Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 15, 2017
I have read reports that suggest the first fully integrated mill in Vietnam, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, has received permission to test their #1 blast furnace. The Vietnamese government has approved the pollution control equipment and the company is going to be allowed to run the blast furnace on a six-month trial period. In July 2016, this same mill caused a devastating toxic spill that impacted 125 miles of coastline in the province of Ha Tinh and three other provinces in Central Vietnam, affecting the country’s fishing and tourism industries.
We have been working on a new section for members in our website. The section is entitled “Trade Cases” and we have the results of the corrosion resistant (CORE), cold rolled, hot rolled and cut-to-length plate (CTL) in the site. The data can be found under the Resources tab (although we may move it to the Analysis tab at a future date). Please take a look and advise what adjustments or new information you would like to see contained in the data. These pages were created based on a question from one of our member companies. SMU does react to questions and suggestions so please keep them coming: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
I will be traveling to Atlanta and then on to Chicago on Wednesday. I will be available by email should you have any need to reach me: John@SteelMarketUpate.com.
On Thursday I will be attending the Metal Industry sponsored Boy Scout Dinner at the Hilton Chicago Hotel at 720 South Michigan Avenue. If you would like to meet with me please shoot me an email with your cell number. I will email or text you back once I am able to review my schedule.
We had 16 new registrations for the SMU Steel Summit Conference which takes place on August 28, 29 & 30th. We are now over 300 registrations and well on our way to 500+ executives at this year’s event. We invite you to join us if you have not already made arrangements to do so. It will be the largest conference featuring “pure” steel people in North America this year. You can find out more details here or by contacting our office at 772-932-7538 or info@SteelMarketUpdate.com (or ask me if you are at the Boy Scout Dinner in Chicago on Thursday). There are 103 days to go…
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
Nucor said it is seeking $740 per short ton (st) for hot-rolled (HR) coil this week, up $20/st from last week. USS, meanwhile, is shooting for up $30/st for sheet products in general. (USS did not announce a target price for HR.)
Final Thoughts
We all know the American news cycle moves pretty fast. Viral today, cached tomorrow. So it is with the US presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 5. People have election fatigue. They've moved on to other things like planning holiday parties, debating Super Bowl hopefuls, or even starting to look forward to our Tampa Steel Conference in February.
Final Thoughts
U.S. Steel plans to increase sheet prices by at least $30 per short ton (st). That's something we haven't seen for a while.
Final Thoughts
SMU's hot-rolled (HR) coil price slipped this week to $685 per short ton (st) on average. We also adjusted our sheet momentum indicators to lower for the first time since July.
Final Thoughts
When a mapmaker constructs a map, it’s always to the contours of the land. Or sea. That is, the mapmaker doesn’t say, “Look, these rocks really don’t belong here, so I’m not going to include them in the harbor map.” Uncharted rocks, sink ships (along with loose lips).