Dr. Chris Kuehl, one of our Steel Summit keynote speakers and Managing Director of Armada Corporate Intelligence, provides a monthly overview of economic and global risks facing the U.S. economy and the steel industry. Armada’s June summary is as follows: 1. GDP growth expectation has dropped to 2.1% for the full year, but… The IMF, […]
ILWU/PMA contract negotiations are continuing on the West Coast. Armada Corporate Intelligence calls the negotiations “eerily silent” and says whether a strike will occur is unclear. The contract for the ILWU is set to expire June 30. According to Armada, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) is facing increased competition from the Panama Canal expansion. Enlarging […]
Severstal has agreed to pay $30 million to RG Steel in exchange for all of RG Steel Wheeling’s 50 percent interest in Mountain State Carbon LLC (MSC). The settlement will “release, acquit, and forever discharge” Severstal and RG Steel from any further claims or suits by the other, according to the docket filed in the […]
Essar Steel Algoma and USW Local 2742 have reached a tentative agreement for the Company’s salaried employees. The agreement has been unanimously recommended by the USW bargaining committee, said Essar Steel in a statement on Friday. Special Membership meetings will be held on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 and voting will be held on Wednesday, June […]
Design service demand picked up in May according to the American Institute of Architects. The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) picked up 3 points to register 52.6 after two months of contraction. The new projects inquiry index moved up 4.1 points to 63.2. (A reading below 50 indicates contraction and a reading above 50 indicates an […]
HVAC construction equipment won a victory in the passage of “America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014.” The House approved the bill that previously excluded HVAC equipment from qualified business deductions. Under the amendments to the bill, business owners can expense up to $500,000 in new equipment and property, including HVAC equipment. The bill […]
The Canadian government approved a controversial oil pipeline project that will extend 732 miles from the oil sands in Alberta to British Columbia. The Enbridge Northern Gateway project is expected to carry 525,000 barrels of crude oil to the Pacific coast for shipment to Asia. The $6.5 billion project took on a new urgency with […]
SSAB is looking at a potential expansion to its facility in Montpelier, Iowa that would increase steel production capacity by 1.2 million tons. The expansion would add about 800,000 tons of finished product annually along with 400,000 tons of smelting capacity to be transferred as slab to SSAB’s mobile facility for rolling and finishing. The end […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the HRC pricing […]
The US steel industry is contemplating challenging a trade agreement with Russia that governs imports of hot rolled steel from Russia. A suspension agreement currently exempts Russian steelmakers from antidumping duties by setting a cap and minimum price on HRC imports. According to a Reuters article on Tuesday, US steel companies say the hot rolled […]
Builder confidence in the new built, single-family housing market rose in June. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) registered 49, just a point below the reading of 50 that indicates good building conditions. “After several months of little fluctuation, a four-point uptick in builder sentiment is a welcome sign […]
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) expects higher profits in second quarter compared to first quarter 2014. In its Second Quarter Earnings Guidance, SDI said steel shipments and metal spreads are improving despite increased import activity. SDI anticipates demand from automotive, manufacturing and construction will continue to trend upward. Residential construction has rebounded with the return of […]
A downturn in business conditions is coming, said participants in the Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report for June. Fewer participants are expecting conditions to improve in the next three months (31 percent, down from 33 percent) and more are expecting that economic activity will decline (15 percent, up from 7 percent). PMA president […]
An explosion at Republic Steel in Lorain, Ohio sent three people to the hospital early Monday morning. The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. according to firefighters. The injuries were reported as “not life threatening.” Lorain Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Gary Burls said a combination of a water leak and scrap metal falling into the […]
An increase in manufacturing activity in New York took analysts by surprise in June. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported the general business index in the Empire State Manufacturing Survey posted a reading of 19.28, up from 19.01 in May. Economists were expecting the index to decline to 15.0 in June. The new […]
