Flat Rolled = 43.1 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 45.9 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled Service center flat roll inventories fell to a new low in October, amid extending mill lead times and shipment delays. Service centers carried 43.1 shipping days of supply at the end of October, which is a 3.8 percent […]
Editor’s note 11/17/20: The data in the “Supply Tons YTD” column on Table 3 didn’t populate correctly, and therefore, was in error. Table 3 has now been updated accordingly. Mill shipments and supply of sheet products continue to see slight yet steady growth since reaching bottom in June. This analysis is based on steel mill […]
The Perfect Storm: Long lead times, late deliveries, low service center inventories, strong demand, higher prices, lack of foreign steel imports, mill outages both planned and unplanned, maximum capacity utilization rates at a number of mills, NLMK USA strike, higher ferrous scrap prices that are expected to go much higher in the coming months, restrictions […]
U.S. steel mills shipped 6,662,904 net tons in September, a 2.0 percent increase from the 6,532,652 net tons shipped in the previous month, but a 14.2 percent decrease from the 7,767,310 net tons shipped in September 2019, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute. Shipments year-to-date totaled 60,449,359 net tons, a 16.7 percent decrease vs. […]
The SMU Steel Price Momentum Indicators on all flat rolled and plate steel products are currently pointing toward higher prices over the next 30 days. We expect hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume and steel plate pricing to increase during the coming weeks. The two major reasons for our position are the limitations of supply […]
The Department of Commerce has self-initiated an investigation into the circumvention of antidumping and countervailing duty orders on oil country tubular goods from China. Commerce said on Thursday that it will investigate whether hot rolled steel sheet and strip from China is exported to Brunei and the Philippines for minor processing before being exported to […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Lack of supply and higher demand is causing sheet prices to diverge further from plate across regions, with U.S. sheet prices reaching their highest level since April 2019 this week. New lockdown announcements have not had an impact on the European market at this point, […]
By Principal Consultant Josh Spoores, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor North American sheet prices have continued to surge after bottoming this past August. For HR coil, prices have been assessed at $712 /s.ton. Since Aug. 12, these prices have gained $237 /s.ton, or 63%. This is the fastest percent gain over three months in […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor The global sheet market has seen a few key trends emerge across a variety of regions. First, demand has continued to rise from the pandemic-related lows recorded earlier this year. While sheet demand continues to be driven by sequential increases in automotive demand, […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Strong underlying demand continues to provide substantial support to finished steel prices in the USA. Sheet prices have risen at their quickest pace since CRU started tracking them and, while there was little change m/m for long products, mills have […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and Senior Analyst Ryan McKinley, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Strong underlying demand continues to provide substantial support to finished steel prices in the USA. Sheet prices have risen at their quickest pace since CRU started tracking them and, while there was little change m/m for long products, mills have […]
By CRU Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service The U.S. market is at a unique point where steel buyers could be convinced to buy imports because of extreme supply tightness. With about 7Mt of blast furnace capacity remaining idled in the U.S. and Canada, sheet mills in operation are effectively running at […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor The impact of Covid-19 restrictions on global manufacturing this year has led to the loss of ~ 700,000 t of refined zinc demand compared to our pre-Covid-19 forecasts. Smelter output has been far less impacted, despite mine supply losses, and this has led […]
The ISM Manufacturing PMI exceeded expectations in October posting a score of 59.3 percent, a 3.9 percent increase from September and indicating factory growth for the fifth consecutive month. “The manufacturing economy continued its recovery in October,” said Timothy Fiore, chairman of the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. “Survey committee members reported that […]
Editor’s note 11/3/20: Some of the data as originally published in Table 1 was incorrect due to a spreadsheet error (specifically the change in shipments 3M Y/Y column). The table has been updated with the correct information below. Mill shipments and supply of sheet products have turned, albeit slightly, since reaching bottom in […]
