Final Thoughts

July 16, 2014

First thing I want to say is everyone needs to be aware that the market is plum full of rumors and half-truths. There are rumors about dumping suits, Severstal sale, pricing (going both ways) and more. When you hear something question the source, see if there is anything in writing or if the information can be confirmed independently. SMU is trying to be as careful as possible and if we repeat what we are hearing in the marketplace we will try to separate fact from rumor as best as we can.

I want to take a moment to thank those companies who have committed to be sponsors and assist us in defraying our costs to put on the 2014 Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. I want to thank our newest sponsors: Interlake Steamship Company which handles iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes and The Steel Market Development Institute which is part of the AISI and deals with the development of advanced high strength steels for the automotive industry, new steels for construction, containers and other industries. The SMDI will be joining our other sponsors: Alliance Steel, Magic Coil Products and the Kansas City Southern Railroad. We only have a few sponsorship positions left should you or your company be interested in becoming a sponsor. We also have a limited number of booths available for those who wish to market their products to those attending our conference. We have a partial list of the attending companies on our website. Many are bringing more than one person and those companies are noted with a * after the company name.

We learned today from one of our large service center sources that at least one of the mills who was pushing the $700 hot rolled number have pulled back and returned to $680 per ton. This does not mean market prices are falling and we continue to keep our SMU Price Momentum Indicator at Neutral until we see clear signs that prices are moving at more than one mill in the same direction. The market is very “fuzzy” this week as rumors of trade cases flood the market, price increase moves (verbal only), problems getting deliveries out of steel mills (production and traffic related) and lead times all over the place. We encourage our readers to pay attention and react to facts, not fiction.

We have heard from multiple sources with direct mill connections that dumping suits will be filed on Friday of this week. If that does indeed happen we will provide information to our readers as soon as possible.

The other story we are tracking is about Severstal and the potential sale of the U.S. assets. Once we have solid information we will advise our readers as quickly as possible.

We will produce a Premium Supplement newsletter tomorrow which all of our members will have access to since we have opened up Premium Level content to our Executive Level members so that they can get a better appreciation of what Premium members receive.

As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.

John Packard, Publisher

See you in Atlanta?