Cme hrc futures contract settlement data shows steady

Contract settlement data shows steady hedging activity from downstream fabricators. All examples in this report are hypothetical interpretations of situations and are used for explanation purposes only. The views in this report reflect solely those of the author and not necessarily those of CME Group or its affiliated institutions. This report and the information herein should not be considered investment advice or the results of actual market experience. What happened after March 4 was rather unexpected. The futures curve from June forward drifted back down on light volume to about where it was before the 25% tariffs were announced. In other words, one could lock in a fixed priced steel purchase at the same price today as they could before the tariffs, but now they know there are 25% steel tariffs! But….that is not happening. Go figure. Analysts suggest that energy sector orders are boosting baseline steel consumption, particularly from pipeline projects.