It’s 10 PM and I am on a flight back to Florida having spent the last three days in Fort Wayne, Ind. We hosted one of the largest Steel 101 workshops in our history and the workshop went well. We spent Wednesday going over the classroom materials and then that evening our workshop was hosted […]
Flat rolled steel prices continue to “drift,” with some items drifting lower, some staying the same and cold rolled actually increasing by $5 per ton. One commercial officer at a steel mill told SMU that in his view the range has shrunk for the products they produce. Even so, “We are finding business, and it […]
Flat rolled steel prices slipped across the board this past week. All three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) saw prices as being down from as little as $1 per ton to as much as $20 per ton. Benchmark hot rolled continues to close in on $600 per ton with SMU down $5 […]
ArcelorMittal USA will idle its rolling mill in Conshohocken, Pa., within the next year and consolidate its plate operations. Production from the mill will be transferred to the Coatesville and Burns Harbor facilities. The heat treat and inspection operation will continue at Conshohocken using steel rolled by the sister facilities. The decision to idle the […]
When asked to comment on spot flat rolled steel prices this week, the president of a medium-sized service center told SMU, “Drifting. Demand seems down.” He went on to report that even with AK Steel and ArcelorMittal reporting extending lead times, the market “feels soft.” Other steel buyers reported that their perception of the market […]
A minor fire at the ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor plate mill caused a shutdown in operations on Friday. The fire began in the control room for one of the 160-inch shear lines. Firefighters responded to the incident from five area fire departments, said spokeswoman Mary Beth Holford. Paramedics evaluated two employees for smoke inhalation, but both […]
Nucor Corp. executives urged the U.S. Trade Representative and Department of Commerce to vigorously oppose any efforts to weaken existing Buy America/n requirements, in their comments on President Trump’s April executive order. The steel company also urged the U.S. government to take additional action to stimulate demand for domestic steel in U.S. and foreign government […]
Flat rolled steel prices have begun to uniformly move lower based on what we have been collecting for steel price averages from ours and other steel indexes. Both Platts and Steel Market Update (SMU) had benchmark hot rolled as moving lower by $10 per ton this past week. Cold rolled prices were $10 lower on […]
Earlier this month, foreign steel imports for September were trending toward a 2.6-million-ton month based on import licenses through the first 12 days of the month. Over the past week, the pace for import license requests has picked up. This is most likely due to the impact of the two hurricanes: Harvey in Texas and […]
Service center shipments in August failed to perform as well as the average since 2009, according to data from the Metals Service Center Institute. Daily shipments in August were 1.8 percent higher than in July. On average since 2009, August has increased by 3.0 percent, therefore the latest numbers were less than the historical average […]
Flat rolled and plate steel prices, which have been fairly resilient over the past couple of months, slipped this week. The biggest move was in plate, which was down $30 per ton, while flat rolled products were lower by $5 to $20 per ton. We will wait to see if this move was nothing more […]
The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) reported carbon flat rolled steel inventories as growing in August compared to the end-of-July 2017 data, but still below August 2016 levels. MSCI data shows the number of months of flat rolled supply at very low levels. This week, MSCI reported total steel shipments (all products) during August out […]
Steel shipments by Canadian service centers in August totaled 387,500 net tons, up 11.8 percent from the previous month, and up 6.2 percent from August 2016, reports the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI). On a daily basis, total shipments were 17,600 tons per day in August (a 22-day month), up from 17,300 tons per day […]
Steel Market Update is working on a new index to measure flat rolled steel inventories in service center warehouses at the end of each month. Our goal is to assist the flat rolled steel industry to better understand inventories and their potential impact on steel mill order books and lead times. SMU will also analyze […]
Steel Market Update is working on a new index to measure flat rolled steel inventories in service center warehouses at the end of each month. Our goal is to assist the flat rolled steel industry to better understand inventories and their potential impact on steel mill order books and lead times. SMU will also analyze […]
