A quick look at a few of the bigger things affecting our business this week.
Steel: Fifth straight week of increases. Nucor raised hot-rolled coil another $10/ton to $1,180 for the week of August 24, bringing the total climb to roughly $55/ton over the past five weeks. Same story as always — tight domestic supply and low imports, no ceiling in sight yet.
Oil: A real reversal this time, and a hopeful one. Iran and Oman announced an agreement to jointly manage and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, including a proposed “joint temporary navigational corridor.” Prices dropped hard on the news — ANS fell $3.47 to close at $87.68, WTI dropped $2.65 to $82.36, and Brent fell $3.59 to $88.58. It’s the first genuinely constructive development we’ve seen on this front in weeks. Still too early to call it settled, but worth watching whether it holds.
Infrastructure: Decision time is close. The House returned from recess on August 24 and is expected to vote on the Senate’s stopgap funding bill this week, well ahead of the September 30 deadline. If it passes as written, the highway/transit funding cliff moves to December 11. We should know either way very soon.
Bottom line: Steel keeps climbing with no letup, oil just had its best week of news in a while on the Hormuz front, and infrastructure funding should get resolved one way or another in the next few days. Reach out if you want to talk through what any of this means for your project.
Steel: Steel Market Update, Yieh Corp. Oil: Petroleum News. Infrastructure: Washington Times, AASHTO, Roll Call. Posted weekly for our customers — not investment advice.