Banner
Service Centers
Wednesday | 13 August, 2014 | 10:14 am

Major distributor/processor sees metals demand, pricing strengthen

Written by By Corinna Petry

August 13, 2014 - After a long string of steel sheet price increases failed to hold in recent years, the resilience of elevated 2014 pricing has caught some market participants by surprise.

That staying power has been supported by improved demand, according to Olympic Steel Inc. Chairman and CEO Michael Siegal.

“Market conditions in 2014 feel much more like those of an expanding economy rather than the sputtering economy we have experienced in recent years,” he said during an Aug. 7 earnings call.

Doug Handler, chief economist for IHS Global Insight, a Lexington, Mass.-based consultancy, issued an Aug. 13 report titled “That Rebound We’ve Been Talking About? It’s Here.” In it he cites that U.S. gross domestic product expanded by 4 percent during the second quarter.

“To get a better handle on the true underlying growth rate of the economy, we can look at real final sales to domestic purchasers, a metric that excludes the sharp trade and inventory fluctuations that drove much of this [prior] volatility, and completely dismiss the first quarter as an aberration due in part to the weather,” Handler says.

Olympic, challenged during first quarter by harsh weather and supply disruptions, reported its highest quarterly sales level ever April through June.

We’re seeing demand growth across a wide spectrum of our customer base led by industrial machinery and heavy equipment manufacturers,” said Siegal. “Our customers tell us they are optimistic going into the second half and steel producers announced another price increase in late June.”

Regarding aluminum sales, “we’re seeing increased activity in the automotive sector ...  supplying to Tier II and Tier III auto stampers. We believe the lightweighting trend has staying power and the relative proportion of aluminum content in vehicles will increase in future model designs,” Siegal predicted.

Separately, the tube and pipe business recorded increased sales and volumes through the first half and expects pricing will catch up in the second half.

Olympic shipped 17 percent more flat-rolled products in second quarter 2014 vs. a year ago, the highest volume quarter for such products since early 2008. Volume was up 10 percent through the first half of this year.

“Steel prices have been buoyant all year due in part to strength in underlying demand. We’re hearing from a number of our customers that they are optimistic, which reinforces our belief that the economy is finally entering a period of sustainable growth,” Olympic President and COO David Wolfort said.

The only metals consuming markets in which demand is weak are defense and other government spending, and mining, according to Siegal. 

Banner

Company Profiles

AIR FILTRATION

DEBURRING/FINISHING

NESTING SOFTWARE

SOFTWARE

Camfil APC - Equipment

ARKU

ATI Industrial Automation

4GL Solutions

Metamation Inc.

 Lissmac Corp. NICKEL ALLOY  Enmark Systems Inc.
Camfil APC - Replacement Filters  Osborn Sandmeyer Steel Company  Lantek Systems Inc.
Supermax Tools

PLASMA TECHNOLOGY

SigmaTEK Systems LLC

ALUMINUM

Timesavers
Messer Cutting Systems Inc.
Richardson Metals, Inc.

 

IDENTIFICATION/TRACKING

InfoSight

PLATE

BEVELING

Churchill Steel Plate
Steelmax Tools LLC

IRONWORKERS

Peddinghaus

STAINLESS STEEL

    Sandmeyer Steel Company  

COIL PROCESSING

Trilogy Machinery Inc.

PLATE & ANGLE ROLLS

Heyco Metals

Sandmeyer Steel Company

ANDRITZ Metals USA Inc.

LASER TECHNOLOGY

Trilogy Machinery Inc.

STEEL

Braner USA Inc. AMADA AMERICA Inc.

PRESS BRAKE TOOLING

Alliance Steel
Burghardt + Schmidt Group MC Machinery Systems Inc. Rolleri USA North American Steel Alliance
Butech Bliss TRUMPF Inc.

PRESS BRAKES

TITANIUM

Red Bud Industries

MATERIAL HANDLING

MC Machinery Systems Inc.

Sandmeyer Steel Company

InfoSight

The Bradbury Group EMH Crane

PUNCHING

TUBE & PIPE

Tishken Fehr Warehouse Solutions Inc. Hougen Manufacturing BLM Group

CONVEYOR SYSTEMS

Steel Storage Systems

SAWING

HGG Profiling Equipment Inc.
      National Tube Supply
Mayfran International UFP Industrial Advanced Machine & Engineering Prudential Stainless & Alloys

COPPER & BRASS

MEASUREMENT & QUALITY CONTROL

Behringer Saws Inc.

WATERJET TECHNOLOGY

Concast Metal Products Co. Advanced Gauging Technologies Cosen Saws Barton International
Copper and Brass Servicenter Association

METAL FABRICATING MACHINERY

DoALL Sawing Products Jet Edge Waterjet Systems
Farmers Copper Cincinnati Inc. HE&M Saw Omax Corp.
  LVD Strippit Savage Saws

ZINC

  Scotchman Industries

SERVICE CENTERS

Jarden Zinc Products
  Trilogy Machinery Inc. Admiral Steel  
    Alliance Steel  

TPMG2022 Brands


BPA_WW_MASTER.jpg