Last week Steel Market Update conducted our second flat rolled steel market trends analysis for the month of March. We commit four days to canvass buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel. Then we put the vast majority (but not all) of the results into a Power Point presentation which we share with our Premium […]
With the announcement of the Preliminary Determination regarding dumping (AD) of hot rolled steel into the United States by Australia, Korea, Japan, Brazil, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Turkey, the next step in the process is for the US Department of Commerce to travel overseas and verify the information received from the countries involved. Looking […]
There is much more to each of the trade cases than the preliminary and final announcements might have you believe. There are inconsistencies in the rulings where attorneys and clients alike scratch their heads to figure out how the U.S. Department of Commerce came up with their preliminary determination deposit rates. The second item not […]
Nucor guidance for first quarter 2016 came in below analyst consensus. Nucor expects first quarter results in the range of $0.20 to $0.25 per diluted share compared to $0.21 in Q1 2015 and adjusted net earnings of $0.45 per diluted share in Q4 2015. Analysts polled by Reuters expected earnings results of $.29 per share. […]
Ryerson CEO Eddie Lehner called 2015 “one of the harshest and most difficult metal environments we have seen in terms of magnitude and duration.” Ryerson Holding, a service center company, announced fourth quarter and full year results on Thursday. The company posted a net loss of $20.5 million for the quarter. Revenue was down 23 […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by Dave Feldstein. As Flack Steel’s director of risk management, David Feldstein is an active participant in the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures market and we believe he will provide insightful commentary and trading ideas to our […]
It was only a few weeks ago that many within the ferrous scrap community felt when the negotiations were over for the month of March and the smoke cleared scrap prices would be essentially unchanged from February. That was then, this is now. One of the larger players in the market told us earlier today, […]
Reaction to the US Department of Commerce (DOC) preliminary duties on cold-rolled steel has been mixed, depending on what side of the antidumping determination the commentators are on. In the UK, the steel sector is readying itself for further onslaught of Chinese exports while its own steel exports to the U.S. are assigned dumping margins […]
There has been too little attention paid to the passage of the ENFORCE Act by the U.S. Congress a few weeks back. At least that is how trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz sees it. He warned those at our 2015 Steel Summit Conference that the domestic steel mills were trying to build a “dam” against steel […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported net income of $68.8 million for fourth quarter of 2014, down 25.7 percent from fourth quarter 2014 but up 33.5 percent from third quarter. Total sales for Q4 were $2.03 billion down 21.4 percent year over year and down 11.4 percent from third quarter 2015. Total tons sold were down […]
Last week, the Senate passed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA). The bill contains important provisions of the Enforcing Orders and Reducing Customs Evasion (ENFORCE) Act that have been promoted by the U.S. steel and manufacturing industries to combat evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties . Evasion is defined as failing […]
The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 passed by a margin of 75-20 in the Senate this morning. The customs bill has been advocated by the steel industry to strengthen measures to combat unfairly traded and subsidized imports. The bill now moves to the President for anticipated approval and signature. The American Iron […]
Sources are telling SMU that the Nucor Decatur EAF’s will be offline for 10 days in early March as the mill replaces one of the furnaces. This is added on top of the idling of the Granite City (USS) and Ashland (AK Steel) hot ends plus the closure of the USS Fairfield hot end. Note […]
With the release of the December 2015 Final Census data we thought our readers would like to see not only how imports have fared over the past few years but, how those who are the largest exporters fared as well as those who are involved in the hot rolled, cold rolled and CORE (corrosion resistant) […]
China’s Ministry of Commerce says it will take will take definitive steps to cut steel production over the next five years by 100 to 150 million tonnes. China’s excess steel capacity has been has been estimated to be around 300 million tonnes. With domestic demand down, steel production has found its way into exports that […]
The following article is written by Spencer Johnson of FC Stone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer rotates weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. If […]
Four U.S. steel producers announced earnings this past week. During their earnings conference calls held with analysts the steel mills addressed questions/concerns regarding foreign steel being exported to the United States. The domestic mills filed trade cases against corrosion resistant steels (such as galvanized and Galvalume) as well as cold rolled and hot rolled steels. […]
We spent some time combing through the latest foreign steel import trade data provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce by product to see what impact, if any, the trade suits have been having on tonnages coming into the U.S. In the tables we have provided, we are showing the months of November (Final Census), […]
Significantly lower prices and weakened demand for flat rolled and tubular products resulted in big losses for US Steel last year and the outlook for 2016 is not much better. US Steel reported a fourth quarter net loss of $999 million and a net loss of $1.5 billion for full year 2015. The company continues […]
Steel Dynamics’ struggling recycling segment widened the company’s net loss to $253 million in fourth quarter 2015. It was determined that the book value of the metals recycling segment recorded $435 million in non-cash goodwill and other related asset impairment charge. Excluding the metals recycling charges, adjusted net income was $22 million on net sales […]
In the market analysis questionnaire concluded late last week we asked a number of questions regarding foreign steel and the potential for another uptick in foreign market penetration with the domestic mills raising flat rolled steel prices. We asked if the mill price announcements were opening the door and making foreign steel prices more competitive? […]
With all of the key flat rolled products, hot rolled, cold rolled and corrosion resistant steels involved in antidumping and countervailing trade suits and the results of the preliminary determinations coming out it can be daunting to keep track of where each case rests at this point in time. Steel Market Update reached out to […]
There are zombie factories in China. No, they are not making zombies but the factories themselves are the equivalent of the walking dead–steel mills hanging on by a thread, not making money, reducing workforces, but clinging to life when they are all but dead. The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) is painting a grim […]
The following article is written by Spencer Johnson of FC Stone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer rotates weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. In […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce issued their Preliminary Determination on countervailing duties (CVD) of hot rolled coil from Brazil, Turkey and South Korea. Affirmative results were found against Brazil with CSN and Usiminas both receiving subsidy rates of 7.42 percent. All other Brazilian mills not named also received 7.42 percent subsidy rates. Turkey and South […]
Last week Steel Market Update conducted our early January 2016 flat rolled steel market analysis. Our Premium level customers got access to the results of our queries in the form of a Power Point presentation which puts the results into a historical context. One of the unique line of questions asked were related to the […]
A quick note about December import license data reported as of this evening: Vietnam for December has requested 63,932 net tons of import licenses. Of those 42,114 net tons are cold rolled and 11,787 net tons are galvanized.The average for cold rolled and galvanized exports from Vietnam over the past twelve months was less than […]
The first thing that jumps out at you when taking a look at the December steel and economic data is the change in the direction flat rolled steel prices took early in the month as the domestic steel mills raised prices for the first time since the Spring 2015 (which resulted in a dead cat […]
Scrap dealers are optimistic that ferrous scrap prices have bottomed in all regions of the country and will rise as we move into negotiations for the month of January. A rising scrap market is a harbinger of good things for the steel mills as they attempt to collect the increases already announced and perhaps add […]
On Friday Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral to Higher. With almost all of the major mills now walking in step with one another (at least regarding the direction of prices from here if not the exact rate of change from where they were a couple of weeks ago), we […]