Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 1, 2015
Late last week AK Steel announced a $20 per ton price increase which matches the original increase announcement out of ArcelorMittal. As the week ended, the big mill missing from the charge at higher prices was U.S. Steel.
The only mill to stick its neck out there and put specific base price levels on their customers was NLMK USA which declared hot rolled base minimums to be $480 per ton ($24.00/cwt) and cold rolled and coated base price minimums to be $600 per ton ($30.00/cwt). When looking at price averages on hot rolled around $440-$450 per ton, the increase being suggested by NLMK is much more than that of AM, Nucor and AK Steel.
SMU has begun taking registrations for our 5th Steel Summit Conference which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on September 1 & 2. The conference begins early on September 1st with a special “pre-summit” program by consultant Paul Lowrey. The topic of his discussion is: How steel industry consolidation is killing your planning. For those of you following MSCI, AISI and other forms of steel data, you will not want to miss our pre-Summit program that is also an introduction to the type of subjects we will hit in our upcoming Leadership Conference, which will be held in March 2016 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
There is an article on our Steel Summit Conference in this issue and we will begin introducing our speakers in the days and weeks ahead. The cost of the conference will vary depending on when you register. Full price is $1200 per person. Our early bird discounted rate is $1000 per person and we offer an additional $100 discount to our Steel Market Update members. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact my office: 800-432-3475 or by email: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Our next flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) will begin at 8 AM ET on Monday of this week and will continue through Thursday. If you receive an invitation click on the button provided to go to the survey which is on the SurveyMonkey.com website.
If you have any opinions or comments you would like to make about the price increases announced this past week please feel free to email them to me (not to be attributed): John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
This will be yet another interesting week in the steel industry…
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final Thoughts
I want to draw your attention to SMU’s monthly scrap market survey. It’s a premium feature that complements our long-running steel market survey. We’ve been running our scrap survey since late January. And over just that short time, it’s become a valuable way not only for us to assess where scrap prices might go but also to quantify some of the “fuzzy” indicators - like sentiment and flows - that help to put the price in context.
Final Thoughts
I think there is an obvious case for sheet and plate prices going higher from here. That’s because, on a very basic level, the floor for flat-rolled steel prices, which is typically provided by imports, is now significantly higher than it was a week ago.