This will be my last article prior to the SMU Steel Summit Conference which begins on Monday morning of this coming week. We are now six days away from the start of the conference. As you can imagine, this is a hectic time for the SMU and CRU events teams. Some of the event’s staff […]
We had a big development this week with London-listed Russian steelmaker Evraz Plc announcing plans to sell its North American operations. A move like this has been rumored for some time. We’ve heard versions of it going back to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February. Still, it was something of a shock to […]
Chicago-based Evraz North America is encouraged by its Russian parent company’s decision to divest its North American assets. The steelmaker said the move would provide increased certainty for its North American operations and employees. Evraz plc’s announcement of a sale “strengthens our long-term stability and will allow us to continue to lead in the markets where we […]
Russia’s Evraz plc has put its North American operations up for sale. Evraz North America (Evraz NA) operates two electric arc furnace facilities, four rolling mills, eight tube mills, and 17 scrap recycling facilities. It has annual steelmaking capacity of 2.3 million tons and a finished steel capacity of 3.5 million tons per year, including […]
Eariler this week, SMU polled steel buyers on a variety of subjects including current and future steel prices, price increase announcements, supply, demand, and new mill capacity. Rather than summarizing the comments we received, we are sharing them in each buyer’s own words. We want to hear your thoughts, too! Contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com to be included […]
Algoma Steel Group posted solid profits in its fiscal first quarter on rising steel prices, despite higher raw material costs for iron ore, scrap, alloys and natural gas. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based flat-rolled steelmaker also said the gains came despite a “significant” planned outage at its plate mill for a first phase of upgrades. […]
While Evraz plc’s earnings results in the first half of the year were negatively impacted by geopolitical tensions and resulting operational challenges, the company’s North American operations recorded a solid performance. The Russian steelmaker made no mention of Russian forces invading Ukraine in February in its H1 financial results, citing only “geopolitical tensions, mounting economic […]
Producer prices rose moderately in June, maintaining a sustained 27-month growth run. Last month the headline index grew by just 3.3%, seasonally adjusted, but was up 23.4% compared to the same year-ago period, the US Labor Department reported. The wholesale level was hit hard by inflation as well in June. The producer price index (PPI), […]
I’ve been writing a lot lately about steel prices going down. It’s hard at a certain point to find a new way to write about the same thing. So let’s talk about logistics, heat waves, and electricity for a little bit. First, I want to draw your attention to our Community Chat earlier this week […]
The United Steelworkers (USW) and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. both seem eager to get a new labor pact done quickly, with potentially few hurdles along the way, statements by both parties indicate. The USW provided members with an upbeat report following an initial round of master contract bargaining with the Cleveland-based steelmaker. Meetings were held in Pittsburgh […]
Mercury Resources CEO Anton Posner will be the featured speaker on the next SMU Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, July 13, at 11 a.m. ET. The live webinar is free. A recording will be available free to SMU members. You can register here. We’ll talk about the global supply chain, why it’s still snarled and how […]
Mercury Resources CEO Anton Posner will be the featured speaker on the next SMU Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, July 13, at 11 a.m. ET. The live webinar is free. A recording will be available free to SMU members. You can register here. We’ll talk about the global supply chain, why it’s still snarled and how […]
Mercury Resources CEO Anton Posner will be the featured speaker on the next SMU Community Chat webinar on Wednesday, July 13, at 11 a.m. ET. The live webinar is free. A recording will be available free to SMU members. You can register here. We’ll talk about the global supply chain, why it’s still snarled and […]
Is this a case of the summer doldrums or something more serious? That might be a more important question to answer than where the bottom is and when we might hit it. But first let’s start with a recap of where prices landed this week. SMU’s hot-rolled coil price is now at $955 per ton ($47.75 […]
The United Steelworkers (USW) is preparing to start master contract bargaining with Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. in mid-July, according to communications sent to union members. Local union chapters will send representatives to the master negotiations, which are being held in Pittsburgh. The USW’s current labor pact with the Cleveland-based steelmaker expires on Sept. 1. Talks will focus […]
