Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 29, 2016
We will begin our early February flat rolled steel market analysis on Monday. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few moments to click on the link and respond to our questionnaire. We will produce a few articles on the results of our queries on Thursday for our Executive level members. Our Premium members will have access to our Power Point presentation on Friday afternoon once we have posted it on our website.
Scrap prices are starting to trade and the early trades have been at sideways numbers (same as January). However, the long term prognosis for scrap prices is not so rosy. Here is what one of our sources told us late on Friday, “Feb trading is just beginning but initial sales are sideways. On a broad scale we are seeing lower demand as mills have restocked and order books remain weak, this is balanced by short supply due to weather and transportation issues. Although recent export sales to Turkey have dropped over $10mt US exporters have not dropped buy prices because they are still covering old sales at the higher levels. It is my opinion March will bring lower prices as weather improves and export will continue to drop.”
I want to welcome our newest members and I want to remind all of our readers that we are available should you have any questions, comments or suggestions. We can be reached at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or by phone at: 800-432-3475. Please note that our old Georgia phone numbers (those with a 706 area code) are no longer in service as we have moved our offices to Florida. Our new address is: P.O. Box 1255, Hobe Sound, FL 33475.
If you are not yet a member/subscriber and you have questions please do not hesitate to ask. After all, we want your business.
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
Never have I been more certain in declaring that those in the steel industry are less certain now than they thought they’d be at this point before the election.
Final Thoughts
“Trump took to Twitter.” That was a familiar story lead in Trump 1.0. Now it’s “Trump took to Truth Social (or X)." The latest example: President-elect Donald Trump on Monday evening said he was “totally against” U.S. Steel being acquired by Nippon Steel in a post on Truth Social.
Final Thoughts
And so it begins (again). Not to be outdone by Thanksgiving, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25% on all imports from Canada and Mexico. He also threatened to hit all imports from China with tariffs of 10% - an amount that would come on top of a boatload of pre-existing duties and tariffs.
Final Thoughts
“We’ll always have Paris,” as the famous line in Casablanca goes. And this month, the global steel industry did as well. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Steel Committee met in the City of Lights earlier this month. There was also a meeting of the Global Forum addressing excess steel capacity.
Final Thoughts
It’s once again A Tale of Two Cities in the steel market. Some are almost euphoric about Trump’s victory. Others, some rather bearish, are more focused on the day-to-day market between now and Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.