Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 19, 2018
SMU is receiving many requests for information and help regarding Section 232 exclusions and how to complete the process. We are attempting to assist when and where possible. Trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz is being very helpful when he has time. If you have specific legal issues that are outside of the scope of what we can cover, we recommend that you contact Lewis directly. His contact information is at the bottom of the “Section 232 Exclusion…” article in tonight’s issue.
I participated in a HARDI steel conference call this morning. There were many more people on the call than usual (not a surprise) and there were executives on the call that were willing to provide more information than normal (a pleasant surprise). One of the keys brought up was the idea that availability is going to dominate the industry. Price will be a secondary factor, and the opinion of one service center was prices could go much higher than people may think. Prepare for it.
However, a wholesaler on the HARDI call voiced a different opinion, an opinion we have heard today from others in the industry. This owner told us, “…While I would not discount anything [service center’s owner name not shown] has to say regarding the steel market, we personally do not share in how bullish he is. We feel that managing and mitigating risk may be the biggest challenge we will have to face sometime in the second half of the year. We don’t want to be sitting on too much inventory when prices start back down.”
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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?
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!