Steel prices in US increase
Sunday, 2 August 2009
NEW YORK, AUGUST 1 (Bloomberg): Steel prices in the US rose 13 per cent in July, the first gain in a year, after distributors began restocking their inventories.
The average price of hot-rolled steel sheet, the benchmark product used in cars and appliances, increased to $430 a ton from $380 in June, Purchasing magazine said today in a monthly update. Cold-rolled sheet climbed 11 per cent to $517 a ton.
"The falloff in steel consumption has likely reached a trough for the current business cycle and should start to recover gradually-albeit from very low levels-in the second half," the magazine said today. "Improvement is coming from restocking by the service centers of severely depleted inventories and not bookings for end-use manufacturing."
US Steel Corp.'s orders for flat-rolled steel have improved since bottoming in April and May, and mill operating rates may exceed 50 per cent in the current quarter, up from 32 per cent in the prior period, Chief Executive Officer John Surma said on a July 28 call with analysts. Pittsburgh-based US Steel is the country's largest producer of the industrial metal.
A drop in manufacturing and concern about future growth prompted steel-products distributors to let inventories decline to levels that could not service actual demand, Nucor Corp. Chief Executive Officer Dan DiMicco said last week. Nucor is the second-largest US steelmaker by 2008 sales.
The average price of hot-rolled steel sheet, the benchmark product used in cars and appliances, increased to $430 a ton from $380 in June, Purchasing magazine said today in a monthly update. Cold-rolled sheet climbed 11 per cent to $517 a ton.
"The falloff in steel consumption has likely reached a trough for the current business cycle and should start to recover gradually-albeit from very low levels-in the second half," the magazine said today. "Improvement is coming from restocking by the service centers of severely depleted inventories and not bookings for end-use manufacturing."
US Steel Corp.'s orders for flat-rolled steel have improved since bottoming in April and May, and mill operating rates may exceed 50 per cent in the current quarter, up from 32 per cent in the prior period, Chief Executive Officer John Surma said on a July 28 call with analysts. Pittsburgh-based US Steel is the country's largest producer of the industrial metal.
A drop in manufacturing and concern about future growth prompted steel-products distributors to let inventories decline to levels that could not service actual demand, Nucor Corp. Chief Executive Officer Dan DiMicco said last week. Nucor is the second-largest US steelmaker by 2008 sales.