Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 23, 2016
As we head into the Good Friday and Easter weekend holiday we want to wish everyone an enjoyable time with family and friends. Steel Market Update will not publish a newsletter on Sunday so our next official publication will be on Tuesday evening of next week.
Even so, that should not prevent you for communicating with us over the weekend. We will respond to your calls and we always respond to our emails.
Speaking of emails we have been getting a number of positive comments over the past couple of days.
“SMU Team, happy Thursday, I want to tell you that I treat your reports as my bible. Thank you for your in-depth analysis and diverse topics.” Linda Ortepi, Corporate Buyer-Raw Materials, Kirchoff Automotive.
We also saw a comment this morning from someone on a free trial, “Peter, first of all thank you for article and aggregated data. It certainly helps to explain why HRC has diverged so strongly from long products on the recent pricing trend.” He then went on to ask a question about the classification of one of the long products.
Readers enjoy our newsletter for a wide variety of reasons and we enjoy hearing from you. Recently we heard from a small service center who told us they used our Price Estimator on our website to help them value their inventory at the end of the month. Creative and independent way to keep the banks and bankers happy…
If you enjoy Steel Market Update drop us a line. We would love to hear from you: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
If for some reason you are not pleased – I want to hear from you so we can address whatever your concern(s) might be.
Please stay safe over the weekend and I will be the one with the bike shorts and helmet zipping around South Florida’s bike paths.
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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United Airlines raised eyebrows earlier this month when it provided two forecasts for 2025 – one assuming a relatively stable economy and another assuming a recession. The reason? Uncertainty around the impact of President Trump’s policy shocks on the broader economy. And it sometimes feels like we’re seeing a battle between those two narratives (stable vs recession) play out within in the pages of this newsletter.
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Despite some scary headlines lately (especially about Trump potentially firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell) this is not October 2008 (financial crisis) or March 2020 (onset of the pandemic). But it sure seems like we’ve taken a relatively strong economy and poured a thick sauce of uncertainty over it.
Final Thoughts
I put some of our survey data through ChatGpt, with interesting results.
Final Thoughts
Nearly 50% of respondents to our latest survey thought hot-rolled coil prices have already peaked. And where will those prices be two months from now? Responses were decidedly split on that question.