Iron ore miners have suffered for a while. Cheap imports and global steelmaking overcapacity have dragged down prices for domestically manufactured steel, thereby reducing demand for iron ore. However, the industry is expected to see robust growth through 2023 for three reasons.
April 22, 2019The aluminum industry is looking up. Historically low aluminum prices have finally risen due to the effect of the US government’s tariffs on imported primary aluminum. However, the future of the industry may not be quite so bright if the tariffs are repealed.
April 10, 2019The July 2018 rollback of the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards has roused debate, but any change that occurs is likely to be minimal at best.
February 22, 2019Roy Amara once said, “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run”. In the machine tool market, additive manufacturing promises to be revolutionary, enabling the production of parts that would be nigh-impossible to create with conventional machine tools. How is additive manufacturing going to impact the types of parts and profitability of machine shops in the future?
February 22, 2019The fabricated metal products industry is one of many targeted in the Trump administration’s recently imposed tariffs, and like other industries, the potential outcomes are largely unknown. Retaliatory tariffs are mounting. Will the smaller actors in the US fabricated metal products industry maximize their capabilities and expand to meet rising demand?
August 15, 2018Aerospace equipment shipments are projected to see growth through 2022. However, as these aircraft are increasingly designed with lighter composite materials, metal service centers may have trouble adapting to this decline in demand from aircraft producers.
June 20, 2018Despite projected minimal declines in demand, US production of potash is set to expand to more than double the production levels seen in 2017 over the next five years as US firms expand. This development is timely, as the US government recently listed potash as crucial to economic and national security.
June 20, 2018As the US phosphate rock market grows more consolidated each year, new firms find it increasingly difficult to overcome barriers to entry.
May 7, 2018Despite historic declines in coal production volumes, coal mining represented the largest market for explosives in 2016. Although it never came into effect, the announcement of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, among other regulations, encouraged a shift away from coal and towards cleaner, cheaper alternatives like natural gas. However, with the change to the Trump administration came promises to roll back these proposed restrictions an d potentially increase demand for coal, which would boost sales of explosives to the coal mining industry.
November 6, 2017US lime demand is forecast to reach 18.9 million metric tons in 2021. Rising manufacturing output and construction activity will support lime consumption.
October 16, 2017