Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 13, 2016
After reviewing the results of last week’s flat rolled market analysis (our survey) I continue to be optimistic that business conditions will continue to improve as 2016 progresses. We broke the negative trend in our Sentiment Index, we are seeing more optimistic results from manufacturing as they look out three to six months into the future and the erosion of prices has stopped.
I do agree with Spencer Johnson in tonight’s HRC Futures article. The domestic steel mills have to remain reasonably competitive with foreign steel or they will do nothing more than invite domestic buyers to return to foreign products. The countries may be different but the results for the domestic mills will be the same.
A note that I will be in Mississippi early next week as we conduct another one of our Steel 101 workshops. We will be touring the SDI Columbus steel mill and we are looking forward to working with our friends at SDI and at the Columbus facility once again. We hope to be able to announce our next Steel 101 workshop in the coming days. Later this year (probably October) we will host our first workshop at the brand new Big River Steel mill in Arkansas.
I want to remind everyone to take a few minutes to register for our Leadership Summit Conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The dates are March 7-9th and our exceptional program can be found on our website. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at 800-432-3475 or by email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
For those attending ASHRAE I will be attending the Orlando, Florida show for at least the opening day.
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
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!