Today’s hot topic in the steel industry is carbon emissions and the First River Steel Data Room has the data you are looking for. With information sourced from Investing.com, the Steel Data Room dataset “Historical Futures Contract Settlement Prices” contains futures prices daily from the Nymex exchange for European Union ETS carbon allowances for the period July, 2008 to the present.
ETS carbon emissions futures rose from €31 per metric tonne on December 21st, 2020 to €74 per metric tonne yesterday, an increase of 141%. Looking for other pricing information on steel and steelmaking input costs? The same dataset has futures prices for products from natural gas to scrap to rebar and hot rolled coil, all published daily, allowing your charts and dashboards to automatically update.
Based on reported import licenses, US long products imports increased 55% year-on-year from 225,000 short tons in November, 2020 to 348,000 tons in November, 2021. Licenses indicate that the rise was mainly due to higher rebar imports from Algeria, Mexico, and Portugal, as well as higher wire rod imports again from Algeria and Mexico. Licenses also indicate that parallel flange sections imports rose significantly from South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.
US long products imports in the first eleven months of 2021 were 35% higher than in the same period last year with the largest import volumes rising from wire rod (+54%) and rebar (+21%).
US long products import licenses
January 2015 to November 2021
Short tons
“First work train rides over new tracks leading from the 63rd st station on the Second Avenue Subway Project.”, New York 2015, by Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports rose 118% from 468,000 short tons in November, 2020 to 1,018,000 tons in November, 2021. The increase was mainly due to higher hot rolled imports from Japan, the Netherlands, Canada and Mexico. Hot dip galvanized imports also rose significantly from Vietnam and Turkey.
Flat products imports in the first eleven months of 2021 were 66% higher than in the same period last year. Comparing 2021 to 2020, imports of hot rolled rose 116%, imports of cut plate increased 66%, imports of cold rolled rose 34%, and imports of hot dip galvanized rose 29%.
US flat products import licenses
January 2014 to November 2021
Short tons
HDG steel storage at Novolipetsk (NLMK Group) from Worldsteel Image Library by worldsteel / Robert Kolykhalov
Worldsteel reported crude steel production in China at 71.6 million metric tonnes in October, 23% lower than in October 2020. Chinese crude steel production in the first ten months of 2021 was 2% lower than in the first ten months of 2020.
Data from China’s General Administration of Customs show net finished steel exports (exports minus imports) in October at 3.4 million tonnes, 60% higher than in October 2020. Net finished steel exports in the first ten months of 2021 were 67% higher than in the first ten months of 2020.
China produced 71.6 million tonnes in October, accounting for 49% of world output and falling 23.3% on October 2020. In other parts of Asia, Indian steel production rose 2.4% on last October, Japanese output rose 14.3%, but South Korean production fell 1.0%.
European Union 27 crude steel production rose 6.4% on last October following a 7.0% increase in Germany. North American production rose 16.9% with US output up 20.5%. Other significant changes compared to last October include a 15.3% drop in Iran, a 10.4% increase in Brazil, and an 8.0% rise in Turkey.
Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports rose 96% from 513,000 short tons in October, 2020 to 1,006,000 tons in October, 2021. The increase was mainly due to higher hot rolled imports from Turkey, Canada and Mexico. Imports of all other flat products categories rose on October, 2020, with cut plate up 141%, cold rolled up 52%, and hot dip galvanized up 45%.
Flat products imports in the first ten months of 2021 were 58% higher than in the same period last year. Comparing 2021 to 2020, imports of hot rolled rose 104%, imports of cut plate increased 67%, imports of cold rolled rose 29%, and imports of hot dip galvanized rose 22%.
US flat products import licenses
January 2014 to October 2021
Short tons
“Ex-CP and now Takargo owned 1552 built by MLW (Montreal Locomotive Works) roaring under hot summer sun with a heavy steel coil train from Setúbal harbor to Siderurgia Nacional.” by Nelso Silva from Porto, Portugal, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
