The indices watched by Steel Market Update (SMU) tumbled this past week as benchmark hot rolled averages were at, or below $600 per ton in three of the five indexes. We saw many indices dropping by double digits prior to the U.S. Steel pricing announcement. It is normal for prices to move lower the week […]
Last week the domestic steel mills made their statement by raising prices on flat rolled steel. Led by U.S. Steel most mills followed their lead and pushed prices by $50 per ton. Two mills – Severstal and ArcelorMittal – put base prices to their announcements with hot rolled being referenced as starting at a “minimum” […]
We had an excellent group at our workshop in Columbus, Mississippi and I want to thank the entire management, customer service, sales and operations staff at the Severstal Columbus facility that put on an exceptional tour of their mill for our group. I also want to thank Severstal NA in Dearborn for working with Steel […]
Written by: Sophia Fain Pending home sales remain in healthy territory after its 4.5 percent rise in January. Pending home sales have continually been above year-ago levels for the past 21 months, according to the National Association of Realtors. January’s sales are 9.6 percent above year-ago levels and the highest reading since April 2010 when […]
The Chicago Purchasing Managers reported the Chicago Business Barometer rose again, up 1.2 points to 56.8, its highest level since last March. There was improvement in New Orders, Order Backlogs, and Supplier Deliveries while Production and Employment expanded at a slower pace. New orders reported its third consecutive monthly gain and 11-month high while order […]
Utilizing a trailing average hot rolled coil (HRC) price, the SMU Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained below zero percent this week for the seventh week after eight consecutive weeks of positive momentum readings. MoMo is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12 week […]
Written by: Andre Marshall, Crunchrisk LLC So far on the SP we have made it as high as 1532 on Feb 19th only to have retrace back to 1490 area before rebounding the last two days to 1515-1520 area. The market is becoming a bit more volatile. Poor fundamentals and money chasing returns will provide for […]
Written by: Peter Wright Key Market Indicators This chart is a work in progress and is designed to give a snapshot of the steel market on a specific date, which in this case is February 28th 2013. The chart is organized vertically to describe the primary indicators of the general economy, of proprietary Steel Market […]
The following is what we have provided in the past for our end of the month data. We have decided we will continue to provide this data to our regular SMU members as we have in the past.
Written by: John Packard I have been involved in the flat rolled steel industry since 1977. I cannot recall another time during those 36 years in the business when the domestic steel mills have announced two significant price increases within six weeks of one another – with the target minimum base price being exactly the […]
Steel buyers are scratching their heads while steel mills begin to line up announcing identical $50 per ton price increases on all flat rolled products. AK Steel was the first to follow U.S. Steel when they put out a press release advising their customers of their intention to raise spot prices by a minimum of […]
am in Starkville and Columbus, Mississippi as we conduct our next Steel 101 workshop beginning on Wednesday morning. We have a full workshop and I am looking forward to a great group. I am also looking forward to touring the Severstal Columbus steel mill. The most modern flat rolled mini-mill (EAF) in the United States. […]
The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) reported their estimated raw steel production data for the week ending February 23, 2013. According to AISI estimates the U.S. steel industry produced 1,843,000 net tons of raw steel last week. This represents an increase of 1.6 percent compared to the week earlier but is 8.2 percent lower […]
Written by: Peter Wright Chicago Fed national Activity Index, (CFNAI) is a widely respected measure of both overall and detailed economic activity in the US. The index’s three-month moving average, increased to +0.30 in January from +0.23 in December. Given the substantial upward revisions for November and December, January’s result marked the third consecutive reading […]
Question is can TK get two or more mills in a bidding war? Our sources advise SMU that the binding bids for the ThyssenKrupp Americas plants (Calvert, Alabama and CSA in Brazil) – the ones which truly count – are to be submitted by the end of this week. There are a number of prospective […]
Combination of higher zinc spot prices, competitive extras and higher zinc premiums are squeezing coating lines Galvanized converters are struggling to compete against mills with lower coating extras as LME Zinc spot prices have climbed from the low $.80’s per pound to recent high’s close to $1.00 per pound. Over the past few trading days […]
The whole reason behind the various indices is to provide transparency to domestic mill spot transactions. This, in turn, gives buyers and sellers a basis to work from when negotiating both existing (spot) and future (contract) deals. The issue everyone has – as a buyer your job is to be at the cutting edge – […]
Frustration appears to be running high as buyers and sellers try to hold on to the gains (or to the floor) made a few weeks ago. Despite their order books being weak, domestic mills do not seem willing to go below (or in many cases match) their previous deal. However, if they are not willing […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) started receiving calls by late this afternoon advising us to prepare for a new round of price increase announcements. This afternoon, United States Steel Corporation (USS) put out a letter under the signature of RY Kopf, General Manager North American Flat-Rolled Marketing, advising the various General Managers of Sales of an […]
For union watchers out there, the Baltimore Brew broke a story today regarding the International United Steelworkers placing USW Local 9477 in “administratorship” with the intention of removing all but one of the local union officials. There is a question as to what will happen with the assets of USW Local 9477 which owned a […]
We had a typo in the HRC forward curve table which was in last Thursday evening’s SMU newsletter – October 2013 and November 2013 should have read $640 not $340…
According to Baker Hughes data from February 22nd, 2013, the U.S rig count for this week is 1,761 rigs exploring for or developing oil or natural gas. This number represents a decrease of 1 rig from last week. Compared to last year the 1,761 count is a decrease of 220 rigs. Canadian rigs increased by […]
Something to make the domestic mills a wee bit happier – but they won’t see the results for a few months. According to the results from last week’s survey, both manufacturing companies and service centers reported the lowest percentage of interest in placing foreign steel orders since we began asking the question. For manufacturing companies, […]
This week, the SMU Fair Value HRC (hot rolled coil) Model has spot HRC pricing below Fair Value for the second week in a row. This is due to the SMU average spot HRC index remaining unchanged from last week at $610 per ton and scrap inputs remaining the same. The Fair Value model now […]
Manufacturing companies reported service center spot prices as either stable (82 percent) or decreasing (18 percent) during our most recent SMU steel market survey. When compared to the results taken at the beginning of February we found no longer were any of the manufacturing companies reporting any attempts by the distributors to raise prices. In […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) flat rolled price assessments remained the same on hot rolled, cold rolled and Galvalume this past week compared to the week before. Our galvanized price average was $5 per ton lower than one week earlier as the lower end of our range dropped by $10 per ton. Platts did not change […]
Split on Increase, Lead Times, Sentiment for Sideways Pricing – Market has Little Direction Steel Market Update (SMU) continues to set a new record each week we hold our Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral. The longest previous record for a Neutral indication for market price direction was five weeks (back in late May/June 2011) for […]
Written by: John Packard, Publisher An important piece of the value behind Steel Market Update is based on the relationships I developed during my 31 year tenure in the flat rolled steel business. Over that period of time I interacted with hundreds of companies in various capacities but primarily in a sales or management function. […]
I was watching the daily results from our SMU steel survey which began on Monday of this week. I found it curious those working on Monday (a holiday to some, but not all in the U.S.) were much more negative than those who responded to our survey as the week progressed. Our SMU Steel Buyers […]
Utilizing a trailing average hot rolled coil (HRC) price, the SMU Price MoMo Index for flat rolled steel in the U.S. remained below zero percent this week for the sixth week after eight consecutive weeks of positive momentum readings. MoMo is based upon the current hot rolled coil price weighed against the previous 12 week […]