Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 15, 2018
I got a note from one of our readers who pointed out that Sept. 18 & 19 are Holy Days on the Jewish calendar. These were the days selected for our first SMU 201: Intro to Advanced High Strength & Other New Steels workshop, which is going to be held at AK Steel Research and Innovation Center (RIC) in Ohio. We are reviewing the dates with AK Steel to see if we are able to shift the timing and will advise.
A reminder about my travel schedule as it will be a bit hectic over the next couple of weeks. I will be in my office on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Wednesday I will be in Pittsburgh visiting the CRU Group USA offices and meeting their staff. I will be back in the office on Thursday and Friday. Next week, the week of June 25, I will be traveling to New York City where on Monday afternoon I will participate in a free CRU Group briefing. Our members are invited to attend and can register by clicking on this link. Later that afternoon, I will be hosting the Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner as Timna Tanners will be traveling and unable to host the event this year.
The following day, Tuesday, June 26, I do have a couple of openings to meet with people who are in New York to attend other steel meetings. If you would like to meet, send me an email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
On Tuesday evening, Diana and I are flying overnight to London, England, where we will be meeting with the management and staff at the CRU Group headquarters for the balance of the week. We will be returning to the U.S.A. on Monday, July 2, but will not return to our offices until July 3.
Due to the Fourth of July falling on a Wednesday, I have decided we will not publish on Tuesday, July 3. This means we will produce our flat rolled and plate steel indices on Thursday, July 5. We will return to our normal schedule on July 5.
Tomorrow morning (June 18), we will begin collecting responses from our mid-June flat rolled and plate steel survey. If you receive an “Invitation to Participate” around 8 a.m. ET, please take a few minutes to respond to the first question, which is located at the bottom of the email. Once answered, you will be taken to the rest of the questions. The survey usually takes 3 to 5 minutes to complete.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
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!