Steel Market Update (SMU) had a number of conversations with steel buyers late last week during our trip to Chicago. Benchmark hot rolled prices offers have slipped below $600 per ton with one service center executive discussing a spot offer of $560 per ton coming from one mill (and complaining that they lost of the […]
I am working on getting a strong keynote speaker to discuss the impact politics is having on the economy and on our daily lives. I have narrowed the list down to a few names so I thought it might be good to let our readers chime in and tell us who they would like to […]
Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are slightly less enthusiastic about how they view their company’s ability to be success both in the existing, or current market environment as well as three to six months out into the future. There is an uncertainty that is becoming an issue to business as companies who buy […]
Flat rolled lead times have been shrinking over the past eight weeks according to the results of this week’s SMU Flat Rolled Steel Market Trends questionnaire. Buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel are reporting shorter lead times than what we measured at the beginning of May and lead times on all products are much […]
Since early Monday morning of this week, Steel Market Update (SMU) has been conducting an inquiry into the flat rolled steel markets. We discovered lead times have shrunk which usually relates to lower steel prices and more willingness by the domestic steel mills to negotiate spot prices being offered into the market. SMU inquired on […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) reported foreign steel import license data earlier this week. Based on the daily rate and projecting it over the course of the entire month of May we are anticipating another 3.0 million net ton month. As of the 17th of May the trend is for imports to be close […]
This evening I attended the Metals Industry Boy Scout Dinner in Chicago. The steel, and now metals industries have supported the Chicago area Boy Scouts for more than 25 years and, once again, there was close to 1,000 mostly steel people at the cocktail party and dinner. This included steel mills, service centers, trading companies, […]
Earlier today, Steel Market Update (SMU) adjusted our Price Momentum Indicator from Neutral to Lower. Flat rolled prices have been slowly dropping for more than a month and it does not appear there is anything that is going to stop the leak from continuing, at least not over the next 30 days. Flat rolled steel […]
In a move that has been building over the past few weeks, today Steel Market Update (SMU) is moving our Price Momentum Indicator to Lower from Neutral. Our belief at this point is flat rolled steel prices will continue their drift lower over the next 30-60 days as we approach what many in the steel […]
The Metal Service Center Institute (MSCI) released their April 2017 shipment and inventories data for the United States and Canada. The following is a recap of the U.S. data. Total steel shipments (all products) were reported to be 3,110,500 tons which was 4.2 percent lower than year ago levels (19 days vs. 21 day month […]
I have read reports that suggest the first fully integrated mill in Vietnam, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, has received permission to test their #1 blast furnace. The Vietnamese government has approved the pollution control equipment and the company is going to be allowed to run the blast furnace on a six-month trial period. In July […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has an active presence on social media. We find LinkedIn in particular an area where we can get our LinkedIn readers involved in a subject prompting questions and responses. In the preamble prior to the posting of an article produced by Steel Market Update entitled “Is Trump Administration the Next Black […]
Hot rolled prices have been dropping over the past few weeks and that trend continued with all three steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update reporting lower hot rolled coil price averages last week. Steel Market Update’s (SMU) own index saw HRC prices as being down $15 per ton ($0.75/cwt) to $610 per ton ($30.50/cwt). […]
Happy Mother’s Day (at least for one more hour here on the East Coast)… We are beginning our mid-May flat rolled steel market trends survey at 8 AM ET tomorrow (Monday) morning. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few minutes to click on the button on your invitation and complete our […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) spoke with many trading companies over the past few days about concerns their companies might have with the status of the industry and efforts to stop foreign steel from entering the country. “The trading companies are not the bad guy here,” is what one trading executive said to us late this […]
As I mentioned in one of the articles in tonight’s edition of SMU, I have been speaking with trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz on a whole host of subjects. We will be working on an article to help our readers better understand the ramifications of the Section 232 review (national security) and what powers the President […]
We saw mixed results this week with two products moving lower (hot rolled and galvanized), two remained the same (cold rolled and Galvalume), and plate prices rose a modest $5 per ton. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $580-$640 per ton ($29.00/cwt-$32.00/cwt) with an average of […]
Lately, Steel Market Update (SMU) has been hearing the word “risk” bantered about by many within the steel industry. In Steel Market Update’s opinion, how one perceives the risks associated with buy and sell decisions is one of the factors determining the direction of flat rolled steel prices. which at this time are moving lower. […]
Last week Steel Market Update completed our early May flat rolled steel market trends analysis. During the process, we asked manufacturing companies and service centers to comment on the status of the service center spot market pricing. We found agreement within both camps that steel distributors have been transitioning from a market where they were […]
My “final thoughts” is an area of the newsletter where I can provide some of my opinions on a wide range of topics, provide information or updates on our workshops and conference or provide late-breaking tidbits from around the world that come in late in the day and are unable to make it into a […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been struggling to make sense of the most recent carbon flat rolled inventory numbers for service centers. What we learned from the MSCI did not match the conversations we were having with service center steel buyers across the country. SMU has been working on ways to provide a separate and […]
Last week we saw adjustments to the indices that brought the Steel Market Update and Platts numbers closer to one another. Hot rolled is now averaging $625 per ton ($31.25/cwt) on both SMU and Platts (SteelBenchmarker did not provide numbers last week as they only publish their indices twice per month). The spread between the […]
This week I will be working with as many trading companies as I can find to talk about what is going on with foreign steel orders and their reaction to the uncertainty being painted with the Section 232 investigation. I have heard of orders being cancelled. I have heard of countries no longer being in […]
Twice per month, Steel Market Update (SMU) conducts a review of how buyers and sellers of flat rolled steel feel about their company’s ability to be successful in the existing market (Current Sentiment) as well as three to six months out (Future Sentiment). Earlier today we crunched the data and found the flat rolled steel […]
It is the first week of May and the negotiations between the long and flat rolled steel mills have been in full swing all week. By late today (Thursday) word of how the scrap dealers had fared has been coming into our offices. The first region to settle was Detroit which was up $10 on […]
Ferrous scrap prices settled in Detroit with prime grades (bundles/busheling) settling at $360 per gross ton. At the same time there is Chinese auto bundles for sale at very low prices FOB China. Chinese scrap exports are new for the Chinese and there are issues that need to be overcome before they become major suppliers […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce recently released Final Census Data for March 2017 foreign steel imports. The month officially came in at 3.4 million net tons. This is a huge month. What is probably worrying the steel mills is the license data for April is indicating there will be another boom month for imports as […]
Flat rolled steel lead times are running essentially flat (same as what we have been reporting over the past few weeks) based on the responses we received from manufacturing companies and service centers this week. Lead time is the amount of time it takes a domestic steel mill to produce a new order if placed […]
Steel Market Update (SMU) has been conducting one of our flat rolled steel market trends surveys this week. According to those responding to our questionnaire, steel mill resistance to holding firm on flat rolled steel spot prices is in free fall. A very large portion of our respondents reported mills as willing to negotiate on […]
Hectic day here at SMU as our server was down (actually the entire server farm) for a couple of hours right at our peak publishing time. You may have noticed our website either moving very slow or not being able to access the site at all between 4 PM ET and 6 PM. Everything is […]