Final Thoughts

Our SMU team has been pretty lucky as those of us who live in Florida did not suffer significant damage to our homes. The Florida residents ended up escaping and being essentially unaffected by Hurricane Irma. However, Brett lives in Georgia and he lost power yesterday as a large tree took out the power line and blocked his street, as well. He has been stranded for more than a day as they wait for the power company to come cut the tree and replace the downed lines. Diana and are working toward being back up and running in our offices on Thursday as we move back from the Florida panhandle to Hobe Sound. We have been advised that our office building has no power or internet service, but our home office does. Thank you for your patience, and we will try to get caught up with any outstanding issues on Thursday and Friday of this week.

I have been advised that CRU is adjusting the zinc coating extra they are using in the .060″ G90 index from $78 per ton ($3.90/cwt) to $86 per ton ($4.30/cwt). SMU has not yet made the change for a number of reasons: not all of the mills have made the change. U.S. Steel’s website still references a $3.90/cwt G90 extra on .060″ minimum galvanized. We are also hearing mixed information from steel buyers. Some are saying that the new extras announced by their suppliers are being collected beginning with October orders, while others are reporting no change from their suppliers as some mills are waiting for the higher zinc costs to be in effect for three months before making the change. We will watch the extras closely and will make a change in our calculations when we think the time is appropriate. For those doing your own comparison between SMU and CRU galvanized, be aware of the extras difference.