The global steel industry situation and its impact on U.S. steel industry is the topic of discussion this week at hearings held by the United States Trade Representative and Department of Commerce in Washington DC. Representatives from the steel industry, manufacturing, mining and Congress are giving their opinions and suggestions during three days of hearings, […]
I will be doing an article in Sunday evening’s newsletter about the AISI capacity utilization numbers. The AISI produces their “estimate” of steel production and the percentage of capacity utilization based on 50 percent (or fewer) of the mills reporting production data. I have considered not publishing the data at all because, in my opinion, […]
Is Now the Time to Panic as Steel Mills Control Their Order Books? The flat rolled steel markets continue to march to their own drummer. Lead times are extending, spot flat rolled steel prices are rising and many of the mills are not opening their order books for spot business. There are a number of […]
You will be hearing and seeing much more about whether China should be allowed to have “market economy” status. While I don’t pretend to be an expert on the subject, I am learning that as a market economy any trade suits against China would have to be conducted differently than what is currently being done […]
A week ago Steel Market Update reported that three domestic steel mills would file an antidumping suit against a number of foreign countries who have been exporting cut-to-length (CTL) plate to the United States. On Friday the three mills identified in our earlier reporting filed their petition. A trade petition against 12 countries was filed […]
Steel buyers were pulling out their hair earlier today due to the number of mills holding tons off the market as they try to determine what the new pricing should be on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and Galvalume products. As of early this afternoon (Thursday) steel buyers were informing Steel Market Update of a […]
On Friday and Saturday of this past week, Steel Market Update attended the Association of Steel Distributors spring meeting. The following are some of the notes made during the presentations and during discussions with ASD members. Dr. Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence reported that he is “a little optimistic” when it comes to the […]
NLMK USA was the first mill to raise prices, going up $40 per ton. I am hearing comments from both sides on whether the price increases are a good or bad thing. My personal opinion is prices got a little “over-done” last year and dropped too low. A hot rolled number closer to $500 may […]
According to ArcelorMittal USA comments made during the Association of Steel Distributors meeting over the weekend which SMU attended, a trade case on steel plate imports will be filed within the next few weeks. ArcelorMittal along with Nucor and SSAB have been working on the documentation for an extended period of time and our understanding […]
When it comes to foreign steel and foreign steel offers, what was true two weeks ago is no longer, according to the trading companies we spoke with over the past 24 hours. We spoke with a trading company about the light gauge galvanized business and we were told, “Four offers were pulled just last night.” […]
Nucor plans to invest $4.4 million in its Decatur steel manufacturing plant to upgrade the hot metal pickle line. On Monday, the Decatur Industrial Development Board approved an abatement of about $117,545 in non-educational state, city and county taxes over a 10-year period for the project. “We appreciate Nucor’s continued investment in their Decatur operations […]
Japan steelmaker JFE Holdings and Nucor Corp reportedly are in talks to build a jointly run steel plant in Mexico. JFE plans to invest $264 million in the project, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. The plant will have an annual capacity of 400,000 tons and will service the Mexican auto industry, supplying steel for […]
Earlier this week Nucor Plate Group and SSAB announced price increases on plate products (with SSAB also including hot rolled coil) of $40 per ton. Over the past few months we have seen the plate mills lead the charge with sheet mills following close behind. This week was no different. Three mills announced flat rolled […]
SSAB followed the lead provided by the Nucor Plate Group and increased spot prices on plate as well as hot rolled coils coming out of their mills. Their increase mirrored the Nucor move of $40 per ton. This is the first increase on hot rolled since SSAB announced a $30 per ton increase on February […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to move higher over the past week. We are seeing even the weakest product, hot rolled, gaining traction as lead times move out due to the shutdown of US Steel and AK Steel mills (Granite City and Ashland). SMU was advised by both steel mills and steel buyers that orders […]
