Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 12, 2018
First, tomorrow (Wednesday) is Valentine’s Day.
The heat is turning up on Section 232 discussions as trade groups, individual businesses and congressmen lean in and provide their opinions to President Trump. He still sounds like he is going to do something “disruptive,” but we just don’t know for sure.
As you can see from tonight’s issue, we are covering the subject on as many fronts and from as many angles as possible. We will continue to do so.
The other subject that we must all watch carefully is NAFTA and the negotiations between the United States, Canada and Mexico. Depending on the day, there seems to be one party complaining about the actions or tactics of another. We are watching the negotiations on a daily basis.
We are also working on the transportation issues that are impacting a large swath of the industry catching some end-users unprepared for the “new normal” when it comes to just-in-time deliveries. Tim Triplett is working on the subject, and it will also be one that gets discussed at this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference at the end of August.
We now have approximately 3-4 spots left in our March 28-29, 2018, Steel 101 workshop, which will be held in Merrillville, Ind. NLMK USA Portage will host our group as we tour their EAF steel mill. We have been there a couple of times and they never fail to thrill our attendees. You can find details on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/events/steel101 or you can contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com with any questions you might have.
By the way, if your company has already registered someone to attend this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference and you wish to add more people (one at a time), please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we can provide a code to ensure that you are charged the correct amount on the website. You are also welcome to contact our offices at 772-032-7538 and we can take your payment over the phone or arrange to send you an invoice.
I will be at the Port of Tampa Steel Conference next week. If you are attending the conference, please look for me in the crowd.
I will be publishing our full service center inventories report tomorrow morning (first to those who participated, then on Thursday to our Executive and Premium level members).
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!