US steelmakers' anxiety has only been heightened by a deterioration in trading conditions at the end of the year. US production is down. Utilisation in 2001 averaged 77.6 percent and was still heading down at the end of the year-below 72 percent in the week before Christmas closures started. Shipments from domestic mills in 2001 were 9-10 percent below 2000 levels. US imports are down. Total imports of carbon semis and products are estimated to have been 30 percent lower in 2001 than in 2000. But US prices are still low because demand is down too.Indicators of general manufacturing activity such as machine tool orders and durable god orders continue to trend down. There was a surge in car sales at the beginning of the new model year-October sales were 38 percent higher than in October 2000. However, this included strong sales of imported models and also reflected a determined effort, such as 0 percent finance deals, to clear old models from forecourts after twelve consecutive months of year-on-year falls. Carmakers have differing views on 2002. Ford is marking first quarter production down by 11 percent compared with 2001, where as GM, pleased with the immediate success of its incentives for customers, plans a rise of 7 percent.
展开▼
