Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 1, 2016
Correction: CME HRC settlement number for January was $389 per ton, not $398 per ton as we mistakenly identified in our monthly analysis table published in our Sunday evening edition. Unlike Platts and our own SMU hot rolled index, the index used by CME had hot rolled prices dropping by $7 per ton during one of their weekly posts. All of the indexes followed by SMU (Platts, SteelBenchmarker and SMU) had HRC prices rising during the entire month of January. If you have any questions you can contact the CME Group or your bank or broker (such as Andre Marshall or Spencer Johnson) for more details.
We are in the middle of a flat rolled steel market trends analysis. We will begin reporting the results of our analysis which comes from the questionnaire we invite up to 600 people representing over 550 companies to complete. Our Premium members will have access to a Power Point presentation with a great deal of the results on Friday of this week (we post it on our website along with past presentations). Those of you trialing our newsletter will also have access to the presentation which can be found under the Analysis tab (after you are logged into the website).
We will also be publishing a Premium supplemental issue of our newsletter with our Key Market Indicators and a couple of other articles tomorrow.
If you are an Executive member or on a free trial and you would like to learn more about the differences between our Premium level product and Executive please feel free to contact us at: info@SteelMarketupdate.com or by phone: 800-432-3475.
We found out today that when we transferred our 800 number to our new office our new phone company did not include Canadian customers with access. We are getting that corrected. Until we are certain that the 800 number functions as it should you can use the following local number: 772-245-8630.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Some of you have told me that the current market feels about as crazy as early 2021 when demand snapped back after the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Others have said it might be more like late February/early March 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and, in the process, caused […]

Final Thoughts
To say we’ve entered a “Brave New World” since Jan. 20 might be an exaggeration, but we’ve definitely entered a different one.

Final Thoughts
I think it’s fair to say that the last few weeks – and last week especially – have been among the most intense for any of us covering steel (or aluminum).

Final Thoughts
A look at how SMU survey respondents are reacting to President Trump's recent actions on tariffs.

Final Thoughts
A lot of the changes basically entail rolling back what I’ll call, for fun, Section 232 Lite. S232 Lite resulted from watering down what I’ll call OG S232 – the one first imposed in March 2018 - with exemptions and exclusions over the years. Now, OG Section 232, is back with its across-the-board 25% tariffs against everyone.