Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 26, 2015
In another article in tonight’s newsletter we report on the production statistics based on AISI data. Essentially, production is up a couple of percent while at the same time, in another article, we report on foreign steel imports which are up 38 percent.
I don’t know if the domestic steel mills will file dumping suits on flat rolled but, if I were a betting man…. The question is when and against whom?
A service center executive told me earlier today, “If you can stop China from exporting steel then the rest of the stuff the market will figure out. If you stop China then steel prices will firm up.”
China shipped 3,195,422 net tons of steel products (all steel mill products) to the United States during 2014.
Ray Culley and I have been working very hard on a new conference/seminar which we are putting together for Executives in the manufacturing and distribution segments of the industry. The SMU Management Challenge 2015 will focus on key issues company’s have to deal with within the steel industry – such as better understanding U.S. import laws.
We are working with Lewis Leibowitz who is a well known trade attorney in Washington, D.C. He spoke at our 4th Steel Summit Conference this past year and at that time his knowledge of the law was visible to everyone. He will be working with us on a trade program where we hope to be able to help the industry understand what “injury” means, what has to happen before any dumping suits can be filed and how the system works.
We are working on finalizing the dates and venue and will advise our readers as soon as they have been cemented in.
In the meantime, the National Coil Coating Association (NCCA) will hold its 2015 Annual Meeting on April 19-22, 2015 at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, AZ. The meeting features two keynote speakers, Clyde Fessler, a former top executive with Harley Davidson, and Ron Felber, one of the NCCA’s most highly ranked presenters. For more information go to: www.coilcoaters.org.
Our 5th Steel Summit Conference will be held in Atlanta on September 1 & 2, 2015.
The next Steel 101 workshop will be held in Chicago on May 19 & 20, 2015 and will include a tour of the NLMK Indiana steel mill. We are finalizing details for the hotel and we will advise as soon as the details are available.
U.S. Steel conference call will be held at 8:30 AM on Wednesday and SDI’s is scheduled for 10 AM on Thursday. We will report on both in Thursday’s edition of Steel Market Update.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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