World Trade Online reported this morning that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told a U.S. Senator the Section 232 review on steel will not be ready until after tax reform legislation has been completed. This is in line with what President Trump said in July when he told The Wall Street Journal, “We’re waiting till we […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated foreign steel license data on Tuesday. Based on data through the first 12 days of September, foreign steel imports are trending toward a 2.6 million net ton month. If the numbers hold, the 2.6 million tons would be one million tons lower than the three-month moving average, which is […]
A note to service centers: SMU is working on a new prime flat rolled distributor inventory index and trends analysis. If your company is interested in participating or if you have any questions, please send me a note: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com The hurricane saga continues, and I want to take a moment to wish those who have […]
Steel Market Update canvassed flat rolled and plate steel buyers throughout the day today in order to determine if steel prices have changed since our review last week. We found prices softening on most flat rolled products and heard from steel buyers that the mills were willing to discuss pricing on “real” orders. Here is […]
The Steel Market Update (SMU) Price Momentum Indicator has been “stuck” in Neutral for a number of weeks as steel buyers and steel mills wrestle with the direction of flat rolled steel prices going forward. Steel buyers are beginning to say the next move in flat rolled steel prices may well be lower, rather than […]
Throughout the day (Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017), Steel Market Update (SMU) has been discussing steel prices, AK Steel’s price announcement and whether or not there is any way the mills will be able to collect another $30 (or anything) based on what is happening in the market right now. “This increase puzzled all of us. […]
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 […]
A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. In that case, here are a number of photos from our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference, which will help those who were unable to attend get a feel for what happened, how many people attended (661 registrations from 309 companies) and the networking that went […]
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 […]
There was little movement in the steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) last week. Both Platts and SMU have hot rolled average as being $630 per ton ($31.50/cwt). Cold rolled average was $805 (+$5) out of Platts and $810 (-$5) on our own CRC index. Galvanized was up $5 to $893 per ton […]
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 […]
Late yesterday (Sept. 6), AK Steel announced a new $30 per ton flat rolled price increase. AK Steel last announced a flat rolled price increase three weeks ago when on Aug. 16 the steel mill raised prices by $30 per ton. So far this year, AK Steel has made seven price increase announcements totaling $215 […]
Ferrous scrap prices were expected to rise by $20 to $30 per gross ton once the September negotiations began. By Thursday afternoon (today), we were learning that steel mills are suddenly able to buy at sideways numbers. We understand North Star BlueScope was able to buy September at the same prices as August. Other sources […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) released final census data on July foreign steel imports. The DOC advised total steel imports of 3,482,524 net tons. When semi-finished steels are removed (slabs/billets/blooms), finished steel imports totaled 2,896,389 net tons. At the same time, the DOC advised the latest license data for the month of August. As […]
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 […]
Flat rolled prices have been mixed since we last produced our indices on Thursday of last week. The expectation is for prices to go higher from here, although Steel Market Update (SMU) is waiting to see how those responding to our flat rolled steel market trends questionnaire feel about the current and future markets. We […]
The manufacturing panel during the SMU Steel Summit Conference last week in Atlanta featured a lively exchange between Barry Zekelman (CEO, Zekelman Industries) and Dan Pearson (Cato Institute). Mr. Zekelman’s comments appeared in the Aug. 31, 2017, issue of Steel Market Update. Mr. Pearson, the former chairman of the International Trade Commission, read our article […]
The various steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update (SMU) had flat rolled and steel plate prices as mixed last week. SMU, Platts and SteelBenchmarker all had hot rolled prices as averaging $630 per ton. SMU had HRC up $5, SteelBenchmarker was up $10 and Platts remained the same as the prior week. Cold rolled […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) received pricing information from China this morning along with a warning that China may be building a steel price bubble that will pop. The only question is when and how much damage will it do when it does. Traders are complaining that the new Chinese numbers are too high to be […]
My final thoughts are going to be extremely brief this evening as I live close to the Atlantic Ocean in south Florida and there is a category 5 hurricane thinking about heading our way. So, we are in preparation mode and will move north and wait to see if it veers further west and into […]
We did not review pricing earlier this week due to all of our staff being at the SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. During the conference, we did not want to discuss pricing in an open format. We did check on pricing today and found mixed results depending on the product. Within the data, we […]
The following table is for the month of August 2017. Most of the data speaks for itself. We produce this information at the end of every month. There are a number of data points or reference points that are proprietary to Steel Market Update. These include our SMU Price Momentum Indicator which, at the end […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce released Preliminary July import data as well as August license requests through the 29th of the month. The July Preliminary Census number has foreign steel imports as being 3,471,614 net tons. This is down from the June 3.9 million ton level. However, what continues to be concerning is the August […]
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 […]
Over the past three days, Steel Market Update (SMU) had all hands on deck for our 7th SMU Steel Summit Conference. The conference was once again held at the Georgia International Convention Center next to the Atlanta International Airport. We had record attendance with 661 executives registered compared to 434 last year. There were 309 […]
Over the past three days, Steel Market Update (SMU) had all hands on deck for our 7th SMU Steel Summit Conference. The conference was once again held at the Georgia International Convention Center next to the Atlanta International Airport. We had record attendance with 661 steel and manufacturing executives registered compared to 434 last year. […]
Good evening from Atlanta, site of our 7th SMU Steel Summit Conference. We announced this morning that attendance for this conference is a new record. We are pleased to announce we registered 661 manufacturing, steel and industry executives for this year’s conference, breaking last year’s 434 record. Our “Pre-Summit” Conference program on Monday attracted approximately […]
Last week, Steel Market Update (SMU) saw prices as being modestly higher than the week before, while Platts held their prices steady. For the week, SMU had hot rolled up $10, but our $625 per ton average is still below the $630 being reported by Platts. Cold rolled prices averaged $815 per ton at SMU […]
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 […]
The 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference Events App is now available for all attendees, sponsors and exhibitors to download and use. The App is where you find all the most up-to-date information about the conference, what you work from to network with other attendees, and what you will use to get the speaker presentations after […]