Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 6, 2019
The day was bubbling with rumors as I was actively speaking with both plate and flat rolled steel buyers. They were telling me to expect a price increase announcement on both products. The plate guys were much less confident that any increase would “stick,” but it is worth trying. On the flat rolled side, mill lead times are further out than plate, with most mills already in January production/promise dates. There continue to be questions as to whether the market is strong enough to allow for an additional $40 on top of the first $40 announced by the mills back on Oct. 24-25.
Those service centers who participate in our flat rolled and plate steel inventories and shipment data received their “flash” report this afternoon and they have a solid hint as to the actual strength of the market. The data and our analysis are revealing, and I think important when considering where prices will go from here on each product. Especially when looking at inventories on order. If you are a service center and you would like to participate in our confidential data collection, please contact either myself: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or Estelle.Tran@crugroup.com and we can walk you through the process, and provide a confidentiality agreement.
We did pick up some new registrations for the January Steel 101 workshop, and we continue to have plenty of seats still available. For more information, please go to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101
I have been very busy working on the 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference, which will be held in Atlanta on Aug. 24-26. Mark your calendars. We anticipate 1,100 to 1,200 attendees at next year’s conference.
If you have any suggestions for speakers, subjects you would like to see covered, etc., please feel free to contact me as now is the time. I can be reached at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
If you are looking to renew, upgrade or just want to know more information about becoming a subscriber (we call them members) to Steel Market Update, please contact Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or by email at Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com. You are also welcomed to contact me.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
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!