Although operating rates at its steel mills declined slightly from the second to third quarter, Steel Dynamics Inc. continues to demonstrate higher utilization rates than the US industry as a whole. The company’s overall Q3 utilization rate was 93%, down two percentage points from the 95% rate achieved in Q2, SDI chairman, president, and CEO Mark […]
Sometimes it is the little things that provide hints as to the direction steel prices will take. During our Steel 101 workshops, I use the example of when you hear from that steel salesman on what seems like a daily basis – that’s when you know a market is about to turn (or has turned). […]
Sometimes it is the little things that provide hints as to the direction steel prices will take. During our Steel 101 workshops, I use the example of when you hear from that steel salesman on what seems like a daily basis – that’s when you know a market is about to turn (or has turned). […]
Published mills lead times are back, another sign that the steel market is returning to something resembling normal. Hot-rolled coil lead times, for example, are three to four weeks at some mills. That would be unremarkable in a normal market. But it is news after a year in which customers were either on allocation or […]
Steel prices surging to their highest levels ever has masked another potentially key market trend–a narrower spread between hot-rolled coil and galvanized base prices, according to Steel Market Update (SMU) data. SMU’s hot-rolled coil price averages $1,130 per ton ($56.50/cwt), $60 per ton above 2008’s peak of $1,070 per ton. The base price for galvanized […]
This week we solicited input from steel buyers (and steel mills) regarding their reaction to the third round of price increases, which was kicked off by ArcelorMittal USA yesterday. On June 24, Nucor announced the first of the latest round of mill price increases on spot flat rolled steel. Nucor advised that hot rolled, cold […]
This week we solicited input from steel buyers (and steel mills) regarding their reaction to the third round of price increases, which was kicked off by ArcelorMittal USA yesterday. On June 24, Nucor announced the first of the latest round of mill price increases on spot flat rolled steel. Nucor advised that hot rolled, cold […]
I’m going to give you more than advertisements in tonight’s Final Thoughts. I have been struggling with our SMU Price Momentum Indicator. It appears that each product has a life of its own, and I need to do a deeper analysis of each to determine where my Momentum Indicator needs to be. Right now, I […]
Steel Market Update spoke with a number of foreign steel trading companies who service the North American market today. There was one very clear theme no matter who I spoke with – steel buyers are not willing to take any risk on foreign steel with spreads less than $60 per ton. A second common theme: […]
Steel Dynamics has announced additions and changes to its senior leadership team. Two new positions have been created to support SDI’s presence in the Southwest and Mexico. Miquel Alvarez will join Steel Dynamics in the new position of Senior Vice President, Southwest and Mexico. He will be responsible for the comprehensive business development and partnerships […]
We did a quick check of lead times at a number of domestic steel mills on Friday of this past week. This is what we learned: Steel Dynamics Industries (SDI) – Butler, Ind. HR – closed for November production Pickled – closed for November production CR – closed for November production HRG – 11/20 (4 […]
The following steel mills are registered to attend this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference at the end of this month: ArcelorMittal Mexico, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, ArcelorMittal/Nippon Sumitomo Calvert, Ternium USA, Ternium Mexico, NLMK USA, Nucor, Nucor Mexico, Nucor Canada, Kandil Steel (Egypt), California Steel Industries, AK Steel, CSN USA, North Star BlueScope, Steel Dynamics Inc., The […]
I was advised late on Friday afternoon that we should expect a Nucor price increase early next week. With scrap prices firming $10 to $30 per ton our expectation is for the increase to be $25-$30 per ton. Then the question will be will the industry support another increase after tepid (at best) support for […]
In a move that has been building over the past few weeks, today Steel Market Update (SMU) is moving our Price Momentum Indicator to Lower from Neutral. Our belief at this point is flat rolled steel prices will continue their drift lower over the next 30-60 days as we approach what many in the steel […]
We are getting mixed messages regarding “real” lead times coming out of the domestic steel mills. The information we are sharing below comes from actual mill lead times coming directly from the producing mills to their customers. This is different than the lead time averages collected by Steel Market Update and shared with our readers […]
