Olympic Steel reported a net loss of $600,000 for third quarter but managed to expand gross margin 21.2 percent, compared to Q3 2104, despite pressure on pricing and volume. Olympic lowered operating expenses by almost $20 million so far in 2015 as well as lowering debt by a total of $60 million. Sales volume decreased […]
Based on the most recent import license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, October import licenses totaled 3,399,248 net tons. We anticipate when the final census numbers are released for the month of October total steel imports will be somewhere between 3.2 and 3.4 million tons (net tons not metric tons). Imports of […]
Cliffs Natural Resources reported net income of $6 million for third quarter compared to a net loss of $6.9 million in Q3 2014. Cost cutting brought US Iron Ore Operations cash production costs down 16 percent to $49 per ton; Asian Pacific Iron Ore cash production costs decreased a record 49 percent to $27 per […]
“Cost is the enemy of profitability,” said AK Steel CEO James Wainscott in the company’s third quarter earnings call. AK Steel proved it can cut costs, trimming $58 million at Dearborn Works and $60 million for the company as a whole for 2015, and delivering a positive net income of $6.7 million in third quarter. […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets: The stock market continues to prevail. From […]
Nucor third quarter earnings exceeded analyst expectations with earnings per share of $0.71 compared to estimates of $0.49. Nucor posted net income of $227.1 million, up from $124.8 million in second quarter due to a larger than forecasted LIFO credit and improved performance in the steel segment. Consolidated net sales were $4.23 billion on shipments […]
The HARDI wholesalers held their monthly galvanized steel conference call earlier today. During the call the wholesalers provided insights into business conditions affecting the companies and discussed the status of the flat rolled steel markets. HARDI wholesalers supply galvanized sheet and coil steels to the mechanical contractors associated with residential and commercial construction in North […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) released the latest import license data for the month of October. Based on the 2.5 million net tons of license requests through the 20th of the month we are on pace to exceed 3.5 million tons for the month of October. Anything over 2.9 million net tons we […]
Steel Dynamics reported decreased third quarter profit as a result of high levels of low priced imports and elevated domestic inventory. SDI posted net sales of $2.0 billion for a net income of $61 million in Q3. The three percent drop in sales was due to lower pricing and reduced volume in the recycling and […]
A reminder, if you received an email invitation to participate in our flat rolled market analysis please click on the link contained in the message. The questionnaire won’t take more than a few minutes to complete and at the end of the week we will have a Power Point presentation for all of those who […]
AK Steel announced on Friday that it will temporarily idle the blast furnace and related steelmaking operations at the Ashland, Kentucky Works facility as a result of challenging domestic market conditions. AK Steel said it does not intend to idle the hot-dip galvanizing line at Ashland Works that primarily services automotive customers. The company has […]
Flat rolled steel prices have been slipping on a regular basis for a number of months. This has created a market where buyers expect lower prices each time they order steel, even if there is only a week or two between orders. This tends to keep order sizes modest and develops a feeding frenzy between […]
The following press release came out late this afternoon and we caught it early this evening. The announcement is about the hot rolled trade cases and whether the US International Trade Commission (ITC) found enough evidence to determine that the probability exists that the U.S. steel industry was “materially damaged” by hot rolled exports from […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released new foreign steel import license data this afternoon that suggests imports for the month of September may not be below 3.0 million tons after all. At this moment, using data through today and projecting the rate to remain the same for the balance of the month, September would come […]
It appears that very slowly steel buyers are slowly starting to come to a realization that there may be a lockout at US Steel and possibly ArcelorMittal as well. As many of you know, these two mills are not huge players in the spot markets so the immediate impact may be slightly muted should one […]
SMU is seeing ferrous scrap prices in the Chicago area trading down $10-$15 per gross ton with HMS at $200-$210 per gross ton, shredded at $230-$235 per gross ton and busheling at $240-$245 per gross ton. We received a note from one of our main ferrous scrap sources late last week that we thought would […]
Earlier this week, Steel Market Update hosted our 5th Steel Summit Conference. We had a record crowd in attendance tipping the scales at close to 300 people. We had 26 speakers over the course of the two day conference (including Peter Wright and John Packard of SMU) and, from our perspective, the longer term forecast […]
Trade discussion at the 2015 SMU Steel Summit Conference brought a number of conflicting views. Well before the Trade Panel began their formal presentations on Tuesday, attendees at the conference heard a number of comments on imports, steel overcapacity and whether the trade cases that have been initiated will help or hurt the US steel […]
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 will rotate weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. […]
The flat rolled steel market appears to be in a wait and see mode. Flat rolled steel prices continue to be stable to slightly weaker than what we saw a few weeks ago. Nothing dramatic is moving market momentum in one direction or another. Here is how we are seeing the market at this time: […]
Steel Market Update publisher, John Packard, participated in the monthly galvanized steel conference call held by HARDI for their wholesalers and other HARDI member companies. The wholesalers supply galvanized steel sheet and coil to the mechanical contractors who are involved in the residential and commercial HVAC markets. The group discussed a number of key market […]
With three direct flat rolled trade cases plus various suits affecting pipe and tube and oil country tubular goods, keeping track of all of the important dates can be mind-numbing. Especially when critical circumstances are alleged or extensions are requested (and we have seen both already in the CORE suit). We asked trade attorney Lewis […]
It’s not every day that you get three flat rolled steel trade cases filed back to back to back. With the domestic steel mills clearly focused on removing as much hot rolled, cold rolled and coated steels from the market, we asked steel buyers for their opinions on what will happen from here? Prices of […]
Net imports equals imports minus exports. We regard this as an important look at the overall trade picture and its effect on demand at the mill level. Figure 1 shows that net sheet product imports on a three month moving average (3MMA) basis in June continue to be more than double that which existed before […]
On Tuesday six steel mills located east of the Rocky Mountains filed an antidumping and countervailing duty petition against seven countries: Australia, Brazil, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. What makes this suit of particular interest to those on the West Coast USA is the source supply for two […]
The following is commentary from the American Institute for International Steel. As is the case with all important issues, there are two sides to every story. 13 August 2015. Falls Church, VA. The recent announcement of the filing of new trade cases on hot-rolled steel and other steel products reminds us that there are multiple […]
Talking to steel buyers this week was like listening to a broken record, “It’s quiet, it’s quiet, it’s quiet….” There has been very little activity and nothing pushing the markets which is quite amazing when you consider the domestic mills have filed three trade cases and are coming up on the September 1st deadline for […]
Over the past two months the U.S. steel industry has filed antidumping petitions on corrosion resistant (coated steels like galvanized and Galvalume) and cold rolled steels. The rumor mill has been flush with talk that a hot rolled suit will be announced as early as this week. What will the impact be on flat rolled […]
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 will rotate weekly futures articles with Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC. Spencer can be reached at spencer.johnson@intlfcstone.com. […]
On June 3rd Nucor, US Steel, ArcelorMittal USA, AK Steel, Steel Dynamics and California Steel filed antidumping and countervailing duty petition against China, Taiwan, India, South Korea and Italy on corrosion-resistant steels. To put this into layman’s terms the domestic mills filed a dumping (AD) and CVD suit on producers of galvanized and Galvalume (zinc-aluminum) […]