Final Thoughts

October 26, 2018

Finally, I am back in my office after what seems like one long continuous trip over the last six weeks. I expect to be in my office over the next few weeks until I head to Pittsburgh in mid-November to visit the CRU offices here in the United States.

We have a couple of new people working with Steel Market Update located in Pittsburgh. The one person with whom you will most likely be interacting is Paige Mayhair. Paige is handling customer service and renewals for SMU. Brett and Alison will be in Pittsburgh doing some training over the next couple of days. If you have questions about SMU, you can contact Paige at 724-720-1012.

I continue to have the same contact phone numbers and email addresses should you wish to contact me. I can be reached at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and as I mentioned above I will be in my office all this week.

Our January Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop is now open for registration as our December workshop has been completely sold out. The dates on the new workshop will be Jan. 29-30 and it will be held at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Starkville, Miss., next to Mississippi State University. We will tour the Steel Dynamics (SDI) Columbus steel mill. Come join 30 to 40 people from all areas of the steel, distribution and manufacturing segments of the industry along with our highly experience instructors: Peter Wright, metallurgist and marketing expert; Chuck McDaniel, metallurgist and flat rolled commercial mill expert; Roger Walburn, metallurgist with NLMK USA and commercial expert; and Mario Briccetti, engineer and purchasing expert. I also will be part of the program using my unique experience having bought and sold steel for 31 years, researching and writing about the industry over the last 10 years, and being the driving force behind a number of SMU proprietary products for the flat rolled and plate steel markets. You can find more details about the workshop on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101

A reminder to those of you working on budgets for 2019, the SMU Steel Summit Conference will be held in Atlanta at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) on Aug. 26-28, 2019. We are anticipating 1,000 steel and manufacturing executives at next year’s event. I am already well into the planning stages as we book long-term favorites like Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics to be at our 2019 event. No two SMU Steel Summit Conferences are the same and next year’s event will have its share of surprises and new ways of looking at the industry. Of course, the networking opportunities are second to no other steel conference in North America.

I am always looking for new ideas/suggestions for subjects we should be covering about the flat rolled and plate steel markets. If you have something you think we should be doing a better job of covering, please contact us at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com or you are welcome to contact me directly at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com

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

John Packard, President & CEO