Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 21, 2017
I am in California as we are conducting our 21st Steel 101 workshop. We have a great group coming as far away as New Jersey in the East, Singapore to the West, Washington state, Oregon, Indiana, Michigan, Texas and many more states.
I want to thank California Steel Industries (CSI) and John Walburg for a great tour of their facilities. We did switch to a morning tour instead of our usual afternoon tour due to the weather threatening 100 degree temperatures (it was 101 yesterday). The weather cooperated and we had a great tour of the mill.
We passed a milestone yesterday which was the day that our registrations for the SMU Steel Summit Conference exceeded last year’s record. We will set a new record for attendance and with more than 9 weeks left to go we still expect more than 500 people (outside chance for 600 if you all sell the conference) and probably close to 250 companies. Come join us in Atlanta on August 28, 29 & 30th. Details are on our website here.
Tim Triplett and I will be in New York City on Monday and Tuesday next week. We do have some open time to meet with you on Tuesday mid-morning and early afternoon. You can reach me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com to set up a time or you can text me while in New York at 770-596-6268.
My condolences to the family of Norm Gottschalk who was one of the pillars of the steel industry as the CEO of Marmon Keystone. Mr. Gottschalk died earlier this week and he will be missed by his family, friends and those in the industry.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final thoughts
SMU has heard from some larger buyers who have stepped back into the market to buy at prices that, if not at a bottom, they assess to be close to one. Is it enough to stretch out lead times and send prices upward again? Or do we continue to scrape along the mid-$600s per short ton (st) as we have been doing for most of the last month?
Final thoughts
Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves had some insightful things to say today about the steel market and about a conference we suspect might be Steel Summit.
Final thoughts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, when you add in some commentary from respected peers in the steel industry to those pictures, that may shoot you up to five thousand words, at least. In that spirit, we’ve added some snapshots from our market survey this week, along with some comments from market participants.
Final thoughts
I thought we’d have more clarity this week on Section 232, Mexico, and a potential carve-out for steel melted and poured in Brazil. As of right now, the only official comment I have is from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
Final thoughts
There are just 40 days left until the 2024 SMU Steel Summit gets underway on Aug. 26 at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) in Atlanta. And I’m pleased to announce that it's official now: More than 1,000 people have registered to at attend! Another big development: The desktop version of the networking app for the event has officially launched!