Final Thoughts

April 23, 2014

For our plate customers, SSAB announced a $40 per ton plate price increase effective immediately. We will see if it sticks in the marketplace.

We have a couple of minor bugs and tweaks we are working out of our systems and then we will release our Managing Price Risk II: Strategies & Execution workshop for review and registration. We are excited to take a lead once again in the education of the industry on how to properly understand and use hedging strategies as a way of minimizing risk or maximizing long term pricing benefits. We expect to have the links working to our program and registration for the workshop which will be held on June 24 & 25th (half day on the 1st day and a little more than half day on the second day) in Chicago.

SMU is also working very hard on our Forecasting & Steel Summit Conference which will be held in Atlanta on September 3rd and 4th. Yes, we are stepping out of our shell and away from Metalcon in order to produce a timely conference for those involved in manufacturing, processing and distributing steel products in North America. Our goal has always been to turn our conference into the go-to conference in the fall as companies work on their planning for 2015 and beyond. We have selected a spot which will be extremely convenient for those coming into Atlanta out of town (no rental cars needed) as well as those who live and work within the greater Atlanta area. The hotel we are using was selected by Marriott as their hotel of the year in 2012 and received the highest customer satisfaction rating for 2013.

I can confirm that two of our popular speakers will be returning to debate the direction of iron ore, coking coal, steel and maybe we will even throw in aluminum and other metal price forecasts – as well as providing a sense of direction from their financial and consulting perspectives. Ms. Timna Tanners, the number one rated metals and mining analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch Research and John Anton, Director Steel Services for IHS Global Insight will once again face off during our conference.

We will have more details coming out as we put the finishing touches on this special event. The goal of our conference is to provide you with speakers who will add value to you and your company. We are making a strong push not to provide speakers who are walking advertisements for their company’s services and nothing else.

If you have a special speaker or topic you would like for us to cover – please contact me personally at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or at 800-432-3475.

If you would like information about becoming a sponsor please contact us at: Info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or call our office at 800-432-3475.

Moving to a two-day conference is scary for me personally. We are putting a lot on the line and we hope that you (and your friends) will attend to support our attempt to provide real value as well as an excellent networking experience for you and your company. Mark your calendars now – you can take the wife and kids for a nice Labor Day Weekend and then the following day its on to the airport to catch a plane bound for Atlanta…

We have been trying to get some responses out of US Steel regarding Gary Works and Great Lakes. We have heard rumors that the Gary plant is up to 75 percent steelmaking capacity and that OSHA may have released their hold on Great Lakes. We were not able to get any comment out of USS today (and probably won’t hear anything directly from them until after earnings are announced next week).

If you know something – call me.

As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.

John Packard, Publisher