Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 5, 2016
Our corporate office building and my home are in the path of Hurricane Matthew. We have evacuated and are in Bradenton, Florida for the next couple of days with hopes that our office, home and neighborhood will still be there when we return over the weekend. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who decided to remain behind which includes two of my neighbors who are disabled and need special equipment and one of our employees.
The issue that worries me is the storm surge which in our area of Florida could be as high as six feet. To make matters worse the storm is hitting at high tide. Our office is located on the second floor of an older office building that did not protect their windows. Our office faces east (towards the ocean).
In the coming days there will be much written about the damage and for those in the steel industry there will be business to gain from the damage. Look for roofing, metal building panels, air conditioners, generators, HVAC, studs, transformers, water heaters, appliances and autos as well as storm shutters that are damaged or destroyed, etc.
We continue to work throughout the day and it has been helpful that we have been conducting one of our flat rolled steel market trends surveys which concluded earlier this afternoon. Our Premium customers will receive both a newsletter and a link to this week’s survey results by tomorrow afternoon.
If you would like to learn more about becoming a Premium level subscriber please contact either Brett Linton (Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com ) or myself (John@SteelMarketUpdate.com) .
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.