Final Thoughts

Last week was a busy week with scrap prices for May coming into focus, our beginning of May flat rolled steel survey having been completed and getting more information about the possible sale of the Severstal NA assets made for an interesting week. On top of that SMU conducted one of our Steel 101 workshops. We have a busy issue for a Sunday evening and our Premium Level customers will receive another special supplemental issue tomorrow with a number of articles (plus our survey power point is now online).

Last week I interviewed Saikat Dey who is the CEO of Severstal North America. During our interview we touched on a number of subjects. One of the subjects was foreign imports. Dey told SMU, “I am not against imports as long as they are fair. What is not supportable is unfair trade practices.” He told us, “Imports are symptoms of world over-capacity.”  However, he felt that some in the steel industry have become “obsessed” with the subject and have begun to lose focus. North American steel mills have become, “myopic in our view of the world…The steel mills are too focused on Washington and what they can do for us instead of what we can do for ourselves.”