Final Thoughts

Last week a number of the large Chinese steel mills who have offices in the United States met to discuss the pressures being placed on the Chinese mills by both the Chinese central government and the U.S. government to control (reduce) the amount of steel being exported to the United States. SMU heard over the weekend from one of our sources in Asia that the consensus of opinion is for CISA (Chinese Iron & Steel Association) to be the controlling entity by picking who could send steel to the U.S. and how much (allocation).

Our sources are telling us that the ball is in CISA’s court and it is up to them to see what they want to propose to help resolve the problem. However, our sources in Asia believe that anti-dumping and countervailing duty trade suits against the Chinese mills are all but inevitable.

Early word on ferrous scrap prices – sideways on obsolete grades and possibly up $10 on prime grades (busheling & bundles). If this turns out to be correct, this would be the second month in a row where obsolete scrap prices (HMS, Shred) have not fallen and the first month prime grades may move higher. We will follow up with an article later this week once we receive more input from the industry. Price negotiations begin in earnest next week.

A note about our publishing schedule with the Easter Holiday coming up on Sunday, April 5th. We will publish as normal next week (March 30-April 3) but we will not publish on Easter Sunday. After our April 2nd evening issue we will next publish on Tuesday, April 7th.

We will begin our early April flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) on Monday, April 6th. If you would like to be added to our survey (must be active buyer or seller of flat rolled steel) please send us an email to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. All respondent identities are kept confidential. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at: 800-432-3475.

As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update. Tell your friends and those with deep pockets about us. Just like you, we can always use some new business…

John Packard, Publisher