Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 13, 2014
I got a note from a manufacturing company regarding the size of the Nucor move on galvanized coating extras. The comment that was made was, “Zinc average for 2014 is up 8.6% since average of 2012. Nucor increase is way too high.” This steel buyer went on to comment, “Aluminum average in same time period is only up about 2%.” We have not seen any coating extra changes for aluminized or Galvalume as of today.
In case you missed our comment in the OCTG article, the International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced they have changed the date of the final vote by the ITC commissioners to 11 AM on Friday, August 22nd. Normally, it takes until the next day before the ITA (International Trade Administration) publishes the final results of the vote. Peter Brebach explains the process in more detail in his article above.
Premium Level members – June imports by product, port and country are now available on our website.
I received a call this evening asking me to clarify a quote that was in our secondary steel article in our last issue. We had quoted a service center executive who told us, “Doing business over drinks doesn’t work anymore.” The quote came after a comment about potential changes between Severstal Dearborn and AK Steel and should have actually stood on its own as it was not directed at either mill (or any mill in particular). The service center executive and I were discussing how the internet has changed the way business is transacted and the quote was pointed at the old days when steel people went out for three martini lunches. My apologies to AK Steel and Severstal and anyone who may have interpreted the quote as being directed at any specific steel mill as it was not meant to be a negative comment.
I am here should you have any questions or comments regarding any articles which are written. You can reach me at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or at 800-432-3475.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
Final thoughts
We got a little flack for adjusting our sheet momentum indicators to neutral last week. To be clear, we didn’t adjust them to lower. Part of the reason we moved them to neutral was because there are some unusual cross-currents in the current market. On the news side, you could make a case that there should nowhere to go but up.
Final thoughts
I think all of us know that sometimes courtships go wrong. A misplaced word or deed and soon things can go sideways, and not in the prices sense. Such could be the case with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel’s play for U.S. Steel.
Final thoughts
We’re starting to see some impacts of the big trade case filed last week against imports of coated flat-rolled steel from 10 nations. Namely, we’ve heard that a range of traders have stopped offering material from Vietnam. An alleged dumping margin of nearly 160% will do that. Especially amid chatter of critical circumstances.
Final thoughts
The phrase “political football” has been tossed around a lot lately. (Pun probably intended.) For the humble journalists at SMU who thought the week following Steel Summit would prove a quiet one… the news cycle had other ideas
Final thoughts
Sheet prices didn’t roar back after Labor Day. But steel market news sure came out of the gate strong (or maybe chaotically is the better way to put it). First, the nearly $15-billion proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel exploded into the news. And when I say exploded, I mean that all sides seem to be escalating things now.