Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 11, 2016
We discovered earlier today that our office phones (including our 800 number) are down and calls are not being transferred or going to voicemail. We are in touch with Comcast to get the issue resolved. Although we understand it is a system wide failure not just our phones. In the meantime, if you need to reach the office regarding questions, registration or other issues please contact Brett Linton at 706-216-2140. He can also be reached at: Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com. If you need to speak with me I can be reached at 770-596-6268 or by email at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. You can keep these numbers and email addresses in your SMU “happy place” should you ever have issues trying to reach our offices.
We have officially exceeded the number of registrations we had for last year’s Steel Summit Conference and we still have 48 days to go. We do have a list of companies listed on our website (just below the sponsors on the right hand side of the Steel Summit pages). If you want to know who exactly is registered you will need to be registered yourself. Then you can use our SMU Events App (available in your App store at no cost) to search attendees.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Can technology help with pig iron and DRI/HBI tariffs?

Final Thoughts
Tariff-related noise aside, there is one basic factor keeping buyers on the sidelines. Despite recent declines, HR prices remain at historically high levels. And there is no obvious support to keep them there.

Final Thoughts
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.

Final Thoughts
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.