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 […]
U.S. steel manufacturers were successful in using trade cases to reduce steel imports into the United States, said AIIS. The report on steel imports from AIIS follows: Falls Church, VA. January 27, 2017. Steel imports dipped 4.2 percent from November, coming in at 2.68 million net tons in December. Despite the month-to-month decline, the total […]
Steel Dynamics announced net income of $20 million for fourth quarter 2016. Company net sales totaled $1.9 billion, down from $2.1 billion in third quarter. Operating income decreased to $239.5 million from $338.7 million in the previous quarter. Steel shipments for the quarter totaled 2.2 million; fabrication shipments totaled 131,186 tons. Average selling price for […]
January foreign steel import license data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce earlier this week is suggesting total steel imports will be in line with November and December at approximately 2.8 million net tons. We continue to see a drop in the level of hot-rolled tons coming into the U.S. market as fewer countries […]
The following article has been revised as of 1-25-2017. Net income/loss was incorrectly reported. SMU apologizes for the confusion. AK Steel reported a net loss of $62.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to net loss of 145.4 million in Q4 2015. Sales totaled $1.42 billion with an average selling price of $998 […]
Steel Market Update participates in a monthly steel conference call hosted by HARDI (Heating, Air-conditioning, Refrigeration Distributors International). The call is dedicated to a better understanding of the galvanized steel market. The HARDI wholesalers are responsible for the supply of sheet steel and coil as well as other products to the mechanical contractors involved with […]
We were asked a question by one of our readers regarding importations of fabricated steel products. They wanted to know how can their company be assured the roll-formed products made from steels covered under the AD/CVD orders are exempt from the scope of the orders. We turned around and asked trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz to […]
Chinese finished steel exports are beginning to drop month over month. In December, finished steel exports were down about 4 percent from November to 7.8 million tonnes. In comparison to a year ago, December exports had fallen approximately 27 percent from a record 112.4 million tonnes. Looking at the data by quarter finished steel exports […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has released Final Census numbers on foreign steel imported into the United States through November 2016 and has updated license data for the month of December 2016. This provides us with our first look at imports for the year so we can do a comparison against 2015 to see […]
Commercial Metals Company announced net sales of $1.1 billion for earnings of $7.2 million for first quarter 2017, ending Nov. 30, 2016. Metal margins in the Americas Mills segment took a hit of 17 percent in Q1 due to lower selling prices resulting from continued import pressure, scrap price volatility and market uncertainty. Average selling price […]
As expected, the domestic steel mills began 2017 right where they left off. Another $30-$40 per ton of price increases on top of the $140 per ton of increases leveled on their spot customers since late October through the end of 2016. The key from here is if business, both at the steel mills, as […]
When we ended 2015 benchmark hot rolled base prices averaged $375 per ton ($18.75/cwt), cold rolled base average was $515 per ton ($25.75/cwt) and the spread between HRC and CRC base prices was $140 per ton ($7.00/cwt). Galvanized base prices averaged $510 per ton ($25.50/cwt) and the spread between HRC base and that of Galvanized […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Preliminary Census Data for November showing foreign steel imports totaling 2.8 million net tons for the month.This is up from 2.7 million net tons reported during the month of October. We saw increases in semi-finished of 210,000 net tons which accounted for the larger numbers. Semi-finished steels include slabs […]
The European Commission will begin a new antidumping investigation of Chinese steel imports after finding that a complaint by steel association Eurofer merits inquiry. Eurofer alleged in a complaint on Oct. 24, 2016 that imports of certain corrosion resistant steels from China are being dumped and causing material injury to the EU steel industry. The […]
Wilbur Ross Jr. has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as Commerce Secretary. Ross is a billionaire investor known as the “bankruptcy king.” Forbes estimates the Ross fortune at $2.9 billion made by buying and restructuring troubled companies. One of those companies was Donald Trump’s bankrupt casino in the 1990s. Ross was a […]
US Steel has been at the forefront of initiating trade cases and working to strengthen enforcement laws. During the US Steel earnings call, CEO Mario Longhi made the following comments on trade. “We are pleased with the progress we have made so far on the trade front, but much more work needs to be done […]
Cliffs Natural Resources reported iron ore pellet sales volume in third quarter was 5.3 million long tons compared to 5.6 million long tons in 2015. Production was also down at 3.86 million long tons compared to 4 million long tons the year before. The decrease was attributed to customer inventory mix that was partly offset […]
Steel Dynamics reported higher flat rolled prices resulted in an 11 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter. Net earnings were $284 million on net sales of $2.1 billion. Adjusted net income, including a $5 million litigation settlement charge, was $157 million for the quarter. SDI steel production was at 85 percent capacity in […]
Nucor Corporation reported net earnings of $270 million for third quarter, up from 233.8 million in Q2 and 227.1 in Q3 2015. Consolidated net sales in third quarter increased 1 percent to $4.29 billion from the previous quarter and 2 percent from a year ago. Average sales price per ton increased 11 percent QoQ. Tons […]
Steel Market Update asks our readers to interact with us anytime they need help finding information or if they have a question about the steel industry. During the process of responding to these requests many times we find ourselves doing research on a topic that would be of interest to a larger audience. On Friday […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), and financial futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As Flack Steel’s director of risk management, Dave 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 readers. […]
China’s Commerce Ministry criticized the European Union for antidumping duties imposed Friday on imports of hot rolled steel and plate. The Ministry called the investigation methods unfair. A spokesperson for the Ministry said Chinese steel imports cannot be affecting EUs steel prices because they only account for 5 percent of the European market. “Reckless trade […]
On Friday Steel Market Update spoke with a number of trading companies as well as end users who are impacted by the circumvention complaint filed against cold rolled and coated steels coming out of Vietnam. The contention of the domestic mills is that the surge of Vietnamese flat rolled comes at the same time as […]