Analysis
December 23, 2025
Written by Ethan Bernard
This is the final Final Thoughts of 2025. In fact, let’s throw in the final Final Thoughts of the first half of the 2020s. End of year. Mid-decade. What does it all mean?
On the surface, it means we’ll be chatting with you again in a couple of weeks, with new resolve and resolutions in hand, all while busily preparing for the Tampa Steel Conference in February. (You can still register here, btw.)
The US Department of Commerce has preliminarily determined that critical circumstances exist in the countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of imports of large-diameter graphite electrodes (LDGEs) from China.
SMU’s Steel Demand Index rose to 69.5 in mid-September, its highest reading in more than five years.
SMU’s Mill Order Index (MOI) accelerated in August for a fourth consecutive month, reaching its strongest reading in nearly five years.
Worthington Enterprises reported higher fiscal first-quarter sales and earnings while citing rapidly growing data center demand and continued tightness in the steel market.
Sheet and plate prices continued to tick mostly higher this week amid a supply squeeze that shows no signs of loosening its grip on the US market.