Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 17, 2018
I was “chatting” (by email) with a financial analyst about a number of items earlier today. (How long will price momentum remain with the steel millls? Will a downturn in Chinese numbers creep into the U.S. market, etc.?) One of the items discussed was Section 232 and whether Trump will do anything that would actually impact supply. His belief was Trump may symbolically slap China (which is selling very little steel here now due to AD/CVD actions), but would leave the rest of the world alone. However, most steel buyers still think Trump will do something that includes quotas and duties. After watching the president over the past year, I have no clue what he may (or may not) do. I think when he first asked for the investigation on national security, the result was already known. Now, one year later, the president may not be so sure.
A reminder that we have a limited number of sponsor spots left for this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. You can get details and pricing by contacting Jill Waldman at Jill@SteelMarketUpdate.com or myself at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. We also have about a dozen exhibition spots left, and information and pricing on those can also be obtained through Jill or myself.
We expect 750 manufacturers, distributors, steel mills, trading companies, toll processors and suppliers to the industry at this year’s event. We believe for the second year in a row the SMU Steel Summit Conference will be the largest steel event in North America. Our conference continues to grow and has become THE steel conference to attend if you want to: network with customers and suppliers, enjoy exceptional speakers on timely topics of importance to your company, pay a reasonable rate for the conference and hotel, and enjoy the convenient location. The Georgia International Convention Center and the hotels are literally a few minutes away from the Atlanta International Airport (ATL) and you don’t need a cab or a car to get there. You take a free train (SkyTrain) from the airport to the facilities.
I continue to work with my staff on the selection of the program and speakers. We are going world-wide for speakers, and I think we will once again surprise and entertaiin those who attend our conference. Please plan on arriving on Monday morning as the conference will begin this year at 1 PM ET on Monday, Aug. 27, at the GICC (not the Marriott this year due to remodeling of their meeting space). The conference will end by 3 PM on Wednesday, Aug. 29. I am working on adding a special training workshop, but I am not yet ready to announce what that will be. Stay tuned.
You can register online at www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/events/steel-summit or by contacting one of our offices: 772-932-7538 or 706-216-2140. Costs to attend this year’s event will be $1,275 prior to discounts for SMU member companies (-$100) and those who bring two or more people (-$100). Please tell your friends in the industry that this is the one event they do not want to miss.
I will be in Mobile, Ala., next week as we conduct one of our Steel 101 workshops. We will be touring the SSAB facility, and I want to thank the fine people at SSAB for their hospitality.
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!