Final Thoughts

The last couple of days have been hectic as we worked through the articles seen in tonight’s newsletter as well as numerous articles that we are working on various topics. The two headline articles are, of course, the next round of flat rolled price increases. The Nucor $20 hot rolled and $30 cold rolled and coated is fairly modest and is being well received by most SMU spoke with today. It is, of course, too early to tell what impact it could have but we heard from one coated service center that they were being quoted base prices as high as $28.50/cwt from at least one mill supplier (at the top end of our range that would be a $30 per ton price increase).

As the month has progressed, the amount being paid for shredded and even heavy melt grades of scrap can vary by quite a bit. We were reading a Mike Marley piece (World Steel Dynamics) earlier this evening about the prices paid for shredded scrap ($225), busheling ($215) and heavy melt ($205) by mills in the Southeast. The order books have improved at the mini-mills and they need the scrap.