Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

Written by John Packard


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

Latest in Final Thoughts

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.