Supply of ferrous scrap continues to be an issue for the domestic steel mills. On Friday of this past week scrap prices settled in the Detroit market up $50 per gross ton. However, many of our scrap sources are advising that the rest of the country is in limbo as many dealers think the market […] The post Scrap Dealers Holding Back as Market May be Stronger than +$50 appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Flat rolled steel prices continue to firm and many buyers are convinced there could be more price increases to come with a tightening foreign market and higher offers for foreign steel coupled with the expectation that ferrous scrap prices will increase by a minimum of $30 per gross ton for April delivery. SMU has been […] The post SMU Price Ranges & Indices: Continued Firming appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel Market Update ferrous scrap sources are advising us that scrap prices are poised to move $30 to $50 per gross ton higher for April deliveries than what we saw negotiated at the beginning of March. The issue is supply. The domestic sheet mills are having issues finding all of the tonnage they need and […] The post Ferrous Scrap Prices Poised to Move Up $30-$50 appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel mills are still scrounging for ferrous scrap with little luck. We are hearing from our scrap sources that prices could be up as much as $30 per ton and we have even heard some numbers higher than $30. The net result will be more pressure on steel and steel prices as the mills scramble […] The post Final Thoughts appeared first on Steel Market Update.
The following article was written by SMU founder and publisher, John Packard with the assistance of Platts Content Director, Metals Americas, Joseph Innace. Shortly after Steel Market Update (SMU) became a real company I understood the need for the flat rolled steel industry to have an pricing index which was independent and not tied as […] The post Platts HRC Index: Methodology, Daily, Exchange Ready appeared first on Steel Market Update.
As negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their ferrous scrap suppliers conclude we are seeing scrap prices rise with the Chicago markets “catching up” with some of the other regions. Dealers are reporting robust sales, especially to sheet mills as they are picking up spot market share from the integrated mills. Chicago area prices […] The post Scrap Prices Settle Higher for March Delivery appeared first on Steel Market Update.
It was only a few weeks ago that many within the ferrous scrap community felt when the negotiations were over for the month of March and the smoke cleared scrap prices would be essentially unchanged from February. That was then, this is now. One of the larger players in the market told us earlier today, […] The post Scrap Prices Moving Higher appeared first on Steel Market Update.
Steel Market Update has been speaking with various scrap sources to see what the market trend looks like as we head into March ferrous scrap pricing negotiations. Virtually all dealers are of the opinion that the market looks to be sideways (same pricing as February) with maybe a little “lean” toward the upside. The dealers […] The post Expectation is for Ferrous Scrap Prices to Move Sideways in March appeared first on Steel Market Update.
We were reminded recently of an article we produced on February 24, 2015 regarding our theoretical marginal cost of Steel Making (cost will vary by mill and not included in our formula is any adjustment for running at less than 70 percent capacity levels, SA&G are not included, etc.). We were asked if we could […] The post The Theoretical Marginal Cost to Produce Steel appeared first on Steel Market Update.
The year 2015 was a brutal one for the domestic steel mills as well as the distributors who service the end user markets on a spot basis. Many of the service centers who purchase secondary (non-prime or excess) steel have suffered and have had to change the way they conduct business in order to survive. […] The post Secondary Service Centers Hoping 2016 Will be a Better Year appeared first on Steel Market Update.