Final Thoughts
Final thoughts
Written by Brett Linton & Ethan Bernard
May 9, 2024
Last week we wrote about a brief lull in price movement, labeling it a period of wait and see.
It did, in fact, turn out to be pretty brief. This week… things are little bit different. Perhaps right now, following a price decrease that was not priced in to the market, we are more in a period of “hope and pray” or “Here we go, hold on to your hats.”
When things get volatile, especially in prices, it’s often best to return to something solid. Go back to basics, the foundations you can count on. Ground yourself, get earthy, etc.
Coincidentally, this week’s crossword highlights just such a theme: raw materials. From scrap to coal, prepare to roll up your sleeves and dig in.
Note, we’ll be doing a steel-themed crossword every Thursday leading up to our Steel 101 course on June 11-12 in Fort Wayne, Ind. The course includes a tour of SDI Butler, an EAF sheet mill.
Another feature we’ll be introducing is “This week in steel history.” Our inaugural entry is below. If there are any key events in steel that you’d like to highlight, let us know at info@steelmarketupdate.com.
This week in steel history:
The first commercially successful Bessemer steel furnace in the US began operation on May 8, 1864, in Wyandotte, Mich., at the Eureka Iron Co.
Bessemer furnaces were gradually phased out in favor of blast furnaces, with the last US Bessemer furnace decommissioned in 1968.
For any of our veteran readers with great Bessemer yarns, feel free to pass them our way!
Crossword
Click here to attempt this week’s crossword.
Brett Linton
Read more from Brett Linton
Ethan Bernard
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Final Thoughts
“We’ll always have Paris,” as the famous line in Casablanca goes. And this month, the global steel industry did as well. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Steel Committee met in the City of Lights earlier this month. There was also a meeting of the Global Forum addressing excess steel capacity.
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.)