SSAB Americas announced yesterday, March 14, that it is increasing steel transaction prices by a minimum of $50 per ton for customers in the United States, and $60 per ton for customers in Canada, effective immediately on all new non-contract orders, and for all existing noncontract orders acknowledged for shipment the week of April 29 […]
Last week, Steel Market Update conducted an analysis of the flat rolled steel market trends. We reached out to 640 individuals representing more than 600 manufacturers, steel service centers and wholesalers, steel mills and toll processors and asked dozens of questions related to flat rolled and plate steel usage. One of the key areas of […]
Anticipating the U.S. Commerce Department will soon begin considering applications for exemptions from the Trump administration tariffs on steel and aluminum, South Korea’s Dongkuk Steel has reportedly suspended its April exports to the United States. Reuters quoted a company spokesman who said the steelmaker has put its exports to the U.S. temporarily on hold while […]
SSAB Americas announced yesterday, March 14, that it is increasing steel transaction prices by a minimum of $50 per ton for customers in the United States, and $60 per ton for customers in Canada, effective immediately on all new non-contract orders, and for all existing noncontract orders acknowledged for shipment the week of April 29 […]
Flat rolled sheet prices, as well as plate prices, surged this week as steel mills moved to allocation or totally withdraw from the market pending further examination of the Section 232 ruling and how it will impact each mill’s ability to produce sheet and plate products. SMU is hearing of offers on hot rolled as […]
It is still early, but Steel Market Update is already collecting comments and opinions on how the Section 232 tariffs are going to affect existing business in the United States. We heard everything from allocation stories to a few companies that reported higher prices but no customers for that higher priced steel. “This is a […]
It is still early, but Steel Market Update is already collecting comments and opinions on how the Section 232 steel tariffs are going to affect existing business in the United States. We heard everything from allocation stories to a few companies that reported higher prices but no customers for that higher priced steel. “This is […]
Olympic Steel, a national metals service center, announced the promotion of Thomas Sacco to Regional Vice President. Sacco joined Olympic Steel in operations in 1994. After transitioning to the commercial group, he took on roles of increasing responsibility before being promoted to Regional Sales Manager in 2013. In 2016, he was promoted to his most […]
Imports’ shares of the major steel product markets are all on the decline, reveals a new report on imports from Steel Market Update. The report examines the import share of sheet, plate, long and tubular products and 18 subcategories of these product groups. We think the introduction of this analysis is timely as a way […]
Stronger domestic demand for steel products, combined with feedstock and transportation problems, sent ferrous scrap prices on divergent paths in various parts of the country this month, reports scrap guru Mike Marley of World Steel Exchange Marketing. Tight supplies of key obsolete grades produced pricing moves ranging from unchanged for industrial steel grades in several […]
With the final announcement of Section 232 steel tariffs, we saw steel prices spike (again) with double-digit gains on most products followed by Steel Market Update. The prices referenced in the table below are through the week ending March 10, 2018. Hot rolled prices surged with Platts recording their average as $850 per ton by […]
A small fire occurred at SSAB Mobile on Wednesday evening. The incident was confined to the building of plate processing partner Bastech, said a spokesperson for SSAB. The SSAB steel mill was not impacted and there was no disruption to production. No injuries were reported and an investigation is underway. SSAB’s Alabama steel mill is […]
Total rolled steel imports declined by 14.8 percent, and sheet products by 13.6 percent, in the three months through February compared to the prior three-month period, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of federal Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data. This is the second edition of our new and expanded import report that now […]
Ferrous scrap prices have risen at a greater rate than expected by sources quoted in Steel Market Update last month. Scrap guru Mike Marley of World Steel Exchange Marketing reports that recent price increases have varied by region to region, and even within a few regions. In the North, shredded and cut grades are up […]
January foreign steel imports were finalized yesterday at 2,879,076 net tons (2,611,857 metric tons), according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This is up 17.5 percent from December, and up 4.2 percent from November. It is also slightly greater than import levels seen in January 2017 (2,814,233 tons). Current February license data has imports down […]
