GMK Center CEO Stanislav Zinchenko will be the featured speaker on the next SMU Community Chat on Wednesday, May 18, at 11 am ET. GMK Center is a Kyiv, Ukraine-based think tank focused on the iron and steel sector in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Zinchenko will talk about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine […]
SSAB Americas aims to increase plate prices by at least $50 per ton ($2.50 per cwt) effective immediately on all non-contract orders confirmed to ship on or after July 3. The Mobile, Ala-based steelmaker said the price hike would be $65 per ton CAD for customers in Canada. The increase applies equally to as-rolled, normalized, […]
The US will for one year lift Section 232 tariffs from Ukrainian steel, the Commerce Department said. The move is necessary to support Ukraine in its war against Russia and because steel plays an outsized role in the Ukrainian economy, Commerce said in a press release on Monday, May 9. Case in point: Steel employs […]
I hope the balance of the year turns out to be as good as steel mill and service center executives say it will be. I’ve covered a lot earnings reports and spent a lot of time on earnings calls over the last month. (It sometimes feels like the sun never sets on earnings season.) And […]
Olympic Steel Inc. posted strong first quarter earnings despite falling carbon steel prices earlier in the year. And the Cleveland-based service center expects the good times to carry into the second quarter even if steel prices slip. “We’ve worked hard to diversify our business, reduce our exposure to cyclical risk, and drive operational efficiencies,” Olympic […]
Stelco Holdings Inc. heralded record first quarter net income, but the result nonetheless marked a nearly 50% decline from fourth quarter profit levels. The Canadian flat-rolled steelmaker chalked up lower quarter-over-quarter earnings to a drop in both shipment volumes and prices. “While in the early part of the first quarter we saw deterioration in both […]
The US steel market continues to revert to where it was before the outbreak of war in Ukraine. SMU’s prices for sheet products are lower. Prices abroad are too. The latest bit of evidence: Published mill lead times. Case in point: Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) published updated lead times on Tuesday, May 3. They indicated […]
ArcelorMittal is considering adding a second electric arc furnace (EAF) to its AM/NS Calvert joint venture in Alabama. The Luxembourg-based steelmaker said the potential second EAF, which is “being studied” now, would have capacity of 1.5 million metric tons per year (tpy). That’s according to information released along with first quarter earnings data on Thursday, […]
ArcelorMittal predicts that global steel consumption will “contract slightly” in 2022, a departure from prior forecasts of modest growth. The Luxembourg-based steelmaker now expects global consumption to contract by as much as 1% this year. It had previously forecast of global steel consumption growth of as much as 1%. “Market conditions are currently strong although […]
Ryerson reported sharply higher profits on increased prices and despite lower year-over-year (YoY) shipment volumes. The Chicago-based service center predicted a strong second quarter as well but forecast that average selling prices might be flat or up only modestly. “Our optimism around enduring secular drivers favoring recyclable industrial metals as a core enabler of sustainable […]
Klöckner & Co. SE reported first quarter profits that were double those a year ago thanks largely to higher prices. The Duisburg, Germany-based service center, which has significant operations in the US, expects the good times to roll into the second quarter as well. All told, Klöckner recorded net income of €172 million ($181.3 million) […]
Sheet and plate prices were flat or down modestly again this week. And it has become clearer and clearer that the market has gotten over the initial shock of the war in Ukraine. Mill after mill lined up during earnings calls last month to say that they were no longer sourcing pig iron from Russia […]
The steel market has adapted to the shock of the war in Ukraine – and it’s become clearer with each passing week that a steeper price decline than we have seen to date might be in store. I wrote on Thursday that the headline data from our latest survey indicated the market had peaked. I […]
US Steel is in the midst of a 45-day planned outage on the No. 8 blast furnace at its Gary Works in northwest Indiana. The outage began on April 11 and is for typical repairs, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker told SMU. She did not have an end date for the repairs. That said, […]
US Steel is no longer importing pig iron from Ukraine and Russia for its Big River Steel Works – now the official name of its Osceola, Ark., electric arc furnace (EAF) sheet mill. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker has also mostly weaned its integrated steel mill in Košice, Slovakia, off Russian raw materials as well, they said. […]
