The USW oil refinery strike has expanded to 11 plants and is nearing the end of its second week. Over 3,800 workers are now actively striking, protesting unsafe conditions and use of unskilled contractors. The latest facilities to be affected by the strike are British Petroleum (BP) refineries in Whiting, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio, joining […]
The Q1 2015 February Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices was released on February 2nd. This survey addresses changes in the standards and terms on, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households on a quarterly basis and is based on the responses from 73 domestic banks and 23 U.S. branches […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on non-farm employment indicated that 257,000 jobs were added in January. As we were analyzing this date we noticed massive historical revisions and had to go back to January 2000 (15 years!) before were confident we had caught them all. In the 12 months of 2014, job creation […]
SSAB Americas posted sales of SEK 3.5 billion ($421.8 million) in Q4, a 17 percent increase from third quarter. For the full year 2014, the Americas segment had sales of SEK 13.2 billion ($159 million) up from SEK 11.1 billion ($133 million) in 2013. Fourth quarter external steel shipments were down 13 percent year over […]
As we reported last week, prior to negotiations beginning for the month of February market players were predicting ferrous scrap prices would drop by $30-$50 and then $50-$70 per gross ton. Then we heard prices would drop by $100 per gross ton over the months of February and March combined. When the smoke cleared at […]
The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) reports that U.S. steel exports declined 5 percent year over year in 2014. Exports fell 2.6 percent in the last month of the year with a drop in NAFTA exports accounting for most of the November to December decline. AIIS statistics and commentary follows: Falls Church, VA. February […]
The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) reports steel imports declined for the second consecutive month in December. Despite the month over month reduction, steel imports were 44.4 percent higher than December 2013. AIIS says falling oil prices may support a continued downward trend due to reduced demand for OCTG and line pipe. The full […]
EUROFER, the European Steel Association, says high levels of steel imports into the European market are “distorting traditional steel trade flows.” Steel imports into the European Union (EU) rose by more than 14 percent. EU steel use grew hesitantly in the second half of 2014, rising just 3.3 percent in 2014. “Weak business conditions in […]
According to Baker Hughes data from February 6th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,456 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 87 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 83 to 1,140 rigs, gas rigs down 5 to 314 rigs, […]
The following article is normally produced just for our Premium level members. We are sharing the information today with all of our readers. The article is written by Peter Wright, consultant to Steel Market Update, Gerdau and the State of Wyoming. Peter, who is a metallurgist as well as market specialist, is also one of […]
The Institute of Supply Management released their January report on February 2nd. An explanation of this data set is given at the end of this piece. After the October surprise on the upside, the index slid back once again from 55.1 in December to 53.5 in January. The three month moving average has declined for […]
The United States Senate passed the Keystone XL oil pipeline bill by a vote of 62-36 on Thursday, Jan. 29. Nine Democrats joined the Republican-controlled Senate in supporting the bill. The House is expected to vote on the Senate version of the bill early next week. The Keystone XL legislation includes two energy-efficiency programs that […]
Global manufacturing continues to grow steadily with expansion in production and new orders in January. The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI rose slightly last month to 51.7 from 51.5 in December. “The PMI turned higher in January, including moderate gains in the indexes of output and new orders,” commented David Hensley, Director of Global Economics […]
United Steel Workers in the oil industry went on strike on Sunday after failing to agree on new labor contracts. The strike will affect approximately 3,800 employees at nine U.S. sites. It is the largest national USW walkout since a 1980 strike that lasted three months. About 10 percent of the oil refinery capacity will […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) ferrous scrap sources are advising us that the scrap market pricing have not settled yet. It seems that every periodical wants to fan the flames of scrap price collapsing (and we do our share as well I suppose) before the final numbers are locked in. Keep that in mind when evaluating […]
SMU Price Momentum Indicator has been stuck pointing lower for a number of months, ended the month of January as it did at the end of November and December. We saw SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index improve by +1 point in January over the month of December. However, when looking at Sentiment based on a […]
According to The TEX Report, Japan will decrease its shipment of hot rolled coil to South Korea beginning in February. Orders from South Korea for February shipments of HRC have dropped, in some cases by nearly half, due to weakened demand for OCTG in the U.S. Last year Japan exported 2,045,000 tonnes (2,254,188 net tons) […]
Steel Market Update thought it might be worthwhile to pick out some of the comments made by Steel Dynamics CEO Mark Millett during his earnings conference call with analysts late last week. We have focused on comments made about foreign steel, scrap, energy markets and the new Columbus facility. Each of the comments made are […]
The Chicago Business Barometer rose 0.6 points in January to 59.4 from a revised reading of 58.8 in December. The increased manufacturing activity follows two consecutive months of declines. The index showed a modest increase in a new orders, order backlogs and production, driving employment to a 14-month high. Inflationary pressures eased for the fourth […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. The total number of indicators considered in this analysis is currently 36. Please refer to Table 1 for the view of the present situation and the quantitative measure of trends. Readers should […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 30th, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,543 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 90 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 94 to 1,223 rigs, gas rigs up 3 to 319 rigs, […]
Steel Dynamics reported a record setting year and fourth quarter 2014. Steel shipments for the quarter were up 51 percent to 2.3 million tons from 1.5 million tons in Q3 2013. Steel fabrication had operating income of $22 million following a loss of $122,000 a year ago. For the full-year 2014 steel shipments totaled 7.4 […]
Turmoil continues in the global currency markets as the European Central Bank announced a quantitative easing program last week, S&P downgraded Russian debt to junk status yesterday, the Greek national election on Sunday will result in a strong resistance to EU mandated austerity programs and the Swiss removed the currency cap vs the Euro last […]
On Monday after the financial markets closed, US Steel announced the company would temporarily reduce operations at their Lone Star Tubular Operations in Lone Star, Texas as well as their Fairfield Tubular Operations in Fairfield, Alabama. USS Fairfield Works, which is the primary flat rolled supplier of rounds to the Fairfield Tubular plant will also […]
Nucor Corp. reported net earnings of $210.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to $245.4 million in the third quarter of 2014 and $170.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. The drop was expected due to typical seasonality in the fourth quarter and downward pressure on the industry from steel imports. Net […]
US Steel earnings reported 2014 net income of $102 million, attributing its Carnegie Way for its first profitable year since 2008. In 2013, US Steel reported a full-year net loss $1.645 billion that included $1.5 billion in impairment and restructuring costs. Net income for fourth quarter was $275 million, compared to $297 million in Q4 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from January 23rd, 2015, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,633 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count is a decrease of 43 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 49 to 1,317 rigs, gas rigs up 6 to 316 rigs, […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to be optimistic about their company’s chances of being successful in both the current market conditions as well as three to six months into the future. However, there have been some clouds building as our 3MMA has been trending lower over the past four months. We have […]
US Steel told employees it will idle operations in Illinois and Indiana, laying off 545 workers. The newest cuts follow the layoff of 756 workers at its tubular plants in Ohio and Texas earlier this month due to decreased demand from oil prices and the surge in lower cost imports. Two coke ovens at Granite […]
I was conversing with a consulting friend who reported to me that steel prices are taking a beating in Europe. He referenced hot rolled prices being offered out of Russia into Europe for 365 to 375 euros. He also reported that the sales of the Italian steel mill, ILVA would not succeed and the mill […]