Final Thoughts
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Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 13, 2017
I had a whirlwind weekend having traveled to Cleveland to see family and to attend MidWest Materials’ 65th anniversary. Brian Robbins and his crew did a great job paying homage to their past and current employees. The company is much different today than it was in 1952 when it started. I have a feeling it will be quite different again in just a few years’ time as the pace of change quickens and companies either innovate or struggle to survive.
SMU recently began writing a series of articles about ethics–something that has concerned me during my active sales career and after I began writing Steel Market Update. Almost on cue comes Kobe Steel, which has admitted falsifying data to 500 customers. The exact depth of the deception is not yet known. But the parts went into airplanes, bullet trains and automobiles…. Now, because of the actions of one company on the other side of the world, people are asking questions about products they buy from steel mills everywhere.
I was asked a question during our Steel 101 workshop in Indiana–should we be concerned if the tests done by the mills are accurate? My response then was that no mill would risk their reputation and their ability to look their customers in the face by falsifying test results or certifications. Now there is Kobe Steel….
Our Jan. 24-25, 2018, Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop is beginning to fill up. We are now about one-third full, so we encourage anyone interested in attending to do so. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to my office. I can be reached at 800-432-3475. We will tour the SSAB Mobile minimill as part of the January workshop.
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?
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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.
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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).
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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!