Essar Steel Algoma will begin laying off employees on Sunday evening (Oct. 4) starting with the evening shift. USW Local 2551 received notice that approximately 100 workers will be cut, with the plate and cold mills most heavily affected. “We’ve had to match staffing levels to production and we have experienced a sustained drop in […]
According to Baker Hughes data from October 2, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 809 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 29 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 26 to 614 rigs, gas rigs down 2 to 195 rigs, and […]
Steel imports to Mexico will see a 15 percent increase in tariffs for the next six months. The government said it will impose the temporary increase on imports from countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with Mexico in an attempt to stem the surge of low-priced imports flooding the country. Canacero, the Mexican […]
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 […]
U.S. Congressman Pete Visclosky (D) addressed the International Trade Commission (ITC) hearing on cut-to-length carbon steel plate today, calling for the ITC to maintain the existing antidumping orders on cut-to-length steel plate from China, and the suspension agreements from Russia and Ukraine. “As a representative and resident of Northwest Indiana, one of our nation’s foremost […]
Last week three of the four steel indices followed by Steel Market Update reported flat rolled steel price averages for the week. We saw large double digit declines in the CRU on hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized while Platts only saw movement in hot rolled. Steel Market Update captured declines in hot rolled, cold […]
According to Baker Hughes data from September 25, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 838 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 4 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 4 to 640 rigs, gas rigs down 1 to 197 rigs, and […]
Last week we reported on a change in the cold rolled antidumping/countervailing duty scope language that has created some concern within the manufacturing community. The concern is related to changes which resulted in this being added to the scope language: “Subject merchandise includes cold-rolled steel that has been further processed in a third country, including […]
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 126,600 tons in August to 3.160 million tons. Shipping days at 21, were down one from July. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments increased from 149,400 tons […]
Flat rolled and plate prices continued to slip as all of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update reported pricing this week. The CPI benchmark hot rolled average dropped $2 to end the week at $446 per ton ($22.30/cwt). We now have SMU with the lowest average at $440 per ton followed by Platts ($445), […]
According to Baker Hughes data from September 18, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 842 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 6 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 8 to 644 rigs, gas rigs up 2 to 198 rigs, and […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released August distributor shipment and inventory data on Wednesday of this week. Total steel inventories remained essentially unchanged in August compared to July as the daily shipping rate declined by 3.8 percent. The biggest declines in shipments were attributed to carbon plate (-14.8 percent), structurals (-3.9 percent) and carbon […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released the latest license data for the month of September through the 15th of September late this afternoon. For the first time in many months we are seeing a large change in the license requests at this point in the month. Earlier this month it appeared that licenses were trending […]
An investigation into dumping and subsidizing of hot rolled steel plate imports from India and Russia was been initiated by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal on Sept. 9. The investigation follows a preliminary determination of dumping and subsidization from the Director General of the Trade and Anti-dumping Programs Directorate at the Canada Border Services Agency […]
The flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update saw prices as being relatively flat this past week with the exception of Platts which is playing catch-up as they move their prices to be more in line with the other indexes. SMU kept all of our indices the same as the prior week as […]
Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an important look at the overall trade picture and its effect on demand at the mill level. Figure 1 shows that net sheet product imports on a three month moving average, (3MMA) basis at 718,000 tons in July continue to be more than double that […]
This data is normally reserved for our Premium members, but we wanted to give our Executive readers a view of what a Premium subscription includes. This is one of many additional data points available to our Premium level members. Licensed data for August was updated on September 4th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of […]
Due to the Labor Day Holiday in the United States, Steel Market Update did not produce our Comparison Price Indices article on Sunday evening. Since many of our readers look forward to this information we are publishing last week’s numbers this evening. Hot rolled coil was dropped below $450 per ton on two indexes – […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to remain optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in the current market conditions. However, we have seen a weakening of that position especially when we look at the numbers based on a 3-month moving average. The SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index measures how flat rolled […]
For those interested in more information on the HRC trade case, the following is a reprint of the International Trade Administration Fact Sheet on the AD/CVD investigation into imports of hot rolled steel flat products from seven countries. The US DOC did decide earlier this week to allow the HRC case to move forward. ITA […]
Earlier today the U. S. Department of Commerce released the latest license data through the 1st of September. Based on license data August total steel imports will be 3.0 million net tons. If confirmed when the Final Census data is released August will be the lowest tonnage so far this year. When looking at flat […]
Virtually all of the indexes followed by Steel Market Update have begun to note the falling prices on flat rolled steels in North America. Benchmark hot rolled continues to be the most volatile product, dropping by as much as $16 per ton according to SteelBenchmarker (who only reports prices twice per month) and even Platts, […]
Essar Steel Algoma announced that first quarter FY 2016, ending June 30, 2015, closed with a positive EBITDA of CDN $12.4 million. Capacity utilization was at 90 percent and steel shipments of 632,000 tons were 19 percent higher year over year. Higher production and shipments, however, were unable to counter low pricing caused by dumped […]
According to Baker Hughes data from August 28, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 877 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is a decrease of 8 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 1 to 675 rigs, gas rigs down 9 to 202 rigs, and […]
With the exception of Platts, all of the other indexes reporting (and followed by SMU) saw flat rolled products as losing ground this past week. Steel Market Update (SMU) is leading the way with their benchmark hot rolled coil (HRC) average dropping by $10 per ton to $450 per ton. This is $5 higher than […]
According to Baker Hughes data from August 21, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 885 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This is an increase of 1 rig when compared to last week, with oil rigs up 2 to 674 rigs, gas rigs unchanged at 211 rigs, and miscellaneous […]
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 116,500 tons in July to 3.287 million tons. Shipping days at 22, were the same as June. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments decreased from 154,700 in […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported July steel service center shipments and inventory data for the month of July. Expectations had been running high that shipments would decent for the month and that inventories, which had been dropping over the past six months, would continue that trend. Unfortunately, 2015 is turning out to be […]
The negative numbers are starting to appear and SMU is hearing from steel buyers that weakness is creeping back into the markets, if only over the short term. However, not all of the indices followed by Steel Market Update saw the market as weakening at all. SteelBenchmarker, in particular, reported bullish results with all of […]
Six domestic steel mills joined together to file a hot rolled trade suit today. This is now the third such suit since the filing against corrosion resistant (galvanized & zinc-aluminum or Galvalume) on June 3rd and the cold rolled petition of a couple of weeks ago. With the HR case the mills have hit the […]