The steel industry has a way of surprising those who use its products. This may be especially true this year as it appears the industry is about to enter a phase not seen in decades. It is mid-June 2017 and the domestic flat rolled steel mills are raising steel prices as the U.S. Department of […]
Ships, barges, trains and trucks move the nation’s cargo. Here is this month’s look at shipping conditions by various modes. Seaborne Freight Rates have dropped in the dry bulk market recently, but may now be plateauing, according to the latest report by MID-SHIP Group. Fleet expansion was strong during the first half of 2017, growing […]
The Section 232 Investigation of steel imports on national security hearing was held on Tuesday. The testimonies included four representatives of foreign governments: China, Russia, the European Union, and Ukraine. Not surprising, none were in support of new import restrictions by a Section 232 action. China was represented by Yu Gu, First Secretary of the […]
I have read reports that suggest the first fully integrated mill in Vietnam, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, has received permission to test their #1 blast furnace. The Vietnamese government has approved the pollution control equipment and the company is going to be allowed to run the blast furnace on a six-month trial period. In July […]
US Steel announced on Wednesday that Mario Longhi has stepped down as CEO of US Steel Corp. As of May 8, 2017, president and chief operating officer David Burritt will take the reins as chief executive officer. Longhi will remain on the board of directors and as an employee of US Steel, providing transitional support, […]
China’s Ministry of Commerce called the initiation by the U.S. of antidumping investigations on imports of cold-drawn steel mechanical tubing from China and five other countries “excessive,” in comments made on Thursday. Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau, said he was concerned over rising protectionism from the United States. “Under excessive […]
Lately, Steel Market Update (SMU) has been hearing the word “risk” bantered about by many within the steel industry. In Steel Market Update’s opinion, how one perceives the risks associated with buy and sell decisions is one of the factors determining the direction of flat rolled steel prices. which at this time are moving lower. […]
My “final thoughts” is an area of the newsletter where I can provide some of my opinions on a wide range of topics, provide information or updates on our workshops and conference or provide late-breaking tidbits from around the world that come in late in the day and are unable to make it into a […]
The domestic steel mills did not cancel scrap orders for April delivery that had not yet arrived. This is a sign that the steel mills believe prices will be sideways to slightly higher for May delivery than what they negotiated for April. All is quiet as the steel mills and their scrap suppliers jockey for […]
Cliffs Natural Resources continues to shore up its balance sheet and focus on reducing its debt. A $72 million debt extinguishment/restructuring charge resulted in a net loss of $30 million for the quarter. Debt was reduced by $550 million during Q1 resulting in total debt at the end of the quarter of $1.6 billion. First […]
AK Steel reported net income of $62.5 million for its best first quarter since 2008. Shipments declined to 1,486,900 tons year-over-year due to intentionally reduced sales of lower margin products. Net sales increased one percent from Q1 2016 to $1.53 billion as a result of increases in average selling price on both spot and contract […]
Once each quarter we publish the official statistics for Chinese GDP, industrial production, consumer price inflation and fixed asset investment. Currently available data is through the first quarter except for CPI which is through February. Many analysts don’t believe these Party self-serving figures but we include them in our reports because of the importance of […]
Steel Market Update has been proactively writing about our expectations for Executive Orders and their impact on foreign steel imports. It is clear that the steel lobby has the ear of the president and this has to be quite frustrating to the same companies he is trying to convince to come back to the United […]
Steel Market Update participates in a monthly steel conference call hosted by HARDI (Heating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International) for their members. The HARDI conference call is dedicated to a better understanding of the galvanized steel market. The participants are wholesalers, service centers and manufacturing companies who either buy or sell galvanized sheet products used […]
We are continuing our investigation to quantify the players in the global trade of both HRC and CRC. We now have data for all of 2016. This information is sourced quarterly from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau in the UK. Data is not very current because many countries are slow in reporting but we […]
