Final Thoughts

May 31, 2019

I am back, well sort of… (I took some vacation days this past week. Did you miss me?)

I will be traveling to Washington, D.C., where I will be speaking with the board of directors of the Steel Manufacturers Association. This will be interesting as there are no prepared remarks, just SMA President Phil Bell and me chatting on stage. Then the mill CEOs get to ask me questions. Usually, it is the other way around. This should be interesting.

I will be back in my office on Wednesday and won’t be traveling again until I go to New York City on the 17th of June.

I am a little disappointed in the response we have received to date for the SMU NexGen Leadership Award, which is sponsored by the Steel Manufacturers Association. If you are the President or CEO of a manufacturer, fabricator, distributor, steel mill, toll processor or supplier to those industries and you have young (35 or under) individuals in your company who are doing exceptional work, you should be recognizing that work by nominating them for the first NexGen Leadership Award. From my perspective, I would be embarrassed not to recognize the strength of the youth you have within your company. The person being nominated does NOT have to be in a managerial role. They don’t have to be in sales or purchasing. They could be doing virtually anything within the company – customer service, logistics, accounting, information technologies, human resources (yes, sales and purchasing are included) or they may indeed be a manager. If you have any questions as to who “qualifies” or would like to run someone by me, I can be reached at 770-596-6268 or by email: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Over the last few days of last week we got registrations for the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference from: Tate Access Floors, Sentuo Steel Limited (Ghana), Lifetime Products, Steel Summit Holdings, Janus International Group, Norton Metals, Metal Edge Partners, Metal Resource Holdings, Cooper Consolidated LLC, ThyssenKrupp Steel Services & Distribution and Metal Sales Manufacturing.

To register go to: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit

If you are having any issues registering, please contact Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or Brett Linton at 770-299-9897 or send an email to Events@SteelMarketUpdate.com. I know CRU is moving to a U.S. based PayPal system and we hope it will be up and running later this week. Do not get frustrated and give up; we will help you through any bumps you might find in the road.

We will be conducting our early June flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis beginning on Monday through Thursday of this week. If you receive an invitation, please take a few minutes to respond to the first question at the end of the email. You will then be moved to the balance of the questionnaire. Those responding will receive a link to the full PowerPoint presentation we do at the end of the week.

President Trump is placing new tariffs on Mexico beginning in a few days (5 percent first, and then up 5 percent per month until they hit 25 percent). Are you in favor of these new tariffs? I would like to hear from you.

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

John Packard, President & CEO