Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 2, 2014
We will begin our beginning of May steel market survey early on Monday morning and will keep it open until Thursday afternoon of this week. If you receive an invitation, please take a moment to click on the link which will take you to SurveyMonkey.com which hosts our questionnaire. Those who participate in our survey will receive a link to a Power Point presentation which analyzes the results from this week and does a historical comparison where appropriate.
A reminder that I will be in Dearborn, Michigan the first three days of this week as we conduct our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals workshop. As mentioned previously we hope to conduct two more Steel 101 workshops this year. We are excited as we have added at least one new mill to our mix (and we hope two).
We have begun taking reservations for our Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution workshop which will be held on June 24 & 25, 2014 in Chicago at one of the CME Group buildings at 20 South Wacker Drive.
Just a note that we published a Premium Level supplement newsletter on Friday and our Monthly issue was published over the weekend. If any of our members would like to see a copy of our Monthly issue (it makes a great present for the CEO or CFO who don’t have the time to read all of our Executive issues) please send us a note and we will forward you the one we just published: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
As always we want to thank you for your business which is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher

John Packard
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Final Thoughts
Cliffs came tantalizing close to buying U.S. Steel in 2023. There were rumors in 2024 that Cliffs might buy NLMK USA before it ultimately purchased Stelco for $2.5 billion in November of last year. Who would have thought that asset sales would have been the focal point of discussion just six months later?

Final Thoughts
Given the news about tariffs and bringing back industries to the US, a brief look back in time may show how our economy changes with technological advances and the shifting economies of scale.

Final Thoughts
We’ve talked about tariffs ad nauseam for much of the year. And I’m afraid this topic isn’t going away anytime soon. There’s a feeling that the tariff “can” will just be kicked down the road again and again, and again.

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.