“No-one should doubt that steel remains the material of choice for the automotive industry,” asserted ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal at the annual Steel Success Strategies conference in New York. “I want to stress that steel can provide all the weight reduction that auto producers require to satisfy the new fuel efficiency standards; for […]
ArcelorMittal has agreed to pay a $90 million settlement in an antitrust lawsuit brought in the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. The class action lawsuit, filed in 2008 by Standard Iron Works on behalf of direct purchasers of steel products, alleged that eight U.S. steel producers violated federal antitrust laws by […]
“Following the doubling of steel production from 849 million tonnes in 2000 to 1.6 million tonnes in 2014, we are likely entering a period of consolidation, or at the very least, much reduced growth.” That is the opinion of Becky Hites, analyst and president of Steel-Insights, LLC in a June 7, 2014 report, Fixed Asset […]
Truckload capacity is tight but trucks are still available according to logistics resource DAT Solutions. The potential port strike on the West Coast, however, and the addition of agricultural shipping may push the situation to a tipping point says DAT. Flatbed demand is high across the country except in North Dakota where it is mostly […]
Media sources from Serbia report that Esmark Steel Group is in negotiations for a partnership with steel company Zelezara Smederevo. Bojan Bojkovic, financial director of Zelezara, said Esmark representatives visited the factory last week, as reported by American Metal Market. According to sources at Esmark, negotiation information released in Serbia was in violation of confidentiality […]
Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes totaled 6.4 million tons in May, nearly the same as May 2013, according to Lake Carriers’ Association. Shipments were about 600,000 tons lower than anticipated due to the idling of three US flag lakers for repairs during May due to ice damage suffered in March and April. US […]
AK Steel and Union members at Middletown Works settled contract negotiations three months early with a vote for ratification of a new labor agreement on Monday, June 10. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 1943 voted 663 to 243 to accept the new 42-month contract. The agreement will take […]
Funding for the FY 2015 appropriations bill that supports the US Army Corps of Engineers and projects in the WRRDA has been approved by the House Appropriations Committee. Funding for the Corps civil works projects is $5.493 billion. Below is a reprint of a press release by Waterways Council Inc. praising the Committee’s approval and […]
A federal crackdown is needed on the import and dumping of cheap products in the U.S. said US Steel Corp CEO Mario Longhi to attendees at the West Virginia Manufacturers Association Leadership Summit on Monday. Longhi, known for his strong stance on foreign import trade regulations, told manufacturers at the meeting that stronger trade laws […]
We included this article in tonight’s issue because we saw evidence of confusion between the defunct Warren Steel of RG Steel fame and that of Warren Steel Holdings which is a long products mill also located in Ohio. Long products producer Warren Steel Holdings, LLC (not to be confused with the former Warren flat rolled […]
The Institute for Supply Management has a sub-group of steel buyers who survey their members once per month in order to track trends affecting the steel industry. In the most recent survey, the ISM Steel Buyers group reported foreign steel mills and their domestic representatives as much more aggressively seeking steel orders from U.S. steel […]
The housing bubble in China has popped according to economists. The oversupply of housing and shortage of developer financing will slow China’s GDP growth to less than 6 percent in 2014 says a recent report by Japanese investment company Nomura. Nomura says a “hard landing” may be in China’s future due to a 33 percent […]
Building permit values in Canada rose 1.1 percent to $6.0 billion in April following two months of decline. Building intentions for the residential sector offset the decline in nonresidential. Commercial sector permit values fell 14.8 percent to $1.3 billion in April. The decline followed a 0.3 percent gain the previous month and put commercial permit […]
The terms Buy America and Buy American are not interchangeable. CSI Executive VP, Finance & Administration Brett Guge explains the difference: “The longstanding historical standard for direct government procurement is “Buy American,” which requires only that the steel products used in government projects must have been “substantially transformed” in the U.S. “Buy America,” on the […]
Truck capacity may get a boost from new orders to manufacturers. Orders for Class 8 trucks increased by 14.2 percent in May for a total of 26,900 units, according to ACT Research. The increase in truck capacity is good news for the industry that is at an all time high capacity. The bad news is […]