Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out its series of producer price indexes, for thousands of goods and materials. For an explanation of this program see the end of this piece. The latest release last week reported results through February. We run this analysis every three or four months to give readers […]
US Steel says it will idle tubular operations in Alabama, Texas and Ohio, laying off nearly 800 workers. The steelmaker will temporarily idle Lone Star Tubular Operations in Texas and Fairfield Tubular Operations in Alabama in response to market conditions in the energy industry. “As we adjust operations throughout our tubular organization, we are right-sizing […]
The following analysis was done by Peter Wright who writes a number of analytical articles for Steel Market Update. The energy markets are key markets for steel so it is important for our readers to understand oil and gas prices as well as the tubular products associated with drilling and transportation of oil and gas. […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 11, 2016, the U.S rig count for the week was 480 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 9 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 6 to 386 rigs, gas rigs down 3 to 94 rigs, and […]
Below is the latest release issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through January 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 January 2016 decreased 14.2 percent […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday in their analysis of non-farm employment that 242,000 jobs were added in February, up from 172,000 in January, December and January were revised up by a total of 30,000. More detail on this report is included at the end of this piece. The three month moving […]
Ryerson CEO Eddie Lehner called 2015 “one of the harshest and most difficult metal environments we have seen in terms of magnitude and duration.” Ryerson Holding, a service center company, announced fourth quarter and full year results on Thursday. The company posted a net loss of $20.5 million for the quarter. Revenue was down 23 […]
US Steel revealed a new corporate structure for its tubular operations last week. Ownership of the Lorain, Ohio and Fairfield, Ala., operations has been transferred to a new, wholly owned subsidiary US Tubular Operations, LLC. US Steel Seamless Tubular Operations, LLC and the existing US Steel Tubular Products, Inc. (a subsidiary of US Steel Corporation), […]
As negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their ferrous scrap suppliers conclude we are seeing scrap prices rise with the Chicago markets “catching up” with some of the other regions. Dealers are reporting robust sales, especially to sheet mills as they are picking up spot market share from the integrated mills. Chicago area prices […]
The following is a reprint of an article by Dr. Mark J. Perry in response to the Wall Street Journal article about the duties imposed on imports of cold-rolled steel from China that SMU publisher John Packard was quoted in. Dr. Perry is a Scholar at The American Enterprise Institute and Professor of Finance and […]
US Steel’s Lorain Tubular steel operations will be idled beginning March 27. The plant is expected to remain down for an unspecified time period until order books improve. US Steel spokesperson Sarah Casella said, “We continue to adjust operations at Lorain to meet customer demand.” The sprawling steel complex in Lorain workers includes both US […]
According to Baker Hughes data from March 4, 2016, the U.S rig count for the week was 489 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 13 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 8 to 392 rigs, gas rigs down 5 to 97 rigs, and […]
On Friday the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about the AK Steel price increase announcement and Steel Market Update was quoted in the article. The article was picked up by the Dow Jones and NASDAQ news feeds. Here is a copy of the article for those who may be interested. I have been an […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by Dave Feldstein. As Flack Steel’s director of risk management, David Feldstein 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 […]
Each month the Commerce Department issues its Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data, usually on the first working day covering activity two months earlier. January data was released on Tuesday March 1st. Construction Put in Place is based on spending work as it occurs, estimated for a given month from a sample of projects. In […]
Construction spending soared in January from a month earlier and all major segments posted hefty year-over-year gains, pushing the total to the highest level since October 2008, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said the new spending figures indicate that demand for construction remains robust amid broader economic […]
The Chicago Business Barometer surprised economists with an 8 point tumble to 47.6 in February after increasing to 55.6 in January. Sharp declines in production in new orders contributed to the weaker readings. Economists expected a milder decline to 53; a reading below 50 indicates a contraction in business activity. As new orders dropped sharply, […]
The U.S. manufacturing sector in February remained in contraction for the fifth consecutive month according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business. The PMI did better than expected by economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays who predicted a headline index of 48 and 47.5, respectively. The February PMI increased 1.3 percentage […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 26, 2016, the U.S rig count for the week was 502 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 12 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 13 to 400 rigs, gas rigs up 1 to 102 rigs, and […]
MID-SHIP Group sees evidence of a strong South American grain harvest helping to boost spot market freight levels for the dry cargo freight market. Oversupply of vessels remains a problem and vessel lay-up and scrapping is continuing. MID-SHIP anticipates continued market pressure due to oversupply and slowing demand growth. The Baltic Dry Index stood at […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated foreign steel import license data this afternoon (February 23rd). Based on a daily license rate of 81,355 tons, February is trending toward 2.2-2.3 million tons. This is slightly lower than the 2.4 million ton pace we saw based on license data through the 16th of February. At 2.3 million […]
The article below is normally published to our Premium members as a supplement to the Executive write up. The author is Peter Wright who produces a number of articles for both our Premium and Executive level newsletters. Peter is also one of our Steel 101 instructors where he shares both his marketing and metallurgical knowledge […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 19, 2016, the U.S rig count for the week was 514 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 27 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 26 to 413 rigs, gas rigs down 1 to 101 rigs, and […]
Both these data points are reported in the Federal Reserve G17 data base. The index had an all-time high of 107.9108 in December 2014 but on a month over month basis has declined for nine of the last thirteen months. January was a welcome respite with an increase of 0.92 percent, which is huge, and […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported net income of $68.8 million for fourth quarter of 2014, down 25.7 percent from fourth quarter 2014 but up 33.5 percent from third quarter. Total sales for Q4 were $2.03 billion down 21.4 percent year over year and down 11.4 percent from third quarter 2015. Total tons sold were down […]
After a generally positive performance in 2015, the Architectural Billings Index started the year with a slip to 49.6 in January from December’s reading of 51.3. A score above 50 indicates growth in design services and below 50 indicates a decline. AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker called January “rocky” but noted “the fundamentals are mostly […]
On Monday there was a meeting between Russia and select OPEC members where they agreed to an oil output freeze at January levels in an effort to tackle a global supply glut. This was a closed door meeting in Doha between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar and Russia. Evidently there was a caveat that other members […]
Below is the latest release issued by the the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through December 2015. 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 2015 decreased 14.3 percent […]
EVRAZ North America announced it will idle indefinitely the Portland Spiral pipe mill in Oregon, effective April 9, 2016. The idling will result in the termination of 130 employees. The closure was “a result of economic challenges from three primary factors: delays in regulatory approvals for pipelines in the U.S. and Canada; the influx of […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 12, 2016, the U.S rig count for the week was 541 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 30 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 28 to 439 rigs, gas rigs down 2 to 102 rigs, and […]