Final Thoughts

The next few months are going to be a wild ride (in my opinion). There appears to be a cascading “Gray Swan” event in process prompted by Section 232 and expectations associated with 232, which now are for Trump to announce a 24 percent tariff on all steel products and let the chips fall where they may. Those companies who have run lean inventories are now at risk of running out of steel. However, remember that Steel Market Update does not agree with the Metals Service Center Institute analysis of the number of month’s of supply, which we now calculate to be 2.8 months as of the end of January. We are being told there is a lot of service center to service center spot inventory being traded right now.

So, where are we? To be honest, I am not quite sure and I am working hard to find out. There will be much more and deeper reporting on the key drivers to the market in the coming days and weeks. Watch for our articles, blog posts on our website and Tweets (#SMUsteel), LinkedIn (Steel Market Update group as well as my personal page) and Facebook (Steel Market Update).