Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 17, 2014
A busy past 24 hours in the steel industry as the steel mills begin to make moves to stop the downward spiral in prices. As is our norm, Steel Market Update adjusted our SMU Price Momentum Indicator from Lower to Neutral. This is something we have done when the steel mills as a group go out to the market and attempt to move flat rolled steel prices. We do not want to be viewed as hindering their attempt and we will evaluate their progress and adjust our indicator as to what we believe to be the appropriate direction prices will move over the coming 30-60 day time period. At this point, we do not think the increase is a slam dunk in favor of the steel mills.
I have been following a story regarding paint price increases out of Valspar and most recently AKZO Nobel. The two companies have announced a 4 percent price increase which is being challenged by many in the paint community (Valspar and AKZO may disagree with me). The increases are not to be collected until later this spring so we will continue to follow this story. If you have information which you would like to share on the topic please contact me at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or by phone at: 800-432-3475.
During my conversation with one of the mill rep’s I spoke with today – the subject of dumping suits came up (as in not yet filed). This mill rep was sure that there will be cold rolled dumping suits filed (soon) against China. This rep also felt it was only a matter of time on coated products. However, in a separate conversation with one of my sources I heard that one of the big mills is not going to support a dumping suit on coated products.
I want to take a moment to welcome our newest member companies to Steel Market Update. We thank you for joining our little group of fired up companies and I encourage you to interact with myself and my team. If you have items of interest, want to suggest a topic for us to cover or want to make a suggestion which you think will make us a better company – by all means do so. I can be reached by email at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and the company in general is: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
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John Packard, Publisher
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!