Final Thoughts
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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
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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?
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Featured_News_Icons/gears.png)
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.
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/Featured_News_Icons/gears.png)
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.
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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).
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/SMU-Steel-Summit.png)
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!