Final Thoughts

There has been a lot of information floating about the marketplace regarding the Chinese steel rebates and especially those represented as special alloy through the addition of boron to the steel. We wrote about this subject in early November and we remind our readers to go back and review the article entitled: Chinese Boron Added Steel & Rebates: What Does it Mean? We got an email from one of our trading contacts in Asia and he wrote to us about the Chinese system and the rebates, “John, people not involved in Chinese Steel and only analyzing info really have no understanding of how the Chinese work the system. I advised you that Boron Added products have their own HS Code and easily cancelled, but take a look at other Micro Alloys in Steel.. If the Rebate on just Boron Steel is removed, then what is to stop China from having an SAE1006Cr Grade I/O SAE1006B? The amount of Cr would be the same as the Boron requirement of 0.0008% Min. which is already in most Steels anyway. People underestimate the Chinese and undermining the system and finding Loopholes John.”

I am pleased to announce that Steel Market Update has added another instructor to our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop. Mario Briccetti who worked with me on our first custom sales training program will be joining myself and John Eckstein, Peter Wright and Steve Painter in South Carolina on January 20 & 21, 2015. Mario Briccetti is the Principal of Briccetti & Associates a Supply Chain consulting firm. He graduated from Syracuse University with a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering. Since 2000 he has been in charge of purchasing for Nordyne (HVAC OEM manufacturer), Vice President of Purchasing for Gibraltar Strip Steel and most recently was Vice President of Purchasing for Metal Sales Manufacturing Corp a leading supplier of metal building panels.