Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 19, 2015
I will be in my office all week (yea!) this week. This is probably the first time I have spent a full week behind my desk in the last couple of months. If you have any questions for me this is a good week to track me down and ask away….
I would like to take a moment to thank Ira Kreft, Mary Blizzard and all of the good people at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch offices in Chicago for allowing me to speak to a number of their clients this past week.
I also want to thank the Association of Steel Distributors for hosting Ray Culley and myself at their Chicago regional meeting. I am quite certain that we will see a number of the ASD membership at our Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta on September 1st and 2nd.
We have a new writer who will be splitting the duties of writing about hot rolled coil (HRC) futures, busheling (BUS) futures and iron ore trading. We want to welcome Spencer Johnson who is a risk management consultant in ferrous and base metals with FC Stone, LLC. If you have any questions you would like Andre Marshall of Crunch Risk, LLC or Spencer Johnson to tackle, please send them to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Registration is open for our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop which will be held in Davenport, Iowa and will include a tour of the SSAB mini-mill (EAF). Information is on our website or you are free to contact me in my office with any questions that you might have. Steel Market Update member companies receive special discounts on this (and all) workshop as well as our Steel Summit Conference. The dates on the Steel 101 workshop in Iowa are October 6-7, 2015.
If you are currently on a free trial to our newsletter and would like to learn more about becoming a member (subscriber) please feel free to contact me at 800-432-3475 or by email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. We very much would like to earn your business.
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
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.