Steel Market Update is please to share this Premium content with Executive members. For information on how to upgrade to a Premium subscription, email Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Total rolled product imports in March were down by 25.6 percent on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis year over year. This was the fifth consecutive month where imports were […]
Total rolled product imports in April were down by 26.3 percent year over year on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This was the sixth consecutive month where imports declined by more than 20 percent compared to the same month last year. This early look at April’s import volume is based on Commerce Department license […]
New Commerce Department data shows the United States exported 641,214 tons of steel in February, down 1 percent from January but up 7 percent from the same month one year prior. While steady compared to the previous month, recall that December 2019 was the second lowest export level in the past decade (just ahead of […]
Buyers are not purchasing much steel these days as they work to keep inventories in line with declining demand due to the coronavirus, making it more challenging than usual for Steel Market Update to track steel prices. By SMU estimates, flat rolled and plate prices declined a further $15-45 per ton this week. Not surprisingly, […]
Tubular steel producer Vallourec said Monday that it will lay off more than 900 employees at its U.S. plants due to a significant drop in activity by its oil and gas customers. The layoffs will be implemented in the coming weeks across all plants and support functions and impact over one-third of Vallourec’s workforce and contractor […]
What is accurate today will not be tomorrow. Just last week I was writing about the cancellation rumors at the domestic mills as perhaps being a bit overblown. As we collected pricing data for tonight’s flat rolled and plate index, we also asked our data providers to comment on whether they were pushing out and/or […]
Lead times for spot orders of flat rolled and plate are shortening as steps to control the coronavirus decimate demand. Lead times for steel delivery are a measure of demand at the mill level—the shorter the lead time, the less busy the mill. Average lead times for most products have shortened by roughly half a […]
Price negotiations between steel mills and steel buyers are wide open, not surprisingly, as companies scramble to win orders in a market disrupted by the coronavirus. More than nine out of 10 buyers responding to Steel Market Update’s questionnaire this week said the mills are now talking price on all types of products. In the […]
There is going to be a rush of bad news flooding televised and online media. Here at Steel Market Update, we and our parent company The CRU Group will do everything we can to keep readers advised with the most accurate and timely information possible. This is one of the reasons we are beginning our […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from the CRU Steel Monitor As expected, sheet prices in the U.S. Midwest market have fallen. Prices today, reflective of transactions booked last week, fell by $13-26 /s.ton w/w. For all sheet prices, we continue to hear of lower priced offers and expect that transaction prices will continue to […]
Zooming – sounds like a new drug, doesn’t it? We will be hosting another SMU Community Chat Webinar on Wednesday, April 22, at 11:00 a.m. ET (and I promise to hit the “start” button on time this week). Speaking with me will be Bernard Swiecki of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). We will discuss […]
Steel buyers are beginning to sit on their hands as they watch the damage being done to the economy by the efforts to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem when buyers begin to sit back and wait is there are limited spot buys actually happening in the market, and many times there […]
Today we took our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled steel to Lower from Neutral. We are clearly seeing an erosion in pricing, which is expected to continue over the near term. The economy is heading into recession. Key indicators are pointing toward a slowdown in construction as states and local municipalities mandate construction projects […]
Today we took our Price Momentum Indicator on flat rolled steel to Lower from Neutral. We are clearly seeing an erosion in pricing, which is expected to continue over the near term. The economy is heading into recession. Key indicators are pointing toward a slowdown in construction as states and local municipalities mandate construction projects […]
By CRU Prices Analyst George Pearson, from CRU’s Steel Monitor In the U.S. Midwest market, sheet prices were split this week. The price of HR coil fell $21 /s.ton to $561 /s.ton while CR and HDG coil prices fell by only $1-$3 /s.ton to $770 and $747 /s.ton, respectively. The spread between HDG coil and […]
