Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 15, 2017
I have a feeling if I were to write a long drawn-out final thoughts article that our readers would shoot me… I think we have 16 articles in tonight’s newsletter – many of them top-line articles (price increases, MSCI data, Sentiment, Lead Times, Negotiations, Section 232, etc.). What you don’t know is we actually moved five articles out of this newsletter to Sunday evening’s issue…
By the way, if there are any SBQ buyers out there, give me a call (or shoot me an email). Just trying to help out another SBQ end user who asked me a question I couldn’t answer (and I always try to answer questions when asked). You can reach me at 800-432-3475 or at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Quick note about next week’s publishing schedule. We will publish a larger than normal newsletter on Sunday evening…. Then we publish as normal on Tuesday. Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States and I have to give my exceptional employees the day off (and as much of the weekend as possible). Since we will be publishing a thicker than normal newsletter this Sunday we will publish a thinner than normal one on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
While I am talking about Holidays. One of the issues with having motivated employees is they don’t take a lot of time off. So, I fixed them and insisted that everyone take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s. For the first time since I started Steel Market Update I am going to leave the country for 12 days at that same time. Don’t worry, I am still a workaholic and I have made arrangements to make sure I have internet and my phone works while traveling (at least when we are near land with cell towers). If something happens I will cover it…
If you started reading from the top and you finally got to here – well, thank you for plowing through tonight’s issue.
And, as always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update – tell your steel friends about us…
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!