Steel Market Update anticipates conducting five Steel 101 workshops during calendar year 2018. Our January workshop scheduled for Mobile, Ala., later this month is sold out. Steel Market Update’s next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop will be held in Merrillville, Ind., on March 28-29, 2018. The two-day session will include […]
We have had companies contact us already regarding when registration will open for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We will be working on the Steel Summit section of the website tomorrow (Wednesday) with the hope to open up registration for the Aug. 27-29, 2018, event on Friday of this week. We will also open […]
The U.S. economy overall has grown for 103 consecutive months, and the manufacturing sector for 16 months, based on the Institute for Supply Management’s latest survey of corporate purchasing executives. In December, ISM’s manufacturing PMI climbed 1.5 percentage points to 59.7, well above the reading of 50 that indicates growth. “This indicates growth in manufacturing […]
The J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI ended 2017 near a seven-year high as economies improved and new orders and output expanded. The PMI, produced by J.P. Morgan and IHS Markit, rose to 54.5 in December from 54.1 in November, expanding for the 22nd month. Intermediate goods saw the greatest rate of growth in December followed […]
Strengthening its position as a supplier of high-value-added metals to the aerospace sector, Toronto-based Samuel, Son & Co. has acquired Metal Spinners Holdings. Metal Spinners will operate as a separate group within Samuel’s manufacturing division. The group will include Missouri Metals of St. Louis, Mo., and Metal Spinners’ production facilities in Angola, Ind., Rock Falls, […]
Key market indicators bode well for business conditions in the first quarter of 2018. Steel Market Update’s view of the present situation based on our examination of data released in December shows that 47.2 percent of the 36 indicators are historically positive with only 19 percent negative. The balance is within the historically normal band. […]
It was an unusually busy year for steel trade actions in the United States in 2017. January brought the nominations of Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Representative and Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary. During his confirmation hearings, Ross said, “I’m not anti-trade, I’m pro-trade. But I’m pro-sensible trade. Not pro-trade that is to the disadvantage […]
The week prior to the Christmas holiday, Steel Market Update conducted a review of the flat rolled steel market and the trends impacting supply, demand and pricing trends. The steel survey, sent to 640 individuals involved in the flat rolled and plate industries, found service centers as more supportive of higher spot prices than they […]
The American Iron and Steel Institute welcomed Canada’s integrated steel company Stelco to its membership at AISI’s recent board meeting in Washington, D.C. “With its significant presence in North America, Stelco will be a great partner in our continued advocacy to fight unfairly traded foreign imports and level the playing field for the North American […]
Commercial Metals Company (CMC) has agreed to buy Gerdau’s rebar operations in the United States for $600 million. The acquisition includes 33 rebar fabrication facilities, as well as steel mills in Knoxville, Tenn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Sayreville, N.J.; and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., with annual mill rolling capacity of 2.5 million tons. The addition of the Gerdau facilities will bring CMC’s global […]
The Georgia Port Authority is expanding the Port of Savannah to handle increased cargo demand. “A strong Southeast U.S. economy, on-terminal expansion, and investment by private logistics firms throughout the region have resulted in phenomenal growth for Georgia,” said Executive Director Griff Lynch. Total tonnage for fiscal year 2017 grew 23 percent to 33,397,357 tons […]
Business activity in New York State continued to expand in December. The Empire State General Business Conditions Index registered a healthy 18.0, down slightly from 19.4 in November. The new orders index posted 19.5 and shipments rose four points to a reading of 22.4, indicating solid growth. Unfilled orders declined and delivery times lengthened during […]
It’s a real possibility the United States may withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Despite pleas from Republican and Democratic senators, agriculture industry leaders, automotive executives, the United Steelworkers, trucking associations and many others, President Trump, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appear undeterred in their march to tear up […]
Steel Market Update’s next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop will be held in Merrillville, Ind., on March 28-29, 2018. The two-day session will include a tour of the NLMK USA steel mill. • Do you have new employees who would benefit from learning about steel making (EAF and Integrated Process), […]
Our team has been working diligently on our 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We have expanded the space we are using at the Georgia International Convention Center, we have changed the space that will be used for breaks and for our exhibitors, and we have expanded the audio/visual segment of the program as we continue […]
