Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 21, 2015
Boxes are piled high around me as we begin to pack up our office for the move south to our new headquarters in Florida. Excuse our mess as we are trying our best.
We had a good response to our latest flat rolled steel market analysis which was conducted via an online questionnaire over the past four days. Sentiment, lead times and negotiation articles were produced through the results of that questionnaire. We will have more articles on Sunday and our Premium level members will have access to our Power Point presentation tomorrow (Friday). I believe we will also produce another Premium supplemental newsletter tomorrow as well. I think this will be the third Premium issue to come out this week. If you would like to learn more about the differences between Premium and our Executive levels please contact me: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or 800-432-3475 and I will do my best to answer your questions (and twist your arm)…
Ray Culley and I are working overtime to finish off the program for our first Leadership Conference which will be held at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida (close to our new corporate offices) on March 7-9, 2016. The conference will be a mix of steel, trade, management and other issues. The goal is to put on a quality program for a select few executives and that they be able to leave with actionable materials. More information will be coming out soon but you need to put the dates aside now.
Same goes for next year’s Steel Summit Conference 2016 which will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center (www.GICC.com) with the host hotel being the Atlanta Airport Gateway Hotel located adjacent to the convention center. We are planning on beating this year’s attendance record and we plan on doing that by putting together an exceptional program and networking experience. Plan on arriving on Monday afternoon, August 29th for networking at the Marriott and then attending the conference on Tuesday, August 30th and Wednesday, August 31st before returning home that evening (or staying a day or two to enjoy Atlanta).
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
We got a little flack for adjusting our sheet momentum indicators to neutral last week. To be clear, we didn’t adjust them to lower. Part of the reason we moved them to neutral was because there are some unusual cross-currents in the current market. On the news side, you could make a case that there should nowhere to go but up.
Final thoughts
I think all of us know that sometimes courtships go wrong. A misplaced word or deed and soon things can go sideways, and not in the prices sense. Such could be the case with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel’s play for U.S. Steel.
Final thoughts
We’re starting to see some impacts of the big trade case filed last week against imports of coated flat-rolled steel from 10 nations. Namely, we’ve heard that a range of traders have stopped offering material from Vietnam. An alleged dumping margin of nearly 160% will do that. Especially amid chatter of critical circumstances.
Final thoughts
The phrase “political football” has been tossed around a lot lately. (Pun probably intended.) For the humble journalists at SMU who thought the week following Steel Summit would prove a quiet one… the news cycle had other ideas
Final thoughts
Sheet prices didn’t roar back after Labor Day. But steel market news sure came out of the gate strong (or maybe chaotically is the better way to put it). First, the nearly $15-billion proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel exploded into the news. And when I say exploded, I mean that all sides seem to be escalating things now.