By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen, from CRU’s Global Steel Trade Service Many are still discussing what type of recession will ensue following the Covid-19 pandemic. Will it be U-, V- or L-shaped? Different people may refer to the same shape to mean different outcomes. To bring clarity to this issue, this insight sets out […]
By CRU Managing Consultant Ben Jones, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Market Outlook Understanding the shape and nature of the Covid-19 cycle will be critical to commercial success, and in some cases, survival of many industry players. Traditional thinking about pathways back to normality (e.g. V, U, W, L shaped recoveries) ignores the potential for […]
Demand for steel has suffered a serious blow from the coronavirus shutdowns. Not surprisingly, steel prices have been hurt as well, with hot rolled plunging by $80 per ton since mid-March. What is surprising is that the mills are hoping they can establish a floor for steel prices, even as the economy and demand yet […]
By CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen and CRU Economist Ippolito Tarabini, from CRU’s Steel Sheet Products Market Outlook Lockdowns continued into April. They resulted in a fall in activity, particularly in the hospitality, entertainment and travel sectors. Using estimates of the loss of output by sector, we find that one month of lockdown lowers the […]
U.S. Steel remains focused on its acquisition of Big River Steel even as the COVID-19 crisis forces the idling of U.S Steel operations and layoffs of employees. The success of U.S. Steel depends on having the best of integrated and EAF steelmaking, said the company during its first-quarter earnings call. “Make no mistake, our ‘best […]
Olympic Steel said it is weathering the COVID-19 crisis well, managing to earn a profit and supplying metals to essential industries making products for health care, transportation and food service markets. “We are sure to face some difficult times ahead, but we have weathered challenges and cyclical downturns throughout our history,” said CEO Rick Marabito […]
SMU contributor Tim Stevenson is a partner at Metal Edge Partners, a firm engaged in Risk Management and Strategic Advisory. In this role, he and his firm design and execute risk management strategies for clients along with providing process and analytical support. In Tim’s previous role, he was a Director at Cargill Risk Management, and […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and CME Group Commodities Research Analyst Gregor Spilker The CME Group recently launched a new steel futures contract which follows the U.S. hot-dipped galvanized (HDG) coil market. The U.S. Midwest Domestic Steel Premium (CRU) Futures is financially settled against the difference between U.S. Midwest hot-dipped galvanized coil (base) steel […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson The U.S. plate market has, up to this point, seen prices fall on a slow downward trend. Plate has not been as exposed to the automotive-led manufacturing shutdown, which had allowed prices to only slowly fall by $61 /s.ton since the late January cycle peak. Current prices, though, reflect […]
Premium subscribers to Steel Market Update have reports available on our website that break out the import tonnage into district of entry and source nation for six sheet and plate product categories. This report takes the total national tonnage of hot rolled and breaks it down into product detail. Using U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) […]
Using International Trade Commission (USITC) data, Steel Market Update has taken the import tonnage of cold rolled sheet and broken it down into coil and leveled, into four thickness ranges, and identifies how much was full hard, annealed and high strength. This update examines the total cold rolled sheet and strip imports into the U.S. […]
The analysis breaks down the imported tonnage of six flat rolled products into the district of entry and the source nation. We believe that misinformation (or lack of) about local import volume is often used to influence purchase decisions. Our intent with this analysis is to describe in detail what is going on in a […]
Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on how to upgrade to a Premium subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Total rolled product imports in March were down by 25.6 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis year over year. This was the fifth consecutive month where imports were […]
Total rolled product imports in April were down by 26.3 percent year over year on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This was the sixth consecutive month where imports declined by more than 20 percent compared to the same month last year. This early look at April’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license […]
It’s hard to see the forest through the trees…. SMU hosted our first SMU Community Chat Webinar yesterday (Wednesday). There were a couple of glitches – all my fault. I turned off the video recording and was not able to get it back, so no recording of yesterday’s webinar. Josh Spoores (guest speaker from CRU) […]
