JSW Steel Ltd. is considering selling its U.S. mill in Baytown, Texas said reports by Bloomberg. JSW, India’s third largest steel maker, hopes to pay off some of its debt and boost earnings margins by selling the USA asset. In its fourth quarter earnings statement in March 2013, the company reported a decline of 61.56 […]
Service Center Deficit Will Help Keep Mill Prices Firm Flat rolled inventories are at a 466,000 ton deficit according to Steel Market Update proprietary analysis of the recently released MSCI service center inventory data. The 466,000 ton deficit is the largest one we have measured since August 2009 when it was measured at 604,000 tons. […]
According to just released Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) data, total steel inventories at the distributors as of the end of July were 7,642,600 tons. This is 12.2 percent below the 8,953,900 tons held by service centers at the end of July 2012. The daily shipment rate dropped to 157,500 tons per day (22 day […]
Canadian shipments for all steel products in the month of July were 459,400 net tons, an increase of 1.3 percent from the month before but a decrease of 2.5 percent from July 2012. Inventory at the end of the month stood at 1,462,600 tons, a decrease of 1.5 percent from last month and a decrease […]
In three months through May exports of flat products declined as those of long products remained unchanged (see graphic below). Compared to May last year total exports were up by 311 tons. This result breaks down to flat products down 21,166 tons, longs down 29,114 tons and tubulars up 43,176 tons. In all three cases […]
Imports of semi finished, and hot worked steel imports through July 2013 Imports of the combined tonnage of billets, blooms and slabs have been trending down for 12 months as have also the combined imports plate and sheet. Total long products have been trending up for all of 2013. These conclusions are based on a […]
Every so often it is interesting to just review the comments made to Steel Market Update (SMU) during our steel market survey. Occasionally we can catch a raw gem. In the comment below a large Midwest based service center discusses their service center spot business (supplying steel from one service center to another): “Lean […]
Written by: John Packard Service centers continue to raise spot flat rolled prices to their end customers, according to our most recent steel market survey. Seventy seven (77) percent of the service centers responding to our early August questionnaire advised their company as raising prices compared to two weeks ago. The remaining distributors reported keeping […]
Written by Sandy Williams The Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) has asked U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to protect domestic steel plate from an onslaught of imports from Europe. “We urge USTR to undertake a diplomatic initiative targeted at the European countries that are rapidly increasing their shipments of CTL plate and other products to the […]
Written by: John Packard Are we seeing early signs of prices weakening? The combination of our survey, which began on Thursday of last week and concluded earlier today, and our channel checks with both manufacturing and distributors produced a wider range in pricing than we had been seeing in recent weeks. Is this the beginning […]
Written by: Damon Sun, Daido International The Far East markets will be rather quiet this week. Finished demand is still rather poor. Mills were able to lift construction steel prices up about $10/mt, but scrap prices moved up $20/mt. Rebar prices in Taiwan and in S. E. Asia have retreated/sideways from last week and […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Essar Steel Algoma reported an EBITDA of $9.7 million and a net loss of $25.1 million for the third quarter ending December 31, 2012. Essar said lower selling prices were offset by higher volumes and lower costs compared to the same three month period in 2011. Selling prices and costs decreased […]
Written by: Peter Wright Canadian service center tons per day shipments in February were also down overall and for all individual product groups compared to February a year ago. Their total daily shipments were 76.3 percent of the pre recession level, ranging from 102.2 percent for plate to 70.2 percent for sheet. Of all steel […]
Written by: Peter Wright Rolled steel imports through February 2013. The Steel Import Licensing system is so predictive of the final numbers that it’s quite valid to incorporate licensed tonnage into a current report. This means that by mid month a detailed import report can run for the previous month. License data does not include […]
