Mechanical tubing has been at its lowest point in years, but some signs indicate the market could be ready for a rebound. (Photo by Industrial Tube & Steel)

Momentum continues into 2024, with 12 service center M&A deals completed in the U.S. and Canada in the first half of 2024, and on track to eclipse the total (22) for 2023.

Gene Marks doesn’t know if there will be a recession in the next 12 months. He’s not an economist, so he can only help you prepare in case one happens. (To be a fair, there’s a good chance the economist doesn’t know either).

The plate market has outpaced most other carbon steel markets in 2023. Supply chain participants hope federal spending keeps it humming along.

Hybar, a newly formed company, has raised $700 million of debt and equity financing to build, start up and operate a technologically advanced, environmentally sustainable scrap metal recycling steel rebar mill. Hybar plans to produce 630,000 tons of rebar annually.

Nucor Corp., will build its second utility structure production facility in Crawfordsville, Ind. Earlier this year the company announced plans to build its first structure production facility in Decatur, Ala. The new facility will be located adjacent to the Nucor Steel Crawfordsville steel mill.

Strong backlogs and government spending are among the factors that have kept the market for heavy equipment robust through the middle of 2023.

The American Iron and Steel Institute applauded the introduction of the Leveling the Playing Field Act 2.0. The bill is bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Todd Young (R-IN), and in the House by Reps. Bill Johnson (R-OH) and Terri Sewell (D-AL).

The matching pair of federal projects, the IIJA and IRA, will pave the way for growth in infrastructure spending for the next few years.

It is, on the surface, incredibly promising. Manufacturing, for years seen as an economic artifact by our country’s political leaders, is once again viewed as not just a necessary sector, but a vital one.

Though headwinds persist, most notably in the dual-pronged elements of high interest rates and stubborn inflation, the steel industry will navigate through 2023 relatively well.

In testimony before Congress, American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear urged lawmakers to take steps to exercise oversight over the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, ensuring that taxpayers and the supply chain get the maximum return on the $1.2 trillion of investment the legislation provides.

After two tumultuous years in the metals space, 2022 approached the more traditional conditions of the past.

Demand and pricing for steel plate have held up well through the first half. The latter may start to dip ?even if consumption remains solid.

Society is clamoring for certain facilities to be built, while other sectors have grown out of favor – at least for now.

It’s coming up on six months since the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden. Yet how it’s going to play out remains something of a mystery to many.

The White House issued guidance to federal agencies on the application of Buy America preferences in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The guidance requires all agencies to ensure by May 14 that all iron and steel used in the project must be produced in the United States.

Commercial Metals Company, Irving, Texas, will build a new micro mill in the Eastern United States. The mill will be constructed to serve the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern markets.