Final Thoughts
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/media/k2/items/src/ceea1c7fab940e109aadfc32733906a2.jpg)
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
December 2, 2013
It is still early in the process of negotiations between the domestic steel mills and their scrap suppliers. The steel mills are trying to pay the same prices for ferrous scrap as they did during the month of November and the scrap dealers are having none of it. The scrap suppliers are asking for prices to rise by at least $20 per gross ton. The expectation is for the month to have a modest amount of tonnage sold and the projections are at up $10 to $20 numbers. We should have a better feel later this week.
We need to watch the markets carefully over the next few weeks to see if momentum and lead times continue to move in favor of the domestic mills. With cold rolled offers out of China into Houston at $34.00/cwt-$36.00/cwt effective the spread is there to take market share – at least from the mills who supply material along the coasts. Midwest mills may be temporarily isolated due to the close of navigation through the Great Lakes. Although barges can get up the river for April/May deliveries.
As John Temples mentions in his article about Events – registration is open for our Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals. You can find information on our website along with registration.
We published our fourth Monthly newsletter today and we will be publishing a Premium Supplement later this week.
SMU has tried to get the message across to all of our members – we need everyone – including the employees who are part of corporate accounts – to log into the new website, adjust your password and complete any missing information on the form presented to you the first time you attempt to log in. We assume you no longer have your user name and password (your old one will not work). Please contact our office in order to receive a new user name and password. Contact us at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher, Steel Market Update
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/john-packard.png)
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Featured_News_Icons/gears.png)
Final thoughts
SMU has heard from some larger buyers who have stepped back into the market to buy at prices that, if not at a bottom, they assess to be close to one. Is it enough to stretch out lead times and send prices upward again? Or do we continue to scrape along the mid-$600s per short ton (st) as we have been doing for most of the last month?
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Featured_News_Icons/gears.png)
Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Featured_News_Icons/gears.png)
Final thoughts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you add in some commentary from respected peers in the steel industry to those pictures, that may shoot you up to five thousand words, at least. In that spirit, we’ve added some snapshots from our market survey this week, along with some comments from market participants.
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Featured_News_Icons/gears.png)
Final thoughts
I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/SMU-Steel-Summit.png)
Final thoughts
There are just 40 days left until the 2024 SMU Steel Summit gets underway on Aug. 26 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. And I’m pleased to announce that it's official now: More than 1,000 people have registered to at attend! Another big development: The desktop version of the networking app for the event has officially launched!