despite material shortages and supply disruptions, manufacturing is […]
There are specific reasons for the tightness of supply that exists in the market today. Events have been in motion for the past 25 years that have culminated in the limitations of supply. For those of you who have attended SMU Steel Summit Conferences you may recall a presentation done by Paul Lowrey, Managing Director […]
Like those in the steel industry, aluminum suppliers see opportunity in the coming wave of battery electrical vehicles (BEVs). Indeed, they claim, even more opportunity for aluminum than for steel. Automakers are hard at work designing battery-powered cars and trucks with zero emissions as efforts to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change […]
The U.S. trucking industry is straining to keep up with demand as imports and retail shipping vie with construction and manufacturing for limited truck capacity. Imports fell as the coronavirus took hold last March, but surged to 2.1 million TEU (20-foot equivalent units) in August 2020 as global economies reopened. The August record was subsequently […]
The U.S. trucking industry is straining to keep up with demand as imports and retail shipping vie with construction and manufacturing for limited truck capacity. Imports fell as the coronavirus took hold last March, but surged to 2.1 million TEU (20-foot equivalent units) in August 2020 as global economies reopened. The August record was subsequently […]
Over the weekend I was speaking with the CEO of a service center and we were talking about the resistance he was seeing from his plant employees. Many of them did not want to get the COVID vaccine. The office people were mostly vaccinated, but the plant people were not. We discussed the possibility of […]
The U.S. labor market saw a strong surge in employment to closed out the first quarter. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that employers added 916,000 to their payrolls in March, more than doubling the 379,000 jobs added in February. Following a dismal close to 2020 and a slow start in January, total […]
Producer prices continue to register solid monthly increases from the losses suffered during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The composite Producer Price Index (PPI) of all commodities from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed an increase of 2.1% in February versus the prior month, and a 6.0% increase year on year, seasonally adjusted. […]
Producer prices continue to rebound from the losses suffered during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Since the decreases in March and April of 2020, the composite Producer Price Index (PPI) of all commodities from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has seen consistent month-on-month increases. March’s index registered a 3.7% increase versus the prior […]
Looking for a Top… Looking for Steel…. As we conduct our analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel prices this week, we cannot help but notice the pace of increases has slowed…or is the slowing due to many mill order books being closed and having nothing new to offer. The availability of spot tonnage […]
Looking for a Top… Looking for Steel…. As we conduct our analysis of the flat rolled and plate steel prices this week, we cannot help but notice the pace of increases has slowed…or is the slowing due to many mill order books being closed and having nothing new to offer. The availability of spot tonnage […]
For the seventh consecutive month, steel prices rose throughout March, fueled by a continuation of strong demand and limited supply. Hot rolled steel prices averaged $1,300 per ton by the middle of the month, far exceeding any historical price record, and reached $1,330 by the last week of March. The SMU Price Momentum Indicator has […]
Rising costs and supply-chain disruptions remained headwinds for manufacturers across the globe in March. Despite the challenges, the J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI reached a 10-year high of 55.0. Manufacturing output expanded at the strongest rate in a decade as demand strengthened domestically and in international trade. Growth was reported in 23 of 27 nations […]
U.S. manufacturing is on a solid path to recovery, according to the latest report from the Institute for Supply Management. The March 2021 Manufacturing ISM Report on Business posted a PMI of 64.7, a gain of 3.9 points from February. Expanding demand resulted in new orders, production and employment growing at a faster rate in […]
Business conditions in the construction industry are split along the residential/nonresidential line, said Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Association of General Contractors of America, who spoke during Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat Webinar. Employment levels in the industry plunged last year at a similar rate between the two segments as the pandemic took hold in March […]
NOTICE: NO SMU PUBLICATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 4 DUE TO EASTER HOLIDAY Imports are coming. We are watching galvanized carefully as automotive production is being reduced due to the chip shortage, and we are seeing higher volumes of galvanized imports coming in. March 2021 license data is showing 240,000 net tons of galvanized, which is […]
Imports are coming. We are watching galvanized carefully as automotive production is being reduced due to the chip shortage, and we are seeing higher volumes of galvanized imports coming in. March 2021 license data is showing 240,000 net tons of foriegn galvanized imports, which is up 55,000-65,000 tons above the levels seen over the prior […]
Market prices continue to rise, albeit not as quickly as what we were seeing a few weeks back. We cannot be sure as to when market prices will hit their peak. Market momentum is clearly on the side of the steel mills, lead times continue to be extended well beyond normal, and more orders are […]
Southern steel producers and distributors will have a new customer in 2022. Shipbuilder Austal USA, located in Mobile, Ala., broke ground last week on a steel manufacturing line to build steel ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. Austal USA is known for its construction of aluminum vessels, delivering 24 ships to the Navy […]
Automakers continue to take downtime at assembly plants across North America because of persistent and widespread supply chain snarls. The problems include not only the microchip shortage, which has been a drag on the industry since late last year, but also broader parts shortages stemming from port congestion and from the lingering effects of severe […]
It’s time to roll back the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and the Section 301 tariffs on imports from China, which are inflicting significant harm on U.S. businesses and workers, argued the National Foreign Trade Council on Wednesday in an appeal to the Biden administration. The NFTC’s briefing paper, “Why Recent Tariff […]
Tenaris plans to add 140 employees at its Conroe, Texas, pipe plant to operate the heat treatment and finishing areas of the facility. The additional staff is needed to support processing loads from the Bay City seamless mill as it returns to full capacity. A $600,000 technology investment is underway at Conroe that will provide […]
In the famous words of Isaac Newton, “what goes up must come down.” While he was not referring to steel prices per se, the sentiment still holds true. Steel tags can’t stay at record highs indefinitely. Supply will eventually catch up with demand. What happens then? Will prices see a sharp correction or a gradual […]
In the famous words of Isaac Newton, “what goes up must come down.” While he was not referring to steel prices per se, the sentiment still holds true. Steel tags can’t stay at record highs indefinitely. Supply will eventually catch up with demand. What happens then? Will prices see a sharp correction or a gradual […]
Worthington Industries completed a successful third quarter in FY 2021, shed underperforming businesses, and now looks forward to accelerating strategic growth initiatives. “Our fiscal third quarter was a record financial performance,” said CEO Andy Rose. “We faced some lingering operational challenges including steel supply shortages, staffing issues related to COVID quarantines and some extreme weather, […]
After nine months of gains, orders for durable goods surprised economists with a 1.1% decline in February to $254 billion. The U.S. Census Bureau report on Wednesday indicated core capital goods–non-defense orders minus aircraft and a measure of future investment–dipped 0.8% after gaining 0.6% in January. The decline in new orders was led by a […]
Section 232 tariffs should remain in place because they backstop a stable U.S. steel industry, the benefits of which will outlast a temporary price spike, a panel of industry experts and trade union members said. “These typically last six to nine months. So we can expect that these price bubbles–and that’s really what they are–are […]
Lead times for steel and other materials continued to lengthen in March, said 60% of metalforming firms in the latest Precision Metalforming Association Business Conditions Report. Lead times have lengthened each month since September 2020 when 16% of PMA members reported longer lead times. “Metalforming manufacturers are seeing an uptick in business, but their ability […]