June carbon steel inventories declined another 1.2% to the lowest since February 2011, while average daily shipments gained 0.8%, bucking the normal seasonal drop of …

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March MSCI shipments bucked the normal seasonal improvement of 2.2%, declining a disappointing 3.0% from February’s nine-month high to the lowest level since… more

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Reflecting the weakened economy and lingering impact of Sandy, MSCI November shipments declined 3.4% from October. The good news is…more.

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HDG lead times declined to 5.4 from 6.2 the week before, while CRC lead times dropped to a 14-week low of 5.3 from 6.0.

Sources: The Steel Index, Steel Business Briefing

The MSCI September report had some good news in that overall inventories dropped some 2.2% with the bulk of the decline coming from flat-rolled, which has been the …more

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Steel Market Production Cuts – Moldova Steel Works’ (MMZ), which has been idle for the last two months, should have resumed production in the past few days, but its restart will be delayed for a few more weeks due to scrap procurement issues.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing

Steel Market Production Increases – Mechel, the Russia-based metal and mining company, has resumed the operations at three out of its four mills in Romania, and production at the remaining plant, Targoviste is due to restart on February 27^th.

Steel Market Production Increases – Vallourec SA is nearing completion of its new 500,000 tpy seamless pipe mill in Youngstown, Ohio, with the mill on schedule to restart commercial production this summer as it ramps up to the targeted capacity.

Steel Market Production Increases – Vietnam’s SSE Steel is defying difficult market conditions to bet on the future of the construction sector in Vietnam by adding 350,000 tpy of new rebar and wire rod capacity by the end of 2012.

Sources: American Metal Market and Steel Business Briefing.

After falling to a 10-week low of 49% last week, our Advance/Decliner Index rebounded to 66% as steel prices strengthened in the MENA region on the back of higher scrap prices, pushing our Ex-China Index up to 71% from 50%.

Our China Index remained mostly stable at 50%, compared with 46% the week prior.  The Chinese market is still treading water – with some increases here and there, but just as many decreases.  We suspect the usual post-holiday pickup is not yet appearing largely because the holidays were so early this year and winter is still blunting construction demand.

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The American Institute of Architects’ ABI Index – a leading economic indicator of non-residential construction activity 9-12 months into the future –  remained above 50 in January, coming in at 50.9, virtually unchanged from 51.0 in December, and the first three-month string of readings above 50 since last spring.  The reading above 50 means the number of architects reporting “rising billings” outpaced the number reporting “declining billings.”

The new inquiries index remained near a four and a half year high at 61.2, while six out of the eight sub-indices posted readings above the 50 mark, indicative of billings growth.

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January global steel production rose a less than seasonally normal 0.9% to 116.7 million tonnes (mt), compared with the typical monthly gain of 2.5%, as Chinese production fell by 0.2% and output in South Korea dropped 13.9%.  Production was down some 7.8% compared with year-ago levels as production in Asia and the EU were down some 11.4% and 5.6%, respectively, with China posting the largest year-on-year decline – at 13.0% – since October 2008.

Production in the EU rose a seasonally-normal 11.9% driving the overall gain, while US production increased for the third straight month to the highest level since September 2008.

Korea also posted a significant year-over-year decline of 9.6%, which was unexpected given the additional steelmaking capacity Korean steelmakers have brought online.  The decline is good news for the US market which saw a 39% increase in imports from Korea in 2011.

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