The following article is a continuation of our Steel Buyers Basics series and is written by Mario Briccetti. Mario is Principal of Briccetti & Associates, a Supply Chain consulting firm, and can be reached at Mario@mbriccetti.com In an earlier article I noted that the steel business is often subject to interruptions in supply and described […]
US Steel recently announced a series of executive changes. David Britten, current Senior Vice President – Tubular Operations, will assume the newly created position of Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Britten will be responsible for a further expansion of the company’s worldwide innovation, technology, engineering, and research and development of products, services and […]
Steel Market Update received the following “Letter to the Editor” from the West Coast: Here is my view of the flat rolled market. Just my opinion of the state of the industry. You may or may not agree but these are points I think customers should carefully consider: We are seeing a long term shift […]
In a letter to their customers, US Steel advised that their Gary Works blast furnaces and steelmaking operations will be down temporarily due to “unforeseen and unprecedented ice conditions on the Great Lakes that is delaying the transportation of critical raw materials.” The mill went on to say that these conditions have not occurred on […]
The situation at US Steel Great Lakes, and now Gary Works, has not bridled the enthusiasm which has been growing within the flat rolled steel markets. We are seeing buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel continuing to be optimistic about their company’s ability to be successful in both today’s market as well as three […]
The recent upturn in the physical market has continued to fuel the upswing in steel futures prices as nearby periods have surged this past week. The May and June HRC contracts have traded to highs of $660/ton while second half periods have traded up to $643. The nearby prices have improved over $40 during the […]
The month of March proved to be an interesting month for the flat rolled steel industry and related commodities associated with the industry, both within North America and around the world. The biggest news was the move by the domestic mills to raise flat rolled steel prices. ArcelorMittal led the way on March 17th when […]
In an email sent late in the afternoon on Monday, March 17th, ArcelorMittal USA announced a price increase on all of their new flat rolled orders, with specific base prices at $33.00 for hot rolled, $39.50 for cold rolled, and $39.50 for galvanized. The mill justified their increase by stating “Despite the recent drop in […]
US Steel’s Great Lakes (Ecorse) facility suffered a roof collapse at the #2 BOP on Thursday evening which has ceased steelmaking operations at the plant. According to our sources, the USS Great Lakes facility in Ecorse, Michigan only has one basic oxygen process plant (BOP) which is fed molten pig iron from the blast furnaces […]
For those of you paying attention to our website you are aware that we published an article first thing this morning about the US Steel Gary Works announcement. As we have mentioned in the past, one of the goals of the new website is to be able to get breaking news to our readers as […]
The word out of U.S. Steel has been silence since they reported a collection pipe (collector main) falling onto and collapsing part of the roof over their #2 BOP Shop at Great Lakes Works on Thursday evening. Our understanding continues to be that all three blast furnaces are in hot idle (not producing pig iron) […]
Steel Market Update has been well aware, and has reported on, the prospect of new trade cases being levied by the U.S. steel industry against imports of cold rolled and coated (galvanized & Galvalume) steels. There have been suggestions that the dumping suits could be filed within the month. So, we wanted to get the […]
Last week Steel Market Update published an article from one of our contributing writers, David Phelps who was the former president of the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS). The article was about Big River Steel and Nucor. You can link to the original article by clicking here. One of our readers had strong opinions […]
US Steel has essentially lost a steel mill – Great Lakes in Ecorse, Michigan – for how long is the unknown question. Part of the roof collapsed in the building which houses their basic oxygen furnace (they called it a basic oxygen process or BOP). It is the most critical piece of equipment in the […]
US Steel’s Great Lakes (Ecorse) facility suffered a roof collapse at the #2 BOP on Thursday evening which has ceased steelmaking operations at the plant. According to our sources, the USS Great Lakes facility in Ecorse, Michigan only has one basic oxygen process plant (BOP) which is fed molten pig iron from the blast furnaces […]
