Final Thoughts
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Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 1, 2014
We will conduct our early August steel market analysis (survey) beginning first thing on Monday morning. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few minutes to click on the link which will take you to SurveyMonkey.com where you can interact with our questionnaire. If by chance you would rather direct someone else in your office to participate in the survey process please send us a note and we will make the change. Send the note to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. If you do not wish to participate there is an unsubscribe link at the end of the invitation which will remove just from this one list only.
Word from the street (rumor mill) has three companies bidding for the Gallatin Steel mill: CSN out of Brazil, Nucor and Steel Dynamics.
This could be the last chance for CSN to expand their presence in the United States. With consolidation of the Severstal and ThyssenKrupp Steel USA assets combined with the closure of RG Steel and the questions arising from financial issues at Essar Steel Algoma, CSN has to seriously consider their substrate issues.
Steel Dynamics may have interest because the purchase of Severstal Columbus does not address the need for a internal substrate supplier for The Techs.
One of the analysts told us during a conversation that the investor community was disappointed that Nucor didn’t make a charge after any of the Severstal assets. They expect Nucor to make a move and expand. Most of Nucor’s flat rolled steel capacity is located in the south so a Kentucky based mill may assist in their move to expand into more northern business. Besides, a Nucor joint venture service center, Steel Technologies does the pickling for Gallatin. That business could be at risk is the mill is purchase by another mill. Nucor also has an intact cold mill that they purchased from Sparrows Point when RG Steel was dismantled.
Another mill to watch is US Steel. Mario Longhi made it quite clear that the mill had to embrace EAF steelmaking in order to cut costs and survive.
Our understanding is bids for Gallatin are due by the middle of this month.
Stay tuned.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
The timing is just right…Come join us in Atlanta on September 3 & 4.
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John Packard
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Final thoughts
SMU has heard from some larger buyers who have stepped back into the market to buy at prices that, if not at a bottom, they assess to be close to one. Is it enough to stretch out lead times and send prices upward again? Or do we continue to scrape along the mid-$600s per short ton (st) as we have been doing for most of the last month?
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Featured_News_Icons/gears.png)
Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.
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Final thoughts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you add in some commentary from respected peers in the steel industry to those pictures, that may shoot you up to five thousand words, at least. In that spirit, we’ve added some snapshots from our market survey this week, along with some comments from market participants.
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Final thoughts
I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/SMU-Steel-Summit.png)
Final thoughts
There are just 40 days left until the 2024 SMU Steel Summit gets underway on Aug. 26 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. And I’m pleased to announce that it's official now: More than 1,000 people have registered to at attend! Another big development: The desktop version of the networking app for the event has officially launched!