SSAB plans to acquire Finnish steel company rival Rautaruukki for 10.1 billion kroner ($1.8 billion) in a deal that the two companies hope will bring a cost savings of 1.4 billion kroner ($254 million) in three years. The major stockholders at both companies, Solidium Oy (39.7 shares) at Rautaruukki and Industrivaerden AB (18.2 shares), are […]
New York City must not want me to come visit. I have been trying to visit but, Mother Nature has not been cooperating. I guess it is Mother Nature that doesn’t want me to visit New York City. In December I was scheduled to attend the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) dinner and my […]
I was reading the most recent economic forecast from the Institute for Trend Research (ITR) on the plane to Chicago this morning. Their analysts have an interesting take on the 2014 economy and we will share portions of their views with you beginning with Sunday evening’s newsletter. One item that caught my eye is their […]
Earlier today (January 14, 2014) SSAB announced to its customers an increase for all new orders for non-contract As Rolled Carbon and High Strength Low Alloy, Normalized Plate, Alloy Plate including Quenched and Tempered, Cut to Length and Plate > 72” wide and Hot Rolled Coil > 72” wide, by a minimum of $30 per […]
By the way – I think Sandy Williams did an excellent job of following the Ford F-150 aluminum story and providing some balance and depth to her article. We are going to put the article on our Blog and make it available for you to send out on social media to your contacts and friends. […]
The following article is a continuation of our Steel Buyers Basics series. Today’s article was written by Mario Briccetti. There is a hidden risk in the cost of sheet steel that many buyers do not consider. Most cold rolled and coated steel sheet applications require coverage of an area at a minimum steel thickness – […]
We are finally back to a full “normal” week and we should be able to gather much better market intelligence as we begin our next flat rolled market analysis with our survey invitations going out at 8 AM ET on Monday morning. Most buyers should be back in their offices on Monday so we anticipate […]
For those of you going to New York City for the AHR Expo – I will be attending on Tuesday, January 21st and Wednesday, January 22nd. If you would like to meet with me while I am in New York, please shoot me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and I will do my best to work you […]
U.S. Steel took down their Fairfield blast furnace just before Thanksgiving. We are hearing that it may be down 45-60 days although one customer of the mill’s told us by the end of December. The steel mill prepared for the furnace to go down and customers were told to place their orders some time ago. […]
We continue to get positive feedback regarding the new SMU website. As with any new site as complicated as ours is there will be a few bugs and a learning curve to negotiate through in the early stages. We are working through those and believe we are offering a unique experience for those involved in […]
What a week we have in store for us (and you) this week. John Temples and I will be traveling to a domestic steel mill where we will meet two of our instructors we use for Steel 101 and we will conduct two one-day workshops for approximately 50 people. This is a custom program specifically […]
This will be a crazy busy week for all of us here at Steel Market Update. Besides working on final preparations to launch our new website we will be conducting our early November steel market survey and we are finishing up on a private steel industry training workshop for one of the domestic steel mills. […]
SSAB Americas had sales of SEK 3,639 million ($575 million) in the third quarter of 2013 on shipments of 628 thousand tonnes (692,239 tons). Niche products accounted for 166 thousand tonnes (182,980 tons) or 26 percent of total shipments. In comparison, shipments were 16 percent higher year over year and 9 percent higher quarterly. Sales […]
The early forecast is for scrap prices to increase by $20 per gross ton in early November. If this happens it could help keep domestic mill prices at current levels (or slightly higher). It could also prompt the domestic mills to ask for another price increase. Longer term the analysts believe domestic scrap prices will […]
A quick note about ferrous scrap. From the early deals being done – and there are still a number yet which need to be completed. Our sources are advising us that scrap prices have been trading lower by $5 to $10 per gross ton in the east. However, in the Midwest there have been trades […]
I made a decision many years ago that when the domestic steel industry (multiple mills) announced price increases that I would automatically move the SMU Price Momentum Indicator to Neutral. Since we are already at Neutral it is important to understand that at this point prices could move up, down or absolutely nowhere from where […]
I will be in Chicago on Monday and Tuesday of this week attending the IHS Global Insight forecasting conference. If you would like to meet with me during the conference send me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will arrange a convenient time. I will be in Chicago on Monday and Tuesday of this week attending […]
Large steel buyers with whom Steel Market Update had direct contact with over the past few working days paint a picture of the domestic mills still uncomfortable leading on pricing. Although that may be changing as word starts to spread on the newest scrap pricing. We saw a widening of the range on hot rolled […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Reliance Steel reported an 18 percent drop in net income of $80.4 million in fourth quarter 2012. Net income for the year rose 17.4 percent year over year to 403.5 million. Sales of $1.89 billion for the fourth quarter were 7.1 percent lower than a year ago and down 8.1 percent […]
Our apologies to SSAB and our readers–the earnings for SSAB reported Sunday by SMU were in error. The corrected figures are as follows: Operating loss of 665 million SEK in Q4 of 2012 ($104 million) compared with a operating profit of 50 million SEK ($7.82 million) in Q4 of 2011 and for the whole year […]
Written by: Sandy Williams Swedish steelmaker SSAB reported EBIT for its American division of $17.6 million in the fourth quarter, down 73 percent from $64 million in 2011. Earnings for the full year were reported at $243 million, down from $327 million in 2011. Demand in the fourth quarter was in line with the third […]