Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 3, 2014
We are finally back to a full “normal” week and we should be able to gather much better market intelligence as we begin our next flat rolled market analysis with our survey invitations going out at 8 AM ET on Monday morning. Most buyers should be back in their offices on Monday so we anticipate we will be busy talking to the steel community to see where prices, demand, lead times and other import market trends are headed.
This week is also a good time to contact us regarding any interest you, or your company, may have in sending one or more of your people to our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking and Market Fundamentals workshop in Mobile, Alabama on February 4 & 5, 2014. The workshop will include a tour of the SSAB plate and hot rolled mini-mill located just outside of Mobile. Full details can be found on our website in the Events section or just click on the link provided here.
For those of you who have just returned from an extended Holiday – welcome back and Happy New Year.
As always we want to take a moment to thank our members as both your business and your kind words and recommendations to others regarding SMU are greatly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard
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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?
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.
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.
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).
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!