While metal prices remain at five-year highs, price relief across other key commodities have emerged over the past 30 days—albeit slightly. Could that extend to the metals market in the not-too-distant future?

Nick Webb, Ryerson’s director of risk management and commodities hedging, gave us another Cup o’ Joe on June 3, examining everything from Chinese lending data to the difficulty buying a new home and what it all means for metal.

If you prefer to sip your Cup o’ Joe recap instead, check out the highlights below.

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Watching Chinese Lending Data

China’s credit impulse, which measures how accommodative lending standards are within the country, tends to be important driver of commodity prices. It has taken a sharp downturn in recent months.

Webb explains the significance this has on domestic prices:

Will Interest Rates Need to Tighten Soon?

If inflation proves to not be transitory, will that mean that interest rates will need to be hiked? Webb looks at the correlation between rates and the copper/gold ratio.

Homes and Cars are Hard Find—What Does that Mean for Metal?

Current conditions show that buying a house and buying a car is difficult these days. Webb snapshots some research data on this front from the University of Michigan and makes the tie to the future of metal.

Capacity Relief for Carbon Steel

The current price of hot-roll carbon is nearly double that of Chinese product. But those prices could be nearly untouchable for some domestically given tariffs in place.

Webb looks at the futures data, as well as what the return above 80% capacity utilization means right now.

Uneven Movements in Aluminum

It’s been a bit of a choppy ride for aluminum—and here are some reasons why.

What Could Stainless Rallies Mean for You?

 

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Certain statements made in this presentation and other written or oral statements made by or on behalf of the Company constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding our future performance, as well as management's expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans, estimates, objectives, or projections relating to the future. Such statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “objectives,” “goals,” “preliminary,” “range,” "believes," "expects," "may," "estimates," "will," "should," "plans," or "anticipates" or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy. The Company cautions that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and may involve significant risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may vary materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Among the factors that significantly impact our business are: the cyclicality of our business; the highly competitive, volatile, and fragmented metals industry in which we operate; fluctuating metal prices; our substantial indebtedness and the covenants in instruments governing such indebtedness; the integration of acquired operations; regulatory and other operational risks associated with our operations located inside and outside of the United States; impacts and implications of adverse health events, including the COVID-19 pandemic; work stoppages; obligations under certain employee retirement benefit plans; the ownership of a majority of our equity securities by a single investor group; currency fluctuations; and consolidation in the metals industry. Forward-looking statements should, therefore, be considered in light of various factors, including those set forth above and those set forth under "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Moreover, we caution against placing undue reliance on these statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. The Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances, new information or otherwise

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