Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
December 4, 2013
My apologies to our readers – As we prepared this evening’s newsletter we discovered that we had a bug in our new website which created a problem with the “Read Full Text” link in the newsletter. The link was not taking us to the correct place to allow us to read the full newsletter and have access to the interactive graphics contained in the newsletter. The repair was made late this evening and the Read Full Text link is now working properly.
There is a second way to read the full text of the newsletter should this ever become an issue again (or when you go directly to the website). If you go to the website Home Page and log in and then hover over the Newsletter tab it will display a drop down menu. One of the items on the menu will be Executive Archives. Click on that tab and the very first item will be tonight’s newsletter. You can read it top to bottom from there.
We tried to point out the interactive graphics in tonight’s newsletter so you are at least aware of when you are missing something. The interactive graphics are on our new website and do not work when sent out over email. If you have not done so already, please spend a few minutes to log into the website and play with the graphics.
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Nature threw us a curve today (Thursday) as I attempted to fly from Atlanta to LaGuardia in New York City. As I listened to the various airlines cancelling flights all around me I had a sinking feeling that I wasn’t going to make the lunch, cocktails or dinner that I was suppose to attend. My inability to get to New York has also impacted my agenda for Friday. My apologies to the many folks with whom I was supposed to meet either this evening or tomorrow. I will rebook my trip to New York very soon.
Now I have to just hope the weather is better in Phoenix and the planes are running on time. I think the presentation I am doing for HARDI will be interesting to those in attendance.
As always we thank you for your business which is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
Sincerely,
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs is seeking $750 per short ton (st) for hot-rolled coil. That’s $20/st above where the steelmaker had been. It’s also $30/st above Nucor, which is at $720/st this week. We've seen prices increase incrementally this week. SMU's HR price, for example, stands at $690/st on average, up $5/st from last week. The questions now are whether a number well above $700/st will stick, whether other mills will follow Cliffs, and whether there is enough demand to support higher prices.
Final thoughts
We got a little flack for adjusting our sheet momentum indicators to neutral last week. To be clear, we didn’t adjust them to lower. Part of the reason we moved them to neutral was because there are some unusual cross-currents in the current market. On the news side, you could make a case that there should nowhere to go but up.
Final thoughts
I think all of us know that sometimes courtships go wrong. A misplaced word or deed and soon things can go sideways, and not in the prices sense. Such could be the case with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel’s play for U.S. Steel.
Final thoughts
We’re starting to see some impacts of the big trade case filed last week against imports of coated flat-rolled steel from 10 nations. Namely, we’ve heard that a range of traders have stopped offering material from Vietnam. An alleged dumping margin of nearly 160% will do that. Especially amid chatter of critical circumstances.
Final thoughts
The phrase “political football” has been tossed around a lot lately. (Pun probably intended.) For the humble journalists at SMU who thought the week following Steel Summit would prove a quiet one… the news cycle had other ideas