On Monday, President Obama signed into law the bill that contains the “Level the Playing Field” act. This is the bill that made some potentially significant changes to trade laws, including changing the criteria for “material injury” findings and increasing penalties for foreign respondents that do not provide information requested by the Commerce Department. This […]
Earlier today (Tuesday, June 23rd) HARDI sponsored their monthly galvanized steel conference call. On the call were HVAC wholesalers who sell galvanized steel sheet and coil to the HVAC mechanical contractors around the United States and Canada. Also on the call were a number of galvanized steel service centers and manufacturing companies, all associated with […]
The big picture is as follows: from the 2015 Article IV Consultation with the United States of America Concluding Statement of the IMF Mission May 28, 2015 (heavily abridged by SMU). “At current levels of the real exchange rate, the U.S. dollar is assessed to be moderately overvalued. As a result, the current account deficit […]
I was advised by the US Department of Commerce that they will announce tomorrow (Wednesday, June 24) whether they will “…initiate AD and CVD investigations of imports of corrosion-resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, Korea and Taiwan.” We will have a fact sheet from them outlining their decision and we will provide it to […]
Written by: John Packard, Publisher, Steel Market Update Last Thursday evening Ray Culley (SMU) and I attended the Chicago regional meeting of the Association of Steel Distributors (ASD) at the Hotel Sofitel Water Tower in downtown Chicago. The speaker for the evening was Chicago based trade attorney Larry Friedman. His practice concentrates on the representation […]
According to Investopedia, a subsidy is “a benefit given by the government to groups or individuals usually in the form of a cash payment or tax reduction. The subsidy is usually given to remove some type of burden and is often considered to be in the interest of the public.” The example accompanying the definition […]
Ferrous scrap prices rose in June as obsolete flows continue to be weaker than normal and the domestic mills have come back into the market. The strength of the market has come as a surprise to dealers and mills alike. Number 1 Heavy Melt (HMS) ranged from $230 to $265 per gross ton with the […]
Steel Market Update will have a number of articles in today’s issue of our newsletter about the corrosion resistant trade cases filed yesterday by six U.S. steel mills. We will discuss what has to be proved, the timetable that a case goes through at both the Department of Commerce (DOC) and the International Trade Commission […]
When speaking to buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel this week, one theme became abundantly clear: everyone is waiting for trade cases and, second, where scrap prices will end up for the month of June. Both are expected to support a further tightening of steel prices. Scrap is expected to rise anywhere from $10 […]
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 […]
As this issue started and I began working on my final thoughts for tonight’s issue, it began with comments from one of our service center friends about the prospect of dumping suits being filed. As the evening progressed I started to receive a number of credible comments from steel mills, service centers and others. The […]
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 Well, the last time we spoke […]
The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), Eurometal, and the International Steel Trade Association have agreed to establish a global steel supply chain partnership. The purpose is outlined in a press release from AIIS below: The purpose of their agreement is to establish a Global Steel Supply Chain Partnership as a framework for collaboration among […]
ArcelorMittal’s NAFTA segment, and in particular the US, saw a collapse in steel prices in first quarter. High levels of imports, a strengthening dollar, and a weak energy segment created significant headwinds for the company that are expected to continue in 2015. CFO Aditya Mittal hinted in the earnings conference call that cuts may be […]
The 2015 Association for Iron and Steel Technology Steelmaker of the Year Award was presented to Mario Longhi, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Steel Corp. at the AISTech 2015 conference in Cleveland, Ohio on May 5, 2015. The award recognizes the contributions of a prominent individual to the steel industry. Longhi was honored […]
During the latest slew of earnings conference calls by the domestic steel mills, analysts were relentless in their pursuit of information regarding trade cases which would conceivably impact the flow of imported steel into the United States. The steel mill CEO’s and other mill executives associated with the conference calls were more than willing to […]
