Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 23, 2018
I will be traveling beginning on Tuesday afternoon as I head to Chicago to conduct one of our Steel 101 workshops. I want to take a moment to thank NLMK USA for their hospitality as we will be touring their Portage minimill on Wednesday of this week. I will not return to my office until next Monday, April 2. During my absence, I can be reached on my email or you can contact our office at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Our next workshop will be held in Memphis, Tenn., and will include (for the first time) two mill tours. We will tour Nucor Arkansas (Hickman) and Nucor-Yamato, which is a beam and Castrip mill. You can find more information about the Memphis Steel 101 workshop on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/events/steel101
If you need to contact our office next week, please contact Diana or Alison at 772-932-7538. They can handle payments, questions about Steel 101 or SMU Steel Summit, handle registrations or any issues that you might be having with your account.
Bloomberg is reporting that the U.S. and South Korea are close to a final deal that will provide a cap on the tonnage of steel Korea will be allowed to send to the United States. Philip Gibbs with KeyBanc Capital Markets expressed an opinion that the goal may be to cap at 2017 import levels. He is of the opinion if that were the case the U.S. mills would gain market share in the pipe and tube markets.
This would be bullish for hot rolled steel usage and pricing.
It was a crazy week last week and I expect nothing but more of the same this week. Not a good time to go on vacation…
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
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!