Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 10, 2016
I am about to embark on a two-week trip which includes stops in Memphis (and Big River Steel in Arkansas), Las Vegas (FabTech and ASD annual meeting), San Diego and then on to Los Angeles to have Thanksgiving with my daughter and the rest of our family. I will be in the office early tomorrow morning before leaving just before noon. If you would like to contact our office, Diana will be in and her number is 772-932-7538.
For those of you attending the ASD (Association of Steel Distributors) meeting and/or FabTech please note that John Eckstein and I will be conducting a short version of our Steel 101 training at FabTech on Friday morning, November 18th (8 AM until 10 AM). FabTech identifies our program as Steel Metal 101: Mill to Fabricator. In their schedule it is F79 and is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. John Eckstein and I will be at the ASD cocktail party on Thursday evening.
An early note regarding our publishing schedule over the Thanksgiving Holiday. We will publish this week as normal. Next week we will publish on Sunday and Tuesday evening (November 20 & 22) but will not publish on Thanksgiving Day (November 24th) or on Sunday, November 27th. We will return to our normal schedule on Tuesday, November 29th.
Buyers of galvanized and Galvalume need to be aware there are rumors that the domestic mills may play with the coating extras once again. Zinc pricing was last $1.11 per pound and is at the highest levels seen over the past 5 years. We have more information in the commodities article in tonight’s newsletter.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
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