Dallas, Texas 11/12/2013 (Financialstrend) – The mid cap steel and iron manufacturing firm AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) announced last Thursday that it is going ahead and raising the price of spot market price for all its steel products which are of the “carbon flat rolled” nature. The increase is to the tune of $30 per ton. The increase in price is to come into effect with immediate effect for all orders going forward. On the back of this announcement, the shares of this small cap steel manufacturer zoomed up by 5% during trading on November 8 trading. It ended last week’s trading at $5.38 per share, just 4% shy of its prior 52 week high valuation of $5.6 per share.
Readers should note that in the recent past AK Steel had grabbed the attention of the government and steel producers from Asian countries when it had logged anti dumping case against seven key producers including South Korea and Chinese companies. The company had claimed in its petition to U.S Commerce ministry that these foreign companies are able to export huge quantities of steel to U.S markets at uneconomical prices due to the huge government subsidy these firms enjoy in their operating countries. This AK Steel had claimed is leading to a huge glut of cheaper steel in U.S. markets leading to drop in demand for its own non subsidised steel. Trade analysts have observed that the fact that U.S. steel producers have filed suit has lead to an appreciable drop in the import of steel during October. They further opine that the current increase in its price is a continued push by AK Steel to gain profitability in its U.S. market.
AK Steel operates in tandem with its 100% owned subsidiary AK Tube LLC and AK Coal Resources in the stainless steel and carbon steel vertical. It counts on automobile, construction and manufacturing verticals as it key customer base.
