Final Thoughts
July 22, 2019
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
It has been an interesting last four weeks with now three price increase announcements having been made by most of the steel mills. With this latest announcement, I am hearing from buyers the mills are pushing to get orders in “before the increases take effect.” A way of pushing the increases off for a few days (probably until next week).
How much of the $120 per ton will “stick” will depend on how much demand there is out there. I was speaking to the president of a service center this afternoon who mentioned comments made by John Ferriola during the Nucor earnings conference call. He said the Nucor CEO put manufacturing demand as being up by 4 percent. He thought that was the real gauge to the strength of the economy. Service centers, he explained, are managing inventory levels – not demand.
