TransCanada received the go-ahead from the White House on Friday to complete the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline. During remarks at the White House announcing the approval of the presidential permit, President Trump said: “It’s a great day for American jobs and a historic moment for North American and energy independence. This announcement is part of […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 24, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 809 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 20 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 21 to 652 rigs, gas rigs down 2 to 155 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs up […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals director of risk management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures […]
The shipping season opened on the Great Lakes this month. In general, freight shipments within the U.S. are moving without complications in March. Rate increases have been noted for most seaborne freight with the Baltic Dry Index approaching highs last seen in November 2016. Seaborne Freight The Panama Canal continues to break monthly records for […]
Trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz asked Steel Market Update if he could comment on the recent request for comments on the Buy American rules suggested by President Trump on private projects that require government approval. The U.S. Department of Commerce was charged with telling the President what could be done under current law. Here is the […]
Last Tuesday the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its series of producer price indexes (PPI), for more than 10,000 goods and materials. For an explanation of this program see the end of this piece. The latest release reported results through February. We run this analysis every three or four months to provide information for […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 17, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 789 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 21 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 14 to 631 rigs, gas rigs up 6 to 157 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs up […]
President Trump announced on Wednesday the rollback of fuel economy standards that were established by executive action near the end of the Obama administration. Speaking to automotive executives and workers in Detroit, MI, Trump said, “Today, I am announcing that we are going to cancel that executive action. We are going to restore the originally […]
The prices of oil and natural gas drive the consumption of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and related steel products. The energy markets represent a large portion of the hot rolled coil used to make welded tubular goods as well as equipment used to drill and pump oil and natural gas. Figure 1 shows historical […]
Ryerson Holdings saw a challenging year in 2016 with demand contracting but pricing improving. CEO Edward Lehner noted, “Carbon steel prices recovered from decade lows at the end of 2015, peaked in June of 2016, and deflated again in October of 2016 before starting in upward trajectory that has continued into the first quarter of […]
Turkey has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against U.S. countervailing duties placed on imports of pipe and tube products. Turkey requested the WTO initiate dispute consultation with the United States alleging the U.S. determination and imposition of duties was inconsistent with the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countevailing Measures (SCM Agreement) and […]
Below is the latest data release issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through January 2017. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for January 2017 increased 1.8 […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the February employment data on Friday which was a week later than normal. This was the best result for goods producing industries (mainly construction and manufacturing) since August 1998. The preliminary result for net job creation in February was 235,000. December was revised down by 2,000 and January […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update conducts a detailed analysis of the trends impacting the flat rolled steel markets. We issue over 670 invitations to people associated with manufacturing, distribution, steel mills, trading companies and toll processors to assist us in our analysis. We finished conducting our early March research on Thursday of this past […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 3, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 756 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 2 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 7 to 609 rigs, gas rigs down 5 to 146 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged […]
Big River Steel, the newest and most technologically advanced scrap recycling and steel production facility in the world, is officially open for business. According to David Stickler, Chief Executive Officer of Big River Steel, the first line went operational nineteen months after groundbreaking: “A world record time to start up a mill. We’ve invested […]
The February ISM Report on Business indicates manufacturing activity expanded in February with the overall economy in a 93rd month of consecutive growth. The PMI was 57.7 percent, up from 56 percent in January. Looking at it from a 3 month moving average, February showed growth at 56.1, up from 54.7. Production at 62.9 gained […]
President Donald Trump says the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines must be built from American manufactured steel. After playing with semantics for weeks, the President has now issued a mandate that will require the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines to use steel pipe manufactured in the U.S., according to a report by CNBC on […]
The number of oil and natural gas rigs is moving higher and this is good news for the North American steel industry. According to Baker Hughes data from February 24, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 754 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 3 rigs compared […]
Please see the end of this report for an explanation of data sources. The Broad Index value of the US $ is reported several days in arrears by the Federal Reserve, the latest value published was dated February 17th (Figure 1). The dollar had a recent peak of 128.963 on January 3rd which was the […]
February 2017 steel import licenses are suggesting that foreign steel imports will be markedly higher than February 2016. Last year the U.S. imported 2.2 million tons of foreign steel. Right now, based on import licenses collected through February 21, 2017, the trend is for imports to reach 2.6 to 2.7 million net tons. This would […]
Market segments tend to run in cycles and rarely are all segments clicking at the same time. A good example is during the Great Recession, which crushed most steel consuming market segments, we learned through Priefert Manufacturing that farm, ranch and rodeo equipment were quite strong. As the economy improved cycles shifted and over the […]
North Star Bluescope Steel reported underlying EBITDA in the first half of FY 2017 of $180.2 million, an increase of 178 percent from 1H FY 2016 . Sales revenue was US$ 598.7 million. The mill operated at 100 percent capacity in the first half and benefited from lower conversion costs, particularly in utilities. Shipments for […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 17, 2017, the U.S rig count for the week was 751 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is up 10 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 6 to 597 rigs, gas rigs up 4 to 153 rigs, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported sales of $2.06 billion in fourth quarter, up 1.7 percent from fourth quarter 2015 and down 5.7 percent from Q3 2016. Tons sold at 1,365,000 were down 1.1 percent from Q4 2015 and down 5.6 percent from third quarter. Average selling price per ton sold was $1,500, essentially the same […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the January employment data on Friday and introduced five years of revisions. In January the preliminary result for net job creation was 227,000. November was revised down by 40,000 and December revised up by 1,000. Using a three month moving average (3MMA), the result for January was 183,000 up […]
The prices of oil and natural gas drive the consumption of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and related steel products. The energy markets represent a large portion of the hot rolled coil used to make welded tubular goods as well as equipment used to drill and pump oil and natural gas. Figure 1 shows historical […]
Below is the latest data release issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through December 2016. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for December 2016 increased 1.3 […]
ArcelorMittal NAFTA segment results declined in fourth quarter 2016. Steel shipments decreased by 6.6 percent to 5 million tonnes from third quarter driven by an 8.5 percent decrease in flat volumes due to destocking in the United States. NAFTA sales were down 11.1 percent from the prior quarter to $3.8 billion due to lower average […]
The US Steel Granite City hot strip mill is back in action as promised. US Steel has called 225 employees back to work to restart the facility’s idled hot mill. For the present, only the hot mill will be restarted which reheats steel slabs, sourced from other US Steel mills, to process them into coil. […]