Final Thoughts

September 8, 2017

The saga continues as we endeavor to escape the wrath of Hurricane Irma. After leaving Hobe Sound, we settled in Gainesville on the campus of the University of Florida. As the hurricane track began to move a little further west, we decided to do the same and headed into the western panhandle of Florida. That is where we are now and where we expect to remain as the storm heads up the west side of Florida. Our hope is the move west will ultimately be good news for our home and office in Hobe Sound on the east coast. We are keeping our fingers crossed. On Monday, we are expecting sustained winds here in the panhandle of 45 miles per hour (just updated to less than 45 miles per hour as the storm weakens while pummeling Naples).

Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends in south and central Florida. We do not want to forget the impact of Hurricane Harvey on Texas. We recommend that you donate to the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org).

We will be watching carefully to see if other domestic steel mills make similar price announcements as that of AK Steel last week (+$30/ton). There are also questions about how the mills are dealing with the higher zinc costs with zinc closing the week at $1.3747 per pound.

It will take a number of days, if not weeks, to determine what damage has been done to transportation and infrastructure that will impact the steel industry. We will continue to work on learning more about the damage and what is being done to lessen the impact on the economy.

As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.

John Packard, Publisher