Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 26, 2016
Happy Academy Award (Oscar) Night…
We will begin our early March flat rolled steel market trend analysis on Monday morning. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few moments to click on the button contained in the message which will take you to our questionnaire. If you would like to participate in our questionnaire and are not yet on the invite list please send me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
We heard from one of our scrap sources that there is a shortage of scrap in the Chicago and Detroit markets – especially obsolete grades. Negotiations will begin this week on for March scrap pricing. Last week many dealers were expecting a sideways market.
I was looking at the Nucor Berkeley lead time sheet late last week. Cold rolled lead times were out to late May/early June and galvanized was on an “inquire” only basis.
Plate lead times are much different than cold rolled and coated products. We learned over the weekend that Nucor and SSAB plate lead times were 2-3 weeks max while ArcelorMittal was out 6 weeks. Plate prices are negotiable for offers of 500 tons or greater.
I will take a deeper look at lead times, changes in production/capacity, etc. this week. If you have information about specific mills production capabilities, what maintenance is scheduled and where lead times are for individual plants please shoot me an email at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Do I think it is shocking that steel prices haven’t move much in the past few weeks? You have to remember that I started in the business when a $10 per ton move over a few months was considered a big move… The second question is can the spread between hot rolled and coated products (in excess of the traditional $100-$120 per ton) continue, I think as long as the demand for hot rolled continues to be challenged and other products are doing well then the spread can continue. I go back to a comment made to me by a mill executive who pointed out to me that the spread at $100-$120 has been too low when considering the actual costs to produce the upstream products.
Will the economy weaken as the year progresses? There is some talk in the financial press of a “recession” that is being caused by the actions of the Federal Reserve… I am going to answer the question with a video link from HARDI to comments being made by Dr. Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trends Research (ITR). Dr. Beaulieu is one of our Keynote Speakers at this year’s Steel Summit Conference. The second is to say stay tuned as another one of our Keynote Speakers is Chris Oakley, Vice President and Regional Executive for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta…
We will have more about demand and what we are learning from our latest survey later this week – stay tuned.
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
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.
Final Thoughts
One of the perhaps unintentional perks of being a trade journalist is the opportunity to travel and cover an array of industry conferences and events. Some I've attended have been at fun locations, like Palm Springs and Tampa, Fla. Others have been in more practical locations, like SMU’s Steel Summit in Atlanta and American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) meetings in Washington, D.C.
Final Thoughts
t this point in the game I think what we can say about Nippon Steel’s proposed buy of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel is that it will go through, it won’t go through, or the outcome will be something new and completely unexpected. Then again, I’m probably still missing a few options.