Recovery, fundamental, opportunity, strategic, exciting. These are the five words steel executives used during AIST’s Virtual Town Hall Forum Wednesday to describe the current state of steel. In the aftermath of an unprecedented upheaval for the economy and the industry caused by the COVID-19 crisis, executives from Big River Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor, Steel Dynamics and […]
Cleveland-Cliffs’ purchase of ArcelorMittal USA took many steel buyers by surprise this week. Initial reactions from some Steel Market Update readers ranged from “a major development” to “business as usual.” Here are some of their comments: “Quite surprised by this development. Initial reaction is this gives them an incredibly strong position with automotive. Not sure […]
All the integrated steel mills in the United States will soon be controlled by U.S. companies. Cleveland-Cliffs is buying ArcelorMittal USA assets…well, most of the U.S. assets. They did not acquire the ArcelorMittal/Nippon Steel Calvert steel mill located just outside of Mobile, Ala., and they did not purchase the Dofasco plant located in Hamilton, Ontario, […]
For those of you who are new to our newsletter my final thoughts is an area where I get to muse about items I find important, or to provide my opinion, or just random thoughts that I may be having. We are now in the last few days of September with Thursday of this week […]
From one of our SMU readers to John Packard, President & CEO of Steel Market Update, “Welcome back… Regarding steel, wow. What a difference a month (or, a month and half) makes!” A second reader told us, “Market pricing and lead-times have moved aggressively…and rapidly. Many are finding themselves too late to the party.” It […]
By CRU Prices Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service A combination of increased seasonal demand, low service center inventories, unplanned outages, spike in scrap prices and government restrictions on Brazilian slab imports have added fuel to the usual seasonal uptick and turned it into a surge. After reaching a bottom in mid-August, […]
Flat Rolled = 48.6 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 56.9 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled Service centers’ flat rolled steel supply reached its lowest point of the year in August, as shipments increased and intake remained nearly flat month on month. In August, service centers carried 48.6 shipping days of supply of flat […]
Demand and pricing improved late in the third quarter, said Nucor in earnings guidance issued Thursday. Continued resiliency of the nonresidential construction market has resulted in a strong performance for Nucor’s downstream products. Steel segment earnings are expected to be similar to second quarter. Nonresidential construction is also benefiting Nucor’s bar and structural mills, but market conditions […]
Mills are hoping to boost flat rolled prices by an additional $50-60 per net ton as the economy and steel demand continue to improve, iron ore and scrap prices rise and mill outages tighten supplies. On Monday, U.S. Steel and sister company USS-POSCO Industries (UPI) informed customers they have raised spot prices for hot rolled, cold […]
Some leading pipe and tube producers are increasing prices by $50 per ton due to increased demand from construction and automotive-related industries, as well as higher raw material costs. On Monday, Nucor Tubular Products announced an immediate $50 increase on all new orders for HSS, pipe, mechanical and piling products. Atlas Tube followed suit on […]
U.S. steel mills have numerous maintenance outages planned between now and the end of the year. The list below was compiled from anecdotal reports from service centers, as mills usually don’t comment on such outages for competitive reasons. These outages are generally routine and short of duration. Individually, they are unlikely to have much impact on […]
Ashland, Ky., will get a welcome infusion of jobs from Danieli USA after the closing of AK Steel Ashland. Danieli has rented a 130,000-square-foot building near the AK Steel mill and will operate a repair and refurbishment center serving steel producing clients in North America. The Italian firm is one of the world’s largest suppliers of […]
Nucor’s Plate Group announced a new minimum base price yesterday “to provide an increased level of clarity and transparency to our plate product pricing.” The company added: “This price change reflects continued increases in input costs and changing market dynamics.” Effective immediately, Nucor’s new minimum base price is $29.50/cwt ($590 per net ton), freight included. […]
Mills raised plate prices by an additional $40-50 per ton ($2-2.50/cwt) on Monday and Tuesday, the second increase in the past five weeks and the fourth round of increases since May. Plate prices have lagged the increases in flat rolled as plate demand is more dependent on the infrastructure, commercial construction and energy markets, which […]
Last Thursday, USS-POSCO notified customers of a revision to its galvanized steel coating extras. UPI advised customers the new extras will apply on all new orders effective immediately. UPI is the fifth mill to revise its galvanized coating extras recently, following Steel Dynamics, California Steel Industries, Nucor and U.S. Steel. SMU has done an analysis […]
