Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

Written by John Packard


We released our Steel Summit Conference App this morning to all of our attendees. Almost immediately I got my first comment from the president of a manufacturing company who downloaded the App. “John, the app is excellent. Clean look and easy to navigate. Looking forward to seeing you next month.”

The comment was made on our “Activity Feed” which means it is visible to everyone who has downloaded the App and has a login and password (which only need to be used once, after that the App will recognize you and your mobile device).

By the way, the App looks sharp on the screen of your mobile device. I have copied a photo of the logo which is to the left. Not shown is under the logo it says “SMU Events.”

Ray Culley wrote an article about the App which is published in tonight’s newsletter (above). Even if you are not attending our Steel Summit Conference read the article and become better acquainted with our App as we will be using it in other conferences in the future.

I also want to point out that our next Steel 101 workshop is open for registration. The workshop will be in Davenport, Iowa (about 2-3 hours west of Chicago) and will include a tour of the SSAB mini-mill. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. Details can be found on our website.

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

John Packard, Publisher

Latest in Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

As Wolfe Research’s Timna Tanner put it in her opening talk at Tampa on Monday afternoon, we’re living in a world of “Trumplications” now. That probably means – at least in the short term – higher scrap costs, lower imports from countries hit with or threated tariffs, and higher steel prices. SMU data reflects that. Scrap went up in January. More than 75% of the respondents to our more recent survey expect scrap to go up again February, maybe by a lot. Lead times, meanwhile, have been ticking upward this month. It started with hot-rolled coil and plate earlier this month. Now we’re seeing coated lead times extending too.