This afternoon, Nucor’s plate mill group advised their customers through the use of an emailed letter of their intention to raise spot plate prices $40 per ton. The increase was to be effective with new spot orders acknowledged for the week of April 9th production and beyond. They also advised that they would collect the […]
Nucor guidance for first quarter 2016 came in below analyst consensus. Nucor expects first quarter results in the range of $0.20 to $0.25 per diluted share compared to $0.21 in Q1 2015 and adjusted net earnings of $0.45 per diluted share in Q4 2015. Analysts polled by Reuters expected earnings results of $.29 per share. […]
The ruling regarding the preliminary determination of dumping of hot rolled steel out of Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom was announced this evening. You will hear split opinions as to whether the ruling is a “win” or “loss” for the domestic steel mills. It is my opinion that this […]
Recently, Steel Market Update produced an article regarding a discussion between Dan DiMicco, former CEO of Nucor and another one of our LinkedIn members who, in a past life, was responsible for buying foreign slabs for a domestic steel mill. Here is a small clip of that conversation: LinkedIn member: Of course I don’t imagine […]
Recently, Steel Market Update produced an article regarding a discussion between Dan DiMicco, former CEO of Nucor and another one of our LinkedIn members who, in a past life, was responsible for buying foreign slabs for a domestic steel mill. Here is a small clip of that conversation: LinkedIn member: Of course I don’t imagine […]
Mill lead times, especially on cold rolled and coated products, continue to be a concern as buyers navigate/negotiate pricing and deliveries on future orders. The longer the lead time the more steel that is needed in the pipeline at both manufacturing companies and distributors. The longer lead times provide ammunition to the domestic steel mills […]
Steel Market Update posted one of our articles from Thursday evening’s issue of our newsletter (Steel Market Update Publisher Quoted Around the World) and in the process comments were made that started a debate on a subject SMU has addressed in the past: the purchase of foreign steel slabs by domestic steel mills. After the […]
There has been some confusion in the marketplace as many mills were waiting for Nucor and SDI to come out with new price announcements after SSAB and ArcelorMittal led the way earlier this week. On Tuesday, NLMK USA representatives began verbally informing their customers that their spot prices on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized […]
It was only a few weeks ago that many within the ferrous scrap community felt when the negotiations were over for the month of March and the smoke cleared scrap prices would be essentially unchanged from February. That was then, this is now. One of the larger players in the market told us earlier today, […]
Reaction to the US Department of Commerce (DOC) preliminary duties on cold-rolled steel has been mixed, depending on what side of the antidumping determination the commentators are on. In the UK, the steel sector is readying itself for further onslaught of Chinese exports while its own steel exports to the U.S. are assigned dumping margins […]
SSAB, which is known primarily as a plate supplier, announced a $30 per ton price increase on plate and hot rolled coil in the United States and a $40 per ton price increase on hot rolled. The SSAB increases were sent via an emailed letter to their customers. The letter began, “Please be advised that […]
The US Department of Commerce provided the domestic steel industry a “win” according to early reaction to the just released preliminary determination of antidumping (AD) against China, Brazil, Japan, Russia, India, Korea and the United Kingdom. I have to imagine some will be surprised at the high penalties assigned to a number of countries (see […]
Happy Academy Award (Oscar) Night… We will begin our early March flat rolled steel market trend analysis on Monday morning. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few moments to click on the button contained in the message which will take you to our questionnaire. If you would like to participate in […]
The Department of Commerce is initiating a circumvention inquiry on imports of cut-to-length steel plate from China following a petition from Nucor and SSAB. The two steel mills assert that producers, exporters and importers are circumventing duties imposed on CTL by adding alloys, such as boron, titanium and chromium to the product. The Department of […]
Last week, the Senate passed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA). The bill contains important provisions of the Enforcing Orders and Reducing Customs Evasion (ENFORCE) Act that have been promoted by the U.S. steel and manufacturing industries to combat evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties . Evasion is defined as failing […]