Chris Billman

Recently, President Trump signed “phase one” of the US-China trade deal. But what does this trade deal actually mean?

On Monday, President Trump announced plans to restore tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from Brazil and Argentina.

The deal represents a 16 percent premium to yesterday's closing price of $2.89 for AKS.

For the first time since October 2015, China lowered interest rates on short-term loans.

This attack and subsequent production outage caused the largest, one-day, oil price surge since 1991. As of this writing, crude oil pricing is at $60.43, up 10.17 percent from Friday. This is the highest crude has been since May. 

Current expectations from the domestic scrap market is for pricing to slide $10-$20/gt and give back most, if not all, of August’s increase.

Current domestic flat-rolled steel pricing remains below domestic mill published pricing, signaling room for further growth.

Domestic steel production utilization dips below 80 percent for the first time in nearly a year. 

There is always a debate as to whether the time for a market bottom is now. These debates typically hinge on supply, demand, other factors. As the mills see it, the ancient proverb “there is no time like the present” sums up the situation perfectly. 

The current uncertainties surrounding the domestic steel market have caused a “buyers' strike,” which has pushed domestic flat-rolled steel prices to their lowest levels since Q4 2016.