Month: December 2018

US steel prices have been boosted almost to the level of imported steel

This is a graph of the milestones in the imposition of the Section 232* tariffs, and the corresponding change in steel prices.

Today, there is little advantage between buying domestically or importing steel, even with the 25% tariff.

*Section 232 of the Trade Expansion act of 1962

Agricultural products show that despite strong production-cycles price volatility can be small

With agricultural products, the obvious take-away is the clear lack of changes to prices across the year.  Prices might be expected to change across the year, as output has a strong annual production cycle.  However, price changes between months is subdued and often absent.

Continue reading “Seasonality: Agriculture – Volatile production, flat pricing”