SMU on Monday and Tuesday canvassed steel buyers on a variety of subjects ranging from future steel prices and new capacity to demand and supply chain issues. As we did earlier this month, we are sharing the comments we received in each buyers’ own words rather than summarizing them in ours. Want to have your voice […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor, June 8 The CRUspi plummeted again month-on-month in June by over 12.3%, which is a larger drop than in May. This makes it the third-largest percentage point drop on record and the second largest in terms of total points. The supply shock caused by […]
Flack Global Metals (FGM) will open a new metals service center near the port of Houston in the fourth quarter of this year, the company announced Tuesday. “FGM Houston” will be located on the campus of North Shore Steel and is FGM’s first physical location. The 60,000-square-foot facility will service flat-rolled steel, aluminum, and stainless […]
The 2022 SMU Steel Summit Conference is only 13 weeks away, and we are looking forward to providing a quality program filled with knowledgeable and interesting speakers. We know your time is valuable, so we have gone the extra mile to provide an environment that will allow you to gather intelligence about the marketplace and to […]
The 2022 SMU Steel Summit Conference is only 13 weeks away, and we are looking forward to providing a quality program filled with knowledgeable and interesting speakers. We know your time is valuable, so we have gone the extra mile to provide an environment that will allow you to gather intelligence about the marketplace while also […]
Production is revving up at the new JDF/HDM spiral-weld pipe mill in Houston, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for later in June. Originally slated to be built on or near the campus of Steel Dynamics Inc.’s new sheet mill in Sinton, Texas, joint venture partners JD Fields and Turkey’s HDM Steel Pipe opted for new […]
JD Fields & Company Inc. is set to lease new industrial space at Port Houston. Using the property’s multimodal shipping capabilities will allow the steel pipe supplier to further streamline its distribution capabilities. JD Fields secured the lease of 133,125 square feet of space at the Greens Port Industrial Park from commercial real estate firms […]
Improving results from North Star BlueScope are again causing Australian steel producer BlueScope Steel to raise its 2H FY2022 earnings guidance. The previous expectations of earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for 2H of AUD $1.2 billion to $1.35 billion has been increased to $1.375 billion to $1.475 billion. The company is expecting improving earnings […]
Three months of war in Ukraine have wreaked havoc on the country’s iron and steel industry and caused repercussions across the global economy, but industry and the country of Ukraine continue to fight back. In this week’s SMU Community Chat, Stanislav Zinchenko, CEO of the GMK Center, spoke with us on the impact Russia’s invasion […]
US Steel is no longer importing pig iron from Ukraine and Russia for its Big River Steel Works – now the official name of its Osceola, Ark., electric arc furnace (EAF) sheet mill. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker has also mostly weaned its integrated steel mill in Košice, Slovakia, off Russian raw materials as well, they said. […]
This past week the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum with details of the Buy America rules that apply to infrastructure projects governed by the infrastructure bill passed last year (the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” or “IIJA”). This week, I detail some of the changes and their impact on the number […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Erik Hedborg, from CRU’s Steelmaking Raw Materials Monitor, April 5. Iron ore has risen again in the past week as lockdowns in China have fuelled hopes of new stimulus measures, resulting in an overall bullish sentiment last week, ahead of the Chinese Qingming holiday (Sunday–Tuesday). Iron ore has now returned to […]
Fuel surcharges continue to march higher along with increased steel prices and ballooning costs for raw materials such as ferrous scrap and pig iron. Case in point: Wheeling-Nippon Steel’s fuel surcharge will increase to 24% effective with shipments on Monday, April 4. “The surcharge will continue to be added to the freight on all invoices […]
Fuel surcharges continue to march higher along with increased steel prices and ballooning costs for raw materials such as ferrous scrap and pig iron. Case in point: Wheeling-Nippon Steel’s fuel surcharge will increase to 24% effective with shipments on Monday, April 4. “The surcharge will continue to be added to the freight on all invoices […]
Algoma Steel Group Inc. expects modestly lower shipments and production volumes in its fiscal fourth quarter because of supply chain bottlenecks and the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based steelmaker forecasts shipments of 540,000-550,000 tons in the fourth quarter and adjusted EBITDA of CAD $310 million to $320 million (USD […]