When we began planning for our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference I was actually thinking that I would be able to drop the subject of trade and perhaps work on other issues of “more importance” by the time we reached the end of August 2017. Even with the CORE, hot rolled, cold rolled and cut-to-length […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) published an article in Tuesday evening’s newsletter entitled, “The Data Shows the Trade Cases Have Failed. The Question is Why?” and we have gotten some responses to this article that we would like to share with our readers. A manufacturing company sent us the following note: “Steel will “leak” into the […]
If the goal of the 2015 CORE, cold rolled and hot rolled trade cases was to reduce the number of foreign steel tons coming into the United States, well, the data says the cases did not complete their mission. There is one exception, hot rolled steel imports did indeed move lower and continue to move […]
I had a couple of conversations earlier today regarding the status of trade and, in particular, whether or not there could be further trade cases filed by the domestic steel mills or by the U.S. Department of Commerce. At least one mill is hearing that there could be new trade cases. This could become an […]
Germany is seeking help from the European Union in its dispute with the United States regarding the alleged dumping of steel into the U.S. market. In a letter to EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel asked the Commission to urge the United States to follow World Trade Organization rules when deciding […]
Nucor Corporation increased its earnings guidance for first quarter 2017 to $1.10-$1.15 per diluted share, more than double its consolidated net earnings of $0.50 per diluted share in fourth quarter and well above analyst consensus of $0.69 EPS. Increased profitability is due to stronger performance of Nucor’s sheet and plate mills. Nucor said in its […]
Turkey has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against U.S. countervailing duties placed on imports of pipe and tube products. Turkey requested the WTO initiate dispute consultation with the United States alleging the U.S. determination and imposition of duties was inconsistent with the WTO’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countevailing Measures (SCM Agreement) and […]
The scrap market created a lot of buzz over the past two months that resulted in, so far, two domestic steel mill price increases totaling $60 per ton ($3.00/cwt). I got a note over the weekend from one of the national companies who told me about the scrap markets, “There is a sense the market […]
Market segments tend to run in cycles and rarely are all segments clicking at the same time. A good example is during the Great Recession, which crushed most steel consuming market segments, we learned through Priefert Manufacturing that farm, ranch and rodeo equipment were quite strong. As the economy improved cycles shifted and over the […]
Reliance Steel & Aluminum reported sales of $2.06 billion in fourth quarter, up 1.7 percent from fourth quarter 2015 and down 5.7 percent from Q3 2016. Tons sold at 1,365,000 were down 1.1 percent from Q4 2015 and down 5.6 percent from third quarter. Average selling price per ton sold was $1,500, essentially the same […]
ArcelorMittal NAFTA segment results declined in fourth quarter 2016. Steel shipments decreased by 6.6 percent to 5 million tonnes from third quarter driven by an 8.5 percent decrease in flat volumes due to destocking in the United States. NAFTA sales were down 11.1 percent from the prior quarter to $3.8 billion due to lower average […]
The US Steel Granite City hot strip mill is back in action as promised. US Steel has called 225 employees back to work to restart the facility’s idled hot mill. For the present, only the hot mill will be restarted which reheats steel slabs, sourced from other US Steel mills, to process them into coil. […]
“Sanity is back in the seabourne iron ore market,” said Cliffs Natural Resources CEO Lourenco Goncalves in comments during the Cliffs earnings call on Thursday. After the departure of three key executives in the Australian ore market, iron ore prices doubled and Rio Tinto, Vale and BHP are exhibiting disciplined behavior which will support strong […]
Over the next few weeks we will begin rolling out our program and our speakers for this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. I am very excited as the program is coming together very well and I believe this will be our best conference to date. We have taken the suggestions received last year as well […]
Nucor Corporation plans to help the new administration bring manufacturing back to America. It is off to a good start by posting solid earnings results for fourth quarter 2016. Nucor announced consolidated net earnings of $159.6 million for fourth quarter 2016 compared to $305.4 million in third quarter and a loss of $187.5 million a […]