Steel Demand Will Determine Whether U.S. Steel's Move to Idle Furnaces is Enough

The construction segment of the market is booming. This is what we heard from the HARDI steel conference call we participated in last week, and it is what we heard from many companies over the two days SMU was in New York City earlier this week. Whenever we travel, one of the things we always look for as the plane comes in for the landing, and as we drive around town, is the number of construction cranes dotting the skyline. SMU can remember back to 2008-2010 when the cranes virtually disappeared from just about every major city in the United States. That is not the case right now.

One of the steel service center execs who spoke at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner on Monday evening reported the many dozens of cranes populating the skies in Portland, Seattle and elsewhere around the country. SMU President & CEO John Packard didn’t have to look too far while in New York City to see evidence of the boom in commercial construction. As John peered out of his 33rd floor hotel window, he could see three cranes towering above the hotel (see photo showing two of the three cranes visible from his room).