Final Thoughts

June 12, 2017

There are a lot of moving pieces to this market. Government intervention into the natural flow of business is/will be impacting trade, steel prices and possibly where products get manufactured in the future. It is both a scary time and an exciting time to be in the steel business. For me, I am glad I get to view it from the outside instead of being an active participant trying to make my way on a day-to-day basis.

I expect the Section 232 recommendations to be made within the next week to 10 days. It is anybodies guess how quickly the President will react. My gut tells me he would rather change the national dialogue away from Russia and onto something he promised on the campaign trail.

A reminder that Tim Triplett and I will be in New York City on Monday, June 26 as well as Tuesday, June 27th as we meet with members of the steel and financial communities. If you are going to be in the city during this time period and would like to chat with us please contact me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com – we would like to spend some quality time with you.

OK, for those attending, or thinking about attending, our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference – the number of blocked rooms is dwindling. As of earlier this afternoon we had 25 rooms left at the Renaissance Gateway Hotel and you can click on this link to make a reservation at that hotel ($159/night). Late today we made arrangements to block another 20 rooms at the SpringHill Suites Hotel at $169 per night. That room block should be available by tomorrow morning. The Marriott Gateway Hotel (host hotel) room block is sold out and the hotel has only a few rooms left at whatever the rack rate is at this time. The Marriott provided a phone number that you can use to ask for group reservations for the Steel Market Update group. That number is 800-468-3571 or 470-306-0100.

I expect there will be rooms available for all who want to attend but, those who wait will probably pay $239 per night or more.

As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.

John Packard, Publisher