Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
April 19, 2017
Steel Market Update has been proactively writing about our expectations for Executive Orders and their impact on foreign steel imports. It is clear that the steel lobby has the ear of the president and this has to be quite frustrating to the same companies he is trying to convince to come back to the United States with their manufacturing jobs.
In today’s earnings call with Mark Millet of Steel Dynamics he admitted that the spread between Chinese hot rolled pricing and U.S. prices is $270 per ton. China is $270 per ton below pricing here in the U.S. I am not so sure that is a correct number. So, I looked at what one of my sources gave me earlier this week for HRC going to Africa and the Middle East at $395 per metric ton, FOB China ($359 net ton). When you take freight into consideration the spread between U.S. and China pricing is pretty close to $270 per ton…
As I started to say at the beginning of my Final Thoughts – we have been writing a lot about trade, trade cases and our expectations for Executive Orders. Trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz has been extremely helpful both in this evenings issue as well as in previous articles. I remind everyone to go back and look at the past couple of weeks issues of Steel Market Update as we have written about the Section 232 as being one of the risks (and why Leibowitz doesn’t think it will fly).
No matter what, it is important to stay on top of the news as it breaks. I think it is also important to attend our SMU Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta at the end of August (28, 29, 30) as we are well staffed with exceptional people to speak about trade from many different angles: mill, ITC, trade attorney and manufacturing companies. You can find more details and register online: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/events/steel-summit.
This continues to be an interesting market. 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
We're going to have to wait a bit longer for the final outcome of the Nippon/USS deal.

Final Thoughts
Sure, demand isn’t as good the market had hoped it would be earlier this year. But assuming it doesn’t fall of a cliff, buyers will have to restock at some point. And that might give domestic mills enough leverage to raise prices again.

Final Thoughts
While I would anticipate market sentiment to pivot and improve if all the questions around tariffs were answered, that still leaves us with a few other factors.

Final Thoughts
Let's see what SMU survey respondents are saying about Trump's tariffs.

Final Thoughts
The Tariff Town amusement park ride shows no signs of slowing down.