Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 23, 2018
It’s a beautiful day here in Minnesota, and here I am looking out the window at a wonderful lake. Yet, I’m working all day. Oh well…
We did a quick analysis of the attendees registered for our conference. I thought potential attendees might be interested in what was discovered:
44% – Manufacturing Companies
35% – Service Centers/Distributors
3% – Steel Mills
2% – Trading Companies
2% – Financial Analysts
1% – Toll Processors
1% – Consulting Firms
1% – Investment Funds
1% – Suppliers to the Industry
10% – Other
Current registrations are over 790 executives and we should exceed 800 by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. The next number “in play” is 850, and we will see if we are able to sell that many seats.
If you would like to register, you can do so online: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit or you are welcome to contact our office at 772-932-7538. You can add more people to an existing registration at 772-932-7538.
So there is no confusion: Who should attend our SMU Steel 201: Introduction to Advanced High Strength and Other New Steels Workshop? You. We are designing this course for those who have limited experience to those who may be the president and CEO of a company. This workshop will be a rare opportunity to tour two key mill facilities: the AK Steel Research and Innovation Center, where new steels are developed and tested, as well as the AK Steel Middletown fully integrated steel mill. The dates are Sept. 11-12 and you can register online at: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-201
I am in Minnesota for a portion of this week as I am a new member of the Board of Trustees for Hamline University, which is the college I graduated from many moons ago. It had been some time since I was last on campus and the university has doubled in size and the process of educating young men and women has changed. I am trying to get a better sense of what that means and how I can be of help to the university over the next four years.
One interesting tidbit from my visit to Hamline University is the fraternity house that I lived in during most of my time there. It is now the Center for Creative Writing Programs. I found that a bit ironic.
Besides our workshops and conference, Steel Market Update is adding new Premium and Executive level newsletter members every month. I want to welcome you to SMU and I want to encourage you to interact with us, which you can do by contacting us at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com. We are always looking for new ideas, critiques of our content and suggestions for articles.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
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!