Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 16, 2014
On Monday we will begin our next flat rolled steel market analysis. We will be sending out approximately 600 invitations to participate in our survey. If you receive an invitation please click on the link contained in the message and spend a few minutes responding to our inquiries.
The ArcelorMittal Cleveland C-5 blast furnace is supposed to come back online this week. We also expect to see improvements out of Great Lakes as their steelmaking operations started up on Tuesday of this past week. It normally takes anywhere from a few days to up to a couple of weeks to get furnaces and the BOP back up and running efficiently.
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As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final Thoughts
Now that the USS/Nippon deal has been completed, what's next?
Final Thoughts
Getting back to the price increases I mentioned at the top of this article, to what extent are they aimed at raising prices and to what extent are they aimed at stopping the bleeding that was happening in the second half of May, before President Trump announced the 50% tariff?
Final Thoughts
We just wrapped another Steel 101 Workshop, where you take what you learned in the classroom into the steel mill.
Final Thoughts
Steel equities and steel futures fell hard after news broke earlier this week that the US and Mexico might reach an agreement that would result in the 50% Section 232 tariff coming off Mexican steel. The sharp declines didn’t make much sense, especially if, as some reports indicate, Mexico might agree to a fixed quota. They didn't make sense even if steel flows between the US and Mexico remain unchanged.
Final Thoughts
Even before the news about Mexico, I didn’t want to overstate the magnitude of the change in momentum. As far as we could tell, there hadn’t been a frenzy of new ordering following President Trump’s announcement of 50% Section 232 tariffs. But higher tariffs had unquestionably raised prices for imports, which typically provide the floor for domestic pricing. We’d heard, for example, that prices below $800 per short ton for hot-rolled (HR) coil were gone from the domestic market – even for larger buyers.