Steel Market Update (SMU) began collecting responses earlier this week from the just shy 600 companies invited to participate in our twice monthly flat rolled steel market analysis. The individuals responding to our questions this week – particularly those related to our SMU Steel Buyers Sentiment Index – were being influenced by weather related issues […]
Transactions in the ferrous scrap market are beginning to become clearer and what scrap dealers are seeing is not making them happy. Prices in the Detroit market, which tends to be one of the first markets to settle, saw an across the board decrease of $30 per ton on all grades. Busheling and shredded prices […]
Based on the results of our steel market survey which we just completed this afternoon, lead times out of the domestic mills remained relatively constant compared to what we reported during the middle of January. Hot rolled lead times slipped to 3.89 weeks (average) down from 4.09 weeks. Cold rolled remained over 6 weeks at […]
I want to take a moment to thank Mark Bush, General Manager Mobile Operations for SSAB Americas as well as Brent Major of SSAB Americas for their hospitality during our tour of the SSAB Mobile steel facilities as part of our most recent Steel 101 workshop. Our group was impressed with the steelmaking as well […]
Our market survey captured lower prices in hot rolled and cold rolled this week compared to last. Galvanized and Galvalume prices were unchanged. Here is how we are seeing prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU Range is $640-$680 per ton ($32.00/cwt- $34.00/cwt) with an average of $660 per ton ($33.00/cwt) FOB mill, east of […]
Mario Longhi, CEO of U.S. Steel announced to those on the US Steel conference call that the company has started the process of replacing the existing blast furnace at the Fairfield, Alabama facility with a brand new electric arc furnace (EAF). During the call, Mr. Longhi advised that the expect the permitting process to take […]
According to scrap experts, most of the domestic mills canceled their January orders at the close of business this past Friday when shipment of the past due scrap had not already been made. Cancellations are standard operating procedure by the domestic mills when they believe scrap prices will drop once the new month’s negotiations are […]
On January 14, Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Higher to Neutral. This means we see steel market pricing at this moment as either in transition or moving sideways over the next 30 days. With ferrous scrap prices now weakening, lead times shortening and all of the available capacity back in […]
Essentially all of the domestic steel mills have finished maintenance on their blast furnaces. U.S. Steel is bringing back online their Fairfield furnace, Berkeley has completed the expansion of its hot strip mill and other domestic steel mill maintenance projects from 4th Quarter 2013 have been completed. Supply is available and now it is time […]
We are beginning to capture signs of a fracture in the resolve of the service centers to push higher steel prices into their end user accounts. With flat rolled steel spot prices trading within a fairly narrow and stable range for the past 10 weeks according to our SMU price indices, it should not come […]
During the month of January we saw scrap prices rise $5 to $16 per gross ton compared to December 2013 pricing. Iron ore prices dropped on both 62% Fe and 58% Fe (spot prices are based on Chinese spot sales). Zinc and aluminum prices used to coat galvanized, Galvalume, Galfan, aluminized, ZAM both dropped by […]
The two strongest products during the month of January were cold rolled (fully annealed) and plate. Both of these products saw spot price appreciation during the month. Hot rolled was a mixed bag with SMU now holding the lowest average at $665 per ton as of last week. At one point during the month every […]
When Steel Market Update decided to do an article on steel business ethics we knew the subject would elicit an immediate response from a number of our readers – and it has. What is making this process of writing a new series of articles on the subject of ethics interesting, is having another set of […]
Most everyone is well aware that this week is one of those crazy weeks for me personally. I am teaching a portion of our Steel 101 workshop here in Mobile (weather is indeed warm), went on a marvelous mill tour of the SSAB steel mill and spent time networking with our attendees, instructors and SSAB […]
According to scrap experts, most of the domestic mills canceled their January orders at the close of business this past Friday when shipment of the past due scrap had not already been made. Cancellations are standard operating procedure by the domestic mills when they believe scrap prices will drop once the new month’s negotiations are […]
