Bits 'N Pieces

We received the following comments from a member of the financial investment community regarding the suits just filed by the domestic mills alleging the transformation of hot rolled to cold rolled or coated from China in Vietnam was just a way for China to circumvent U.S. trade duties. The complaint states that the transformation of the Chinese substrate was nothing more than “minor finishing operations.” This is what the note received on Friday said:

“Interesting.  So if processing HRC into CRC/galvanized is a “minor finishing operation” as per the US Steel press release,  why is the spread btw HRC and CRC/galv  over $200 per ton? Makes no sense.   Surely the $200+ per ton spread is supposed to reflect some significant value added, otherwise why would steel buyers be willing to pay such a large spread?