Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
December 23, 2016
Happy Holidays and welcome back to all of you who celebrated Christmas on Sunday or the beginnings of Hanukkah on Saturday evening. Most of the steel industry appears to still be on Holiday and not working through the New Year festivities. So, it was a fairly quiet day in the Steel Market Update offices around the country.
I did get an interesting email from one buyer who laid out some of the foreign steel offers his company has seen over the past week or so. we learned the cheapest hot rolled offers into Houston are $28.20/cwt to $29.35/cwt coming out of eastern Europe and the Middle East/North Africa.
We learned cold rolled prices have increased recently with Russia at the low end at $32.95/cwt Houston and Turkey at the high end at $33.95/cwt Houston.
Galvanized prices into Houston were running from a low of a $36.95/cwt base out of Russia, Brazil and POSCO Thailand around $37.20/cwt base.
We will have a Premium supplemental issue on Wednesday for our Premium members. Also, don’t forget that our flat rolled market trends analysis results from last week are on our website.
We will publish another Executive level newsletter on Thursday of this week before taking a New Year’s hiatus returning on Tuesday, January 3rd to our regular publishing schedule.
Important dates to remember for 2017: August 28, 29, 30 which are the dates for our 7th Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta. Dr. Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trends Research and Dr. Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence will join us and around 500 others associated with the steel industry as we try to understand the challenges and opportunities the industry will have in store for us as we move into 2018. Mark your calendars now.
For those of you who may have an interest, we have limited sponsorship opportunities available as well as a number of exhibitor opportunities for the 2017 conference. Contact us at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com for information.
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
As February comes to a close this week, the scrap markets are poised for another – and perhaps more extreme – move upward in March. March is usually a month when scrap prices relent as winter’s impediments subside. That’s not the case this year. And this time, the driver of prices will be increased demand from mills along with restricted flows over the last two months.
Final Thoughts
The US steel market has whipsawed upward on the prospect of expanded Section 232 tariffs of 25% being applied to imported steel - including downstream goods - on March 12. It seems pretty clear that domestic steel mills have the ear of the Trump administration when it comes to Section 232. The result? The much-anticipated Trump bump has finally arrived - and then some.
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).