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
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Despite some scary headlines lately (especially about Trump potentially firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell) this is not October 2008 (financial crisis) or March 2020 (onset of the pandemic). But it sure seems like we’ve taken a relatively strong economy and poured a thick sauce of uncertainty over it.
Final Thoughts
I put some of our survey data through ChatGpt, with interesting results.
Final Thoughts
Nearly 50% of respondents to our latest survey thought hot-rolled coil prices have already peaked. And where will those prices be two months from now? Responses were decidedly split on that question.
Final Thoughts
A modest week-to-week change in HR price understates a huge swing in expectations.
Final Thoughts
What happens when ChatGPT meets SMU's Market Chatter? No, this is not an idea for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Then again, with what Hollywood is putting out these days, Chatter Meets Chat might just turn out to be a hit. Rather, it’s that old idea of putting theory into practice. Recently, I conducted an interview with Doug Schrock, managing principal of AI at public accounting and consulting firm Crowe. He gave some tips on how to implement AI into your business.