Mills continue to hold the upper hand in negotiations over hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steel orders as they work to collect higher prices in a tight market with extended lead times. Buyers report the mills will only negotiate on big tonnages to be delivered in 2021. About 86 percent of the steel buyers […]
Nucor has agreed to acquire Precoat Metals’ paint line facility in Armorel, Ark., accelerating Nucor’s entry into the painted products market, said Troy Brooks, vice president and general manager of Nucor Steel Arkansas. Precoat’s paint line is located near the Nucor Steel Arkansas sheet mill campus and has a capacity of approximately 250,000 tons per […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor HR coil was the standout product across all regions this week. HR coil deal prices and buyer bids increased in Vietnam, strong demand data supported prices in China, and tight availability continued to bolster U.S. prices and sure up the market in Europe. […]
We had a good conference call with HARDI wholesalers this morning. The dealers who service the mechanical contractors with galvanized sheet and coils continue to be busy. They are surprised at the steepness of the cost curve, and they are beginning to be wary of paying too high a price. One reason they are wary is […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores, from CRU’s Steel Monitor Reflecting a basket of finished steel prices, CRU’s global finished steel CRUspi reached 162.9, its highest level since May 2019. This indicator, which covers Asia, Europe, and North America, increased 5.2% m/m and is now up 9.9% y/y, the first y/y increase since November 2018. […]
Nine days to go… I don’t know about you but my cell phone is being lit up with political calls/texts from both parties – including states I don’t live in. November 4th can’t get here fast enough… Steel Dynamics reported that their mills (all products) operated at 85 percent and their sheet mills achieved a […]
Nucor reported better than expected results for the third quarter of 2020. The company’s bar and structural mills led earnings, benefiting from a good nonresidential construction market. Joist and deck orders, quotes and backlogs are up year-over year with strong demand from nonresidential, including data and distribution center construction, company executives told investors and analysts […]
Have you ever attended a wedding and thought to yourself as you looked at the lovely young bride and her much older groom: “How is this going to work?” The marriage of U.S. Steel and Big River Steel is raising some of the same doubts. U.S. Steel announced today that is has exercised its option […]
Resilient construction demand enabled Commercial Metals Company to weather the COVID-19 crisis without disruption to productivity. CMC’s fourth-quarter FY 2020 earnings totaled $67.8 million, a 6.5 percent increase from the third quarter. Consolidated net sales totaled $1.4 billion, with sequential increases in both the North America and Europe segments. Net sales for the year reached […]
By CRU Economist Ippolito Tarabini, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Monitor The dollar has been extremely volatile over the past two quarters. Underlying this is macroeconomic uncertainty linked to the coronavirus pandemic. We expect such uncertainty and volatility to continue into Q4, but trade-weighted dollar and dollar-euro to be range bound around a stable trend. […]
By CRU Senior Analyst Helen O’Cleary The U.S. economy saw an impressive overall rebound through Q3, following severe Covid-19 disruption in Q2. We estimate that U.S. industrial production contracted 7.5% y/y in Q3, following a decline of 14.4% y/y in Q2. However, the momentum of the recovery is slowing as fiscal stimulus and the effects […]
By CRU Analyst Estelle Tran, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service The spike in sheet purchasing activity pushed prices up $200 /s.ton over the last two months and mill lead times for HR coil over six weeks. Steel Market Update, which is owned by CRU, also reported CR and HDG coil lead times in the […]
Flat Rolled = 45 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 51.3 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled Service center flat roll inventories fell significantly month on month as shipments increased and mill lead times extended. The SMU service center inventories data for September shows that service centers carried 45 shipping days of supply of flat […]
This analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled products into the district of entry and the source nation. Our intent is to describe in detail what is going on in a company’s immediate neighborhood and thus provide a negotiating advantage for our Premium subscribers. Premium members will find reports on our website […]
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. is considering selling its shares of I/N Tek and I/N Kote, rolling and galvanizing plants held in a 50-50 joint venture with ArcelorMittal, to Cleveland-Cliffs. Cliffs acquired ArcelorMittal’s shares of the two plants in New Carlisle, Ind., in a deal for the company’s U.S. assets last month. Nippon Steel […]