Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
April 23, 2018
Another hectic week in the flat rolled and plate steel markets. Buyers and sellers of steel are all waiting to see what calamity awaits when the clock ticks 12:01 AM on May 1. That is when the Section 232 country exclusions are set to expire, according to the deadline set by President Trump. What he decides to do from there is anyone’s guess. A manufacturing company provided me the quote of the day when he said, “…too many plates are spinning right now to try and peg a price direction. The wrong tweet at the wrong time could throw all your planning out the window.”
My personal opinion is President Trump is going to let some, if not all of the countries that are not involved in negotiations with the U.S., expire. That means Europe, for sure, as they have stated they will not negotiate anything until they are provided a full exclusion from the 232 tariffs. May 1 is but one week away…
A reminder that Tim Triplett and I will be attending the Metals Industry Boy Scout Dinner in Chicago on May 10.
I will be speaking at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference in Miami on May 16.
I will be in New York City on June 25 and 26, but I will not be attending Steel Success Strategies. On the 25th, I will be at a CRU event in the afternoon and the Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner that evening.
I want to thank all of you who have been recommending the SMU Steel Summit Conference as THE one conference to go to if you can only go to one this year. We are going to have another great event with a packed schedule, interesting speakers and the best networking of any steel conference. On top of that, it is the best value for your money, be it the cost to attend, airfare to Atlanta, free train to the hotels and convention site and reasonable hotel rates. Come join us and about 800 of your industry friends in Atlanta on Aug. 27-29.
When it comes to education about the steel industry, THE workshop you want to attend is Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals. Our next Steel 101 workshop will be June 5-6 in Memphis, Tenn. This will be a special event. Excellent hotel (Westin), two mill tours (Nucor Hickman and Nucor-Yamato), excellent instructors and a great program. Go to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101 for more details and for registration. You are also welcome to call me at 800-432-3475 and I will do my best to answer any questions you might have.
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!