Final Thoughts
January 25, 2019
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
I have read a number of articles recently claiming steel prices have gone back to the levels they were when the Section 232 tariffs were announced. This is somewhat deceiving as the domestic mills had been pushing prices up prior to the announcement.
A better benchmark would be to use the historical average on hot rolled coil. If my memory serves me correctly, Peter Wright had defined the HRC average for our Premium members in a recent article at around $610 per ton. If that is correct, we are still a ways away from the average. However, when you take into consideration the 25 percent tariffs, the average should be much higher than the levels being quoted right now.
