Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 29, 2015
In past years, Steel Market Update would take a week off over the 4th of July holiday. This year, with the 4th falling on a Saturday and the industry dealing with a number of “hot” issues such as price increase announcements, coated trade case and the new Level the Playing Field law, well, we decided our customers are more important.
Steel Market Update will publish SMU “lite” on Thursday as we attempt to give some of our people a well deserved rest. We will not publish on Sunday, July 5th and will return to our full schedule on Tuesday, July 7th.
Our next flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) will begin on Monday, July 6th and will conclude next Thursday afternoon. If you receive an invitation to participate please take a few minutes to click on the button and complete as much of our questionnaire as possible.
One of our keynote speakers at this year’s Steel Summit Conference, Dr. Chris Kuehl of Armada Corporate Intelligence made an interesting observation regarding the world events and the potential that Greece, China and some of the other gloom and doom may end up being net positives for business in the United States. Here is a small quote from this evenings newsletter: “The global geopolitical headwinds will be interesting to watch. The headwinds of Greece, Puerto Rico,China, and the rest of Europe (if we don’t realize worst case scenarios) could actually be bullish for US business. If companies and investors don’t see the Armageddon scenarios that they imagine, they may realize that the US economy might be strong enough to pull itself through and there are ample opportunities for growth out there. That could bring with it our own series of challenges, but those would come with any significant growth period (which we are still waiting to see in the broader US economy).” If you would like to learn more about Dr. Kuehl’s thoughts please join us in Atlanta in September.
Early bird registration for our 5th Steel Summit Conference expires on July 15th – after that date our $1000 per person rate (prior to SMU $100 discount for member companies) will rise to $1200 per person. You can register either online or through our office. We can be reached at: 800-432-3475 (706-216-5440).
We will begin posting those companies who have already registered on our website as well as the 2014 Steel Summit attending companies. If your company is not on the list you can rectify that situation by registering…
We also have registration open for our next Steel 101 workshop which will be held in Davenport, Iowa and will include our first tour of the SSAB Iowa mini-mill. This is an excellent program for new and experienced people alike. Details are on our website.
If you are a former subscriber to SMU or had a free trial in the past and you would like to try our newsletter out again – please send an email to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will arrange to give you a new 3 week trial.
Enough arm twisting for today…
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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Final thoughts
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Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.
Final thoughts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you add in some commentary from respected peers in the steel industry to those pictures, that may shoot you up to five thousand words, at least. In that spirit, we’ve added some snapshots from our market survey this week, along with some comments from market participants.
Final thoughts
I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
Final thoughts
There are just 40 days left until the 2024 SMU Steel Summit gets underway on Aug. 26 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. And I’m pleased to announce that it's official now: More than 1,000 people have registered to at attend! Another big development: The desktop version of the networking app for the event has officially launched!