Builders cut prices most since 2020 as confidence hits 14-year low
Cleveland-Cliffs said Monday it expects its highest profit since 2021 next year as tight steel supplies send prices higher. The company swung to a profit in what Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves called its strongest quarterly results in three years; Goncalves separately credited domestic trade policy with helping brighten its prospects.
Goncalves said imports remain well below historical levels and that customers increasingly recognize the value of a reliable domestic supply chain.
The Wall Street Journal’s Bob Tita reported that Cleveland-Cliffs postponed by about a year the refurbishment of an Indiana mill’s blast furnace that had been planned for next spring. The delay was intended to avoid taking the furnace out of service during high demand.
Goncalves said Cleveland-Cliffs would start an idle blast furnace at its Dearborn, Mich., plant if automakers committed to using more U.S.-made steel.
Goncalves criticized General Motors’ continued production of vehicles in South Korea and called on Ford Motor to stop using aluminum for the body of the F-150 pickup, which The Wall Street Journal identified as the nation’s bestselling vehicle. Goncalves also said of Ford’s aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup: “We need to bring that car to steel.”
In Canada, Cleveland-Cliffs was proceeding with planned layoffs at its Stelco operations as Ottawa weighed legal options to protect workers, The Wall Street Journal’s Robb M. Stewart reported.
Higher costs for fuel and for recruiting and retaining drivers hit Werner Enterprises’ earnings, the truckload transportation and logistics company said. Werner also said a reserve adjustment for past insurance claims added pressure in an early readout of its third-quarter results.
The Omaha, Neb.-based company expected earnings to be down by about 18 cents a share from the second quarter and forecast revenue of $946 million to $951 million, below analyst expectations. Werner shares fell 7.9% Monday.
The share of U.S. home builders cutting prices this month was the highest since 2020, according to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index survey. The survey showed confidence among builders at its lowest level in 14 years.
Avi Salzman of Barron’s reported that farmers worldwide faced three problems that could send food prices higher next year. A new report from S&P Global said the throttling of the Strait of Hormuz had kept fertilizer shipments down as the Southern Hemisphere’s farming season began.
The report also said an especially strong El Niño had already begun changing temperatures and precipitation. A diesel shortage brought on by the Iran and Ukraine wars was raising costs, and high fuel prices could prompt farmers to divert more cropland to producing biofuels instead of food.
In the United States, food prices had risen 2.5% over the past year, with large increases for beef and some other products. S&P Global projected that food inflation could exceed 3.5% in the coming year and could worsen if fertilizer remained in short supply when the Northern Hemisphere prepared for its next planting season.