Whether the mills succeed in collecting the $40 increase on flat rolled they announced in recent days depends a lot on how strong demand proves to be in the first quarter. Such price hikes are common in January as the mills anticipate a pickup in business following the seasonal slowdown in the fourth quarter. Service […]
The Steel Manufacturers Association would like to see the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement ratified by the three countries, even if it calls for a change to the tariffs. Speaking at a press briefing during SMA’s board meeting Thursday in Washington, SMA President Phil Bell said the modernized trade rules in the USMCA are an improvement on NAFTA. […]
Steel Market Update has confirmed that ArcelorMittal joined the other major mills in raising flat rolled steel prices this week. ArcelorMittal notified its commercial team that it is raising base prices a minimum of $40 per ton on all light flat rolled sheet products, effective immediately. The increase applies to all new and unacknowledged orders […]
We have seen Nucor, U.S. Steel, NLMK USA and ArcelorMittal move spot flat rolled base prices up $40 per ton effective immediately. That is what was announced this week. The reality is not yet clear, and the prices referenced in tonight’s pricing assessment only marginally take the increases into account as negotiations are very early […]
Major domestic steelmakers have announced a $40 per ton ($2/cwt) hike in the price of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel products, fueling the debate over whether current market conditions can support an increase or if the latest announcement is bound to flop like the last one in October. West Coast mills California Steel […]
Last week, Steel Market Update conducted our mid-January flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis. One of the areas of interest to SMU was how manufacturing companies and service centers would peg spot pricing coming out of the distributors to their end customers. Prior to the New Year, just below 75 percent of the […]
Nucor Corp. surpassed expectations for 2018, reporting net earnings of $2.36 billion for the full year compared to $1.32 billion in 2017. Net sales jumped 24 percent to $25.07 billion due to a 5 percent increase in tons shipped and an 18 percent jump in the average sales price per ton. Nucor shipped 27.9 million […]
U.S. Steel is the latest mill to announce a price increase. Like Nucor, U.S. Steel notified its sales organization on Monday that its base pricing for all new flat rolled spot orders would increase by a minimum of $40 per net ton, effective immediately. U.S. Steel’s last price change on flat rolled was also a […]
U.S. Steel is the latest mill to announce a price increase. Like Nucor, U.S. Steel notified its sales organization on Monday that its base pricing for all new flat rolled spot orders would increase by a minimum of $40 per net ton, effective immediately. U.S. Steel’s last price change on flat rolled was also a […]
Following on last week’s announcement by West Coast mills, Nucor’s Sheet Mill Group today also announced a $40 per ton ($2/cwt) increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel products, effective immediately on new and unconfirmed orders. The price hike comes as no surprise as Nucor and other mills east of the Rockies were […]
Following on last week’s announcement by West Coast mills, Nucor’s Sheet Mill Group today also announced a $40 per ton ($2/cwt) increase on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized steel products, effective immediately on new and unconfirmed orders. The price hike comes as no surprise as Nucor and other mills east of the Rockies were […]
What an interesting week it has been, and it’s only Tuesday. As previous articles have already stated, Nucor, U.S. Steel, NLMK USA and ArcelorMittal (verbally) have joined California Steel and USS/POSCO by announcing $40 per ton price increases on flat rolled. For those of you who are new to the industry or to our newsletter, […]
Nucor Corp. announced on Monday that it is scouting the Midwest for a suitable location to build a $1.35 billion EAF mill that is capable of producing 1.2 million tons of steel plate products annually. Nucor expects site selection to be completed in 2019 and construction to begin as soon as permits are secured. The […]
With finished steel prices continuing their second-half decline through the end of 2018, the market is holding its collective breath to see if the mills announce a price hike this month. Many believe they will try to raise prices, but most are doubtful they will succeed. Following is what industry sources told SMU this week: […]
Perhaps it’s because the year started out with so much promise that the end of 2018 seemed so uninspiring. On balance, most in the steel business would call 2018 a good year, some even a great year. But few look forward to 2019 with the same optimism and confidence they felt a year ago at […]
