Final Thoughts
Final Thougths
Written by John Packard
January 20, 2017
The Final Thoughts section is the area where I get to provide my opinions about what I am seeing and sensing in the market. I have been debating over the weekend whether or not now is the time to adjust our Price Momentum Indicator from Higher to Neutral. A Neutral reading would mean prices are in a state of fluctuation and could move in either direction over the next 30 days. However, I do not have any evidence of spot price erosion in cold rolled and coated products, only in hot rolled. If you have any information or thoughts on the subject please feel free to contact me.
I will be in Huntsville, Alabama over the next few days as we conduct our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Marker Fundamentals workshop. I am looking forward to touring the Nucor Decatur steel mill as this will be my first time at the mill. The weather looks to be decent (for late January).
After Huntsville our next Steel 101 workshop will be in Toledo, Ohio where we will be touring the North Star Bluescope EAF steel facility. We had a workshop in their area last year but the mill had an issue with one of their furnaces that stopped us from touring their facility. So, I am looking forward to going to the North Star Bluescope mill. The dates of this workshop will be April 11 & 12, 2017.
We continue to work with a number of mills over the balance of this year and into 2018. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.
Brett will be with me in Huntsville assisting with our workshop. Diana and Alison will be covering our offices here in Florida and can be reached at 800-432-3475 or 772-932-7538.
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
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.