Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
April 2, 2014
For those of you paying attention to our website you are aware that we published an article first thing this morning about the US Steel Gary Works announcement. As we have mentioned in the past, one of the goals of the new website is to be able to get breaking news to our readers as quickly and efficiently as possible. My recommendation would be to stop by the website a couple times during the day to see if there are articles and/or blogs being posted that may impact your business or decision-making process.
This brings me to our blog posts – we are posting material which we feel is relevant to the industry and many times we will post items which are not included in our newsletters. So, when you do stop by the website take a gander at the rolling headlines (latest news) as well as our most recent blog posts which can be found in the left hand column on the home page or you can click on the “Blog” tab in the toolbar.
There should be plenty of content in tonight’s issue to spark a few debates within your office and within the industry. If you are a steel mill how do you react to what is happening at US Steel (and AK Steel for that matter). What do you think the mills will do? If you are an end user or steel buyer – how are you reacting to the challenges on your doorstep (or close at hand)? If you are a service center, are you pushing prices higher right now or providing some relief to your customers?
If you would like to include us in the debate please do not hesitate to send us your questions, comments or letters to the editor. You can reach us at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
To our Premium Level free trial members: Do you have any questions you would like to ask me? Feel free to contact me at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com – or you are welcome to call my office: 800-432-3475. We want to earn your business whether you opt for our Premium, Executive or Monthly experience.
John Packard
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Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs is seeking $750 per short ton (st) for hot-rolled coil. That’s $20/st above where the steelmaker had been. It’s also $30/st above Nucor, which is at $720/st this week. We've seen prices increase incrementally this week. SMU's HR price, for example, stands at $690/st on average, up $5/st from last week. The questions now are whether a number well above $700/st will stick, whether other mills will follow Cliffs, and whether there is enough demand to support higher prices.
Final thoughts
We got a little flack for adjusting our sheet momentum indicators to neutral last week. To be clear, we didn’t adjust them to lower. Part of the reason we moved them to neutral was because there are some unusual cross-currents in the current market. On the news side, you could make a case that there should nowhere to go but up.
Final thoughts
I think all of us know that sometimes courtships go wrong. A misplaced word or deed and soon things can go sideways, and not in the prices sense. Such could be the case with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel’s play for U.S. Steel.
Final thoughts
We’re starting to see some impacts of the big trade case filed last week against imports of coated flat-rolled steel from 10 nations. Namely, we’ve heard that a range of traders have stopped offering material from Vietnam. An alleged dumping margin of nearly 160% will do that. Especially amid chatter of critical circumstances.
Final thoughts
The phrase “political football” has been tossed around a lot lately. (Pun probably intended.) For the humble journalists at SMU who thought the week following Steel Summit would prove a quiet one… the news cycle had other ideas