Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 26, 2013
For those of you who logged into the website and read the newsletter online – you will already know that our SMU Price Ranges & Indices article has an interactive graphic at the end of the article. Those of you reading the newsletter in your inbox will not be able to see or interact with the graphics.
A quick note to those of you who have not gone to the new website and logged in for the first time, if you have lost your user name and password, please contact our office. Once you have logged into the site for the first time you will be prompted to change your password and update your account information. It is important that all fields are filled in completely as failure will break the link which delivers your email newsletter.
I apologize, we had no choice but to bring up a new website and we were not able to keep passwords from the old site (nor do we have access to them in the new site). With the market slowing for the Holidays, now is an excellent time to log in and test out our new website.
If you lost your password and user name we provided over the past couple of weeks or, if you can’t get in, we can work with you either on the phone or by email so that you can get into the website. You can reach us at 800-432-3475 or by email at info@steelmarketupdate.com.
We are finding there is a tremendous amount of interest in our Premium Level membership. We published our second Premium Supplement Newsletter yesterday and we expect to publish supplements on a regular basis. Last night’s had information about our Key Market Indicators as well as the most recent data for imports by product, port and country.
If you would like to learn more about our Premium Level products please contact John Temples or me at 800-432-3475 or John@SteelMarketUpdate.com / JohnTemples@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
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.
As more and more members go to the website we are finding most (if not all) of them like what they see. Hopefully, your impression will mirror the comments we have been receiving like the one I got a couple of days ago from a paint company: “Love SMU.”
As always your business is truly appreciated.
John Packard
Publisher
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Sometimes new presidential administrations hit the ground running. No time for change like the present. And sometimes new administrations blast off on a SpaceX rocket bound for Mars. There’s a big universe, and we’ve got a lot of flags to plant. Such seems to be the case with the new Trump administration.
Final Thoughts
What’s been the impact of tariff threats on prices and demand? In short, not much – or at least that was the case when I was writing this column on Sunday afternoon. Spot activity for Canadian material, for example, has been put on hold over the last few weeks while the market waits to see what the new tariff landscape might look like.
Final Thoughts
Next Monday marks the start of the second Trump administration. The limbo we’ve been living in since Election Day in early November will finally come to an end. What better way to take a look at what’s coming up in Washington, D.C., than a conversation with Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) President Philip K. Bell. He […]
Final Thoughts
It’s another week of big headlines and ho-hum pricing moves – which is to say the start of 2025 is looking a lot like the end of 2024. Scrap has settled up $20 per gross ton (gt). Steel prices, however, were a soft sideways this week. Chalk it up to uneven demand and abundant supply. And while we’re not aware of any major outages, some of you tell us that you’ve lost some shipping days here and there because of the recent cold snap.
Final Thoughts
I wrote in a Final Thoughts a few years ago that it seemed all the swans were black. More recently, I’ve been asked by some of you what the wildcards are for 2025. You could probably make the case that all the cards are wild now.