We continue to press our case. One of the fundamental thresholds of 232 was that they wanted the steel industry to operate at 80% of capacity utilization. The domestic wire rod producers today are operating at under 70% of capacity. And partly it’s because imports of PC strand and other downstream products have reduced apparent domestic consumption of wire rods significantly. So we will continue to pursue illegal trading tactics through anti-dumping and countervailing duty actions. And as I said in my prepared comments, we’re also working with the administration to demonstrate to them that the intended beneficiaries of Section 232 are actually being harmed by what’s going on and that they need to seriously look at expanding the coverage of Section 232 to include PC strand.
And it’s a heavy lift, but we have the data on our side and the logics on our side and it’s basically irrefutable. Does that mean they’ll do something? Hard to say, but certainly all the logic is there to support it.
Tyson Bauer: Does the administration trying to block the M&A activity for the steel producers exasperate that problem or is it trying to correct it?
H. Woltz: Well, I mean, I think if you look at the US steel market, it’s the highest priced steel market in the world. What producer wouldn’t covet market position in the highest priced market in the world? And it is the highest priced market because of Section 232. And so how the administration or why they would be surprised that no one are going to buy U.S. Steel. I mean, I just can’t imagine. So in our space, I wouldn’t see the administration as an impediment to M&A, but it’s hard for me to understand that they would be surprised by the environment that exists today.
Tyson Bauer: Got it. [Inaudible] also announced this morning, and it came with some comments on some headwinds in the commercial construction, which matches up with the non-res. Is that something that you are also seeing at your level that there is some working through on that side of it, but it’s being overcome by the infrastructure portion of it, or do they somewhat go hand in hand creating this delay on recognizing that demand?
H. Woltz: Keep in mind that it’s hard for us to know for sure where our products are going, whether they would be, whether the demand is driven by residential or non-residential markets. Sometimes our customers aren’t even sure which market segment they’re serving. So I think what we’re seeing now is really decent demand from both residential and non-residential markets, and certainly a recovery in both.
Operator: There are no additional questions waiting at this time, so I’ll pass the call back to the management team for any closing remarks.
H. Woltz: Okay. Well, we appreciate your interest in the company. We encourage you to contact us if you develop questions, and we’ll look forward to the Q3 call, which will be coming up before you know it. Thank you.
Operator: That concludes the conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.
