Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
December 24, 2015
This is the last issue of Steel Market Update for this calendar year. We will not publish an issue on Thursday as it is New Year’s Eve and we will all be out celebrating what we hope will be a much stronger New Year. our offices will be open on Wednesday and for the first half of the day on Thursday.
In case it means anything, Alan Beaulieu of the Institute for Trend Research is forecasting that 2016 will be a better year than 2015 and 2017 will be even better than 2016. So, there is light at the end of this tunnel and we are looking forward to a good 2016.
I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your business, support of our workshops and conferences and spreading the word about our little company. Please keep it up in the New Year as we continue to grow and to bite on the tail of our competition.
We are part of the fabric of the steel industry. An industry which has struggled over the past 25 years and continues to reinvent itself with new steels, consolidation, the closure of outdated mills and the opening of new state of the art facilities. We will have another one coming online by mid-2016, Big River Steel. SMU will host one of our Steel 101 workshops in Memphis, Tennessee probably in October and we will take our attendees to tour Big River Steel.
The steel industry has been good to me and my family and I hope it has done the same for you and yours.
From all of us here at Steel Market Update we want to wish each and every one of your a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
John Packard, Founder & Publisher, Steel Market Update
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!