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat with the opening of its June 2022 order book. The decision marks a departure for the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker, which had increased plate prices on March 9 for April orders and again on March 31 for May orders. “Effective with new orders received as of April 28, 2022, […]
US Steel posted the best first quarter earnings in company history and expects to set another new record in the second quarter. The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker recorded net earnings of $882 million in the first quarter of 2022, up nearly tenfold from $91 million in the first quarter of 2021 on revenue that increased nearly 43% […]
It’s cliché to compare steel price cycles to a roller coaster. But the description feels apt right now. People in the front can see a big drop coming. People in the back are still climbing. Why do I suggest we’re in for a drop? Our full survey results won’t be released until tomorrow. But we’ve […]
NIM Group has announced plans to acquire the PlatePlus Inc. facility in Tulsa, Oka. The deal between the two service center groups is expected to close on April 29, NIM Group said. It comes after NIM Group scooped up another PlatePlus facility in Windsor, Colo., earlier this year. “We are pleased to welcome the Tulsa […]
Nucor has ordered two galvanizing lines from equipment supplier Fives SAS for its $2.7 billion electric arc furnace (EAF) sheet mill in West Virginia. One is a vertical galvanizing line, the other is a horizontal line – each will have annual capacity of 500,000 tons, France-based Fives said in a press release on Tuesday, April 26. […]
We’ve all grown used to worrying about global supply chains and their shortcomings – as underscored by the pandemic, the chip shortage and the war in Ukraine. But it’s important not to forget that foreign supply chains aren’t the only ones that can get tangled up. And exotic problems don’t mean that long-standing issues – […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will install an electric-arc furnace (EAF) at its steel mill in Middletown, Ohio, to make electrical steels for electric vehicles (EVs) – but only if demand merits it. “Let’s see how many of my clients will be really doing what they’re saying they’re going to do in terms of electric vehicles,” company chairman, […]
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. expects record free cash flow this year thanks to fixed-price contracts resetting higher and a more bullish outlook on average selling prices in general. The Cleveland-based steelmaker predicts that average selling prices for the year will be $1,445 per ton ($72.25 per cwt), up $220 per ton from prior guidance of $1,225 per […]
Nucor expects to complete the $650 million expansion and upgrade of its Gallatin sheet mill in Ghent, Ky., in June, company executives said. And the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker’s new $1.35 billion plate mill in Brandenburg, Ky. – slated to have annual capacity of 1.2 million tons – remains on track to start up late in […]
Nucor Corp. “immediately” halted sourcing pig iron and other raw materials from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in late February, the company’s top executive said. “The day after the invasion happened, we stopped buying materials immediately from Russia and have taken nothing from them,” Nucor president and CEO Leon Topalian said. “We pivoted very quickly […]
Nucor Corp. earnings dipped slightly in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter on lower profits from its sheet mills. But the Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker predicted that the trend would reverse in the second quarter – when it expects to post the most profitable quarter in its history. “Our key forward looking […]
I’m writing this Final Thoughts from our first in-person Steel 101 workshop in more than two years. It’s great to see everyone here in Memphis, Tenn. It turns out everyone has legs and feet. We are not all disembodied heads on Zoom or Teams. It’s also great to see so many people at Steel 101. […]
Steel Market Update will be taking time off in observance of Passover and Easter this weekend. We will be closed on Friday, April 15, and we will not publish our Executive issue on Sunday, April 17. Our weekly pricing service will not be impacted. We will resume our regular publication schedule on Monday, April 18, […]
I shouldn’t say put a fork in this market and call it done. It’s probably too early for that. But some of the anecdotal indicators I mentioned last week are increasingly showing up in the data we and others collect. Take a look at today’s issue: Lead times are still rising, for the most part. […]
SSAB Americas plans to increase prices on as-rolled, normalized and wide cut-to-length plate by at least $60 per ton ($3 per cwt). The Mobile, Ala.-based steelmaker said the price hike would be $70 CAD per ton for customers in Canada. “SSAB Americas reserves the right to re-quote any open offers not confirmed by an SSAB […]