Final Thoughts

January 1, 2015

This is the first Steel Market Update Executive newsletter of the year (we produced our first Premium newsletter on Friday of last week). I can’t even imagine the number of articles I have written about the industry since I began keeping my steel customers up to date on industry events in 2004 (and explaining why they were being abused by their suppliers and how to be proactive). As most of you already know, Steel Market Update was officially incorporated in August 2008 and we have been churning out almost a full book worth of articles each and every month of the year.

So, I thought the most appropriate way to begin the New Year would be to see how we fared over the past twelve months. From a readership standpoint our renewal rate continues to be in the mid 90 percent range each month and we are adding new members each and every month. Our Premium level membership has been growing as both existing customers and new people begin to understand what Premium has to offer. I thank each of you again for your support over the past twelve months.

The SMU Price Momentum Indicator is another way of gauging our accuracy. The indicator is adjusted to Higher – when we believe prices will move higher over the next 30 days, Lower – when we believe the opposite is true and Neutral when either the domestic mills announce a price increase or we believe prices will trend sideways for a period of time. Currently our Momentum Indicator is pointing to Lower prices over the next 30 days. Here is how the past twelve months looks on one of our graphs:

Our workshops and Steel Summit Conference were all very successful during 2014. Our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop had almost 100 attendees in the three workshops we hosted during 2014. Thank you to SSAB, Steel Dynamics and Severstal Dearborn (now AK Steel Dearborn) for hosting the mill tours associated with each workshop. Our next Steel 101 workshop is scheduled for January 20th and 21st in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and will include a tour of Nucor Berkeley. This will be the first time our attendees will get to see firsthand both long and flat products being rolled (sheet & beams). We still have openings available and you can find out more and register online or by contacting our office at: 800-432-3475.

Our next flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) will begin on Monday morning at 8 AM ET. We have added a few new people to the list of invitees. If you are actively involved in the flat rolled steel purchasing or sales management and would like to be included in our survey please shoot us an email: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. If you receive an invitation please take the 5 to 10 minutes needed to complete the questionnaire. You only complete those questions you feel comfortable answering. If you would like to switch recipients to someone else in your company please send us an email with the change.

Best wishes to each and everyone of you for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

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

John Packard, Founder and Publisher