Tag: Sheet

With rising steelmaking capacity and relatively flat demand, industry analysts are predicting lower prices for sheet products this year.

Nucor Corp. reported a decline in profits during the fourth quarter due to lower pricing and volumes.

Rig counts in the US and Canada both notched week-on-week increases for the week ended Jan. 26, Baker Hughes’ latest data shows.

December’s import level was slightly lower than an earlier license count had suggested, resulting in December marking the second-slowest month for imports in 2023.

The 35th Annual Tampa Steel Conference starts in just a few days. As one of the premier domestic steel conferences, it’s the perfect way to kick off 2024. It’s not too late to register if you haven’t already done so, but make sure to book now!

U.S. Steel has idled its USS-UPI LLC subsidiary in Pittsburg, Calif., a company spokesperson confirmed. The idling happened in December, they said in an email to SMU.

Steel Dynamics Inc.’s (SDI’s) top executive sees hot band demand remaining strong in 2024, which should support pricing.

JSW Steel USA has teamed up with Primetals Technologies to upgrade its slab casting capabilities at the company's Mingo Junction, Ohio, slab and hot-rolled sheet mill.

Domestic sheet prices slipped again this week, marking the first week of consecutive declines for hot-rolled (HR) coil since September. SMU’s HR price now stands at $1,000 per short ton (st) on average, down $25/st from last week and down $45/st from the start of the year.

Canadian flat-rolled steelmaker Algoma Steel said its blast furnace could be down for approximately two weeks following an incident at its coke batteries over the weekend. “We expect some impact on shipments, the extent of which will depend on the timeline to resume blast furnace operations,” the Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based company said

This latest SMU steel market survey is a snapshot of a sheet market inflecting lower. A significant 43% of survey respondents said that the hot-rolled (HR) coil market has already peaked. Compare that to only 8% when we released our last steel market survey on Jan. 5.

We’re just a week away from the 35th annual Tampa Steel Conference! It’s one of the premier domestic steel conferences and the first can’t-miss event of 2024. If you haven’t already registered, there is still time but make sure to book now!

While oil and gas drilling in the US and Canada rose in the week ended Jan. 19, less drilling is happening than at this time last year, Baker Hughes’ latest data shows.

The slipping lead times for flat-rolled steel were not just due to the holiday slowdown, it seems, as production times for four out of five products contracted again this week.

What are people in the steel marketplace talking about this week?

Domestic buyers of steel sheet said mills were much more willing to negotiate spot pricing this week, according to our most recent survey data.

US steel exports were flat from October to November, but November took the prize for the fewest monthly exports year to date in 2023.

There seems to be a growing consensus that the US sheet market has peaked at a high level and could begin losing ground from here. Whether declines happen quickly or whether sheet prices bop around at current levels for a few weeks more is the primary question.

US hot-rolled (HR) coil prices fell noticeably this week for the first time since late September. SMU’s hot-rolled coil price now stands at $1,025 per ton on average, down $25 per ton from last week. Cold-rolled (CR) coil was unchanged at $1,325 per ton.

Coming out of a strong fourth quarter, galvanized steel market participants are reporting an above-average start to January and are cautiously optimistic for 2024.

US service center flat-rolled steel inventories surged in December with the seasonal slowdown in shipments. At the end of December, service centers carried 64.8 shipping days of supply, according to adjusted SMU data, up from 54 days in November.

November’s shipments for domestic heating and cooling equipment shipments declined for a third consecutive month, according to the latest data released from the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI).

Bloomberg has reported that Nippon Steel’s $14.1-billion deal for U.S. Steel might not close until 2025 – well after the Q2/Q3 2024 close date both companies have guided toward. That’s because a national security review of the deal ($14.9 billion if you include the USS debt Nippon Steel would assume) by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) could take longer than initially expected

The LME three-month price was moving down again on the morning of Jan. 12 and was last seen trading at $2,215 per metric ton (mt). We expect a test of the $2,200/mt support to be imminent. A break would be bearish as it could mean a complete reversal of the gains seen in December, although we still estimate that as being unlikely.

Active rigs in the US dipped slightly this week, while Canada's count increased for the second consecutive week, according to Baker Hughes.

It’s been a sloppy start to the year for domestic hot-rolled (HR) coil and ferrous scrap markets. One of the loudest things to happen in HR this year might be something that didn’t happen at all. Namely, Nucor didn’t follow competitor Cleveland-Cliffs higher when Cliffs announced a price hike to start the year.

I expected that we’d start off January with prime scrap prices modestly up if for no other reason than industrial activity typically slows down over the holidays. And mills’ appetite for scrap typically increases in anticipation of stronger Q1 order activity.

Hot-rolled (HR) coil prices remain in the holding pattern they've been in since mid-December, according to SMU pricing archives.

Steel prices continued to move higher last month on the back of repeated mill price increases after tags reached a 2023 low of $645 per ton in late September. Hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices ended December at an average of $1,035 per ton ($51.75 per cwt), rising by $112 per ton during the month.

Domestic steel mill shipments increased in November vs. a year earlier, but fell month over month.