Final Thoughts

I was speaking to a prospective new customer yesterday and realized as I talked to him about the differences between Steel Market Update and our competitors that I have not provided my background in quite a while. Where I came from and my experiences in the steel industry are one of the key factors when evaluating our product versus anything else that you are using to gather market information.

I spent 31 years actively buying and selling flat rolled steel. My main area of expertise is in coated products, particularly galvanized and Galvalume. However, over the course of my career I also sold hot rolled and cold rolled products.

What makes my background even more unique is I have worked in the service center, steel mill and trading company segments of the industry.

This newsletter began while I was representing a galvanized steel mill in the United States called Winner Steel (now known as NLMK Sharon Coatings). During my 10-year tenure with the mill, the flat rolled steel markets went through a number of wild price and supply cycles and it became apparent to me that the only way my clients were going to be able to prosper was if they had real-time information. So, I began putting together a daily report about the markets and the forces influencing the steel industry.

After Winner Steel was sold to the Duferco JV (Duferco/NLMK) and I lost my representation for the mill, I continued to write and expanded my focus to the greater flat rolled industry. In August 2008, I started SMU as an official business and it has been full-steam ahead ever since.

I tell this story because Steel Market Update is about to go through a growth spurt. We are preparing to expand our coverage and improve our products. To do this successfully, it is important that we understand what we are doing well and what we could be doing better. This is the reason why we have asked you to take a few moments to respond to some questions about our company. Please take some time to click on the following link, which will take you to SurveyMonkey and our questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/TRWPMZB

SMU STEEL SUMMIT CONFERENCE ATTENDEES PLEASE NOTE: If you get a call from anyone trying to book hotel rooms for our conference, it is a SCAM. Do not accept calls from anyone saying they represent our conference. All rooms are booked directly through the Marriott hotels by calling 800-236-2427 or by using the links on our website. SMU never uses any outside organization to sell hotel rooms or anything else. Also, we have 78 rooms left in our room block at the Gateway hotels next to the convention center. Once those run down to around 20 rooms we will add another Marriott property, which is located about a mile away. We will have a minimum of 100 rooms there and there will be a shuttle to the convention center. More details on that hotel shortly.

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

John Packard, Publisher