Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 15, 2016
We knew it would happen and it has, we learned late on Friday that our room block has been sold out. We are trying to see if there is anything we can do to expand the block and we will be working on that over the next couple of days. However, there is another option as there is a Springhill Suites Hotel (also owned by Marriott) across the street from the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway Hotel. If you are having an issue please let us know by sending us an email to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will see if there is anything we can do on your behalf.
As of Sunday evening, there are 42 days until the start of our 6th Steel Summit Conference (August 29-31) in Atlanta.
Registrations have been quite strong over the past couple of weeks and we are already well over the total registrations for the 2015 Conference. If your company name is not already on our list (see our website for a listing of companies) you can register on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com or by contacting our office: 800-432-3475.
I have been traveling for the past three weeks as I tried to take a “semi-vacation” in Maine. Over the past three weeks I put 4300 miles on my car (which now has 280,000 miles on it), 1681 of which came from the drive back from Maine to Florida over the weekend. A warning to those traveling either north or south on I-95 between Richmond, Virginia and Connecticut – traffic is brutal.
I am back in the office and do not expect to travel again until we leave for Atlanta at the end of August. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please contact me at: 800-432-3475 or by email at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
We will begin our mid-July flat rolled steel market trends analysis on Monday morning. If you would like to be added to our invite list please shoot me an email.
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
I’m trying to make sure this is not a TL;DR Final Thoughts. As a journalism school professor once told me, ‘No one but your mom reads more than 1,000 words.’ Also, as the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand as well. With that in mind, below are a couple of charts that I think go a long way toward explaining how prices and lead times have been relatively stable despite concerns about demand.
Final Thoughts
It’s another week of big headlines for the world writ large – an expanding war in the Middle East, another potentially catastrophic hurricane – and not much going on in the world of steel prices. “Call me Stevie Wonder, I see nothing.” That’s how one service center executive described the current sheet market. There seems to be almost a competition among some of our Community Chat guests and contributors to outdo each other in flowery ways to say, “
Final Thoughts
Surprise, surprise. Forget Halloween, the trend this October is all around the unexpected. Known as the “October Surprise,” you never know what is in store for you in the month before a US presidential election. Still, if we pull back the dial back date-wise a little bit, a familiar theme has been added to the mix: kick the can.
Final Thoughts
Another day, another massive gap between the news and market sentiment. On the news side, we’ve got war in the Middle East. The devastation facing western North Carolina coming into tragic focus. And the outcome of the presidential election remains a coin toss, according to current polling.
Final thoughts
There are markets where the headlines and the prices are both crazy. This does not appear to be one of them, at least not yet.