Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 17, 2016
We are 10 days away from the start of our Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. This will be our 6th conference and it will be the best attended conference by a wide margin. When we began the planning process my most optimistic goal was to get 400 attendees. We had 280 attendees at our 5th Steel Summit Conference. As of this evening we have 403 people registered to attend the conference. Thank you all.
Over the past few days I have been taking time to speak with each of our speakers/panelists to make sure we are all on the same page, answer any questions they might have and encourage them to stay for the entire conference if possible. Many of the speakers will be there and available to network with our attendees. One of the speakers told me the reason why they like our conference is because it is one where the “decision makers” are there and not just the top executives. We do have a strong contingent of heads of purchasing at our conferences (probably 50 percent of the attendees) as well as corporate presidents/CEO’s/owners and aales managers and staff sales and purchasing people.
If you are registered for the conference you should have received an invitation to download our SMU Events App. If you have not received an invitation you may want to check to make sure you are indeed registered. If you have any questions about registration or the App contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com and he can take care of you.
I have had a number of conversations with hot rolled buyers who are out looking for foreign hot rolled and having difficulties in finding material. The number of countries offering HRC into the market is pretty small right now and this could present some issues down the line.
I was speaking to a manufacturing company who uses ultra light gauge galvanized. The number of suppliers is down to Uttam out of India (they have a lower duty rate than the other Indian mills), South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam (the mills are all sold out through the end of the year) and the UAE. Even with the limited number of suppliers foreign prices are still $7.00/cwt-$8.00/cwt better than domestic pricing for the same products.
For our Premium customers the survey Power Point presentation should be on the website by early tomorrow afternoon. We will have a supplemental issue for our Premium clients on Friday as well.
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
Getting back to the price increases I mentioned at the top of this article, to what extent are they aimed at raising prices and to what extent are they aimed at stopping the bleeding that was happening in the second half of May, before President Trump announced the 50% tariff?
Final Thoughts
We just wrapped another Steel 101 Workshop, where you take what you learned in the classroom into the steel mill.
Final Thoughts
Steel equities and steel futures fell hard after news broke earlier this week that the US and Mexico might reach an agreement that would result in the 50% Section 232 tariff coming off Mexican steel. The sharp declines didn’t make much sense, especially if, as some reports indicate, Mexico might agree to a fixed quota. They didn't make sense even if steel flows between the US and Mexico remain unchanged.
Final Thoughts
Even before the news about Mexico, I didn’t want to overstate the magnitude of the change in momentum. As far as we could tell, there hadn’t been a frenzy of new ordering following President Trump’s announcement of 50% Section 232 tariffs. But higher tariffs had unquestionably raised prices for imports, which typically provide the floor for domestic pricing. We’d heard, for example, that prices below $800 per short ton for hot-rolled (HR) coil were gone from the domestic market – even for larger buyers.
Final Thoughts
I want to draw your attention to SMU’s monthly scrap market survey. It’s a premium feature that complements our long-running steel market survey. We’ve been running our scrap survey since late January. And over just that short time, it’s become a valuable way not only for us to assess where scrap prices might go but also to quantify some of the “fuzzy” indicators - like sentiment and flows - that help to put the price in context.