Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 29, 2017
I have been out of the office all day, so I apologize if my Final Thoughts this evening are less than inspiring…
Our website designers have been busy working to resolve some of the bugs that arose when we updated our website over the weekend. The login issues have been resolved. We know there is an issue with galvanized pricing in our Price Estimator, and they are working on that. If you get any error notices or if you see something “odd” with our website, please contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
The sponsorship spots for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference are now 50 percent sold. I want to thank Pacesetter, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Magic Coil Products, Mill Steel, Heidtman, Flack Global Metals, MidWest Materials, Red Bud Industries and All Metals Service and Warehousing. So, as you can see, we have nine sponsors committed and nine spots remaining before we close out sponsorship spots for 2018.
We do have plenty of exhibitor spaces available. You can find out more information about sponsorship spots and exhibition spots by contacting Jill@SteelMarketUpdate.com or myself John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will provide our brochure with pricing information. We are anticipating 750+ manufacturing and steel executives at the 2018 conference.
Our January Steel 101 workshop is sold out. Registration is open for our March 28 & 29, 2018, Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop, which will be held in Merrillville, Ind., just outside of Chicago. The mill tour will be at NLMK USA Portage, Ind., minimill with its electric arc furnace (EAF). If you have question, there is information on our website or you are welcome to call me at 800-432-3475.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final thoughts
Unless you've been under a rock, you know by know that Nucor's published HR price for this week is $760 per short ton, down $65/st from the company’s $825/st a week ago. I could use more colorful words. But I think it’s safe to say that most of the market was not expecting this. For starters, US sheet mills never announce price decreases. (OK, not never. It has come to my attention that Severstal North America rescinded a price increase back on Feb. 14, 2012. And it caused quite the ruckus.)
Final thoughts
Is it just me, or does it seem like the summer doldrums might have arrived a little early? I could be wrong there. It’s possible we could see a jump in prices should buyers need to step back into the market to restock. I’ll be curious to see what service center inventories are when we update those figures on May 15. In the meantime, just about everyone we survey thinks HR prices have peaked or soon will. (See slide 17 in the April 26 survey.) Lead times have flattened out. And some of you tell me that you’re starting to see signs of them pulling back. (We’ll know more when we update our lead time data on Thursday.)
Final thoughts
Everybody has a plan… until they’ve dealt with volatility in the HRC market. While Mike Tyson’s original quote was about getting punched in the mouth, it’s unlikely the ex-champ has gone many pricing rounds with hot-rolled coil.
Final thoughts
Hold-rolled (HR) prices held roughly steady this week after slipping for much of April. I don’t have any spicy quotes to offer about mostly flat prices. Besides, a lot of the questions I’ve gotten recently have been about demand. Some of you tell me that it’s still stable or improving. Others tell me that it’s suddenly dried up.
Final thoughts
What a difference a month makes. In late March, it seemed like the US hot-rolled (HR) coil market was poised to cycle upward. Large buyers had re-entered the market and placed big orders earlier in the month. Several outages were underway or upcoming. And expectations were that lead times would continue to extend. Cliffs said […]