Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 2, 2018
Welcome back to those of you in the United States who had the Fourth of July off, but didn’t decide to take a few extra days and extend the holiday. SMU was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday in honor of the Fourth and also to give myself a bit of a break having just been in New York City and London over the past week.
For those of you registered to attend our 8th SMU Steel Summit Conference on Aug. 27-29 in Atlanta, the room blocks have been sold out on the three Gateway hotels next to the convention center. We still have rooms available at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Hotel from which we will be running a shuttle to the Georgia International Convention Center. At our last count, there were 70 rooms left in that room block.
The Atlanta Airport Marriott Hotel is 1.5 miles south of the Georgia International Convention Center, but includes a complimentary shuttle. Click here to book your stay here at $151/night or you may book over the phone at 1-888-239-1203; ask for the Steel Market Update room block.
Here are some of the recent registrations as we bump up against 700 registered attendees for the 2018 conference with 52 days to go: Lapham-Hickey Steel, Honda Trading de Mexico, Norfolk Iron & Metal Co., Luminus Management, CAN-PACK S.A., Mississippi Steel Processing, MISA, Westman Steel Industries, Metal Center News, National Oilwell Varco, Quality Edge, Inc., Worthington Industries and Majestic Steel. If you have any questions about pricing, how to register, hotels or just general questions, I am happy to answer them for you. You can reach me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or by phone at 800-432-3475.
My meeting in London with CRU management and members of their various teams made me feel very comfortable with the decision I made to sell the company to them. I know it will take some time, but we are already hard at work developing or expanding on projects that I began but needed help to bring to fruition. SMU will continue to be on the cutting edge as we grow our business.
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!