This report is a detailed drill down into imports of hot band through October, beginning with the big picture and ending with exactly what came into a region of significance to your business and where it came from. SMU has developed a series of reports that cover hot rolled, cold rolled, HDG, other metallic coated […]
Based on Steel Market Update (SMU) analysis of the recently released MSCI service center inventory and shipment data, total service center carbon steel shipments decreased by 482,000 tons in November to 2.728 million tons. Shipping days at 20, were down by two from October. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments decreased from 145,900 […]
We are already seeing some signs of the “turn” as the flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update saw very little movement this past week. Both SMU and Platts saw hot rolled pricing as stable while CRU was down $5 per ton (SteelBenchmarker did not report prices this past week). Our average was […]
According to Baker Hughes data from December 11, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 709 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 28 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs down 21 to 524 rigs, gas rigs down 7 to 185 rigs, and miscellaneous […]
We will conduct our mid-December flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) beginning on Monday of this week. If you are on the invite list, please take a few moments to click on the link (button) and respond to our online questionnaire. If you were on the invite list in the past and for some reason […]
The Canada Border Services Agency has made final determinations that dumping has occurred on hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate originating in or exported from India and Russia and subsidizing on hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate originating in or exported from India. The investigation on subsidizing from Russia […]
Licensed data for November was reported by the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department on December 4th. At SMU we perform a detailed analysis of this data, an explanation of our methodology is given at the end of this write up. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of November […]
Over the past few weeks we have seen major movement in flat rolled steel prices. The question now is have we seen the end of the major moves lower (some suggest hot rolled has a way to go since lead times are not yet into January at most mills) or do we have a way […]
According to Baker Hughes data from December 4, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 737 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 7 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs down 10 to 545 rigs, gas rigs up 3 to 192 rigs, and miscellaneous […]
Holiday weeks tend to be “quiet” when it comes to steel price movement but, according to the flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update, last week was an anomaly. SMU saw the market as being relatively stable with either no movement or small adjustments of $5 per ton on hot rolled and hot […]
For our U.S. customers, welcome back from the Thanksgiving Holiday. We are a little more than three weeks from our next break for the Christmas and New Year Holidays. Then we plow into 2016 and my gut tells me by then things may begin to change. We still have our SMU Price Momentum Indicator pointing […]
Flat rolled steel and plate prices continued to slide this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. SMU saw prices as being sideways on hot rolled, down $10 on cold rolled, down $5 on galvanized and down $10 on Galvalume. Both CRU ($376) and Platts ($375) dropped their averages […]
Shipments of all steel products out of the U.S. based steel service centers totaled 3,363,900 tons, according to the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) in data released on Monday. Total tonnage was up 3.2 percent compared to September but was down 14 percent year-over-year. The daily shipment rate was 152,900 tons which was 1.5 percent […]
Canadian shipments for all steel products in the month of October were 422,400 net tons, a decrease of 6.5 percent from the month before and decrease of 18.3 percent from October 2014. Inventories at the end of the month stood at 1,355,300 tons, down 7.3 percent from last month and down 12.3 percent from the […]
Based on Steel Market Update (SMU) analysis of the recently released MSCI service center inventory and shipment data, total service center carbon steel shipments increased by 104,700 tons in October to 3.201 million tons. Shipping days at 22, were up by one from September. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments decreased from 147,900 […]
Flat rolled and plate prices continued to erode this past week according to the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. With the exception of SteelBenchmarker (who tends to be behind the other indexes due to it only collecting market price intelligence twice per month), all of the indexes are showing hot rolled prices […]
Trade protection is a driving concern for the U.S. steel industry that has seen prices and domestic demand plummet as low priced steel imports flooded American shores. Steel mills, unions and legislators have lobbied for stronger enforcement of trade policies and the additional safeguards from dumped and subsidized imports and currency manipulation. Currently the focus […]
This article was originally published in Steel Market Update newsletter dated November 15, 2015. We provide our members up to date analysis of the status of antidumping and countervailing duty trade cases affecting the flat rolled and plate steel markets. Trade protection is a driving concern for the U.S. steel industry that has seen prices […]
The following article is one produced for our Premium level members as we look to delve deeper into the overall steel industry picture in the United States. You can learn more about becoming a Premium member either online or by contacting our office: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an […]
According to Baker Hughes data from November 13, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 767 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 4 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs up 2 to 574 rigs, gas rigs down 6 to 193 rigs, and miscellaneous […]
The various flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update are falling in line and reporting hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and plate prices the same. We find this interesting as the various steel price collection techniques are slightly different from one another. Could this be a harbinger that flat rolled prices are close […]
September steel exports totaled 811,582 net tons (736,256 metric tons), down 1.8 percent over August and down 21.5 percent from September 2014. Total September figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA, average of July 2015 through September 2015 figures) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA, average of October 2014 through September […]
According to Baker Hughes data from November 6, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 771 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 4 rigs compared to last week, with oil rigs down 6 to 572 rigs, gas rigs up 2 to 199 rigs, and miscellaneous […]
License data for October was updated on November 3rd through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. At SMU we perform a detailed analysis of this data, an explanation of our methodology is given at the end of this write up. Total rolled product licensed imports in the single month of October were […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel Buyers Sentiment Index is continuing its downward trend, even though the Current Index is 4 points higher and the Future segment of the Index is 9 points higher than what we reported during the middle of October. The numbers we follow closely are our 3 month moving averages (3MMA) […]
Our scrap sources reported ferrous scrap prices as having the most strength in the east where export pricing has bounced off the bottom and momentum has apparently turned in that region. One of the east coast dealers told us that scrap flows are “atrocious” and if it wasn’t for the “terrible demand situation the market […]
Based on the most recent import license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, October import licenses totaled 3,399,248 net tons. We anticipate when the final census numbers are released for the month of October total steel imports will be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4 million tons (net tons not metric tons). Imports of […]
Recent media reports indicate that Essar Steel Algoma may be heading for another return to insolvency as it struggles to meet its debts. According to media reports, the company has engaged a law firm and restructuring specialist to advise it and may file for insolvency by the end of the month. Although Essar Steel Algoma […]
Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) reported a net loss of 1.28 billion pesos ($77.8 million) for third quarter 2015, almost double its loss from the same period in 2014. Revenue dropped to 10.2 billion pesos ($619 million) for the quarter. Steel production fell 1.16 percent to 922,138 tonnes. Production of thermal coal increased 5.31 percent […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to erode at a moderate pace this past week. Steel Market Update reviewed the results of three other steel indexes as well as our own for the week ending October 30, 2015. We found, with the exception of the Platts indices, all of the other indexes saw prices down by […]