New Report Preview:
Overnight, Baosteel surprised the market by keeping November prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled coil (CRC) unchanged from October despite spot price …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
New Report Preview:
According to just-published data from American Metal Market (AMM), October prices for shredded scrap (obsolete) and #1 busheling (prime) scrap plunged….more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
For the week ending October 6, 2012, weekly domestic raw steel production declined 1.3% to 1.757 million tons (mt), the second consecutive week at the lowest level since January 2011.
We would caution readers that only half of the AISI reporting companies release their weekly production in “real time” so the other half of this data is estimated using the last month’s reported production & operating rate. What this means is that when production is changing, the weekly data is actually understating the change.
Capacity utilization fell again to 71.1% this week, below last week’s 72.0% and like production, is at the lowest level since January 2011.
The lowest production level since the recession began was 800,000 tons for the week of December 27, 2008, while the highest level was 2.005 mt for the week of May 12, 2012. The lowest capacity utilization rate since the recession began was 33.5% for the week of December 27, 2008; the highest was 81.1% on May 12, 2012.
Source: AISI and Steel Market Intelligence
New Report Preview:
No More Good News? The September Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Steel Survey may actually be the worst report we have seen, as even the green shoots we …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian pipe-maker Interpipe stated that the new 1.32 mtpy Dneprostal EAF plant has been started up and is going to be the largest EAF in Eastern Europe.
Steel Market Production Increases – Ukrainian steelmaker Industrial Union of Donbass aims to increase output at the Alchevsk subsidiary by 13% in October for rolled steel and 11% for crude, to 310,000 tpy and 345,000 tpy respectively.
Steel Market Production Cuts – Wisconsin-based Charter Steel announced a maintenance outage at the 650,000 tpy Cleveland plant from Nov. 16 through Dec. 3 to upgrade the EAF.
Steel Market Production Increases – Russian pig iron manufacturer Kosaya Gora Iron Works announced plans to restart the 360,000 tpy No. 3 blast furnace sometime in 1H13.
Steel Market Production Increases – The equipment manufacturing arm of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) began operations at a new 100,000 tpy OCTG line pipe mill in September.
Steel Market Production Increases – Italian steelmaker ABS, a subsidiary of Danieli, announced that the Sisak, Croatia mill’s EAF will be restarted in November. The mill was purchased from Commercial Metals Company in June.
Sources: Steel Business Briefing, SteelOrbis, American Metal Market
New Report Preview:
With domestic steel production dropping to a 20-month low in the past week (and keeping in mind that the “weekly” production data is about half the prior month so trend …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
New Report Preview:
Our Advance/Decliner Index fell on broad-based weakening last week, as the frothy ebullience from both Chinese and domestic stimulus announcements lifted and …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
New Report Preview:
September import licenses dropped a healthy 3.4% from August, with sheet imports bucking the trend, up 16% to 611,000 tonnes with hot-rolled (including coiled plate) rising …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
The spot reference price for 62% Fe iron ore cfr North China fell 2.1% to $104.20/tonne for the week ending September 28, 2012 from $106.4 last week. The recent high was $149.4 on 4/13/2012 and the recent low was $89.0 on 9/7/2012.
For the first quarter of 2012, the spot price for iron ore averaged $141.84, and for 2Q, $139.35; this compares to an average of $176.90 for 1H 2011 and $167.59 for full-year 2011.
The post-recession low was $59.10 on March 27, 2009, while the high was $190.19 on February 17, 2011.
Source: The Steel Index
New Report Preview:
Our Advance/Decliner Index jumped to a six-week high as a surge of pricing strength drove our China Index to the highest level since August 2011. Spot hot-rolled coil (HRC) …more
For a copy of our full report and a free trial subscription, please contact us.
