Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 24, 2018
The wheels are moving and things are happening that are going to affect the momentum behind this market.
First, there are new price increase announcements being made, first out of California and now by ArcelorMittal USA, which has put new base prices into the market. Second, Big River Steel put their customers on allocation for the month of March. Steel Market Update heard from multiple BRS customers who advised us that BRS was telling contract customers they could not order more than the contract “minimum” for the month of March. Other customers also told us that their tonnage was being restricted in March so the mill could catch up and deliver late orders. I expect there will be more mill announcements in the coming days reacting to what ArcelorMittal put out there this evening. AM told their customers the new minimum base prices would be: $750 per ton on hot rolled and $930 per ton on cold rolled and coated products.
And we are still waiting for the president’s decision on Section 232…
We had an excellent Steel 101 workshop in Mobile over the past two days. I want to thank SSAB who went out of their way to provide an exceptional experience for our attendees. The mill has to change out one of the molds in their caster, which impacted their EAF. Even so, the mill went out of their way to charge their two EAF’s for our group. Thank you again SSAB.
Our next Steel 101 workshop will be in Merrillville, Ind., and we will tour the NLMK USA Portage steel mill. The dates are March 28-29, 2018. You can find more details on our website.
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
Who could’ve guessed that the first stage to follow liberation would be confusion. Well, when things get this liberated this fast, perhaps it’s to be expected. From the 30,000-foot view, “Liberation Day” didn’t have a significant impact on steel tariff-wise. That is, the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs stand alone from the reciprocal tariffs […]
Final Thoughts
The market breathlessly awaits the arrival of President Trump's "Liberation Day."
Final Thoughts
I’m not sure what I can write today that won’t be old news after April 2. The Trump administration has dubbed Wednesday “Liberation Day.” Since it’s mostly about tariffs, let’s just call it “Tariff Day.” Or maybe we should call it “Tariff Week” – since tariffs typically dominate the news cycle in the first week […]
Final Thoughts
A personal perspective on Galvalume prices from SMU analyst Brett Linton.
Final Thoughts
After a March frenzy, are prices nearing a peak in April? Some of you have suggested that they are. Others think it's too early to make any such call.