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 […]
A blustery March 25th marked the beginning of the Great Lakes shipping season and the opening of the Soo Locks. The first lake freighter to enter the Locks was the Edwin H. Gott from Great Lakes Fleet Inc. The Gott, named for the former US Steel chairman and CEO, entered the Locks at 11:05 a.m. […]
The following information is from the United States Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs concerning an accident at US Steel Fairfield in September 2014. Steel Market Update spoke to the U.S. Department of Labor who told us that the press release was not unusually harsh and the Labor Department was going with “narrative releases” […]
Three steel industry executives met in Washington D.C. on Thursday at the Congressional Steel Caucus to discuss state of the US steel industry and the impact unfairly traded imports have had on jobs and manufacturing. Revisions to the “material injury” standards were proposed to add language that clearly defines indicators of injury and allows relief […]
ArcelorMittal Cleveland is planning several maintenance outages over the next few months. A vessel reline at No. 1 basic oxygen furnace (BOF) begins on March 23 and will be completed by the middle of second quarter. The No. 1 steel producing facility will continue operations with one vessel throughout the outage period. The C-5 blast […]
On a seasonally adjusted annual rate, light vehicle sales weakened in February to 16.2 million units, down from 16.7 million units in January but still up by 5.2 percent from February last year. The probable cause was inclement weather at the end of the month. Analysts had been expecting sales at a 16.7 million annual […]
This month we will start with words from Armada Executive intelligence which sum up the present situation nicely: “Last week it was made abundantly clear just how sensitive the markets are to the discussions at the Fed. There was a perception that Janet Yelled was pushing an interest rate increase off to at least September. […]
US Steel announced today it will move forward with two capital projects at Fairfield Works in Birmingham, Alabama. The announcement follows approval by Jefferson County commissioners for more than $14 million in tax abatements on the two investments over the next 10 years. The projects planned for Fairfield Works are a $230 million electric arc […]
A plan to sell US Steel Canada plants Hamilton and Lake Erie Works will be sent for court approval March 30. The prepared court documents outline a plan for “soliciting interest in and opportunities for a sale, restructuring or recapitalization of the assets and business operations” of US Steel Canada. The two-step sale process involves […]
Chinese steel exports to the U.S. in January 2015 were 40 percent higher than in January 2014, according to World Steel Association data. As Chinese domestic demand weakens, exports have flooded not only the U.S. but nations across the globe. The resulting depressed prices and undercutting of domestic steel production has led to increased government […]
The United Steel Workers will be negotiating new contracts with U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal later this year. The current three-year contracts expire August 31, 2015. Discussions start a few months before and serious bargaining begins about a month before contract expiration, said USW Communications Director Wayne Ranick. Contract negotiations are frequently contentious battles as evidenced […]
US Steel has cut 83 more workers at Gary Works as it adjusts production to respond to market fluctuations. The latest cuts are probationary employees at the Gary Works steel complex who have worked for the company six months or less. US Steel spokesperson Sarah Casella said the layoffs are permanent. “The company routinely adjusts […]
The domestic steel mills are resorting to adjustments in supply as a weapon against the chronic short lead times which are helping to push flat rolled steel prices lower and lower. The heavy lifting is being done by the integrated steel mills, especially by U.S. Steel which has taken three blast furnaces down over the […]
US Steel operations at Minnesota Ore Operations-Keetac will be temporarily idled as of May 13. The company said the idling is due to “current inventory levels and adjustment of its steelmaking operations throughout North America to match customer demand.” US Steel cited global influences in the market, including unfairly traded imports, as contributors to a […]
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 January were almost double that which existed before the recession. The […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of January 2015 was 10,378,392 net tons (9,415,130 metric tons). Apparent steel supply is calculated by adding domestic steel shipments and finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. January supply represents a 992,133 ton or 10.6 percent increase compared to the same month one year ago. […]
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 […]
The monthly value of the Federal Reserve Broad Index value of the US $ against our major trading partners has continued to strengthen and in January reached 92.44 after breaking 90 in December for the first time since July 2009. The monthly BI is a “Real” inflation adjusted index. The Fed also reports a daily […]
US Steel told union workers it will permanently shut down coke-making operations at the Gary Works facility in Indiana. The closure will affect 300 employees and take place in mid May. A US Steel spokesperson said, “This strategic decision was made in light of the company’s long-term coke position and the future anticipated steelmaking operations, […]
The vehicle sales year had a good start in January with 16.7 million units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. Light trucks are benefiting from lower gas prices and reached 55 percent of light vehicle sales, the highest since 2014. This is good for the US assembly plants because the US light truck production is […]
Based on the most recent flat rolled steel market survey results, steel mill lead times stabilized this past week after having declined almost non-stop since August 2014. The question now is will the mill lead times begin to move out from here or remain stuck at these less than desirable levels (from a mill perspective […]
Steel Market Update saw an interesting report on the impact of lower scrap prices to the steel industry. The report was produced by metals and mining analysts, Timna Tanners of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Research for her clients. A question Steel Market Update receives on a regular basis is what is the marginal cost […]
The monthly value of the Federal Reserve Broad Index value of the US $ against our major trading partners has continued to strengthen and in January reached 92.44 after breaking 90 in December for the first time since July 2009. The monthly BI is a “Real” inflation adjusted index. The Fed also reports a daily […]
Flat rolled steel buyers are resigned to a steel price spot market which takes benchmark hot rolled prices below the $500 per ton ($25.00/cwt) level. One of the large hot rolled service centers this morning told Steel Market Update that they were having a difficult time keeping up with the pace of the falling numbers. […]
Apparent steel supply for the month of December 2014 was 10,020,704 net tons, the sixth month in 2014 to be above the 10 million ton mark. Steel Market Update calculates our apparent steel supply figure by combining total domestic steel shipments with finished US steel imports and subtracting total US steel exports. December supply represents […]
In the twelve months of 2014, ferrous scrap exports totaled 15,308,000 tonnes (metric tons), down by 17.1 percent from the same period in 2013. In the single month of December scrap exports were 1,056,570 tonnes, down 21.5 percent from November. Figure 1 shows that the three month moving average (3MMA) has been declining slightly for […]
The domestic steel mills and their ferrous scrap suppliers traditionally negotiate pricing on scrap to be delivered during the first few days of the new month. This means the mills and their suppliers are deep into negotiations regarding February scrap purchases right now. Last week the word amongst the “scrappies,” as well as their mill […]
On Wednesday, US Steel CEO Mario Longhi announced that a number of equipment outages would occur at various U.S. Steel mills due to maintenance or a lack of orders in the energy segment of their business. US Steel will begin replacing a caster at Granite City with one acquired from the former Sparrows Point facility. […]
Steel imports continue to flood U.S. shores and were a priority issue for CEOs during earnings calls this month. Low cost imports are creating competition for market share as well as depressing prices in the carbon steel spot market. Nucor CEO John Ferriola summed up the current market condition: “The other major headwind is from […]
Turmoil continues in the global currency markets as the European Central Bank announced a quantitative easing program last week, S&P downgraded Russian debt to junk status yesterday, the Greek national election on Sunday will result in a strong resistance to EU mandated austerity programs and the Swiss removed the currency cap vs the Euro last […]