The following article is from one of our close trading sources located in Asia. This person is actively trading iron ore and ferrous scrap into China and is also trading steel out of China into Europe. He is able to provide us a view of the Asian market not normally seen by outsiders. Here is […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Start up of the Esmark Yorkville cold-rolling plant is on hold waiting for “a less volatile steelmarket” according to Esmark. Esmark acquired the renamed Ohio Cold Rolling Company from defunct RG Steel along with a 50 percent interest in the nearby tin plate production plant Ohio Coatings Co. in October 2012. […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Klockner and Co. is undergoing a major restructuring program to shrink its European line to a profitable core by eliminating 60 sites, 40 of which have already been sold or closed. Klockner EBITDA before restructuring was €139 million in 2012 (down from €227 million in 2011) and €62 million after restructuring. […]
Large steel buyers with whom Steel Market Update had direct contact with over the past few working days paint a picture of the domestic mills still uncomfortable leading on pricing. Although that may be changing as word starts to spread on the newest scrap pricing. We saw a widening of the range on hot rolled […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Despite a record year for sales, Olympic steel reported a disappointing fiscal year with net earnings of $2.3 million after a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $6.6 million in the fourth quarter. In comparison, net earnings for 2011 were $25.0 million. Net sales for 2012 were a record $1.4 billion, up […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Reliance Steel reported an 18 percent drop in net income of $80.4 million in fourth quarter 2012. Net income for the year rose 17.4 percent year over year to 403.5 million. Sales of $1.89 billion for the fourth quarter were 7.1 percent lower than a year ago and down 8.1 percent […]
Canadian distributors shipped a total of 522,300 tons (all products) during the month of January. This is down 6.9 percent (actual) from the previous year. The daily shipping rate was 23,700 tons per day, a marked improvement from December’s 16,900 tons per day but barely above November’s 23,600 tons per day. On a seasonally adjusted […]
U.S. service centers shipped 3,643,600 tons of steel products during the month of January, according to Metal Service Center Institute data released earlier today. Total shipments (all products) averaged 165,600 tons per day, down significantly from the 177,300 tons per day shipped during January 2012. Total tonnage shipped was down 2.1 percent on an actual […]
High Steel Service Center LLC, of Lancaster, PA., recently introduced HIGHSL sheet and plate steel that is panel-flat and stress-free for laser processing. This product is new in the Mid-Atlantic Region and unique in that it helps fabricators eliminate waste, offer higher-quality products, and save cost. Produced on a new leveling line, the material will […]
CSN has been looking to expand their operations in the United States ever since they acquired the bankrupt Heartland Steel and turned it into CSN, LLC. The Terre Haute, Indiana rolling facility is capable of taking hot bands and converting them to either cold rolled or galvanized steel – with the vast majority of the […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Severstal NA sales of rolled products rose 17 percent in 2012 to 4.46 million tonnes (4.9 million net tons), up from 3.8 million tonnes (4.18 million net tons) in 2011. Fourth quarter sales were at 967,265 tonnes (1.06 million net tons), down 10 percent from the previous quarter. In 2012, Severstal […]
Esmark Inc., Stahlschmidt Inc. and Bouchard Group LLC have announced the joint acquisition of Esmark Technologies. Esmark Technologies will provide technical management services across the steel, manufacturing and industrial sectors and will be based in Cleveland Ohio. Esmark Inc., founded by Chairman and CEO James Bouchard, has strong roots in the steel industry. Current interests […]
Written by: Sandy Williams ArcelorMittal Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico recently launched production of specialized slabs for use in pipelines that transport sour gas. Lázaro Cárdenas is known as a leading producer of high quality, value added steel. In order to increase its share of the growing market for API (American Petroleum Institute) pipes, best technological practices […]
Written by: Sandy Williams At least eight new steel plants are under construction in Asia (not including India) that will increase the annual output capacity of steel in Asia by 100 million tonnes within the next few years. Currently China accounts for nearly 50 percent of global steel demand with its own annual output capacity […]
Canadian steel service centers shipped a total of 338,600 tons (all products) during the month of December 2012 – this represents a decline of 19.3 percent compared to last year (not adjusted, 16 percent seasonally adjusted) when the Canadian distributors shipped 419,500 tons. At the end of December, Canadian distributors ended the month with 1,832,800 […]
U.S. distributors grew annual shipments by 1.81 percent (all products) according to Metal Service Center Institute data during calendar year 2012. Shipments totaled 41,447,900 tons. Flat rolled shipments also rose during 2012 totaling 26,378,900 tons which represents an improvement of 2.39 percent over the previous year. Plate shipments were up by 2 percent, while pipe […]