Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 28, 2015
It’s showtime!
Our 5th SMU Steel Summit Conference is locked, loaded and ready to go. We move into the sold out Marriott Gateway Hotel early tomorrow (Monday) afternoon where we will begin registration at 4 PM until 6 PM. We anticipate the bar area will be full of steel people on Monday evening so come join us in the lobby. On Tuesday, registration will begin at 7 AM in the lobby of the Georgia International Convention Center which is just a short (covered) walk from the hotel. The pre-Summit presentation will begin at 8 AM followed by the opening of the full conference at 9 AM.
Dress code is business casual – we encourage the wearing of company logo shirts.
Remember to download the App on your smart phone or table before arriving at the convention center.
Our office will be closed on Monday afternoon, Tuesday and Wednesday. We will attempt to check messages but we will be essentially unavailable until later this week.
Tuesday evening’s newsletter will be published but it will be a shorter than normal version. We will catch up in a big way on Thursday before taking a break for Labor Day Weekend (no publication on Sunday).
Tomorrow (Monday) we will begin our early September flat rolled market survey. Please try to complete the questionnaire before leaving for the airport (or on the plane) if you are attending our conference.
Big week with the USW contract expiring at Midnight on September 1st. We expect that USS and ArcelorMittal will continue to work but, we have heard rumors that US Steel may be taking a more aggressive stance. Time will tell and we will be with a whole bunch of steel people should something happen.
Premium members: Key Market Indicators will be published tomorrow in our next Premium level supplemental newsletter.
As always your business it truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final thoughts
SMU has heard from some larger buyers who have stepped back into the market to buy at prices that, if not at a bottom, they assess to be close to one. Is it enough to stretch out lead times and send prices upward again? Or do we continue to scrape along the mid-$600s per short ton (st) as we have been doing for most of the last month?
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!