Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 13, 2019
There are reports about a myriad of meetings between the USTR, Mexico and Canada as the sides try to come to some form of resolution regarding the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. I continue to hear that the move is to not reduce the traditional level of imports from these two countries. In my mind that means the U.S. is still pushing for quotas.
From time to time we will be publishing CRU-based articles with a “read more” link at the end. If you click on the read more link you will be taken to the CRU website where you can read the article in its entirety. You will not need to sign up or buy anything in order to access the full article. The affected article in this evening’s issue is about the turn in sheet prices and the CRU forecast for future HRC pricing. Of course, you are welcome to look around the CRU website and I am sure they would welcome you as a new customer for their products (they have hundreds…).
Registration is now open for the May 14-15 Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop. This workshop will be held in Davenport, Iowa, and will include a tour of the SSAB steel mill located just outside of Davenport. You can find more details on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/events/steel101
Tim Triplett is attending the Platts North American Steel Conference in Chicago and will report on what he heard there in Sunday’s issue.
A quick note to let everyone know I will be traveling all of next week as I head to Monterrey, Mexico, to visit Ternium, which has agreed to host one of our future Steel 101 workshops in Monterrey. I am going down to get the lay of the land, tour one of their mills and interview their CEO.
I have also heard from a mill in Europe, where we are working toward doing our first European Steel 101 workshop later this year.
To say I have been busy would be an understatement. We (CRU and SMU teams) are working on many new projects that include new conferences, workshops and products that will benefit our existing customers and attract new customers. Stay tuned.
If you are on a free trial and would like to become a new subscriber, you can do so by contacting Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or by email at Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Existing customers can renew or change your membership level through Paige.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
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!