Last week was a very busy week, not only for the steel mills and their customers as they try to determine exactly where steel prices are going to go from here, but also for Steel Market Update. We produced our early May flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) and posted the results online for our […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continue to be optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful both now and into the future. However, Steel Market Update has been seeing small adjustments lower to both our current and future Sentiment Indices. Future Sentiment, which measures how buyers and sellers feel about their company’s ability […]
March steel exports totaled 896,027 net tons (812,863 metric tons), up 2.0 percent over February but down 13.8 percent from March 2014. Total March figures are below both the thee month moving average (3MMA, average of January 2015 through March 2015 figures) and the twelve month moving average (12MMA, average of April 2014 through March […]
Licensed data for April was updated on May 5th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is available to our […]
ArcelorMittal reported a net loss of $728 million in first quarter 2015 compared to a loss of $955 million in fourth quarter 2014. EBITDA was $1.4 billion. Steel shipments were up 3 percent year over year to 21.6 million tonnes. Iron ore shipments rose 5 percent to 9.4 million tonnes. Total sales for the company […]
Nucor, SSAB, and ArcelorMittal USA have petitioned the Department of Commerce to overturn a suspension trade deal that excuses Russian producers of cut-to-length (CTL) steel plate from paying import duties. The three steel mills said increasing exports of low-priced CTL steel plate to the U.S. is injuring the domestic industry. A suspension agreement signed in […]
On May 1, Nucor Corp. and SSAB Americas filed a joint request asking the Department of Commerce to find that Chinese producers of cut-to-length (CTL) steel plate are circumventing the antidumping order on CTL plate from China. According to documents submitted to the DOC, Chinese plate producers are adding small amounts of alloys, such as […]
All of the domestic steel mills located east of the Rockies (except U.S. Steel) made flat rolled price increase announcements this past week. The first steel index to note an upward move in pricing was Platts where by the end of this past week had taken their hot rolled index up $5 per ton from […]
According to Baker Hughes data from May 1st, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 905 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on June 19, 2009 at 899 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 27 rigs […]
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 […]
The slippage in flat rolled steel prices continued this past week but we are seeing signs that the end to the slide “may” be close. Hot rolled prices dropped $3 (SMU) to $5 (Platts and CRU) per ton with only $1 separating the indexes from one another. We normally see the indexes tightening up the […]
As we discussed at the beginning of the month April, Steel Market Update (SMU) will present our Future Steel Buyers Sentiment Index at the beginning of our Sentiment articles. Future Sentiment provides a better look at what steel buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are thinking regarding their company’s ability to be successful three […]
The energy markets, especially oil and natural gas, are major users of flat rolled steel and plate products. As oil prices have fallen the production of pipe & tube and related products for the energy segment of the economy have fallen significantly. This has had a major impact on hot rolled coil production and pricing. […]
With Nucor CEO John Ferriola commenting today about the surge in steel plate imports over the last two months into the United States, Steel Market Update thought we would do a piece showing plate imports over the last few years and how they compare to recent levels. The monthly average import rate of plate in […]
Nucor Corp. announced net earnings of $67.8 million. Consolidated net sales decreased 14 percent year over year to $4.4 billion in the first quarter 2015. Earnings were down 12 percent compared to fourth quarter 2014. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 5.6 million tons, down 7 percent from Q4 and 9 percent from Q1 […]
It certainly doesn’t matter that Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Indicator is pointing at Neutral, flat rolled steel prices have continued to fall and last week was no exception. Benchmark hot rolled pricing (prior to any extras being added) dropped on all four indexes followed by SMU. Our own index dropped to $447.50 per […]
According to Baker Hughes data from April 17th, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 954 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back on July 31, 2009 at 948 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 34 rigs […]
According to the Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI,) U.S. steel service centers shipped 3,672,900 tons of carbon steel (all products) at an average of 167,000 tons per day during the month of March 2015. Total carbon shipments were up 10.1 percent over the previous month but 0.1 percent lower than one year ago. However, the […]
Total service center carbon steel shipments increased in March by 321,400 tons to 3.507 million tons. Shipping days at 22 were 2 more than February. On a tons per day basis (t/d) shipments increased from 159,300 in February to 159,400 in March. In the twelve years since 2004, March shipments on average have been 1.2 […]
The pace of the flat rolled steel price slide slowed this past week, based on an analysis of the various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. As the pace slows, the spread between indexes also tends to get tighter due to fewer variations in the data collected. Looking at benchmark hot rolled, Steel Market […]
According to Baker Hughes data from April 2nd, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 988 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The last time the active U.S. count was this low was back in late-August 2009 at 968 rigs. This week’s total rig count is down 40 rigs when […]
Licensed data for March was updated on April 7th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is available to our […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has two Steel Buyers Sentiment Indices, current and future. We normally concentrate our initial comments on the current index, how buyers and sellers of steel feel about business conditions and their company’s ability to be successful in the current market. However, today and going forward, we will begin focusing on how […]
Vessels transporting iron ore on the Great Lakes are encountering heavy ice in the Whitefish Bay area. Breaking the ice has been challenging for US and Canadian Coast Guard vessels. Strong winds over the weekend pushed ice from Lake Superior to the bay, covering about 35 square miles. Broken ice plate 24-30 inches thick clogs […]
Flat rolled steel prices continued to slide their slide this past week according to all of the steel price indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled dropped to $460 per ton ($459 at CRU), down $10-$12 per ton depending on the index chosen. A number to keep in mind: $390 per ton. That […]
According to Baker Hughes data from April 2nd, 2015, the U.S rig count for the week was 1,028 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. The rig count is down 20 rigs when compared to last week, with oil rigs down 11 to 802 rigs, gas rigs down 11 to 222 rigs, and […]
Steel import levels continue to increase at ports around the U.S. SMU spoke with several ports and all but one expects imports to grow, not decrease, in the coming months. Out on the West Coast, the Port of Los Angeles is still working through congestion brought about by the recent labor dispute and chassis issues. […]
Based on the most recent license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (SIMA) on Tuesday of this week, steel imports appear to be trending toward the 3.6 million net ton level. This is less than what we saw earlier in the month when license data was trending toward a 3.8 million net ton […]
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 […]
Benchmark hot rolled pricing has tightened, according to the various flat rolled steel indices we follow. With SteelBenchmarker reporting this past week all four indexes were within a few dollars of one another with SMU and Platts at $470 per ton, CRU $1 higher at $471 and SteelBenchmarker $3 higher at $473 per ton. Our […]