Final Thoughts
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Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 19, 2018
The first advice I have for steel buyers is don’t panic. Nothing has been announced on 232 yet. Someone mentioned to me this evening that in reality the president hasn’t made a bad decision yet (I am going to ignore Russia – just talking about business related issues). Section 232 may be the first, but the betting is he will figure out a way to keep his promise without alienating the rest of the world and starting a trade war. So, don’t panic. Let’s see what happens over the next few weeks and then we will meet again to see what needs to be done next.
Most of the trading companies are doing just that. Taking a breather for a few weeks, letting the market settle a bit and waiting for calmer heads to prevail.
Registration for our March Steel 101 workshop is sold out. If you are interested in sending someone to the Merrillville, Ind., workshop, which includes a tour of the NLMK Portage EAF mill, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will advise if we can squeeze another person into the workshop. I will announce our next workshop date and location soon.
I want to welcome Big River Steel as a corporate sponsor to this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. BRS joins Pacesetter, Bank of America, Crowe Horwath, Heidtman Steel, Nucor, Modern Metals, Magic Coil Products, Mill Steel, MidWest Materials, Red Bud Industries, All Metals Service and Warehousing and Alliance Steel. We now have only three sponsor slots left. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or exhibitor, please contact Jill Waldman at Jill@SteelMarketUpdate.com or myself at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
I will have more about what is being said at the Port of Tampa Steel Conference in Thursday’s issue of SMU.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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!