Final Thoughts

OK, I have been asked for my opinion as to what I think will happen to steel prices from this point. I have a sense that we may be entering a period of transition. A point where the price spreads between foreign and domestic are “reasonable” and the domestic steel industry can re-capture some of their lost market share. I heard a couple of traders complaining at the Port of Tampa Steel Conference that they were spending more time trying to keep the orders they had on the books from being cancelled than they were taking new orders.

I was disappointed that the US Department of Commerce did not update the import licensing data as they normally do on Tuesday evenings. I expect it will be updated prior to our Thursday edition of SMU. I am curious to see if the license request flow remains consistent with what we saw in January or if we might see a bit of a pull back. Everyone is waiting for the pull back as it is needed in order to reduce and balance service center inventories.