Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 16, 2018
Trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz advised me earlier this afternoon that the U.S. Department of Commerce did provide a final determination ruling on the Vietnam circumvention complaint. The DOC ruled in favor of the domestic steel mills (affirmative ruling) which means Vietnamese coated steel will be considered to be from China unless there is certification (proof) that the substrate is not from China.
As David Feldstein pointed out in the hot rolled and scrap futures article he wrote for this evening’s issue, we are one major breakdown at a steel mill away from a shortage of flat rolled steel for the U.S. market. It is important that steel buyers be aware of the issues that exist at not only the mills they use, but at their competitors, as well.
NLMK Executive Vice President James Banker, Jr., told me this afternoon that their Russian parent company was supporting them “100 percent” and they are still getting their normal allotment of slabs.
I saw David Burritt, President & CEO of U.S. Steel, speak earlier this week. He told the conference I was attending that their Granite City “B” blast furnace would not be up until the “second half of this year.” That furnace is capable of producing 100,000 tons of pig iron per month. The “A” blast furnace is not yet scheduled to come back online. The USS CEO did not think it would be back until the “B” furnace was running smoothly. He suggested that maybe by the end of 2018 the “A” furnace, which is capable of running 60-80,000 tons per month of pig iron, could potentially come back.
One of the issues USS is having at Granite City is workers. They are bringing back workers and going through re-training in preparation of the “B” furnace coming back to life.
Burritt also spoke about the union contract, which expires for both the steel mill facilities and the tubular division on Sept. 1. I will have more on this subject in Sunday’s issue of SMU.
Registrations for SMU Steel Summit are “tickling” 500 executives with 101 days to go. Please reach out to your steel industry friends and let them know that THE place to be and be seen will be at our conference come Aug. 27-29 in Atlanta. Details can be found on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit or by contacting our office at 800-432-3475.
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
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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.
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!