Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
December 20, 2013
We will slowly begin adding plate articles and pricing commentary to our Executive Newsletter as we enter the new year. We believe this is a natural product for us to follow. If you company is a buyer of plate and you would like to help contribute to our knowledge base we would greatly appreciate it. We are looking for buyers of plate who can share market pricing, trends, price increase announcements and major projects which will impact the markets in North America. If you would like to be added as a content provider please contact me at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Our offices will be open on Monday and Friday of this week (all day). On Tuesday and Thursday we will respond to calls or email requests. We will not publish our Executive Newsletter again until next Sunday evening, December 29th unless market circumstances dictate that we need to inform our members of developments which might impact your businesses.
We have published our latest market analysis for our Premium Level members. I will pen some special notes regarding the survey analysis to our Premium members on Monday of this week.
Steel Market Update is now five and one half years old (legally) although we began publishing SMU back in the craziness surrounding 2004. The newsletter was founded out of a personal need to be able to communicate quickly with my friends and customers. It was founded as a vehicle to try to explain what was happening in the flat rolled steel markets and why. From a single fax page to now our third website (and probably our 5th newsletter adjustment) we have grown.
I am most proud of the fact that Steel Market Update has also been able to add people to our staff both in full time and part time positions. We also have a loyal group of consultants who enjoy adding content and working with our company. Plus we have an excellent group of instructors who assist in a number of workshops and special educational programs which is fulfilling a goal I had to help those within the industry learn more – and hopefully in the process they will get more out of their experience and enjoy the business as I have for almost 37 years.
As we enter this Holiday period it is important that Steel Market Update say thank you to each and every one of our members. The steel business is a people business and we truly appreciate both you and the business that you do with us.
Have a Happy Holiday with friends and family and we wish you and your family a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
Sincerely,
John Packard & the Steel Market Update Team
John Packard
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Final thoughts
SMU has heard from some larger buyers who have stepped back into the market to buy at prices that, if not at a bottom, they assess to be close to one. Is it enough to stretch out lead times and send prices upward again? Or do we continue to scrape along the mid-$600s per short ton (st) as we have been doing for most of the last month?
Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.
Final thoughts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you add in some commentary from respected peers in the steel industry to those pictures, that may shoot you up to five thousand words, at least. In that spirit, we’ve added some snapshots from our market survey this week, along with some comments from market participants.
Final thoughts
I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
Final thoughts
There are just 40 days left until the 2024 SMU Steel Summit gets underway on Aug. 26 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. And I’m pleased to announce that it's official now: More than 1,000 people have registered to at attend! Another big development: The desktop version of the networking app for the event has officially launched!