Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 5, 2015
I, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and a number of steel people are all in Davenport, Iowa enjoying the warmer than normal weather and great conditions to do a mill tour which is exactly what we did this afternoon (without Hillary and Jeb). I want to thank everyone at SSAB for their hospitality and for doing an exceptional job of highlighting their production capabilities.
We have a very interesting group attending this workshop – a lot of relatively new people in high management levels to inside customer support. This has created an atmosphere where we can discuss many topics that you wouldn’t normally see or hear during this kind of workshop. We like to build flexibility into our programs so we can discuss the topics that are of interest to our attendees.
A reminder to those who are on our survey invite list. If you have not taken the time to respond to our invite we will be collecting responses until Thursday afternoon. We will send out a reminder email on Wednesday which will have a link to SurveyMonkey.com where our questionnaire is hosted.
Why is it whenever I go away to a workshop major events happen – US Steel decides to pick to day to tell their employees Granite City may be idled for awhile and the UAW thought today would be a great day to tell Chrysler (FCA) that Wednesday sounded like a good day to go on strike. Shouldn’t the membership bitch at their leadership rather than going on strike? After all, they did negotiate a deal that the membership didn’t like. So, go back to the table and figure it out (or work on the membership so the next time you can get the votes needed).
I know automotive is doing well right now and has been for a few years – but, it won’t last forever.
If Chrysler goes on strike does this open the door to US Steel and/or ArcelorMittal to lock out their workers? I would love to get your opinions on that one. Send them to: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Also, Cliffs Natural Resources announced that they were ended an iron ore supply agreement with Essar Steel Algoma saying the company is in breach of contract. Cliffs had a 3 million long ton per year contract with Essar Steel Algoma.
It’s been a long day. As always we thank you for your business as it is truly appreciated by all of us 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!