Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

Written by John Packard

November 18, 2013

I have a question for our members – I have just received the new bill for what it will cost me to publish the CRU indices in our Sunday night comparison of various indexes. Before I agree to pay what I believe to be an excessive amount for the right to publish their numbers I would like to hear from our members as to the value of our CPI (Comparison Price Indices) articles and the value of having the CRU hot rolled and cold rolled numbers in our newsletter. If you would like for us to continue to provide CRU indices please send me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.

One of the things we are considering is moving the money invested in CRU to China and for us to provide Chinese prices and more analysis on the Asian markets on a weekly basis. If you would like to see SMU provide data and analysis in our newsletter and website on the Chinese markets please send me an email.

We are starting to get feedback from those of you who have taken the time (and effort) to go to the new website and sign in for the first time. The website is much different than our old site and there are a lot more toys to play with – for both you and us. It will take some time for us to get used to using the site and then maximizing what we have available.  For example, we have our own survey software (separate from that shown on the front of the website) which will allow us to embed surveys in our newsletter and/or website. Once we figure out how to use it – we will.

We are working on instruction videos to try to make the transition easier – for both you and us.

Diana has become the in-house expert on getting people logged into the website and showing them how to use the website. We would be very happy to assist any of our members as you search for data and try to make sense out of what we have to offer.

I know that there were a number of people who got to see the website change as we added articles.  Almost every article in tonight’s newsletter was available on the front of the website prior to 5:30 PM ET.

Again, we encourage each and every one of you to log into the website and reset your password. We will continue to send out the full newsletter but only for a limited period of time.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me or my staff at 800-432-3475 or by email: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com

As always your business is truly appreciated.

John Packard

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Final Thoughts

As Wolfe Research’s Timna Tanner put it in her opening talk at Tampa on Monday afternoon, we’re living in a world of “Trumplications” now. That probably means – at least in the short term – higher scrap costs, lower imports from countries hit with or threated tariffs, and higher steel prices. SMU data reflects that. Scrap went up in January. More than 75% of the respondents to our more recent survey expect scrap to go up again February, maybe by a lot. Lead times, meanwhile, have been ticking upward this month. It started with hot-rolled coil and plate earlier this month. Now we’re seeing coated lead times extending too.