The 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference is seven weeks away and the SMU and CRU events teams are fully focused on making this year’s event one to remember. As always, the place to be on Aug. 23-25 will be the Georgia International Convention Center, which is located right next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL). […]
A reminder to our readers – Steel Market Update will not publish a Sunday evening issue due to this weekend being a national holiday here in the United States (Memorial Day). We will publish as normal on Tuesday, June 1. Inventories are a key component when it comes to understanding the squeeze we have with […]
Time for Good News… It is time for optimism as the pandemic begins to fade in the USA, reported a Washington Post article posted at 2:18 p.m. this afternoon. Today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stated that fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors. “Americans who are fully vaccinated […]
Olympic Steel kept the momentum going at the start of 2021, achieving its most profitable first quarter ever and third best quarter overall in the company’s history. Despite supply/demand challenges, Olympic recorded record net sales of $463 million due to higher metals pricing. Net income was $22 million, a big improvement from $600,000 in Q1 […]
When I started Steel Market Update in August 2008 and I began to look at steel prices, I did so from a different viewpoint than the indexes that already existed. Having just completed a 31-year career in selling flat rolled steel, I believed what was most important for steel buyers to understand was the range […]
Downstream metals M&A is back, and it could be bigger than ever – or at least as big as it’s been since the last metals super cycle in 2006-08, according to one investment banker. Deal volume in the metals service center and processing sectors was good in early 2020 and “cratered” following the COVID-19 outbreak. But […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito is very bullish on the metals market, comparing the industry to a baseball game that’s just getting started: “I think we are in the first couple of innings of a really good market and cycle,” he said during Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat. Despite material shortages and supply disruptions, manufacturing is […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. Topics will include infrastructure, supply chain disruptions stemming from COVID-19, and port congestion. […]
Over the weekend I was speaking with the CEO of a service center and we were talking about the resistance he was seeing from his plant employees. Many of them did not want to get the COVID vaccine. The office people were mostly vaccinated, but the plant people were not. We discussed the possibility of […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. Topics will include infrastructure, supply chain disruptions stemming from COVID-19, and port congestion. […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
Olympic Steel CEO Rick Marabito will be the featured speaker at the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, April 14, at 11 a.m. ET. Marabito will bring a service center perspective to the current steel market in a one-on-one discussion with SMU. (Translation: This will not be death by PowerPoint.) Topics will include infrastructure, supply […]
NOTICE: NO SMU PUBLICATION ON SUNDAY, APRIL 4 DUE TO EASTER HOLIDAY Imports are coming. We are watching galvanized carefully as automotive production is being reduced due to the chip shortage, and we are seeing higher volumes of galvanized imports coming in. March 2021 license data is showing 240,000 net tons of galvanized, which is […]
Imports are coming. We are watching galvanized carefully as automotive production is being reduced due to the chip shortage, and we are seeing higher volumes of galvanized imports coming in. March 2021 license data is showing 240,000 net tons of foriegn galvanized imports, which is up 55,000-65,000 tons above the levels seen over the prior […]
Demand is strong and approaching pre-COVID levels in the first quarter, said Olympic Steel President and COO Andrew Greiff during the service center’s fourth-quarter 2020 earnings call. All three company divisions contributed to earnings for Q4 with specialty metals turning in its third strongest quarter in the company’s history as well as the strongest quarter […]
Olympic Steel’s chief executive officer is bullish on steel demand in the months ahead despite the risks posed by higher prices. That optimism stems from the Biden administration indicating that it plans to spend big on infrastructure and from the prospect of the U.S. getting a better handle on the Covid-19 crisis, Olympic Steel CEO […]
I anticipate next week’s spot hot rolled and other flat rolled steel prices will be higher than what we reported on Tuesday evening (HRC = $1,080 per ton average). We received information from an end user today of hot rolled purchases of $1,140 per ton for end of March/early April production. An order for HR […]
Olympic Steel has hired Jeffrey A. Carson as General Manager for the Bettendorf, Iowa, facility. Carson will be responsible for growing the facility’s temper mill processing, fabrication and metal distribution in the region and will report directly to Thomas Sacco, Regional Vice President. Carson has more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing operations management, […]
Olympic Steel has acquired the assets of Action Stainless & Alloys, Inc., adding the Dallas, Texas-based distributor to its Specialty Metals business segment. Action Stainless & Alloys is a full-line distributor of stainless steel and aluminum plate, sheet, angles, rounds, flat bar, tubing and pipe and offers a range of processing, including plasma, laser and […]
Demand is back to 90 percent of pre-COVID levels after gaining strength in mid-September and continuing through October, said Olympic Steel CEO Richard Marabito in his third-quarter report to analysts and investors. Other than some normal seasonality, the service center expects demand to remain steady in the fourth quarter. “Our third-quarter performance improved sequentially, as […]
Metals service center Olympic Steel welcomes Damon J. Wos as the new General Manager for the Schaumburg, Ill., and Gary, Ind., facilities. Wos joined the industry in 2000 at Central Steel & Wire and most recently led the commercial and marketing efforts for Charter Steel Trading Inc. He holds a bachelor and master’s degree in […]
Tomorrow we finally go LIVE! We will open the 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference officially at 10 AM ET. This being an unusual year, we came up with an unusual opening, and one that I think you will not want to miss. Some quick facts – we are around 870 registrations as of Sunday, Aug. […]
Today we finally go LIVE! The platform is now open. There is content beginning at 9 AM this morning. We will open the 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference officially at 10 AM ET. This being an unusual year, we came up with an unusual opening, and one that I think you will not want to […]
It has been almost 12 months in the making and, due to the pandemic, one of the most carefully crafted agendas ever presented for an SMU Steel Summit Conference. Here is the final agenda for this year’s “virtual” conference. All times referenced are Eastern Time. The programs on the agenda prior to 10:00 AM are […]
It has been almost 12 months in the making and, due to the pandemic, one of the most carefully crafted agendas ever presented for an SMU Steel Summit Conference. Here is the final agenda for this year’s “virtual” conference. All times referenced are Eastern Time. The programs on the agenda prior to 10:00 AM are […]
Olympic Steel’s Andrew Wolfort has been promoted to the role of Vice President-Specialty Metals. Joining Olympic Steel in 2007, Wolfort most recently led three of the Olympic specialty steel locations as Regional Vice-President. In his new role he will continue to lead the teams at Schaumburg, Ill., and Gary, Ind., facilities and the Berlin Metals […]
Olympic Steel posted a net loss of $6.5 million for the second quarter of 2020. Sales totaled $248 million, down from $429 million in Q2 2019 due to lower average selling prices and a significant decline in shipments as a result of pandemic-related shutdowns, including the automotive industry. “As the pandemic began to affect the […]
In the SMU Community Chat webinar last week, Paul Terry of CRU and John Packard of Steel Market Update gave a live demo of the virtual event platform that will be the SMU Steel Summit 2020 Virtual Conference. If you missed the webinar, you can watch the live demo here. We explain networking, agenda, exhibition and […]