Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 24, 2017
Wilbur Ross will be on Capital Hill again this week as he advises the House Ways and Means Committee on the status of his Section 232 investigation. It seems like the longer the market waits for an announcement (or at least the recommendations from the Department of Commerce) the less enthusiastic people are that anything will happen. There appears to be a surge of opinions against any across the board tariffs or quotas and Trump appears to be listening. If he doesn’t do anything and lets the steel industry sway in the breeze who knows what will happen.
I had a great conversation with Jack Bellissimo of Hubbell, Inc., Gaurav Chhibbar who just changed jobs at Cargill (now is a freight trader) and Justin Philipp of Pacesetter late last week. These three gentlemen are all right around 30 years old and can speak to the subject of attracting, hiring, training and maintaining young workers in your business. I think you will be very pleased with their program which is scheduled to begin at 2 PM on Wednesday, August 30th. The program will conclude at 3 PM and you will have plenty of time to make your 4:30 PM or later flight out of Atlanta.
Registrations continue to come in with Morrison Products, Kingspan, Galvasid, Interstate Steel, ITW, Steel & Pipe Supply, Worthington Industries, Precoat Metals and Big River Steel pushing our registrations beyond 534 executives which means this SMU Steel Summit Conference will be the best attended conference in our history by more than 100 people. If you would like to add your name to the list you can do so by clicking here or by contacting our offices at 772-932-7538 or 706-216-2140. You are also welcome to contact me directly at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. By the way we have attendees coming from Poland, Egypt, Ecuador, Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom and from coast to coast in the United States.
I also want to remind everyone that our next Steel 101 workshop will be held in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and will include a tour of the Steel Dynamics (SDI) Butler mini-mill. Details can be found on our website. If you have any questions about our Steel 101 workshop please contact me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
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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Nearly 50% of respondents to our latest survey thought hot-rolled coil prices have already peaked. And where will those prices be two months from now? Responses were decidedly split on that question.