Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 17, 2017
We will begin a new analysis of the flat rolled steel market on Monday with our invitations set to go out at 8 AM on Monday morning. If you receive an invitation please take a moment to click on the link/button contained in the message which will take you to SurveyMonkey.com which hosts our questionnaire. If you would like to be added to our invitee list please send me your name, email address, position and phone number. Please send it to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Registration is open for our next Steel 101: introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop which will be held in Ontario, California and will include a tour of the California Steel Industries steel mill. More details can be found online and we will have hotel information posted on the site by the middle of this week. The April 11-12th workshop in Toledo, Ohio has been sold out for almost a month and we thank those who have registered for that workshop. We also thank North Star BlueScope for their support by allowing our group to tour their mill as part of our workshop.
I will be in the office all week this week. Next week I will be traveling to Las Vegas to speak to the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA). I am looking forward to getting out west and speaking to the SFIA members.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final thoughts
Everybody has a plan… until they’ve dealt with volatility in the HRC market. While Mike Tyson’s original quote was about getting punched in the mouth, it’s unlikely the ex-champ has gone many pricing rounds with hot-rolled coil.
Final thoughts
Hold-rolled (HR) prices held roughly steady this week after slipping for much of April. I don’t have any spicy quotes to offer about mostly flat prices. Besides, a lot of the questions I’ve gotten recently have been about demand. Some of you tell me that it’s still stable or improving. Others tell me that it’s suddenly dried up.
Final thoughts
What a difference a month makes. In late March, it seemed like the US hot-rolled (HR) coil market was poised to cycle upward. Large buyers had re-entered the market and placed big orders earlier in the month. Several outages were underway or upcoming. And expectations were that lead times would continue to extend. Cliffs said […]
Final thoughts
I’ve gotten some questions lately about whether the huge gap between domestic hot-rolled coil (HR) prices and those for cold-rolled (CR) and coated is sustainable. I remember being asked similar questions about the wide spread between HR and plate that developed in early 2022. I thought at the time that there was no way that spread could hold. Turned out, I was wrong. That was humbling. And so I’m not going to make any bold predictions this time.
Final thoughts
We've used the word "unprecedented" a lot over the last four years to describe steel price volatility. Over the last two months – despite earlier predictions of a price surge - we've seen unprecedented stability.