Steel Thoughts
Red-Hot Opportunity
Steel shares have been hammered by global economic worries. But for the stocks of four U.S. companies, the downturn seems overdone. WORRIES ABOUT AN ECONOMIC slowdown in China , debt problems in Europe and the potential for a double-dip recession in the U.S. have pounded steel stocks in recent months. But the correction appears to [...]
Cramer Bullish on Select Steel, Analysts Mixed Recently (X, NUE, GNA, AKS, More…)
Jim Cramer is bullish on the steel sector, even though recent writing haven’t been exactly kind to steelmakers. Some of his recent thoughts are: Gerdau AmeriSteel Corp. (NYSE: GNA) is a very good steel company. His belief to buy the shares outweighs the analysts that are saying to stay away from steel as a whole.Yesterday, [...]
Follow the Charts
Although demand for finished products has not (yet) rebounded in a significant way, scrap prices have continued to rise, pulling the steel prices with them. As the chart for Hot Rolled Coils in the USA below shows, this is a similar situation to what we had in 2008. The wire rod chart looks very similar [...]
2nd and 10
On the eve of the Superbowl, it’s hard not to use a football analogy. It’s early in the new year, 1st quarter, and there are high hopes for an economic recovery, and to go along with that, a recovery in steel demand. The last three months had scrap prices and iron ore prices rising, causing [...]
China adds Steel Capacity !?!
Didn’t we just report that China was reducing capacity? Yes we did. Here is another side of the story…. So much for Beijing’s resolve to trim steel capacity. Two months ago, we wrote about Beijing playing the mother-in-law to try to corral its sprawling, disobedient steel industry. In recent months, high-level authorities in the central government, [...]
Changes Coming in 2010?
It has been an interesting year, just as was 2008. Both years had changes in momentum. In 2008, there were record steel shipments and prices escalating to the highest point in history, for about 9 1/2 months. This was followed by a lack of business and a steady decline in pricing into the new year. [...]
September’s real steel market
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article provided a good example of what an outsider believes is happening in the steel market. I think this article is a bit ahead of itself. In today’s current market, wire rod is currently being offered with a 6 to 8 week lead time. Longer lead times are for the highest [...]
Steel market according to Wall Street
There has been an increase in ordering activity from domestic mills in the past month and lead times have increased from 3 to 4 weeks to up to 10 weeks for some products. Customers who are used to steel mills giving prompt delivery are suddenly realizing they need to buy steel for immediate delivery causing [...]
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Have you read this book? It is a good novel by a famous writer. It has to do with the mysterious disappearance of the best and brightest business leaders around the country. All were visited by John Galt and then were gone. Pick it up and read it. It has to do with a government [...]
Ten Questions Politicians Won’t Answer
The past week’s debate about health care has shown that in Washington the only things more stubborn than facts are politicians who evade them. In spite of a torrent of independent analyses showing that the so-called health-care “reform” bills moving through Congress will dramatically increase the deficit and cause millions of Americans to lose their [...]
