Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 2, 2017
It has been another busy week here at Steel Market Update.
We are hearing from steel buyers that Nucor is considering raising flat rolled prices by $25 per ton within the next few working days. The increase would follow an increase in ferrous scrap prices for August delivery.
We have also heard that at least one Midwest mill is considering lowering galvanized spot base prices. At the same time, other buyers who do business with that mill are reporting no weakness.
I saw that California Steel Industries opened their September order book. I did not see a price announcement with their notification that the book was opening.
We just concluded our early August flat rolled steel market trends analysis and a piece of our findings are in tonight’s newsletter. We will make available a PowerPoint presentation on much of the results from this week’s analysis for our Premium level members tomorrow.
On Tuesday, I mentioned in my Final Thoughts that we had 10 slots left for the Fort Wayne, Ind., Steel 101 workshop. We had a surge of registrations yesterday, and we have three companies asking for spots that may/may not be there. We are building a wait list for the Oct. 4-5 workshop, and we are working on announcing the workshop that will follow Fort Wayne. I hope to have that information available for you in the next week or two.
A special thank you to the companies and individuals who wished Steel Market Update a happy 9th birthday.
Conference, conference, conference… For those of you who are already registered, we sent out a special newsletter this afternoon (Thursday), which contained information about the SMU Events App, registrations, sponsors and exhibitors, and an expanded view of our agenda. Please take the time to download our App (or if you have it from 2015 or 2016, switch to the 2017 program). The App is where you will find our list of attendees, speakers and speaker bio’s, sponsors and exhibitors, our agenda, social media links and access to our polling/surveys. We have asked a few very simple questions in our App already and will consolidate the answers and present them at the beginning of our program. On Tuesday, Aug. 29, a portion of the program will be a live interactive discussion with our audience as we gauge how they feel about the existing market conditions.
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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President Donald Trump on Sunday hammered Colombia with 25% tariffs and threatened to increase them to 50%. Trump in a post on Truth Social said he took the action not because of a trade dispute but because the South American nation had refused to accept planes carrying deported immigrants. The president also cited "national security" concerns, just as he did to justify 25% Section 232 tariffs on steel in his first term. Even the 50% threat echoes his first term. Turkish steel, like that of most nations, was assessed a 25% tariff in March 2018. Trump doubled Turkey's tariff to 50% via a tweet in August of that year over a matter unrelated to steel.