Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
December 12, 2014
A quick note to advise our readers of our Holiday publishing and office schedule. We will continue to publish as normal through Tuesday, December 23rd. We will not publish our newsletter on Thursday, December 25th and Sunday, December 28th unless there is important breaking news that we feel must be shared with our readers. We will publish again on Tuesday, December 30th. We will not publish on Thursday, January 1, 2015. We will go back to our normal full publication schedule of Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings beginning Sunday, January 4, 2015.
SMU offices will be closed on December 24, 25 and 26th. We will be checking messages and our emails on the 24th and 26th. Our offices will be open the 29, 30 & 31st of December and will be closed on January 1st, reopening on January 2nd when we will return to our normal operations.
On Monday we will begin our final flat rolled steel market survey for 2014. We conduct two surveys each month, inviting more than 600 people representing almost 600 companies involved in the flat rolled steel markets. By far the largest percentages of our invitees and respondents are associated with either manufacturing or distribution with each tending to garnish around 45 percent of the responses made on any one survey. If you are on our invite list please look for your invitation to participate around 8 AM ET on Monday.
We will be working on reviewing those invited to see if they should remain on the list and we will be looking at adding new people to the invitee list. If you are actively involved in either purchasing or sales of flat rolled steel products (plate, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized or Galvalume) and you would like to be added to our list please send me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Those responding to our survey receive a power point presentation analyzing the results.
Hanukkah begins on Tuesday evening (December 16) and ends the evening of December 24th. Best wishes to those celebrating the Jewish Holidays.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update. Tell your suppliers, customers and steel-related friends about our newsletter, website and our various workshops.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Sheet prices didn’t roar back after Labor Day. But steel market news sure came out of the gate strong (or maybe chaotically is the better way to put it). First, the nearly $15-billion proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel exploded into the news. And when I say exploded, I mean that all sides seem to be escalating things now.
Final thoughts
Welcome back from Labor Day, from Steel Summit, and from whatever fun you might have had over the long weekend. Personally, I enjoyed camping with friends and family near Starved Rock. No one starved, there were no major injuries, and we enjoyed the many splendors of Mystical Fire. (Speaking of which, does that have industrial uses? But I digress.)
Final thoughts
I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ from all of us at SMU to all of you (more than 1,500!) who attended Steel Summit this year. We appreciate you taking time out of busy schedules to join us – whether that was up on stage, submitting thoughtful questions, or catching up over a drink and bite to eat. Also, a bit shoutout to everyone at SMU and at CRU who made this event possible. It’s no understatement to say that we have a fantastic team.
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Day one and two of SMU's Steel Summit 2024 are officially in the books. We covered a lot of ground, and the agenda sure did deliver.