Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 14, 2014
Steel Market Update will conduct our mid-February flat rolled steel market analysis beginning on Monday morning at 8 AM ET. We encourage those who receive an invitation to participate in our survey to click on the link and spend five minutes answering our inquiries about market conditions, demand, inventories, foreign steel and steel pricing. All information collected is confidential and we do not identify any of our contributors. If you would like to become a contributor to our twice monthly market survey please send me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Our next Steel 101 is open for registration. The workshop will be held in Dearborn, Michigan and we will tour the Severstal Dearborn steel mill. Contact me if you have any questions about the workshop. I can be reached at: 800-432-3475.
I am in the office all week this week after traveling for most of the past two weeks.
As always we thank you for your business as it is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update. Please tell your friends about us.
John Packard, Publisher
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Final Thoughts
Can technology help with pig iron and DRI/HBI tariffs?

Final Thoughts
Tariff-related noise aside, there is one basic factor keeping buyers on the sidelines. Despite recent declines, HR prices remain at historically high levels. And there is no obvious support to keep them there.

Final Thoughts
United Airlines raised eyebrows earlier this month when it provided two forecasts for 2025 – one assuming a relatively stable economy and another assuming a recession. The reason? Uncertainty around the impact of President Trump’s policy shocks on the broader economy. And it sometimes feels like we’re seeing a battle between those two narratives (stable vs recession) play out within in the pages of this newsletter.

Final Thoughts
Despite some scary headlines lately (especially about Trump potentially firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell) this is not October 2008 (financial crisis) or March 2020 (onset of the pandemic). But it sure seems like we’ve taken a relatively strong economy and poured a thick sauce of uncertainty over it.

Final Thoughts
I put some of our survey data through ChatGpt, with interesting results.