Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 27, 2017
Steel Market Update (SMU) will begin our next flat rolled steel market trends survey at 8 AM ET tomorrow (Monday). If you receive an invitation, please take a few moments to click on the button in the message and fill out our questionnaire. Most people are able to get through the process in less than five minutes. We think this will be an important barometer to see if the price increases are taking hold, what is happening with lead times and mill negotiations, as well as how steel distributors are handling spot sales to their customers. Again, look for the invitation to participate at 8 AM ET.
A second reminder that our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop scheduled for Mobile, Ala. on Jan. 24-25, 2018, is sold out. We are creating a waiting list, and we are hopeful we will be able to accommodate a couple of those on the list once we get closer to the workshop dates. The Mobile workshop includes a tour of the SSAB Mobile minimill.
Following Mobile, we will be traveling to Portage, Ind., to tour the NLMK USA minimill. We are working on finalizing the dates of that workshop, which will be in the month of March. After Portage, we anticipate hosting another Steel 101 workshop in May, then we are looking at one during the summer months and finally one in October.
I want to welcome a new addition to the Steel Market Update family. We have added Jill Waldman to our Events team. Jill will be working with Ray Culley and me on next year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. She will be involved first with coordinating our sponsor and exhibitor efforts. If you would like to communicate with her, she can be reached at Jill@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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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!