Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 3, 2014
Most everyone is well aware that this week is one of those crazy weeks for me personally. I am teaching a portion of our Steel 101 workshop here in Mobile (weather is indeed warm), went on a marvelous mill tour of the SSAB steel mill and spent time networking with our attendees, instructors and SSAB representatives.
This doesn’t leave me much time to go out and canvass the market on a one-on-one basis as I usually do. Even so, we have a new flat rolled steel market survey ongoing and we are already picking up changes to trends through our invitations to those taking our surveys. At the moment we will continue to leave our Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral even though we are seeing prices trending a little lower over the past couple of weeks.
I will be in Tampa on Thursday and Friday attending the Port of Tampa Steel Conference.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final Thoughts
A short tour of key dates in the Nippon/USS deal, and what the future might hold.
Final Thoughts
I sort of expected big news last Friday and over the long, Memorial Day weekend. Because that's become more the norm than the exception for steel this year. Sure enough, Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday afternoon that he had given his blessing to a “partnership” between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel. And then over the weekend we had market moving new on tariffs, this time involving the EU.
Final Thoughts
We're going to have to wait a bit longer for the final outcome of the Nippon/USS deal.
Final Thoughts
Sure, demand isn’t as good the market had hoped it would be earlier this year. But assuming it doesn’t fall of a cliff, buyers will have to restock at some point. And that might give domestic mills enough leverage to raise prices again.
Final Thoughts
While I would anticipate market sentiment to pivot and improve if all the questions around tariffs were answered, that still leaves us with a few other factors.