Final Thoughts

January 5, 2018

As of late Friday, Steel Market Update ferrous scrap sources reported that scrap negotiations were ongoing and had not yet settled for the month of January. We heard late in the week of one Detroit-area mill paying up $20 per gross ton on prime grades and up $30 per gross ton on cut grades. We expect the market to break open early this week, and we should have more on where prices settled in Tuesday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update.

This week will be an interesting one to see how much the steel mills truly want to collect the $40 flat rolled and $50 plate (Nucor, others expected to follow) price increases. Early indications are for $680-$700 hot rolled offers, which would be about $40 per ton higher than where our index was prior to the announcements.

We still have a few sponsor spots left for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We have a number of companies procrastinating. I always try to get the sponsors cemented in as early as possible since this impacts what we will do regarding our ticket prices. The sponsors also want to be in as early as possible so that when we start our marketing efforts, we try to mention our sponsors and provide as much exposure as possible. Right now, we have the following sponsors: Pacesetter, Bank of America, Flack Global Metals, Heidtman Steel, Nucor, Magic Coil Products, Mill Steel, MidWest Materials, Red Bud Industries, All Metals Service and Warehousing and Alliance Steel.

We have plenty of exhibition space, which for 2018 will be configured differently as we expand our footprint in the Georgia International Convention Center. We believe the new location for breaks and the exhibition space will provide even more exposure for our exhibitors.

If you have any questions about SMU Steel Summit sponsor or exhibitor spots, please contact Jill Waldman at Jill@SteelMarketUpdate.com or myself at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.

As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.

John Packard, Publisher