Tag: strike

Recovery continues but geopolitical risks remain for 2025

In 2024, volatility with a capital “V” has been the rule. That will remain high heading into 2025.

Following the short-lived East Coast port labor strike in October, we now turn toward the Jan. 15 deadline to reach a long-term agreement.

On Thursday, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX), representing carriers and port operators on the East and Gulf Coasts, announced a three-and-a-half-month extension of the recently expired collective bargaining agreement. The extension kicks the can down the road until Jan. 15, 2025, after the 2024 election and the certification of the results on Jan. 6.

The International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) union and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) reached a tentative agreement on wages on Thursday evening. The move ends a strike at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports that began on Tuesday and that had threatened significant supply-chain disruptions.

Another day, another massive gap between the news and market sentiment. On the news side, we’ve got war in the Middle East. The devastation facing western North Carolina coming into tragic focus. And the outcome of the presidential election remains a coin toss, according to current polling.

All eyes are on the coastwide longshoremen's strike, with many scrambling to assess the situation and understand its implications for their businesses and the economy.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) launched a strike just after midnight on Tuesday at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. The work stoppage spans from New England to New Orleans. It came after a last-ditch offer by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents maritime employers, failed to meet union demands.

Unless a last-minute deal is struck by midnight on Monday, a massive work stoppage will hit ports up and down the East and Gulf Coasts on Tuesday and cause widespread supply chain disruption. Master contract negotiations remain stalled between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). The employer group took […]

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has threatened to strike at Stellantis and at Ford’s Dearborn, Mich., truck plant.

Nearly 1,200 people have registered for SMU Steel Summit, which is less than a month away now. That means we’re still on pace to meet or exceed last year’s record attendance despite a tough flat-rolled steel market over the last few months. So, a big thank you to everyone who already plans to go for your continued support. If you haven’t booked travel yet, don’t miss out on one of the greatest shows in steel – register here. (You can also check out the latest agenda here.)

Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) and United Steelworkers (USW) unions have thanked President Biden for his service following his announcement that he is no longer seeking re-election.

ArcelorMittal Mexico reached an agreement with the local mining union on Thursday, July 18, to end the 55-day blockade of its steelmaking and mining facilities in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán. While a large majority of Section 271 of the Sindicato Nacional de Mineros voted to accept the proposal, a group of unknown size continues to protest illegally and has even turned to violence, according to the company.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) have just over two months left to reach a new labor agreement and avoid a strike at all Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports. However, with talks still suspended, ILA’s president says a strike looks more likely with each passing day.

Steel Dynamics Inc. executives provided further insight into operations at the company’s Sinton, Texas, flat-rolled steel mill on a second-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday morning. Despite a series of start-up woes, the company recently commissioned two new coating lines there, and the mill continues to ramp up production. The execs were also bullish on […]

A labor judge in Mexico City has ruled that the strike of a local mining union is illegal at ArcelorMittal Mexico’s Lazaro Cardenas mill and Las Truchas mine in Michoacán state, Mexico.

SMU’s hot-rolled coil price fell to $640 per short ton (st) on average on Tuesday. That’s down $10/st from last week and marks the lowest point for HR prices since December 2022, according to our pricing archives. SMU’s HR price is now $5/ton below 2023’s low of $645/st, which occurred against the backdrop of a United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike.

The local mining union has rejected a proposal to end the labor strike at ArcelorMittal Mexico’s Lazaro Cardenas mill and Las Truchas mine in Michoacán, Mexico.

It was great to have Gary Stein, CEO of Triple-S Steel, join SMU for a Community Chat earlier this week. (Btw, you can find a record of the webinar here.) We covered a lot of ground. From Andrew Carnegie and the Johnstown Flood to the current steel market and the state of domestic manufacturing broadly speaking. One thing that stuck with me was how unevenly construction spending appears to be on “green” initiatives and other key items funded by infrastructure spending, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS Act.

This chart of the rolling second-month CME hot-rolled coil (HRC) future dating back to the start of 2022 has been as volatile as a herd of “Wild Horses.”

US sheet prices continue to fall, with SMU’s average hot-rolled (HR) coil price now at $670 per short ton (st). Prices for cold-rolled and coated products are now in the mid/high $900s/st. As I noted in my last Final thoughts, the consensus among our readers is that prices will bottom out in July. And that makes intuitive sense. Lead times in mid/late July should be stretching into the typically busier fall months. The question then is where prices bottom.

ArcelorMittal Mexico said it's on the brink of severing labor relations with striking members of the local mining union. This serious move comes as an illegal strike and the resulting mill outage persist into their second month, posing a significant threat to the continuation of the mill’s operations.

Many of our contacts remain bearish about the very short-term direction of steel prices. But a consensus seems to be forming, according to our latest survey results, that a bottom will occur in July. Consensus is also that hot-rolled (HR) coil prices won't fall below $600 per short ton (st).

Demand has remained persistently weak across the globe for sheet steel, weighing on prices. US HR coil prices fell the furthest this week as high-volume, low-priced deals were transacted as mills looked to fill order books and competed with one another amid relative demand weakness. Meanwhile, European prices were also down due to low demand […]

ArcelorMittal Mexico is suffering a significant production loss as the labor strike at its mill in Lazaro Cardenas is now in its fourth week.

The conventional wisdom is that sheet prices will trend down for the next few weeks (maybe the next two months) before rising again in August – around when lead times stretch into the busier fall months. We see that reflected in our survey results and in market chatter. And there are plenty of data points to choose from if you want to support of that position.

Canacero has weighed in on the workers' protest at ArcelorMittal Mexico’s Lazaro Cardenas mill, urging a quick resolution to the dispute.

Contract negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) have soured.

Steel production at ArcelorMittal Mexico has been interrupted due to an “illegal protest” and blockade outside the company’s mill in Lazaro Cardenas, Mich. Some Sindicato Minero union members, dissatisfied with the profit-sharing payments they received, have been obstructing access to the mill since Friday, May 24. As a result, ArcelorMittal had to stop blast furnace […]