On Wednesday, U.S. Steel notified customers of a revision to its galvanized and galvannealed steel coating extras. USS advised customers, “The cost to procure zinc for our Hot Dipped Galvanized products has increased significantly in recent weeks, with the average LME zinc price now above the current coating weight tables that we put in place […]
Six months of adversity was not what Leon Topalian expected when he took over the reigns of Nucor in January. But a pandemic that devastated the economy, caused demand and pricing to plummet and put the very lives of employees in jeopardy was a formidable challenge to overcome. “I’m not sure I’ve seen before in […]
Last Friday, Nucor notified customers of a revision to its galvanized coating extras. Nucor advised customers, “Consistent with our practice to monitor the cost of zinc, we have revised our galvanized coating weight extras effective with new orders acknowledged for the week ending Oct. 10, 2020.” Nucor is the third mill to revise its galvanized […]
Following on a similar move by the plate mills earlier in the week, flat rolled mills announced price changes Wednesday and Thursday ranging from $40 to $60 per ton. Nucor’s Sheet Mill Group notified customers today, Aug. 27, that it has increased base prices on new orders of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel […]
Many steel buyers have been anticipating a price increase, and the plate mills were the first to make a move. ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor and SSAB all announced changes to their plate prices, but not in the typical lock-step fashion. Nucor informed customers on Friday that it was setting a minimum base price of $28/cwt ($560 […]
After knocking it out of the park during the first day of our conference, we are going to shift into cruise mode as we hit on the economy and the major end-use segments affecting the industry. We have two “new” mill CEO’s joining our conference for the first time. The Nucor and U.S. Steel exec’s […]
After knocking it out of the park during the first day of our conference, we are going to shift into cruise mode as we hit on the economy and the major end-use segments affecting the industry. We have two “new” mill CEO’s joining our conference for the first time. The Nucor and U.S. Steel exec’s […]
Welcome from SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference control central in Hobe Sound, Fla. It’s sunny, temperatures are in the mid-90’s and my home looks nothing like a typical Florida residence as a team of production and audio/visual experts assist in the creation this year’s virtual event. Putting on a conference as large as ours has […]
It has been almost 12 months in the making and, due to the pandemic, one of the most carefully crafted agendas ever presented for an SMU Steel Summit Conference. Here is the final agenda for this year’s “virtual” conference. All times referenced are Eastern Time. The programs on the agenda prior to 10:00 AM are […]
It has been almost 12 months in the making and, due to the pandemic, one of the most carefully crafted agendas ever presented for an SMU Steel Summit Conference. Here is the final agenda for this year’s “virtual” conference. All times referenced are Eastern Time. The programs on the agenda prior to 10:00 AM are […]
We have passed through 700 registered attendees for this year’s SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference. Activity has been high and we are confident we will reach our 800+ registered attendee goal. We will be the largest steel conference (live or virtual) in North America this calendar year. Those who have seen our platform are excited. […]
We have passed through 700 registered attendees for this year’s SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference. Activity has been high and we are confident we will reach our 800+ registered attendee goal. We will be the largest steel conference (live or virtual) in North America this calendar year. Those who have seen our platform are excited. […]
Four days to go… This will be our 10th SMU Steel Summit Conference. Over those 10 years the SMU team (and now CRU team) has built the most successful steel conference outside of mainland China. This year’s conference will be either the second or third most attended event we have had since the beginning. I don’t think we […]
A new Danieli spooler line is in operation at the Nucor Steel Sedalia minimill in Missouri. The spool will deliver twist-free compact and regularly shaped coils at up to 30 m/s. The high-efficiency and low-cost line is for the production of rebars and rounds in coils weighing up to five tons. The spooler line consists of […]
Last week we conducted one of our flat rolled and plate steel market trends analyses. Some of the information gathered was shared in Thursday’s and again in tonight’s issue (see above). However, we share in our newsletter only a small fraction of the information that is being collected. Our data providers and Premium members can […]