U.S. steel exports in January totaled 831,184 net tons (754,038 metric tons), up 10.5 percent from the month before, and up 1.6 percent from January 2017. Total exports have averaged around 850,000 tons over the last few months after reaching a 2.5-year high in May 2017 (1,006,087 tons). The total January export figure is above […]
Flat rolled steel prices surged this past week on all of the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Benchmark hot rolled reached the $800 per ton mark ($40.00/cwt) on Platts with SMU’s HRC index close behind at $790 per ton. SteelBenchmarker, which only produces its index twice per month, was trailing way behind, raising […]
Most service centers are raising spot prices to their end customers following President Trump’s announcement that he plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports this week. But some are taking a more wait-and-see approach to spot business. Following are some insightful comments from the marketplace: • “Absolutely we’re raising prices!” • “Inventory […]
Oscar Night, so I will keep my comments short and sweet…maybe. I was told by one of our readers over the weekend that it would cost U.S. Steel $100 million to re-start Granite City. They wanted to know if that was correct? I did some checking with a number of analysts and was told that […]
The decline in value of the U.S. dollar on the international exchange markets has slowed in the last 30 days, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of currencies. Please see the end of this report for an explanation of data sources. The analysis of currency trends is a highly technical undertaking. Therefore, in this […]
The market is moving very quickly now as issues of supply begin to raise their ugly heads. The issues at California Steel Industries (CSI) have spooked the market and steel mills are abondoning the process of announcing price increases prior to raising prices. In reality, prices have already gone up $50 per ton from the […]
We had another week of “up” pricing as everyone tries to grapple with the impact of Section 232 tariffs. One thing does appear to be a certainty – the laws of supply and demand are now clearly in the hands of the U.S. government. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: […]
Preliminary steel import data was updated Tuesday afternoon showing 2.88 million net tons of imports for the month of January, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This is down from last week’s estimate of 3.08 million tons, but up 17.3 percent over December 2017 data. Preliminary data has been averaging 30,000 to 40,000 tons […]
The SMU Steel Summit Conference is THE fastest growing steel conference in North America and THE one conference manufacturing, distribution, suppliers to the industry and steel mills want to attend. Details about the agenda, speakers, location and costs, as well as how to register, can be found on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit or you can contact […]
We saw mixed results depending on which index you are following. SMU believes the variance is due to quotes vs. actual orders and the fact that many buyers who are reporting prices may not have actually bought flat rolled steel products in the spot market (from mills) over the past week. We are well aware […]
U.S. steel exports in December totaled 751,977 net tons (682,183 metric tons), down 14.8 percent from November, but up 3.5 percent from December 2016. Total exports have averaged around 885,000 tons over the last few months after reaching a 2.5-year high in May (1,006,087 tons). The total December export figure is below the three-month moving […]
Foreign steel import licenses picked up over the past week and the February trend moved up to 2.5 million net tons from the low 2-million-ton level suggested last week. The trend is very similar to what we saw during the month of December when the U.S. imported 2,450,286 net tons. Our focus, however, is on […]
Total rolled steel imports declined by 15.0 percent, and sheet products by 17.3 percent, in the three months through January compared to the prior three-month period, according to Steel Market Update’s analysis of federal Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA) data. This month’s SMU report was delayed as we performed a major revamp of […]
January service center intake rose 12 percent month over month but was flat compared to the seasonal norms and was down 2.7 percent compared to January 2017 intake. Daily shipments in January were 31.1 percent higher than in December and were 4.3 percent higher than January 2017. According to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices remain strong, and many buyers are eixpecting prices to move higher from here. Hot rolled, which has been on a tear for a number of weeks, took a breather remaining at $745 per ton as an average. Other products, however, did move higher expanding the spread, which in the […]