Final Thoughts

I have been receiving a large number of calls asking my opinion about steel prices and specifically can steel prices remain at the current levels for an extended period of time. The financial community is convinced that the numbers will come down over the next month to two months and that we will see mid $500’s hot rolled by the end of the year. I am being forwarded articles about the weakening of the automotive sales (which is different than production numbers) and that Chrysler will no longer manufacture cars in the United States beginning next year.

I don’t disagree that there will be pressure building and the question will be what will demand be for all of the market segments as we move into 4th quarter and into next year. This will be one of the areas covered in our Steel Summit Conference and we have some big guns discussing the subject: Chris Oakley, Vice President and Regional Manager for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trends Research. They are much better suited than I to make prognostications.