Total foreign steel imports for the month of January were announced this past week by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Imports totaled 2,814,081 net tons or about 120,000 tons more than December and slightly above the twelve month and three month moving averages. At the same time license data was updated for February imports and […]
Scrap prices moved higher as scrap dealers and the domestic steel mills finished their March negotiations. With prime grades of scrap settling at about twice the $30 per gross ton originally thought a couple weeks ago, the sheet mills have got a decision to make. Do they take prices up or have they raised prices […]
Galvanized steels continue to see strong bookings at the domestic steel mills with August sold out at all but SDI, The Techs and Wheeling Nisshin according to SMU sources. One of the domestic mills told Steel Market Update earlier this week that coated products were on “autopilot” as bookings remain strong and they were not […]
For many years, SMU publisher John Packard sold ultra light gauge galvanized steels (.019”-.010”) into the furnace pipe manufacturers across the United States and Canada. This product is one that is not championed by the domestic steel industry as the domestic steel mills would rather run thicker steels (more tonnage per hour through their mills) […]
When it comes to foreign steel and foreign steel offers, what was true two weeks ago is no longer, according to the trading companies we spoke with over the past 24 hours. We spoke with a trading company about the light gauge galvanized business and we were told, “Four offers were pulled just last night.” […]
Mill lead times, especially on cold rolled and coated products, continue to be a concern as buyers navigate/negotiate pricing and deliveries on future orders. The longer the lead time the more steel that is needed in the pipeline at both manufacturing companies and distributors. The longer lead times provide ammunition to the domestic steel mills […]
Over the past few weeks Steel Market Update has been reviewing the lead times being published and/or provided to their customers in order to see if there are any significant changes. As a general statement we have found cold rolled and coated steels (galvanized, Galvalume, galvannealed) have extended lead times and are the tightest of […]
One of the important keys to understanding the strength or weakness of the flat rolled market in the United States is to follow the steel mill lead time announcements made to their customers. We can then compare them against prior weeks (and the results of our market trends report which is conducted twice per month) […]
We are seeing a divergence in the normal spread between hot rolled lead times and those of cold rolled and coated products. Normally, we would see HRC lead times at just a couple of weeks less than that of the other “higher value” products. With the demise of the energy segment of the industry that […]
Spot lead times have begun to move out according to the lead time sheets shared with customers this week by their domestic mill suppliers. The most strength was seen in cold rolled and coated steels while hot rolled lead times remained stuck at 3-4 weeks in most cases. Steel buyers continue to prognosticate that there […]
On Tuesday of this week, SMU produced an article about the recent changes in coating extras by most (by not all) of the domestic mills. Within 30 minutes of publishing the article we knew we had made a couple errors of omission as we had The Techs with different extras that their parent company: Steel […]
Steel Market Update sources: mill, service center and others are advising us that anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) trade cases on coated products will be filed yet this week. We have heard that the filing could come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, June 3rd) or on Thursday of this week. Any trade filing on coated […]
Part of my talk at the 2014 HARDI conference was regarding galvanized imports which reached 325,000 net tons in October and appear will be approximately 300,000 tons when the November Census Data numbers are released later this month. To put this into perspective, at this point last year the U.S. received 150,000 net tons and […]
Steel Dynamics third quarter net sales rose to $2.3 billion from $72 million in Q2 and $57 million in third quarter 2013. SDI shipped a record volume of steel in third quarter—1.9 million tons up from 1.58 million tons in Q3 2013 and 1.67 million tons in second quarter 2014. Production increased to 1.88 million […]
On Monday, Nucor announced their intention to acquire Gallatin Steel and its approximately 1.8 million tons of hot rolling capacity. Today, AK Steel and Steel Dynamics (SDI) completed the purchase of the Severstal North America assets. The biggest pieces of the Severstal deal are the Dearborn steel mill, which went to AK Steel, and the Columbus […]