Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 10, 2013
What a week we have in store for us (and you) this week.
John Temples and I will be traveling to a domestic steel mill where we will meet two of our instructors we use for Steel 101 and we will conduct two one-day workshops for approximately 50 people. This is a custom program specifically for this one customer. However, we can do custom programs on a wide variety of topics for your company. Should you have an interest please contact me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Besides our normal publishing schedule for the week we have a surprise planned. Well, maybe surprise is a bit over-used since it seems like we have been crowing Chicken Little for the past few months. Our original intention was for our new website to be launched during the month of July. That got pushed to Friday, September 13th. If you voted against Friday the 13th you were right. Now the new date is Wednesday, November 13th. I thought it fitting we stick with the 13th for good luck.
We hope we don’t have another Affordable Care Act website on our hands…
On Tuesday evening we will have most of the Executive Newsletter dedicated to the new website.
On Wednesday Diana and Brett will be manning the phones in our office should something go wrong… Please don’t kill the troops. Something will go wrong – it is no different than having that first steel order going to the toughest customer – something will go wrong. We just don’t know what it is yet.
If you are interested in upgrading one of your memberships to the Premium Level please contact Diana in our office and she can help you with the process.
If you would like to provide a Monthly Newsletter to one (or more) of your people please contact our office and we will assist you. The office number is 800-432-3475.
We still have room in our Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals workshop which will be held in Mobile, Alabama on February 4 & 5, 2014 and will include a tour of the SSAB plate and hot rolled mill. There is information on both the existing and new website or you are welcome to contact our offices with any questions you might have.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard
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Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs is seeking $750 per short ton (st) for hot-rolled coil. That’s $20/st above where the steelmaker had been. It’s also $30/st above Nucor, which is at $720/st this week. We've seen prices increase incrementally this week. SMU's HR price, for example, stands at $690/st on average, up $5/st from last week. The questions now are whether a number well above $700/st will stick, whether other mills will follow Cliffs, and whether there is enough demand to support higher prices.
Final thoughts
We got a little flack for adjusting our sheet momentum indicators to neutral last week. To be clear, we didn’t adjust them to lower. Part of the reason we moved them to neutral was because there are some unusual cross-currents in the current market. On the news side, you could make a case that there should nowhere to go but up.
Final thoughts
I think all of us know that sometimes courtships go wrong. A misplaced word or deed and soon things can go sideways, and not in the prices sense. Such could be the case with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel’s play for U.S. Steel.
Final thoughts
We’re starting to see some impacts of the big trade case filed last week against imports of coated flat-rolled steel from 10 nations. Namely, we’ve heard that a range of traders have stopped offering material from Vietnam. An alleged dumping margin of nearly 160% will do that. Especially amid chatter of critical circumstances.
Final thoughts
The phrase “political football” has been tossed around a lot lately. (Pun probably intended.) For the humble journalists at SMU who thought the week following Steel Summit would prove a quiet one… the news cycle had other ideas