ArcelorMittal announced it will make another cut to European production levels due to weak demand and high import levels in the region. Primary steelmaking will be reduced at facilities in Dunkirk, France, and Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany. Production at the facility in Bremen, Germany, will be reduced during the fourth quarter as well as extending planned furnace […]
Monthly oil production in the U.S. declined sharply in February as inventories increased. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil has declined in the last month. The spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) FOB Cushing, Okla., reached $66.24 / barrel on April 20 and had declined to $60.97 on May 13. The total […]
By CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and Analyst Ryan McKinley Steel imports to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico prior to the S232 tariffs were near 12 Mt on an annualized basis. Data from this past March and April show arrivals closer to 7.5 Mt annually. With the end of the S232 on the U.S.’s […]
Like everyone else in the steel industry, members of the Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) are wondering what will happen to supply and prices now that the Trump administration has lifted the Section 232 tariffs on steel imports from Canada and Mexico and cut in half the tariffs on steel imports from Turkey. […]
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) […]
Demand for long products and tubular goods have shown strong growth, but sheet products are declining. This analysis by SMU staff is based on data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC). The analysis summarizes total steel supply by product from 2003 through March 2019 and year-on-year […]
The competitiveness of steel continues to lose ground against aluminum and plastic, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cold rolled steel sheet has become less competitive against aluminum sheet in the last year and this has carried through to steel and aluminum cans. Steel tubular goods have lost ground to […]
Using U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) data, SMU has taken the import tonnage of cold rolled sheet and broken it down into coil and leveled, then it breaks out four thickness ranges and identifies how much was full hard, annealed and high strength. Through March 2019, of the total cold rolled sheet and strip imports […]
Steel Market Update is sharing this Premium content with Executive-level members in this issue. For more information on how to upgrade to a Premium-level subscription, email info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Rolled product imports declined by 24.4 percent in April year over year on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This early look at April’s import volume is based […]
Good afternoon/evening from Davenport, Iowa. Davenport is where the Mississippi River flooded the downtown area a couple of weeks ago. Water levels are down four feet from their highest point, and the flood waters reached the parking lot of our hotel before receding back across the railroad tracks. The river is still in flood stage […]
Steel buyers are still trying to get a sense for what is driving this market and market pricing. We are seeing weakness in prices even though foreign steel imports are down, import price offers are higher than domestic steel prices and demand is pretty good for most of the market segments using sheet or plate […]
By CRU Research Manager Chris Houlden, CRU Principal Analyst Josh Spoores and CME Metals Products Manager Sean Kessler. U.S. Midwest HR coil price volatility has increased markedly in recent months as opaque policy decision-making processes and inelasticity of domestic supply have led to large variations in physical market price. Concurrently, volume and open interest on […]
Southwark Metal Manufacturing Co., maker of sheet metal duct and fittings, has opened a new manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Ariz. The new facility enhances Southwark’s presence, manufacturing capabilities, and customer support throughout the Southwest, allowing the company to service customers in all 50 states. The 75,780-square-foot facility is poised to service HVAC distributors in Arizona, […]
Olympic Steel reported a 19 percent increase in its first-quarter sales, netting $446 million, thanks in part to its January acquisition of manufacturer McCullough Industries. Net income for the quarter totaled $2.1 million, down from 7.6 million in the same quarter of 2018. Returns from Olympic’s manufacturing segment are considerably higher than service center margins, […]
The Great Lakes continues to be the highest volume district of entry for hot rolled coil, and the Pacific South had the highest rate of increase year to date through February, according to Steel Market Update’s latest analysis of government data. SMU now offers a comprehensive series of import reports ranging from the first look […]
Monthly oil production in the U.S. in January was second only to the all-time high set in December 2018. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil had recovered to $63.43/barrel on April 15, up from its recent low of $44.48 on Dec. 27. On April 23, Economy.com wrote: “Oil prices rebounded in the first […]
Cold rolled imports from Mexico through Laredo have surged in 2019 making this the highest volume region of entry year-to-date. For the nation as a whole, cold rolled imports year-to-date were down by 15.3 percent, but the Pacific South, (Los Angeles and San Diego) was up by 78.8 percent, according to Steel Market Update’s latest […]
Olympic Steel announced the promotion of Andrew J. Tobias to General Manager of Berlin Metals. Tobias has been with the company since 2013, beginning as an outside sales representative for Integrity Stainless. He was promoted to Stainless Steel Product Manager-Specialty Metals in 2015. In his new position, Tobias will be responsible for driving profitable growth […]
Management at NLMK USA is contemplating its next move after receiving the disappointing news Tuesday that the U.S. Commerce Department has denied its appeals for exclusions from the Section 232 tariffs on imported slabs. Commerce has determined that semifinished steels are available in sufficient quantities to support the domestic market, and that slab converters like […]
The vast majority of flat rolled and plate steel buyers are reporting to Steel Market Update that prices on all products will be moving at best sideways, with most believing prices will move lower from here. We are seeing pressure on hot rolled, cold rolled and plate prices right now as indexes on these products […]
Nucor announced net income of $501.8 million for the first quarter of 2019, a 22 percent decrease from income of $646.85 million in the fourth quarter. Net sales slipped 3.0 percent sequentially to $6.10 billion from the fourth quarter as the average sales price per ton dipped 4.0 percent. The drop in earnings was expected […]
Demand for long products and tubular goods has seen strong growth, but sheet products are declining. This analysis by SMU staff is based on data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC). The analysis summarizes total steel supply by product from 2003 through February 2019 and year-on-year […]
We thought it would be a good idea to share the agenda of a typical Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop so you can get a feel for what we cover. Our instructors each have decades of steel experience as metallurgists, purchasing experts, sales, marketing and market intelligence. Our next workshop […]
Nucor Corporation announced today that Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President R. Joseph Stratman plans to retire on June 8 after more than 29 years of service with Nucor. Stratman began his career with Nucor in 1989 as Controller of Nucor Building Systems-Indiana. He then served as Controller of Nucor-Yamato Steel Company, General Manager […]
Nucor Corporation announced today that Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President, R. Joseph Stratman, plans to retire on June 8, 2019 after more than 29 years of service with Nucor. Mr. Stratman began his career with Nucor in 1989 as Controller of Nucor Building Systems-Indiana. He then served as Controller of Nucor-Yamato Steel Company, […]
The Russians are coming—to Kentucky. Russian aluminum producer United Co. Rusal plans to invest $200 million in a $1.7 billion rolling mill being built by start-up company Braidy Industries in Ashland, Ky. The investment will give Rusal a 40 percent stake in the project and a significant presence in the U.S. automotive and aerospace aluminum […]
Flat rolled steel inventories at the service centers rose at the end of March, according to the data providers working with Steel Market Update. SMU has been collecting service center data for almost two years now. Six months back, with the help of the CRU team, we changed the way we were collecting and the […]
The steel industry is on the brink of a capacity boom as mills reinvest their record profits in dozens of mill additions and upgrades. What will that mean for steel supply and prices in the coming years? Who better to answer that question than the chief executives from four of North America’s leading steel producers—JSW […]
The steel industry is on the brink of a capacity boom as mills reinvest their record profits in dozens of mill additions and upgrades. What will that mean for steel supply and prices in the coming years? Who better to answer that question than the chief executives from four of North America’s leading steel producers—JSW […]
SMU was speaking to a coated sheet steel buyer this afternoon about flat rolled steel prices. He made an interesting observation about how the markets have become quite complicated. When looking at galvanized, for example, there are different starting points for light gauge, medium gauge and heavy gauge steels. There are also regional differences (southern […]