One of the surprises over the past year has been the amount of foreign steel imports still arriving in the United States despite antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD), a Section 337 complaint, a circumvention complaint and the Trump directive for the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to investigate steel as it relates to national […]
U.S. Steel and Kobe Steel announced plans to expand the galvanizing line at their joint venture PRO-TEC Coating Co. in Leipsic, Ohio. Construction will begin in the fourth quarter on a new continuous galvanizing line in response to demand for advanced high-strength steels. The $400 million CGL will have a yearly capacity of 500,000 tons […]
On Friday, Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator to Lower from Neutral. It is our opinion that flat rolled steel prices will move lower over the next 30 days for the following 10 reasons: First, when the head of commercial of a domestic steel mill tells SMU that “transaction pricing cannot go […]
Zinc is once again trading above $1.40 per pound ($1.42 as of 3:30 PM ET) and the smaller steel mills and converters are wondering why U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal USA and Nucor haven’t made the move to higher zinc coating extras on galvanized steel? We have seen four mills make changes on their “spot” new orders: […]
Despite recent price increase announcements from major domestic mills and imports that are trending lower, wholesalers and distributors who sell galvanized steel products to the HVAC market don’t expect much change in lead times or pricing until there’s some resolution to the Section 232 and Vietnam circumvention trade actions pending in Washington. In the monthly […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals Director of Risk Management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
Zinc prices have been rising and we are starting to see updated galvanized price extras from the mills. Steel Market Update has received updated galvanized coating extras from Nucor, USS Posco (UPI), NLMK, California Steel Industries (CSI), and AK Steel. We updated the comparison tables on our website and have included a copy of the […]
Over the weekend, we received a message from trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz regarding the status of the Vietnam circumvention suit. This is the one where the domestic steel mills filed a circumvention suit alleging China is circumventing the duties on cold rolled and CORE (corrosion resistant) steels by sending substrate to Vietnam and having it […]
Our SMU team has been pretty lucky as those of us who live in Florida did not suffer significant damage to our homes. The Florida residents ended up escaping and being essentially unaffected by Hurricane Irma. However, Brett lives in Georgia and he lost power yesterday as a large tree took out the power line […]
The saga continues as we endeavor to escape the wrath of Hurricane Irma. After leaving Hobe Sound, we settled in Gainesville on the campus of the University of Florida. As the hurricane track began to move a little further west, we decided to do the same and headed into the western panhandle of Florida. That […]
I want to recognize the Steel Market Update writers who have been doing stellar work through a grueling work schedule. Last week, it was our conference where we had all hands on deck in order to make sure the conference ran smoothly. This week and this coming weekend (and probably all of next week), the […]
Last Friday, NLMK USA advised customers of their intention of increasing their zinc coating extras by approximately 10 percent. The higher extras are due to a surge in zinc spot costs on the LME. Zinc spot prices reached $1.42 per pound as of the end of trading today (Thursday). We have put together a quick […]
In this report, we examine the latest prices for iron ore, scrap, coking coal and zinc. To put the raw materials analysis into perspective, we begin with Figure 1, which shows the spread between Chicago #1 busheling and hot rolled coil ex works Indiana through Aug. 18, both in dollars/net ton. On this date, Aug. […]
Tomorrow, Monday, Aug. 28, the steel event of the year will kick off in Atlanta. With over 650 steel and manufacturing executives registered, expectations are for this conference to truly be the most dynamic steel conference in North America for 2017. Welcome to the Steel Market Update Steel Summit Conference. This is what the fuss […]
How can domestic mills expect to increase prices when their lead times are so short and foreign steel is still so plentiful? In the monthly steel conference call hosted today by the Heating, Air-conditioning, and Refrigeration Distributors International, HARDI members commented on the contradictions in mill behavior that have left them confused and concerned about […]
Over the last few weeks, the price of zinc has risen to over $1.41 per pound on the London Metal Exchange, and I thought it was time for an update on a series of articles I’ve written on the actual metallic cost of coating steel with zinc. To do the calculation, I use a spreadsheet […]
Zinc prices hit a 10-year high this past week, climbing to $3,000 per metric ton ($1.36 per pound) on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday. Strong global demand and shrinking inventory boosted prices, as well as a shortage of Chinese zinc. The primary use of zinc is for the production of coated steels such as […]
Zinc prices hit a 10-year high this past week, climbing to $3,000 per metric ton ($1.36 per pound) on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday. By Monday, zinc had risen to $1.41 per pound. Strong global demand and shrinking inventory boosted prices, as well as a shortage of Chinese zinc. The primary use of zinc […]
In this report, updated July 28, we examine the latest prices for iron ore, scrap, coking coal and zinc. To put the raw materials analysis into perspective, we begin with Figure 1, which shows the spread between Chicago #1 busheling and hot rolled coil ex works Indiana through July 21, both in $/net ton. On […]
Bringing a different perspective to SMU’s Steel Summit Conference later this month will be Lisa Reisman, who will touch on the related topics of copper, zinc and aluminum. Reisman, co-founder and executive editor of MetalMiner, will make her third appearance as a speaker at SMU’s conference at 10:35 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 29, as part […]
As a monthly average, prices on all flat rolled steel products recovered in July following a dip in June. The month of July ended with SMU’s Price Momentum Indicator continuing to point higher as the market waits to see if and when the Trump administration will act on Section 232 trade measures that could further […]
On Monday, August 28, the steel event of the year will kick off in Atlanta. With less than four weeks to go and 575 steel and manufacturing executives already registered, expectations are for this conference to truly be the most dynamic steel conference in North America for 2017. Welcome to the Steel Market Update Steel […]
On Monday, Aug. 28, the steel event of the year will kick off in Atlanta. With four weeks to go and 560 steel and manufacturing executives already registered, expectations are for this conference to truly be the most dynamic steel conference in North America for 2017. Welcome to the 7th Steel Market Update (SMU) Steel […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals director of risk management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
We ended the month of June with a change in our Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral (we had moved from lower to Neutral earlier in the month) to Higher. With the expectation of Section 232 being implemented by President Trump, we feel prices have only one way to go, up. How long that will last […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC) futures markets was written by David Feldstein. As the Flack Global Metals director of risk management, Dave is an active participant in the hot rolled futures market, and we believe he provides insightful commentary and trading ideas to our readers. Besides writing futures articles for Steel […]
In early June, the price of zinc had nosed down to about $1.10 per pound, raising hopes among buyers of galvanized steel that the mills might consider rolling back their coating extras–the extras mills charge when applying zinc to cold rolled or hot rolled substrate to produce galvanized products. Those hopes were short-lived as the […]
An explanation of the Key Market Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. This will explain the difference between our view of the present situation, which is subjective, and our analysis of trends, which is based on the latest facts available. In the June […]
An explanation of the Key Indicators concept is given at the end of this piece for those readers who are unfamiliar with it. This will explain the difference between our view of the present situation which is subjective and our analysis of trends which is based on the latest facts available. We now have three […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been contacted by end users, distributors and steel mills regarding an article published by another trade publication on Galvalume. The article, which was published on Thursday, May 18, 2017, quoted Keith Medick, president and CEO of Union Corrugating Company, as he made the point that there is not enough light […]