Final Thoughts

July 5, 2015

Our ferrous scrap sources told us that Detroit scrap prices were settled earlier today where all of the prices were reported as being sideways (no change from June pricing) with the exception of shredded scrap which was reported as being down $10 to three mills, sideways to another and one mill being undecided. We will have much more on ferrous scrap prices on Thursday as negotiations come to a final resolution.

A reminder to everyone that our $200 per person early bird discount will expire on July 15th. The early bird discount takes our single registration per person price to $1000 and we offer another $100 per person to companies who are subscribers to Steel Market Update. This takes the per person price down to $900. You can register online by clicking on this link or you are welcome to contact Brett in our office at: 800-432-3475.

Our first keynote speaker will be Dr. Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence. Here is something that they wrote in this evening’s report, “We wrote months ago about the plummeting of iron ore and steel in China and thought at the time that it might be an early indicator of problems mounting in the country at a street level. We also wrote about some small bankruptcies that had started where (for the first time in years); the Chinese Central Bank was not stepping in to bail those companies out. They were letting them go under. The Chinese manufacturing sector has been in contraction for most of 2015 and the Baltic Dry Index hit an all-time low this spring. The evidence was there, if we were willing to pay attention to it. The fact that Chinese manufacturing and output is weak during a time when the US dollar is very strong (which would make acquisition of products from China very cheap), should concern us even further. Something at a fundamental, market level is very wrong in the country.” The world is a crazy place and it does impact the U.S. markets – including the steel industry and end user markets.

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John Packard, Publisher