We are beginning to see a new push away from a fragmented steel mill supply base as closures of capacity coupled with the recent acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA by ArcelorMittal/Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metals Corporation (AM/NS Calvert) are reducing the number of players and the tons in the game. Over the past two years we […]
US Steel is considering replacing additional blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces (EAF) according to President and CEO Mario Longhi. In January, US Steel announced it was seeking permits to replace the blast furnace at Fairfield, Ala., with an EAF, a process that would take approximately three years from application to completion. The EAF would […]
Usually the news about price increase announcements is regarding the ability of the steel mills to collect all, or a portion, of the announced flat rolled price increases. With the latest announcements made last week led by ArcelorMittal on Monday and then followed by the rest of the industry as the week progressed, the question […]
The steel market, in particular the steel service center market, has been anticipating a flat rolled price increase announcement for the past few weeks. The fact that it was ArcelorMittal USA leading the way should not come as a surprise. The mills that have few to no spot tons to sell are AK Steel, US […]
In an email sent late in the afternoon on Monday, March 17th, ArcelorMittal USA announced a price increase on all of their new flat rolled orders, with specific base prices at $33.00 for hot rolled, $39.50 for cold rolled, and $39.50 for galvanized. The mill justified their increase by stating “Despite the recent drop in […]
I once asked a friend, who works for a large steel mill, how many different grades of steel they produced – he estimated the number at 1,000! On top of that, each grade can come in any gauge, any width and many may be coated. Mills make an almost unlimited number of different individual types […]
The rumor mill has been buzzing for a number of months about the potential for flat rolled steel dumping suits on galvanized and Galvalume steels. The focus of attention seems to be on China, India, Taiwan and South Korea as being the major offenders. However, Steel Market Update, which has a long background in coated […]
Canada was the highest volume exporter of all carbon and low alloy steel products to the US in both the last 12 and 3 month periods through January with 4,956,812 and 1,172,616 tons respectively (Figure 1). Mexico came in 4th in 12 months after Brazil and Korea but was bumped into 5th place by Russia […]
Total January 2014 US steel exports were 963,060 net tons (NT), a 10.5 percent increase over December 2013 figures but down 10.6 percent compared to January 2013. Total exports in January were above the three month moving average but below the twelve month moving average. The top countries receiving US exports were Canada at 54.8 […]
Steel Market Update received the following steel market analysis from one of our member companies based on the Academy Awards. Sometimes it is better to look at the flat rolled steel market with a sense of humor so here goes: Current Market Perspective (inspired by the Academy Awards): The US Steel market continues to be […]
The US Department of Commerce said it will maintain anti-dumping and countervailing duties on oil country tubular goods (OCTG) imported from China, in announcement made earlier this month (February). The recent decision closed loopholes in the 2009 AD/CV duties imposed by the International Trade Commission, which allowed pipe made in China but finished in other […]
US Steel Canada announced that 30-year Stelco and US Steel veteran Kevin Wong will take over as plant manager at US Steel Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke. Wong’s current position as plant manager at US Steel Hamilton Works will be eliminated. Wong will replace American manager David Armstrong II who will move to the Gary, […]
US Steel says it will lay off workers at its Lorain Tubular Operations. The number of affected employees and timeline has not yet been announced. The statement from US Steel regarding the layoffs is as follows: “We continually review and analyze business conditions and the impact they have on our customers. As a result of […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) participates in a monthly galvanized steel conference call with the HARDI wholesalers, manufacturing companies and service centers associated with the HVAC related organization. The wholesalers in the Upper Midwest, East Coast and as far west as Wichita, Kansas reported having lost 5-6 days of shipments due to inclement weather in their […]
For the last couple of weeks we have been discussing various kinds of ethical issues that come up in the steel business. This week we will deal with the issue of when flat rolled steel is rejectable. Buyers and sellers often find that they disagree about the quality of the steel. Generally this problem is […]