Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 20, 2017
This is the last Executive issue of Steel Market Update until Sunday evening. We will produce a Premium issue for our Premium clients tomorrow.
Our offices will be open tomorrow (Wednesday) and closed on Thanksgiving Day. We will have limited coverage on the Friday following Thanksgiving. Our offices will return to normal staffing and hours on Monday, Nov. 27.
If you or your company is interested in becoming either a sponsor or an exhibitor for our 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference, please send a note to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will get you a brochure with pricing and information. Our expectation is that our conference will entertain 750+ steel and manufacturing executives next year. The conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 27-29, 2018. Mark your calendars and put us in your budget for next year.
End of the year housekeeping: We had a customer contact us today wanting to know the correct remit-to address as they have been using our old Georgia address and their letter was returned. Our remit-to address is: Steel Market Update, P.O. Box 1255, Hobe Sound, FL 33475. Accounting office phone number is 772-932-7538. My office phone number is 800-432-3475. The accounting office and mine are in two separate buildings. If you have questions about our website, the best person to call is Brett Linton who can be reached at 706-216-2140.
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
Now that the USS/Nippon deal has been completed, what's next?
Final Thoughts
Getting back to the price increases I mentioned at the top of this article, to what extent are they aimed at raising prices and to what extent are they aimed at stopping the bleeding that was happening in the second half of May, before President Trump announced the 50% tariff?
Final Thoughts
We just wrapped another Steel 101 Workshop, where you take what you learned in the classroom into the steel mill.
Final Thoughts
Steel equities and steel futures fell hard after news broke earlier this week that the US and Mexico might reach an agreement that would result in the 50% Section 232 tariff coming off Mexican steel. The sharp declines didn’t make much sense, especially if, as some reports indicate, Mexico might agree to a fixed quota. They didn't make sense even if steel flows between the US and Mexico remain unchanged.
Final Thoughts
Even before the news about Mexico, I didn’t want to overstate the magnitude of the change in momentum. As far as we could tell, there hadn’t been a frenzy of new ordering following President Trump’s announcement of 50% Section 232 tariffs. But higher tariffs had unquestionably raised prices for imports, which typically provide the floor for domestic pricing. We’d heard, for example, that prices below $800 per short ton for hot-rolled (HR) coil were gone from the domestic market – even for larger buyers.