Final Thoughts

We have added the 2016 Steel Summit Agenda to our website. We continue to tweak the program as we search for the best speakers and subjects that are key to those attending our conference at the end of August (August 29-31, 2016) in Atlanta. We have an exceptional agenda already with keynote speakers representing the economy (Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trends Research and Chris Oakley of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) as well as steel mills (Mark Millett, CEO of Steel Dynamics and Roger Newport, CEO of AK Steel) as well as commodities (Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources). We will continue to have steel and commodity forecasts from Timna Tanners (Bank of America Merrill Lynch) and John Anton (IHS Global Insight) and we will look at various steel intensive market segments as the industry plans for 2017 and beyond. Registration for individuals as well and for groups is open on our website. If you have any questions or need any help, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or by phone: 800-432-3475.

As was mentioned in an earlier article in this issue, the hot rolled AD preliminary determination should be announced sometime late in the afternoon on Tuesday of this week. I spoke with the representative of one of the mills involved who told me that their mill has been very careful not to “dump’ steel or sell steel in the United States below their own domestic prices. Even so, this particular mill is not quoting prices for hot rolled coil until the preliminary AD determination has been posted by the US Department of Commerce. Other mills are not so cautious and continue to ship material confident that their mills are not selling product below their cost to manufacture or below their home market pricing. None-the-less, this ruling is important and could help the mills keep momentum on their side or, it could weaken their position. We will have to wait and see how it goes and how buyers react.