Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 12, 2017
What was it – Tuesday that I said I thought the Section 232 results would be much less than what the steel mills thought a few weeks back? Last night on Air Force One President Trump spoke about considering quotas and tariffs on steel imports into the U.S. According to excerpts of his conversation with reporters, Trump said, “There are two ways – quotas and tariffs. Maybe I’ll do both.” He continued with, “Not only China, but others. We’re like a dumping ground [for steel], okay? They’re dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they’ve been doing it for decades, and I’m stopping it. It’ll stop.”
I read an article late today from World Trade Online, which was reporting how the domestic steel mills think the G20 steel committee is essentially “kicking the can down the road.” Philip Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association (and another of our speakers at this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference) told World Trade Online, “At the end of the day, the Global Forum produces a document with recommendations — we need action that has teeth in it.”
The steel mills and the steel lobby are pushing hard for the results of Section 232 to be announced soon (now) and to hit hard at the heaviest exporters of steel into the United States.
Wilbur Ross advised the Senate Finance Committee that he is in the process of finalizing the DOC recommendations to the President. The report should be out sometime next week. One should never wish for black swan events, but all bets are off until we see the recommendations and how President Trump (and the rest of the world) responds.
Steel stocks moved higher today…
SMU Steel Summit Conference sponsors and exhibitors, our Events App is available for you to work with. You should have received instructions on how to download the App, as well as how to update your company data. (If you have done so in the past, you do not need to do it again.) There are 508 contacts loaded into the App, which represents our registrations through Wednesday.
To those of you who are registered to attend our conference, we will be rolling out the App in Sunday evening’s edition. If you downloaded the App previously, you do not need to do it again (assuming it is still on your phone). The App is available in iTunes or your favorite smart phone/iPad App store. It is the Steel Market Update Events App.
The App looks like the image we have in this article.
When you first open the App, there will be a few very easy polling questions we would like for you to answer. That way, once we get to the conference, we will have a good idea of who is attending, if this is their first conference, and how the group feels about the government being involved in steel imports. All responses are confidential.
We have two more exhibition spots available for those who are interested. Please contact Ray.Culley@SteelMarketUpdate.com if you would like details and pricing.
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
SMU has heard from some larger buyers who have stepped back into the market to buy at prices that, if not at a bottom, they assess to be close to one. Is it enough to stretch out lead times and send prices upward again? Or do we continue to scrape along the mid-$600s per short ton (st) as we have been doing for most of the last month?
Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.
Final thoughts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you add in some commentary from respected peers in the steel industry to those pictures, that may shoot you up to five thousand words, at least. In that spirit, we’ve added some snapshots from our market survey this week, along with some comments from market participants.
Final thoughts
I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
Final thoughts
There are just 40 days left until the 2024 SMU Steel Summit gets underway on Aug. 26 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. And I’m pleased to announce that it's official now: More than 1,000 people have registered to at attend! Another big development: The desktop version of the networking app for the event has officially launched!