Happy Holidays to everyone. I know I have told you on a number of occasions that I am now no longer at my desk, but rather slowly moving out to sea for an extended period of rest. Well, as much rest as a workaholic can possibly get. The rest of the SMU team is busy […]
You may or may not be aware that we updated our Steel Market Update website over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. We updated software that controls a number of the functions of our website in order to speed up the site and to make sure that it is up-to-date over the next few years of use. […]
Washing machine manufacturers Samsung and LG won a partial victory in the Section 201 safeguard investigation initiated by Whirlpool and GE. Whirlpool is asking for quotas and a 50 percent digressive tariff on imports of all large residential washers (LRWs) in 2018. Beginning in 2019, the rate would be reduced to 49 percent and then […]
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our early December 2018 flat rolled steel market trends survey. Invitations were sent to 640 people representing about 625 companies located in the United States and Canada. We invite manufacturing companies, service centers, steel mills, trading companies and toll processors/suppliers in the industry and ask them questions about […]
The Department of Commerce issued an affirmative final determination in the antidumping investigation of carbon and alloy steel wire rod imports from Belarus, the Russian Federation and the United Arab Emirates. The following dumping margins were assigned: Belarus: 280.02 percent Russia: 756.93 percent for Abinsk Electric Steel Works Ltd. and JSC NLMK-Ural, and 436.8 percent […]
An Ohio-based company is taking the lead on a possible new multi-billion dollar steel mill proposed in Shiawassee County, Michigan, according to a Dec. 4 report in Crain’s Detroit Business. New Steel International reportedly is seeking a $7 billion federal loan through the U.S. Department of Energy to place a steelmaking plant in Durand, Mich., […]
As a result of this week’s preliminary circumvention ruling, Vietnamese traders here in the United States must pay the Chinese duties on the substrate used to produce cold rolled and CORE (corrosion resistant) steels if they are unable to prove the substrate used was from another country. Here’s the actual ruling: “The Department of Commerce […]
Steel Market Update’s steel market indicators show improved trends in the November data. In our examination of data released in November, our view of the present situation is that 47.2 percent of the 36 indicators are historically positive with only 19 percent negative. The balance is within the band of historically normal. The total of […]
The November ISM PMI registered 58.2 percent, a decrease of 0.5 percentage point from the October reading of 58.7 percent. “This indicates growth in manufacturing for the 15th consecutive month led by expansion in new orders and production, offset by supplier delivery improvement and declines in raw material inventory,” said Timothy R. Fiore, chairman of […]
The U.S. employment situation in November was excellent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) net job creation report released on Friday. While employment was down by 14,000 jobs from October, it was still the third best month of the year and in agreement with the other data streams tracked by Steel Market Update. […]
Global manufacturing accelerated to an 80-month high in November, according to the latest J.P. Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI. Output, new orders and employment were at multi-year highs. Demand led to capacity pressure and a resulting increase in employment. The PMI, produced by J.P. Morgan and IHS Markit in association with ISM and IFPSM, posted 54.0 […]
Economic indicators of manufacturing activity are still healthy overall and suggest conditions should remain positive for the balance of this year and into the first quarter of 2018. This report summarizes seven data sources that describe the state of manufacturing in the U.S. We have reported on most of these separately in our Steel Market […]
Metalforming manufacturers continue to be cautious in their three-month outlook as members watch NAFTA negotiations and trade actions with trepidation. The November Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report showed 30 percent of participants expecting improvement in economic activity in the next three months—the same percentage as October. Little change is expected in incoming orders […]
I have been out of the office all day, so I apologize if my Final Thoughts this evening are less than inspiring… Our website designers have been busy working to resolve some of the bugs that arose when we updated our website over the weekend. The login issues have been resolved. We know there is […]
Detroit automakers met with Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday to express concerns about the U.S. proposal on NAFTA automotive rules of origin. General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne and Ford Motor Co. Executive Vice President and President of Global Operations Joe Hinrichs […]