Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
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
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!