John Packard of Steel Market Update and Josh Spoores, Principal Analyst and Editor of the Steel Sheet Monitor for CRU, are hosting a webinar tomorrow. Spoores will discuss the CRU steel forecast for 2020-2021, if mill reductions are enough to adjust to forecast demand and, if time permits, maybe a few comments on the HRC […]
John Packard of Steel Market Update and Josh Spoores, Principal Analyst and Editor of the Steel Sheet Monitor for CRU, are hosting a webinar tomorrow. Spoores will discuss the CRU steel forecast for 2020-2021, if mill reductions are enough to adjust to forecast demand and, if time permits, maybe a few comments on the HRC […]
Steel Market Update’s monthly analysis of Key Market Indicators has done a good job of anticipating the ups and downs of the steel market in the past, but the economic data currently available seriously lags the impact of the coronavirus on the economy. Only 3 of 36 indicators in this month’s report have even begun […]
What is accurate today will not be tomorrow. Just last week I was writing about the cancellation rumors at the domestic mills as perhaps being a bit overblown. As we collected pricing data for tonight’s flat rolled and plate index, we also asked our data providers to comment on whether they were pushing out and/or […]
On Wednesday, April 8, SMU will host our first SMU Community Chat webinar. The webinar will be hosted by SMU President & CEO John Packard and will feature Josh Spoores, CRU Principal Analyst and Editor of the CRU Steel Sheet Monitor. Packard and Spoores will chat for about 30 minutes on CRU’s just released steel […]
CRU is forecasting that North American steel sheet prices will find a bottom sometime this summer, but will remain volatile while supply and demand gradually rebalance as the coronavirus crisis subsides. CRU projects steel consumption will decline by 22 percent this year as a result of virus-related shutdowns in automotive and other key manufacturing industries. […]
The global impact of Covid-19 has been profound. Lockdowns of countries and regions are now the norm. Uncertainty about the ultimate economic cost of this health crisis has fuelled financial market volatility and prompted unprecedented government support. CRU Chief Economist Jumana Saleheen joins Doug Hilderhoff, principal analyst for aluminium, and Josh Spoores, principal analyst for […]
There is going to be a rush of bad news flooding televised and online media. Here at Steel Market Update, we and our parent company The CRU Group will do everything we can to keep readers advised with the most accurate and timely information possible. This is one of the reasons we are beginning our […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from the CRU Steel Monitor As expected, sheet prices in the U.S. Midwest market have fallen. Prices today, reflective of transactions booked last week, fell by $13-26 /s.ton w/w. For all sheet prices, we continue to hear of lower priced offers and expect that transaction prices will continue to […]
Allegheny Technologies will idle its operations at Midland, Pa., by the end of June 2020 due to the Section 232 tariffs. A&T Stainless imports semi-finished stainless steel slab products from Indonesia to produce 60-inch wide Direct Roll Anneal and Pickle (DRAP) stainless sheet products. The imported steel slabs are subject to 25 percent tariffs under […]
Business remains surprisingly strong for wholesalers who sell galvanized steel products to the HVAC sector, considering the devastating impact of the coronavirus on the economy. In a conference call this morning, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) said the construction industry has dodged the worst of the virus’ effects so […]
Wholesalers in different parts of the country tell a different story about how the coronavirus restrictions are impacting their businesses. In one sense, the virus is picking winners and losers by geography. In a conference call this morning, members of the Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International compared notes on their experiences in dealing […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor In the U.S. Midwest market, sheet prices were split this week. The price of HR coil fell $21 /s.ton to $561 /s.ton while CR and HDG coil prices fell by only $1-$3 /s.ton to $770 and $747 /s.ton, respectively. The spread between HDG coil and […]
Steel prices saw further declines this week, but not a dramatic collapse. The benchmark price of hot rolled now averages around $560 per ton, down $5 from last week and down $50 from the mid-January high of $610. Most of the steel buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s check of the market this week expect […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth, from CRU’s Steel Monitor CRU has massively downgraded forecast GDP growth in China to 1-2 percent for 2020 and we now expect the USA and Eurozone to fall into recession. Global GDP growth is now expected to be 1 percent for the year, an effective global recession. While economic […]