Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 20, 2014
Hello from Orlando where the weather is sunny with temperatures in the low 80’s… Come to think of it I believe today is the first day of spring – and it couldn’t have come at a better time. One of the complaints being picked up in this week’s steel survey has been the impact the nasty weather has had on business during the months of January and February. However, many believe there is pent up demand in the wings and business will improve.
I spoke with the top executive of a medium size service center who told me their customers were placing order like crazy. His company is being led to believe that there is much more business coming in the 2nd and early 3rd Quarter than there has been over the first three months of 2014.
With the exception of AK Steel, who this evening came out with an increase on hot rolled but nothing on cold rolled or coated (where they have nothing to sell into the spot market anyway), just about all of the domestic mills that make pubic or semi-public announcements have followed the ArcelorMittal lead and have come out with price increases. The numbers are all either exactly the same or very similar with hot rolled base prices being referenced at $660 per ton ($33.00/cwt) and cold rolled and coated steels being referenced at $790 base ($39.50/cwt) plus applicable extras. As mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, AK Steel has not yet made a move even though they have literally no spot tonnage to sell.
On Sunday I will have an article about the potential “unintended consequences” related to this attempt to push prices at this time.
I am in Orlando to participate in the Association of Steel Distributors annual conference. This afternoon I was speaking with James Barnett of Grand Steel Products about one of their employees who had attended our Steel 101 workshop almost two years ago on his very first day on the job. Mr. Barnett told me the employee is doing very well and is an asset to their company.
The next two day workshop will be conducted in Dearborn, Michigan at The Henry Hotel and will include a tour of the fully integrated Severstal Dearborn steel mill. There is no finer way of learning about the steel making process than to interact with John Eckstein and Peter Wright (both metallurgists) as well as Steve Painter prior to going on an exceptional mill tour. We have toured the Severstal Dearborn facility before and they do an excellent job of reinforcing what our workshop attendees learn in the morning. You can get more information about our Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking and Market Fundamentals workshop on our website or feel free to contact our offices at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or by phone: 800-432-3475.
As always your business is truly 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!