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    Analysis

    Final thoughts

    Written by Ethan Bernard


    For something that wasn’t on the White House agenda in Washington this week, the proposed Nippon Steel deal for U.S. Steel is getting a lot of attention.

    Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to the capital this week to meet with President Biden. With geopolitical tensions on high, the visit seems well warranted. With the number three economy in the world, and a major ally in the Pacific region, now seems a good time to shore up the alliance between the two countries.

    Ethan Bernard

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    SMU’s Current Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Index ticked up slightly this week, while Future Sentiment fell, according to our latest market survey. Every two weeks, SMU polls thousands of steel-industry executives, asking them to rate their companies’ chances of success today and also three to six months down the road. We use their responses to calculate our proprietary Current and Future Steel Buyers’ Sentiment Indices, measures tracked since 2008.

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    SMU Survey: Mill willingness to negotiate price at lowest levels since 2021

    The majority of steel buyers responding to our latest market survey reported that mills continue to hold a firm grip on prices. The share of buyers reporting that mills were negotiable fell this week to the lowest rate seen in over five years. Every two weeks, SMU surveys service center and manufacturer buyers asking if mills are negotiable on new spot sheet and plate orders. In this week’s survey, just 3% of respondents said mills were willing to talk price to secure an order (Figure 1). This is down 11 percentage points from our mid-October survey.