US Steel spoke at length on the impact that unfairly traded imports have had on results in first quarter. Although, CEO Mario Longhi could not give an estimate for when the next trade case will be filed he did respond, “What I can tell you, it’s not a question of if; it’s a question of […]
AK Steel earnings in first quarter were challenged by high levels of imported carbon steel products, said CEO James Wainscott. “The first quarter of 2015 was certainly more challenging than we anticipated. That because of the extremely high level of imported carbon steel products–unfairly traded imports, in our opinion–that hit our countries shores at the […]
Nucor Corp. announced net earnings of $67.8 million. Consolidated net sales decreased 14 percent year over year to $4.4 billion in the first quarter 2015. Earnings were down 12 percent compared to fourth quarter 2014. Total tons shipped to outside customers were 5.6 million tons, down 7 percent from Q4 and 9 percent from Q1 […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. reported high levels of steel import and customer inventory reduced shipments for first quarter resulting in a 44 percent drop in consolidated operating income compared to fourth quarter. SDI adjusted net income was $40 million for first quarter 2015 with $2 billion in net sales. The adjusted income excludes $17 million in […]
First, before everyone goes completely crazy regarding the US Steel announcement to “idle” the Granite City Works steel plant, SMU has been told by Courtney Boone, US Steel media spokesperson, that the plant would not go down prior to May 28, 2015. A lot can happen (and will happen) in the industry prior to that […]
We thought we would take one last stab at the subject of Anti-Dumping (AD) and Countervailing Duties (CVD) since we received more detailed information from attorney Lewis Leibowitz: The question of time lines for AD/CVD cases can fill many pages. There are rules, exceptions and discretion (mostly Commerce) that can alter the time lines. Your […]
As we ended the last article about the possibility of Anti-Dumping (AD) or Countervailing Duty (CVD) trade cases against flat rolled steel (cold rolled, galvanized and possibly Galvalume) in Tuesday evening’s issue we presented a number of questions posed by one of our readers. He wanted to know: I have a timeline question for you […]
Any of you out there feeling like the beat of the anti-import drums are once again beating harder and harder. So, what happens if the Chinese steel mills decide to “voluntarily” reduce or allocate their export tonnage to the United States? First, would they try to allocate at existing tonnage levels (which are quite high) […]
Ryerson Holding Company, a leading distributor and processor of metals, announced a net loss of $25.7 million for 2014. Revenues increased 4.7 percent last year to $3.6 billion, but $32.7 million in IPO-related expenses and costs associated with partial redemption of Senior Notes negatively impacted earnings. “We showed year-over-year improvement in our key metrics for […]
Steel Market Update has received a number of inquiries recently asking questions about the potential for a trade case or anti-dumping filing by the domestic mills against foreign steel imports. In particular, the imports in question are cold rolled and coated steels and, the country mentioned the most is China, although if there is a […]
I reproduced part of an article written by David Phelps about the fling of an anti-dumping trade case, what the mills have to prove and how the system works. The original article was written back in July 2014 and the exact same subject, with the exact same products and same cast of characters, exists today. […]
Tenaris announced it will temporarily suspend operations at its welded tubes mill in Conroe, Texas. The shutdown will result in the layoff of approximately 230 employees, effective April 2015. “Record levels of unfairly traded imports of OCTG (oil country tubular goods) from South Korea and the sharp decline in the price of oil and consequential […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum fourth quarter consolidated sales rose 11.7 percent year over year to $2.58 billion. Tons sold increased 4.4 percent year over year to 1,469,300 tons. Carbon steel sales of $1.4 billion fell 5.9 percent sequentially with tons sold down 4.7 percent to 1,999,300 tons. The average selling price per ton of steel […]
Phillip Bell, President of the Steel Manufacturers Association (steel mills) told those assembled at the 26th annual Port of Tampa Steel Conference, “There is a growing consensus that something just isn’t right.” What he was referring to was the domestic steel mills running at 75 percent capacity utilization rates and the industry still suffering due […]