Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 20, 2014
We will publish our steel survey results tomorrow for our Premium Level members. Look for them to be on the website by early afternoon.
The upcoming Steel Summit will be held iat the South side of the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC). The south side is the closest to the SkyTrain and the Marriott Gateway Hotel where most of our guests will be staying. The south side is the side that does not face Camp Creek Parkway.
We have outgrown and will need to expand one of the meeting rooms due to the size of the crowd already registered for the conference. Our plan has been to work out of two meeting rooms, one set up classroom style and one with round tables where we would eat and have some of our keynote presentations. Besides the rooms we will have our breaks, booths and cocktail party in the south lobby of the GICC.
If you are interested in learning more about any of our workshops we will have a booth and all of our instructors at the conference.
Reminders for those attending our Steel Summit Conference:
1) Dress is business casual.
2) Day 1 is Wednesday, September 3, 2014 – Registration will be available at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway Hotel from 4-6 PM on Tuesday, September 2nd and then in the South Lobby of the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) from 7:30 AM until 11 AM. Coffee will be available but breakfast will not be served on Wednesday morning.
3) Day 1 – Pre-Summit Advanced High Strength Steels program begins at 8:30 AM and ends at approximately 9:30 AM.
4) Day 1 – Full Conference begins at 10:00 AM sharp. The Day 1 activities will last until 6:30 PM with a networking/cocktail party running from 5 PM until 6:30 PM.
5) Day 2 is Thursday, September 4, 2014 and the day begins at 7:30 AM with breakfast in the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) followed by John Ferriola’s keynote address.
6) Day 2 should end by no later than 4 PM.
The SkyTrain takes you directly from the airport to the hotel and GICC. There is no cost to ride the SkyTrain. The hotel and convention center is the first stop and then the SkyTrain goes on to the car rental main building. The time to go from the airport to the hotel (or vice versa) is approximately 5 minutes.
If you have any questions please check our website under the Events tab (Steel Summit) or call our office: 800-432-3475 (706-216-5440). You can also email us at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
As always your business is truly appreciated.
John Packard, Publisher
See you in ATL!

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Getting back to the price increases I mentioned at the top of this article, to what extent are they aimed at raising prices and to what extent are they aimed at stopping the bleeding that was happening in the second half of May, before President Trump announced the 50% tariff?

Final Thoughts
We just wrapped another Steel 101 Workshop, where you take what you learned in the classroom into the steel mill.

Final Thoughts
Steel equities and steel futures fell hard after news broke earlier this week that the US and Mexico might reach an agreement that would result in the 50% Section 232 tariff coming off Mexican steel. The sharp declines didn’t make much sense, especially if, as some reports indicate, Mexico might agree to a fixed quota. They didn't make sense even if steel flows between the US and Mexico remain unchanged.

Final Thoughts
Even before the news about Mexico, I didn’t want to overstate the magnitude of the change in momentum. As far as we could tell, there hadn’t been a frenzy of new ordering following President Trump’s announcement of 50% Section 232 tariffs. But higher tariffs had unquestionably raised prices for imports, which typically provide the floor for domestic pricing. We’d heard, for example, that prices below $800 per short ton for hot-rolled (HR) coil were gone from the domestic market – even for larger buyers.

Final Thoughts
I want to draw your attention to SMU’s monthly scrap market survey. It’s a premium feature that complements our long-running steel market survey. We’ve been running our scrap survey since late January. And over just that short time, it’s become a valuable way not only for us to assess where scrap prices might go but also to quantify some of the “fuzzy” indicators - like sentiment and flows - that help to put the price in context.