Steelmaker Puns

Hoa Sen Group founder and chairman Le Phuoc Vu has said he will remain involved with the operations of the steel giant until he enters monastic life in 2026.

This is the murderous reality in the Italian city of Taranto. This is a perpetual massacre, the maximum representation of capitalism, people die and fall ill every year due to this shitty fine dust from the steelmaker that we breath every single second of our lives here.

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Oct 13 (Reuters) - Steel prices, driven to nosebleed highs by surging demand, should start to "erode" by the first part of next year as COVID-related supply bottlenecks ease and new domestic production comes online, said Mark Millett, the chief executive of the fourth-largest U.S. steelmaker, Steel Dynamics Inc. ( STLD)

But the long-term health of the U.S. industry depends on avoiding a surge of imports, which have driven the downside of past boom-and-bust cycles for steelmakers, he added.

"We're starting to see inventories rebuild a little and we're starting to see import volumes pick up a little - so it would be natural to see pricing turn over" in the first part of 2022, said Millett, who also chairs the Steel Manufacturers Association, the industry's main trade voice in Washington.

Demand for all types of metal plunged early in the pandemic but then recovered far faster and rose to higher levels than anyone expected. Now the focus is shifting to the Biden administration's ambitious infrastructure plan, which would require large amounts of steel for construction projects and machinery, and create another boon for domestic producers, assuming the metal was purchased from domestic mills.

Millett said high steel prices shouldn't hinder the government infrastructure plan. "Once an infrastructure bill passes, you don't suddenly see trillion-dollar projects arrive on your doorstep," he said. Instead, he predicts at least a year-long "ramp-up" period, which would allow the industry to overcome supply chain disruptions that have magnified shortages and added to pricing pressure.

U.S. producers, including Steel Dynamics ( STLD) and United States Steel ( X), are building new plants that will open over the next two years and the market will need imports in the future, said Millett, noting that historically the United States has imported steel equivalent to about 20% to 22% of domestic demand. The problem is when imports surge far beyond that, he said.

"When it gets up to 27-28%, and when it comes flooding in, that's when pricing gets decimated," said Millett. "The industry can't earn its cost of capital."

That's why the industry is pushing to keep trade barriers in place that have helped insulate the domestic market. The United States is currently negotiating with the European Union over limits on imports of metal from that region's producers.

Millett said the EU hasn't "been a major problem historically" and that he believes the administration is looking

Two of the nation's largest steelmakers are keeping older mills closed, passing up a chance to sell more metal at record prices, because of the high cost of restarting and the threats to their survival from rivals' new plants.

The closures have exacerbated a shortage of steel that is contributing to higher prices for cars, appliances and machinery. United States Steel Corp. and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. are keeping about seven million tons of production capacity out of service. That is roughly a tenth of domestic consumption in 2019, according to Metal Strategies Inc., an industry consulting firm.

Steel prices, meanwhile, have reached records. Spot-market steel prices have climbed more than 60% since the start of the year to more than $1,600 a ton, according to S&P Global Platts.

U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs idled those older plants in the months before the coronavirus pandemic began because they expected them to be more expensive to operate than some nine million tons of annual flat-rolled steel capacity that competitors including Nucor Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. are building. Even with steel prices at all-time highs, executives and analysts don't expect the costs of starting up the older mills would pay off over time.

"The industry is in transition," said Mark Millett, chief executive of Steel Dynamics, which is building a new mill in Texas. "If you've got ancient assets to compete against new, state-of-the-art facilities, you've got to question whether you bring those back."

Steel-market analysts have said for years that the lower production costs at new mills and the additional steel from them would push down steel prices and pull customers away from older mills that use a more expensive production process and need higher prices to earn a profit. Steel companies also face pressure from regulators and customers to reduce carbon emissions from older plants.

The new mills are still months or years away from operating, but steel demand received an unexpected boost last year from supercharged purchases of cars, appliances and machinery during the pandemic. Supply-chain problems have since drained inventories of steel. Wait times for some deliveries from U.S. producers have stretched up to six months, according to steel users. Some customers said they are receiving partial shipments.

"This is the hardest time in the history of our company to procure metal, " said Jonathan Ulbrich, vice president of Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special M

Steelmaker of the year Laurenco Goncalves after hitting shorts with The Pedigree

It's going to be a good week for our favorite mega chad CLF CEO Laurenco "LG" Goncalves:

- Monday CLF joins the Russell 1000

- Wednesday LG is awarded steelmaker of the year and gives the keynote address titled “American Steel, the Environment and the Next Decade.” (link)

And he's still riding the tailwinds of:

- Moody's rating upgrade (link)

- $39 JPMorgan Price Target (link)

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- HRC Steel Futures going absolutely, monumentally, stratospheric:

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And let's not forget that INFRASTRUCTURE TALKS ARE GOING WELL

My Positions:

>$60k in options

$30k in Shares in my boomer 401k

Hoa Sen Group founder and chairman Le Phuoc Vu has said he will remain involved with the operations of the steel giant until he enters monastic life in 2026.

Hoa Sen Group founder and chairman Le Phuoc Vu has said he will remain involved with the operations of the steel giant until he enters monastic life in 2026.