Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 26, 2013
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The buzz in the market is that ThyssenKrupp AG may announce as early as late this week their intention of selling the ThyssenKrupp Steel USA plant located in Calvert, Alabama to a 50/50 joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel. We are hearing the sales number will be approximately $1.97 billion. My personal opinion is this sale will happen and AM/Nippon will be the buyers. I don’t think the deal will close until sometime after 1st Quarter 2014. ThyssenKrupp AG is scheduled to announce earnings on December 2nd.
Housekeeping issues: Steel Market Update will not publish our Executive Newsletter on Thursday due to Thanksgiving. We will produce a mini version on Sunday evening.
We will publish our next Monthly Newsletter early next week.
We will conduct our next market analysis of the flat rolled steel market beginning on Monday of next week.
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As always your business is truly appreciated.
John Packard
Publisher
John Packard
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Final Thoughts
It’s once again A Tale of Two Cities in the steel market. Some are almost euphoric about Trump’s victory. Others, some rather bearish, are more focused on the day-to-day market between now and Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Final Thoughts
One of the perhaps unintentional perks of being a trade journalist is the opportunity to travel and cover an array of industry conferences and events. Some I've attended have been at fun locations, like Palm Springs and Tampa, Fla. Others have been in more practical locations, like SMU’s Steel Summit in Atlanta and American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) meetings in Washington, D.C.
Final Thoughts
t this point in the game I think what we can say about Nippon Steel’s proposed buy of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel is that it will go through, it won’t go through, or the outcome will be something new and completely unexpected. Then again, I’m probably still missing a few options.
Final Thoughts
President-elect Donald Trump continues to send shockwaves through the political establishment (again). And steel markets and ferrous scrap markets continue to be, well, anything but shocking. As the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote in 1849, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." (I thought the quote might have been Yankees catcher Yogi Berra in 1949. Google taught me something new today.)
Final Thoughts
President-elect Donald Trump will officially retake the White House on Jan. 20. I’ve been getting questions about how his administration’s policies might reshape the steel industry and domestic manufacturing. I covered the tumult and norm busting of Trump's first term: Section 232, Section 301, USMCA - and that's just on the trade policy side of things. It's safe to say that we'll have no shortage of news in 2025 when it comes to trade and tariffs.