Steel prices continue to weaken due to the coronavirus’ effect on demand, but have not collapsed as many fear. Galvanized steel saw the biggest decline in the past week, with smaller adjustments for hot rolled and cold rolled products. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $540-$580 […]
Steel prices continue to weaken due to the coronavirus’ effect on demand, but have not collapsed as many fear. Galvanized steel saw the biggest decline in the past week, with smaller adjustments for hot rolled and cold rolled products. Here is how we see prices this week: Hot Rolled Coil: SMU price range is $540-$580 […]
By CRU Research Manager Paul Butterworth, from CRU’s Steel Monitor CRU has massively downgraded forecast GDP growth in China to 1-2 percent for 2020 and we now expect the USA and Eurozone to fall into recession. Global GDP growth is now expected to be 1 percent for the year, an effective global recession. While economic […]
Lead times for spot orders of flat rolled and plate steel products showed initial signs of shortening this week, according to returns from Steel Market Update’s market trends questionnaire. Lead times for steel delivery are a measure of demand at the mill level—the longer the lead time, the busier the mill. The current lead times […]
Steel producers and distributors told Steel Market Update this week that they remain busy serving customers, despite the disruption to the economy from the coronavirus. Not surprisingly, the mills appear very willing to negotiate spot prices to keep business flowing. The majority of service center and manufacturing executives responding to SMU’s questionnaire on Monday and […]
News on the spread of the coronavirus changes by the hour, which effects the outlook of steel buyers. But as of early this past week, based on Steel Market Update’s canvass of the market, the steel sector appears to have weathered the worst of the bad news so far. Steel Prices Most executives responding to […]
Coronavirus fears have taken a major toll on how steel executives view their prospects for success. Steel Buyers Sentiment, as measured by Steel Market Update, suffered the sharpest one-week decline in the index’s 11-year history. Sentiment plunged by 45 points, from a Current Sentiment reading of +58 down to +13, and a Future Sentiment reading […]
Coronavirus fears have taken a major toll on how steel executives view their prospects for success. Steel Buyers Sentiment, as measured by Steel Market Update, suffered the sharpest one-week decline in the index’s 11-year history. Sentiment plunged by 45 points, from a Current Sentiment reading of +58 down to +13, and a Future Sentiment reading […]
Steel Dynamics and Nucor are both expecting improved earnings for the first quarter of 2020 due to higher steel prices and increased shipments. So far, the impact from the COVID-19 outbreak has been minimal on supply chains and operations, said the companies. Disruptions are expected, however, as more manufacturers temporarily suspend production and construction activity […]
Except for galvanized and plate prices, which stayed flat, flat rolled steel saw declines of $10 to $25 per ton last week. The downtrend certainly could have been worse, given the coronavirus crisis, but sources report that steel production and demand remain surprisingly strong. Steel Market Update’s Flat Rolled Price Momentum Indicator remains at Neutral, […]
Flat Rolled = 46.1 Shipping Days of Supply Plate = 49 Shipping Days of Supply Flat Rolled As prices eroded in February, service centers further reduced their flat rolled inventories 4.6 percent month on month by month’s end, according to adjusted February data compared with January’s final. With 20 shipping days in February compared to […]
We had to change the way we calculate the adjusted data, which will also change how we derive our analysis. Previously, we adjusted the data to mirror the exact mix of service centers that responded to the previous month’s survey. We saw a decrease in participation in the March survey, which we can understand given […]
Mill shipments of sheet products in January were the highest since August 2019. This analysis is based on steel mill shipment data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and import-export data from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC). This month we are producing a new report for long products and will follow this […]
Demand for long products declined by 3.5 percent in the three months through January, but rebar was up by 9.6 percent. This analysis is based on steel mill shipment data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and import-export data from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC). It summarizes total steel supply by product […]
Steel prices are as unpredictable as the spread of a rogue virus, but one symptom of COVID-19 is likely to be lower steel prices. As of this writing on March 13, the price of flat rolled steel products had yet to see much effect from the global panic over the coronavirus. Steel Market Update’s latest […]