Tag: SMU

North Star BlueScope contributed substantially to record earnings reported yesterday by BlueScope Steel Ltd., its Australian parent. Sales for the first half of the global company’s 2022 fiscal year totaled $9.42 billion ($6.77 billion U.S.), netting earnings before interest and taxes of about $2.2 billion ($1.58 billion U.S.). For its North Star BlueScope operation in […] The post BlueScope Reports Record 1H Profit, First Coil From EAF Expansion in Mid ’22 appeared first on Steel Market Update.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will indefinitely idle the No. 4 blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor steelmaking campus in northwest Indiana. The Cleveland-based steelmaker also announced that it was raising prices for April orders of carbon hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated flat-rolled steel by at least $50 per ton ($2.50 per cwt). Cliffs will transfer hot metal production […] The post Cliffs to Idle Indiana Harbor No. 4 Blast Furnace, Raises Prices $50/ton appeared first on Steel Market Update.

The Tampa Steel Conference has wrapped up, and I thank all of you who attended and who took the time to catch up with me on stage or along the sidelines. Below are five themes that I took away from the event. If I were to sum it up in a sentence, it’s this: Steel […] The post Final Thoughts appeared first on Steel Market Update.

Ferrous scrap has been described as “the new precious metal,” as mills all over the world invest in scrap-fed electric arc furnaces as a means of lowering harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, prime scrap may prove to be even more rare and prized than most realize. In the United States alone, producers will add 5.3 […] The post Analysts: New EAF Capacity Will Make Scrap “a Precious Metal” appeared first on Steel Market Update.

Prices for five of the seven steelmaking raw materials tracked in this SMU analysis increased over the last 30 days, with only one product decreasing. Through Feb. 17, iron ore prices rose 18% from one month prior, aluminum prices increased 10%, coking coal prices rose 9%, zinc prices were up 3%, and pig iron prices […] The post Raw Materials Prices: Iron Ore, Coking Coal, Pig Iron, Scrap, Zinc appeared first on Steel Market Update.

Editor’s note: SMU Contributor David Feldstein is president of Rock Trading Advisors. Rock provides customers attached to the steel industry with commodity price risk management services and market intelligence. RTA is registered with the National Futures Association as a Commodity Trade Advisor. David has over 20 years of professional trading experience and has been active […] The post Hot Rolled Coil Futures: HRC Curve Flattens Near $965; Busheling Rebounds to $565 appeared first on Steel Market Update.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. might shut a blast furnace this year, the company’s top executive said. “When we make a move, we make a move. … You might see a blast furnace going down for good still in 2022,” Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said during a fireside chat at the Tampa Steel Conference this […] The post Cliffs Could ‘Stretch’ Hot Metal and Take Down a Blast Furnace in ’22: Goncalves appeared first on Steel Market Update.

According to the latest Steel Market Update data, the spread between hot rolled coil prices and prime scrap is slowly shrinking from the September 2021 peak. The latest spread is in line with levels seen in early-2021 but two times higher than pre-pandemic spreads. {loadposition reserved_message} Last week, the SMU hot rolled price average declined for the […] The post Hot Rolled Coil vs Busheling Scrap Prices: Spread Narrowing appeared first on Steel Market Update.

According to the latest Steel Market Update data, the spread between hot rolled coil prices and prime scrap is slowly shrinking from the September 2021 peak. The latest spread is in line with levels seen in early-2021 but two times higher than pre-pandemic spreads. Last week, the SMU hot rolled price average declined for the 18th consecutive […] The post Hot Rolled Coil vs Busheling Scrap Prices: Spread Narrowing appeared first on Steel Market Update.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. could join other steel producers in adding electric-arc furnace (EAF) capacity, the company’s top executive said. The Cleveland-based steelmaker is considering that because the cost of relining a blast furnace – and investing in the supply chains needed to feed it – are roughly the same as those for of building a new EAF. […] The post Cliffs Considers Converting BF to EAF Amid Mine Idling, Coke Plant Closure: CEO appeared first on Steel Market Update.