Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 3, 2018
Steel Market Update has a NEW steel training workshop that is meant for both those new to the industry as well as those who have been in the industry for some time and would like a deeper pool of knowledge about the industry. The workshop is called Steel 201: Introduction to Advanced High Strength & Other New Steels. This workshop is unique in that the classes will be held at the AK Steel Research and Innovation Center (RIC), which our group will get to tour on the first day of the workshop. On day two, our group will tour the AK Steel Middletown fully integrated steel mill. We have new instructors for this workshop including metallurgists/engineers and commercial people from AK Steel. You can find more details on our website or you can contact John Packard at 800-432-3475 with any questions you might have.
SMU is providing special pricing on our Steel 201 workshop to any company that has sent people to our Steel 101 workshop in the past. Contact John@SteelMarketUpdate.com for more details.
In tonight’s issue of SMU, we are covering the semifinished (slabs) exclusion request made by NLMK USA and objected to by U.S. Steel and Nucor. We have an interview with Bob Miller, president of NLMK USA, as the first article on the subject. We then have responses from both U.S. Steel and Nucor as to why they objected to the NLMK request for exclusions on slabs. Finally, we have a third article from Daniel Pearson, former chairman of the International Trade Commission, who provided some historical context to the debate. In particular, he speaks about the various personalities from 2001 and their counterparts in the Trump White House.
On Monday, Aug. 6, Steel Market Update will begin our early August flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis. Invitations should go out around 8 a.m. ET, and we will collect responses through 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday of this week. If you would like to be added to our invitation list, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Registrations for our 8th SMU Steel Summit Conference continue to pour in, and we have passed 830 executives who are already registered. We expect attendance of 850+ when show time starts at 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 27 at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta. The conference will conclude at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 29. You will want to stay to the end as we have a presentation by economic and political analyst Ron Insana of CNBC, followed by a special program with Robert Perlman, Executive Chairman of the CRU Group, John Packard of Steel Market Update and a panel that includes Chris Houlden and Josh Spoores of CRU.
A reminder that Steel Market Update readers, as well as those who have attended a past SMU Steel Summit or a training workshop, have a unique opportunity to participate in a webinar about the North American steel market conducted by our parent company, CRU. The webinar entitled, “Mid-Year Update on the North American Steel Market,” will feature presentations from three experienced CRU analysts covering a range of North American economic, trade and flat-rolled steel price forecasts and insights. Any SMU customer can register for the webinar for free, and participants will be able to pose questions privately for speakers throughout the webinar. To register click here.
We are working on our flat rolled and plate steel service center inventories report. We should have our “flash” report out on Tuesday of this week. That will go first to the data providers and then to our Premium members (probably on Wednesday). If you would like information about how you can become a Premium subscriber, please send me a note at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or feel free to call my office: 800-432-3475.
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!