Service centers are perilously close to capitulation as the percentage of respondents reporting service centers as lowering spot prices continues to increase. Manufacturing companies are telling Steel Market Update that they are receiving lower and lower spot pricing from their service center suppliers. In our latest flat rolled steel market trends analysis conducted this past […]
So, we have our service center inventories at 2.5 months of supply, down slightly from the 2.6 months we got from our distributor data suppliers the previous month. This is not from our survey; we decided to put that data aside as it was suspect – it had both buyers and sellers contributing to the […]
In fourth-quarter guidance on Friday, Nucor reported that it expects strong steel demand and favorable pricing to continue in 2019. Nucor benefitted from strong economic conditions in the United States throughout 2018, which were positively impacted by tax and regulatory reform. Additionally, broad-based tariffs imposed under Section 232 provided a tailwind that contributed to Nucor’s […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor The steel sheet market in North America is starting the second half of the year off with the same primary trends seen in the past few quarters: rising prices due to strong demand and supply that continues to be affected by unplanned disruptions. […]
Ratner Steel ran the first coil on its new stretch leveler cut-to-length line in Osceola, Ark., on Monday, reported Ratner President and CFO Steve Gottlieb. The company hopes to replicate the success it has seen at its other service centers in Minnesota and Indiana. The line was installed by Red Bud Industries in a 150,000-square-foot […]
A couple of comments regarding possible price increase announcements as we go into first-quarter 2019 made today as I canvassed the flat rolled and plate steel markets pricing. “Mills appear to be much more sanguine on prices than I’ve seen in a while. I’m hearing them say that once all of the mills are done […]
Flat rolled steel service centers who responded to last week’s SMU flat rolled and plate steel market trends questionnaire are reporting in increasing numbers their service center as lowering spot prices to their customers. One month ago (early November) only 32 percent of the flat rolled distributors were reporting lower spot pricing to their customers. […]
JSW Ohio (former Mingo Junction mill) has been struggling to get their existing electric arc furnace (EAF) up and running. It was supposed to have fired up last week, but we were told there is an issue with the oxygen, and the new ETA first heat date is Monday or Tuesday of this week. I […]
Returns from Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire show a growing percentage of manufacturing companies reporting service center spot pricing on flat rolled products as being lower than what they saw at the beginning of November. Seventy-three percent of the manufacturing respondents reported seeing slipping spot prices this past week. This is an increase of […]
Nucor is increasing its presence in Mexico with the acquisition of Corporacion POK, a fully integrated precision castings company with a facility in Guadalajara. “Our company has had a presence in Mexico for more than a decade. We know the market and the customers there. This acquisition supports Nucor’s strategy in Mexico, which is focused […]
Steel Dynamics made big news on Monday, announcing it will construct a new $1.8 billion electric arc furnace flat roll steel mill in the United States. The mill will have an annual production capacity of approximately 3 million tons and the capability to produce the latest in advanced high-strength steels. The facility will include value-added […]
Few of the steel buyers canvassed by Steel Market Update this week expect flat roll prices to rise significantly in the first quarter. Most anticipate prices stabilizing or continuing to trend downward, especially if the Trump administration lifts the Section 232 tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. The promise of increased supplies from the […]
The announcement by General Motors today is going to be a precursor for more bad news, in my opinion. With every action there is a reaction, and the expectation that raising steel prices by an extra 25 percent (and more) would not have an impact on the competitiveness of U.S. made products is being short-sighted. […]
Nucor has selected Austria’s Andritz Group to supply the new hot dip galvanizing line at its Hickman, Ark., mill. The new line, announced by Nucor in May, will have an annual capacity of approximately 455,000 metric tons and is designed to produce high-strength steel grades, mainly for the automotive industry. Start-up is scheduled for the […]
Nucor’s $650 million investment to expand the production capability of its Ghent, Ky., mill will transform the former Gallatin Steel plant into an ultra-modern “quality strip production” plant or QSP, claims Danieli, the Italian company that will design and install the new mill equipment. The project will nearly double the annual production capability of Nucor […]