Editor’s note: Mario Briccetti of Briccetti & Associates, a supply chain consulting firm, offers the following commentary: I had the opportunity to interview the CEO of Big River Steel, David Stickler, at Steel Market Update’s Steel Summit Conference in August. Much of the conference was focused on trade issues, but Mr. Stickler’s remarks struck me […]
Flat rolled steel average prices are once again “mixed” as some items have dropped, some have remained the same and some rose last week compared to the previous week. We received numbers from Platts, SteelBenchmarker and our own steel index late last week and we found hot rolled down $5 on SMU, up $7 on […]
Nucor expects earnings to be lower in third quarter compared to second quarter. Although Nucor sheet mills are operating at high utilization rates, pricing is not keeping pace with raw material costs due to pressure from imports. Plate demand has been tepid in end-use markets following a restocking of inventory in the supply chain earlier […]
JSW Steel, a steel plate mill in Baytown, Texas, reports a remarkable story of perseverance, ingenuity and courage as it faced the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. As the hurricane was bearing down on the coast, CEO John Hritz made the difficult decision to shut down operations at the mill. JSW’s 700 acres are situated in […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated foreign steel license data on Tuesday. Based on data through the first 12 days of September, foreign steel imports are trending toward a 2.6 million net ton month. If the numbers hold, the 2.6 million tons would be one million tons lower than the three-month moving average, which is […]
Steel Market Update canvassed flat rolled and plate steel buyers throughout the day today in order to determine if steel prices have changed since our review last week. We found prices softening on most flat rolled products and heard from steel buyers that the mills were willing to discuss pricing on “real” orders. Here is […]
There was little movement in the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) last week. Both Platts and SMU have hot rolled average as being $630 per ton ($31.50/cwt). Cold rolled average was $805 (+$5) out of Platts and $810 (-$5) on our own CRC index. Galvanized was up $5 to $893 per ton […]
Editor’s note: Following is a response from Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman to remarks by Daniel Pearson of the Cato Institute published in Steel Market Update’s Sept. 5 newsletter. Zekelman comments on his position on imports and the current state of steel-related trade into the U.S. During our exchange at the recent SMU Steel Summit […]
U.S. steel exports in July totaled 806,512 net tons (731,656 metric tons), down 11.5 percent over June, but up 9.3 percent from July 2016. Total exports have declined over the last two months after reaching a 2.5-year high in May (1,006,087 tons). The total July export figure is below the three-month moving average (average of […]
Total rolled steel imports increased by 10.8 percent in the three months through August compared to the three months through May. Sheet product imports rose by 14.3 percent on the same basis, according to final license data for August reported by the U.S. Commerce Department on Aug. 6. The data is reported within the Steel […]
Flat rolled prices have been mixed since we last produced our indices on Thursday of last week. The expectation is for prices to go higher from here, although Steel Market Update (SMU) is waiting to see how those responding to our flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire feel about the current and future markets. We […]
The chaos to commerce continues in the Houston area as a result of flooding and damage from Hurricane Harvey. Texas Governor Gregg Abbot estimates damage to the area will be in the range of $150 billion to $180 billion. A quick survey of steel service centers and distribution centers in the area found that many […]
The various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) had flat rolled and steel plate prices as mixed last week. SMU, Platts and SteelBenchmarker all had hot rolled prices as averaging $630 per ton. SMU had HRC up $5, SteelBenchmarker was up $10 and Platts remained the same as the prior week. Cold rolled […]
We did not review pricing earlier this week due to all of our staff being at the SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. During the conference, we did not want to discuss pricing in an open format. We did check on pricing today and found mixed results depending on the product. Within the data, we […]
The following table is for the month of August 2017. Most of the data speaks for itself. We produce this information at the end of every month. There are a number of data points or reference points that are proprietary to Steel Market Update. These include our SMU Price Momentum Indicator which, at the end […]