Steel Market Update follows a number of indexes and their average price points on hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized, Galvalume as well as plate. Steel Market Update (SMU) found prices slipping on three of the four products we currently index – hot rolled, galvanized and Galvalume. CRU also picked up some modestly weaker numbers as […]
During the month of January Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Higher to Neutral. Benchmark hot rolled prices averaged $673 per ton ($33.65/cwt) according to the Steel Market Update index. CRU posted their monthly average at $676 per ton ($33.80/cwt). You can find the balance of our weekly and monthly averages […]
Buyers and sellers of steel are often exposed to ethical questions in their everyday activities. Some of the ethical issues which arise are fairly easy to discern as being ethical or unethical while others reside in a much tougher to distinguish gray area. Mario Briccetti and I were speaking about doing an ethics article and […]
As we approach the end of January the expectation is for the domestic steel mills to cancel any remaining ferrous scrap orders that the yards have been unable to ship due to the weather, shortage of trucks or rail cars or just due to the dealer(s) being unable to complete the order on time. The […]
On Wednesday of this week, USS/POSCO (UPI) opened their galvanized order book for the month of April. At the same time the mill announced enhancements to the galvanized product line and new effective base prices on all carbon flat rolled sheet produced at their steel mill located in Pittsburg, California. The mill announced two enhancements […]
A good portion of the Steel Market Update team is bolting for Mobile on Monday to prepare for our next Steel 101 workshop. We are looking forward to having a spirited workshop and we are appreciative of the efforts of our host steel mill – SSAB – as they prepare for our workshop touring their […]
Severstal is celebrating 10 years of ownership of the former Rouge Steel plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The company purchased Rouge Steel for $290 million in 2004 and saved the mill from going out of business. Severstal has invested more than $1.7 billion and dramatically altered the face and the future of the mill. Steel Market […]
Late last week Steel Market Update concluded our mid-January market survey of the flat rolled steel market in Canada and the United States. The survey is conducted by invitation only and is sent to slightly less than 600 companies. The breakout of the respondents was: 48 percent manufacturing companies, 42 percent service centers/wholesalers, 5 percent […]
Mario Longhi, CEO of U.S. Steel announced to those on the US Steel conference call that the company has started the process of replacing the existing blast furnace at the Fairfield, Alabama facility with a brand new electric arc furnace (EAF). During the call, Mr. Longhi advised that the expect the permitting process to take […]
Mark Millet, CEO of Steel Dynamics told those listening to the SDI earnings conference call that second half 2013 sheet pricing appreciation was assisted by raw material pricing (higher scrap prices) and some supply disruptions. However, the “…underlying appreciation was driven by demand.” He went on to state that “…it’s a little difficult to determine […]
David Phelps warned our readers not to put too much stock in the U.S. Department of Commerce license data, which he felt could be very misleading. Our initial forecast for January steel imports produced through the aid of the import license data from the 14th and again on the 21st of January indicated a possible […]
Last week John Temples of Steel Market Update attended the Association of Steel Distributors regional meeting in Detroit, Michigan. This was his first ASD meeting, and found the meeting to be a beneficial resource for networking and learning more about steel related business in the Midwest. The featured speaker was Mike Fezzey, president of Huntington […]
It snowed in Georgia and South Carolina today. Nucor Berkeley put out an announcement that their shipping and sales personnel had been sent home early. I thought it might be a good time to double check the forecast for Mobile for next Tuesday and Wednesday which is where we are holding our next Steel 101 […]
We are beginning to capture signs of a fracture in the resolve of the service centers to push higher steel prices into their end user accounts. With flat rolled steel spot prices trading within a fairly narrow and stable range for the past 10 weeks according to our SMU price indices, it should not come […]
Steel buyers are confiding in Steel Market Update and have been telling us that the tightness in cold rolled spot prices, which this past week SMU had as being $760-$820 per ton ($38.00/cwt-$41.00/cwt), is partially due to the extended lead times at AK Steel. According to steel buyers, AK Steel had to deal with “the […]