Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
September 15, 2017
We will begin our mid-September flat rolled steel market trends analysis first thing on Monday morning. Invitations to participate will go out at 8 AM ET tomorrow morning. We currently send out approximately 650 invitations.
Note: We are correcting the galvanized comparison of coating extras as Nucor has not yet made a change to the schedule they are using. I also want to remind our readers that when reviewing our CPI, or on Tuesdays our galvanized .060″ G90 pricing, we continue to use the existing U.S. Steel extras and not the new NLMK USA extras. I know that at least one index has gone to the higher extras. We will not make a move until U.S. Steel, Nucor and ArcelorMittal decide what they are going to do.
When negotiating contract pricing, steel buyers should be aware that things like coating extras can be negotiable. We understand, from conversations we are having with steel mills, that the process of negotiating 2018 contracts has started, although we are very early in the process. Coating extras will be one area where the domestic mills may be looking for higher prices.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us 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.