Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 2, 2018
Today, we thought we would get the final determination of the Vietnam/China circumvention complaint. Steel Market Update has been in constant contact on this subject with trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz who advised us yesterday evening, “DOC announced today that the final Vietnam circumvention determination will be May 9, extended from May 2. The determination will be announced on May 10. The reason given was that additional consideration needed to be given to the arguments of the parties. A major court of appeals decision came out a few days ago in another case that affects the Vietnam case….” SMU reported on the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling earlier this week. We will continue to report on the Vietnam case as details are released.
As of today, we have 418 executives registered for the 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference. Last year on this date, we had 250 registered for our 2017 event, which ended up with 650 attendees. We are up 67 percent over last year’s pace. As you can see, we are well on our way to our target of 800+ attendees at our Aug. 27-29 event. We are finding many companies are bringing 4, 5, 6 people or more to the conference this year. The networking at this year’s event is going to be spectacular. If you would like to add your name to our registration list, please go to: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/events/steel-summit
We have one, maybe two, seats left for our Steel 101 workshop in Memphis, Tenn., on June 5 & 6, 2018. We will tour two Nucor mills (Hickman and Nucor-Yamato) during this workshop. Go to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/events/steel101 for details and how to register. I expect to close this workshop within the next few days (if not sooner).
Tim Triplett, executive editor for Steel Market Update, and I will be at the Metals Industry Boy Scout Dinner at the Hyatt in downtown Chicago on May 10th. We will be arriving at the hotel in the early afternoon and will try to make ourselves as available as possible prior to the dinner. If you would like some time with one or both of us, please shoot me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
I will be in New York City on June 25 and June 26. I will be attending the CRU event on the afternoon of June 25 and I will be hosting the Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner that evening. I have some time available on Tuesday for one-on-one meetings (I am leaving room for end users, service centers, trading companies and mills first and then the financial community). Please send me an email if you would like to get together in NYC.
I have accepted an invitation to speak to the AWMI group in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky in October. More details on that engagement later this year.
I have been asked to participate in a webinar hosted by SNIPS in June. The purpose of the webinar is to discuss Section 232 and other areas that are/will impact sheet metal buyers. I will advise once I have final details, and you can get with SNIPS on how to participate in that webinar.
If you, or your group, is interested in having me address your company or organization, please contact me at 800-432-3475 or by email John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
SMU is still a small company and we like the interaction that we get from our members (and those thinking of becoming members). We appreciate your comments and suggestions. You can send them to my attention: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and I will do my best to respond as soon as possible.
We also very much appreciate the good words being said about our company from our readers, Steel 101 and Steel Summit attendees and others that I come across when traveling. Please do not hesitate to tell your suppliers, customers, others in your company or friends in the industry about SMU. Thank you.
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!