With crude oil prices breaking through $80 per barrel, all eyes are on the Baker Hughes rig count data. The question is will the lower oil prices affect the number of wells being drilled? Most assume there will be an impact, however, it could have a lag effect and take time before there is a […]
It has been a very quiet week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the U.S. on Thursday. A number of service centers advised SMU that the number of inquiries had dramatically fallen off and there isn’t much need to buy steel at this time. The question isn’t so much where are prices this week […]
Preliminary October import figures show October as the second highest month in the 17 years worth of history we have at SMU. October steel imports were the highest figure since August 1998 when total imports were 4,417,811 net tons. We also address November 2014 imports which we believe will be approximately 3.7-3.8 million net tons […]
Last week Steel Market Update (SMU) conducted our mid-November flat rolled steel market survey. We invited approximately 600 companies to participate representing manufacturing, steel service centers, trading companies, steel mills, toll processors and suppliers to the steel industry. Last week’s participation mix was very similar to what we see on a regular basis with 46 […]
With crude oil prices breaking through $80 per barrel, all eyes are on the Baker Hughes rig count data. The question is will the lower oil prices affect the number of wells being drilled? Most assume there will be an impact, however, it could have a lag effect and take time before there is a […]
Today’s hot rolled, ferrous scrap and iron ore futures article comes to us from Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and the instructor for Steel Market Update’s Managing Price Risk I and Managing Price Risk II workshops. Along with HRC, iron ore and BUS trading Andre also discusses the S&P 500, copper and crude […]
Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics, (BLS) puts out its series of producer price indexes, for thousands of goods and materials. The latest release on Tuesday reported October results. We run this analysis every three months to give readers an opportunity to become aware of any changes in the competitive position of steel against […]
Austrian international technology company ANDRITZ Group has acquired Herr-Voss Stamco in Callery, Pennsylvania for an undisclosed purchase price. The acquisition will enlarge ANDRITZ’s service and product offerings in the North American metals sector. Herr-Voss Stamco also serves a large customer base in the North American automotive, service center and oil/gas industries. Herr-Voss Stamco is supplier […]
US Steel announced a realignment of its reporting segments in order to meet strategic goals set forth in its Carnegie Way transformation. The North American flat-rolled segment will include creation of commercial entities to address specific markets. The realignment will take effect by January 1, 2015. “These commercial entities will put our company in a […]
The House of Representatives passed legislation approving construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The project has been delayed for more than five years while seeking presidential approval for the line to cross the U.S./Canada border. The House voted 252-161-1 in support of the pipeline. The Senate will vote on Tuesday and will need 60 votes […]
Below is the latest data issued by the The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) regarding residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment shipments through August 2014. You may read the press release on their website here. Residential Storage Water Heaters U.S. shipments of residential gas storage water heaters for September 2014 increased 9.5 percent, […]
With crude oil prices breaking through $80 per barrel, all eyes are on the Baker Hughes rig count data. The question is will the lower oil prices affect the number of wells being drilled? Most assume there will be an impact however, it could have a lag effect and take time before there is a […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on non-farm employment indicated that 214,000 jobs were added in October, September and August were revised up by 8,000 and 23,000 respectively. The three month moving average, (3MMA) has declined for four straight months but this job recovery is stronger than was the case in the mid-2000s, (Figure […]
Explanation of data sources: The broad index is published by the Federal Reserve on both a daily and monthly basis. It is a weighted average of the foreign exchange values of the U.S. dollar against the currencies of a large group of major U.S. trading partners. The index weights, which change over time, are derived […]
Occasionally we publish a piece on the state of the Eurozone because we regard the inevitable future transformation (disintegration) of this region to be of immense significance to the US steel industry. The following was written by Ambrose Evans Pritchard and published in the UK Daily Telegraph on Monday November 10th. Mario Draghi’s Efforts to […]
The Association of American Railroads reported 305,389 carloads for the week ending Nov 1, 2014, up 4.3 percent year over. Intermodal volume increased 5.9 percent y/y to 279,819 units for the highest volume ever. “America’s railroads are moving an enormous amount of freight today,” said AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray. “In the first […]
With crude oil prices breaking through $80 per barrel, all eyes are on the Baker Hughes rig count data. The question is will the lower oil prices affect the number of wells being drilled be affected? Most assume there will be an impact however, it could have a lag effect and take time before there […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today the initiation of antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations on imports of welded line pipe from South Korea and Turkey. The information below is quoted from the text of the International Trade Administration press release: The merchandise covered by these investigations is circular welded carbon and alloy steel […]
We thought our readers might be interested in reading what the AISI reported regarding foreign steel imports for the month of October. Washington, D.C. – Based on the Commerce Department’s most recent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reported today that steel import permit applications for the […]
Andre Marshall, well known commodity futures trader, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and instructor for our Managing Price Risk I and II workshops has written today’s HRC futures article. Today he comments on the financial markets, steel, iron ore and ferrous scrap markets. Financial Markets: All time highs again in the stock markets. We are […]
According to Baker Hughes data from October 31st 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,929 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count represents an increase of 2 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs down 13 to 1,582 rigs, gas rigs up 14 to 346 rigs, and […]
US Steel announced in their earnings conference call that Carnegie Way benefits now total $495 million for 2014 due primarily to improvements in manufacturing processes, supply chain and logistics, and SG&A reductions. “While our operating difficulties in North America in the first half of the year made it difficult to see the results of our […]
A.M. Castle & Co. reported net sales of $245.5 million for third quarter for a net loss of $7.3 million. Metals segment sales totaled $210.7 million, down 1.6 percent from the previous quarter and 4.2 percent lower year over year. Pricing dropped 2.5 percent and sales volumes declined 1.4 percent compared to Q3 2013. “While […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co reported record sales for third quarter of $2.71 billion on shipments of 1.5 million tons. Not only did the company have good results to report, the Reliance executives had good commentary to offer in their third quarter conference call. Reliance noted that their purchase of imported steel has increased from […]
Total September steel imports were just shy 3.9 million net tons according to the Preliminary Census numbers just released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Total steel imports were up 5.2 percent over August data, and up 38.0 percent year over year. Semi-finished imports (mostly slabs) were up 6.3 percent month over month and 47.3 […]
According to Baker Hughes data from October 24th 2014, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,927 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This count represents an increase of 9 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 5 to 1,595 rigs, gas rigs up 4 to 332 rigs, and […]
Paul Lowrey of Steel Research Associates was discussing the size of the market segments with SMU back in September during our Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. He was making sure that we were aware that the energy markets are now the largest steel consuming segment of the steel industry, especially if you take into consideration […]
A proposal by Transport Canada may be devastating for U.S. cargo ships delivering raw materials on the Great Lakes. The proposal would require lakers to be equipped with ballast water treatment systems like their oceangoing sister ships. The water treatment systems are designed to eliminating invasive species from being introduced to coastal waters through ballast […]
I spent a good portion of this week either in Louisiana or traveling to and from the state. I attended an energy conference at Louisiana State University (LSU) which I found to be fascinating. I found out how little I knew about the various drilling operations for oil and natural gas and how far the […]
Figure 1 shows historical gas and oil prices since January 2000. The daily spot price of West Texas Intermediate fell below $100 in August and by October 14th was down to $81.72, the latest daily figure available from the Energy Information Administration, (EIA.) Brent closed at $86.36 on the same day. The EIA has calculated […]