International Steel Prices
August 6, 2019
CRU: Increasing Trade Tensions Negatively Affect Market Sentiment
Written by Tim Triplett
By Josh Spoores, CRU Principal Analyst
Sheet prices have continued to rise, but the bullish trend is clearly fading. Overall volume of spot transactions last week was the lowest recorded all year. Furthermore, manufacturing is now in recession based on the last two quarters of IP activity, while recent PMI data shows weakness in new orders and production. Additionally, recent order activity since late June was notably large in terms of volume, and with a lack of demand emerging it is likely that sheet inventories will soon need to be worked down.
