Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 14, 2019
Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers reading tonight’s issue.
I will be in New York City participating in the CRU Steel Briefing, which will be held at the Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan on Monday afternoon. Later that evening I will be attending the Bank of America Merrill Lynch steel dinner hosted by Timna Tanners, their metals and mining analyst. I do have some time on Tuesday morning should someone want to speak with me while I am in New York City. I will be returning to my office on Wednesday morning.
I wish to highly encourage companies to nominate young talented employees who are performing at an exceptional level, or who have shown themselves to be highly creative, for the SMU NexGen Leadership Award. So far, we have had approximately 50 companies inquiring through the website looking for information and we have started to get the first trickle of nominations coming in. This award, sponsored by the Steel Manufacturers Association, will allow those nominated, and especially the winner, to be recognized for his or her contributions. We hope it will encourage more young people to consider careers in manufacturing, fabrication, steel distribution, steel mills, toll processors and other companies that work with mild carbon and advanced high-strength steels. Support your team by nominating your young up-and-rising stars. For more details go to: www.SMUAward.com
Things are starting to get hectic (even more hectic) as we finish our preparations for the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference. We are sitting at 700 executives registered from about 300 companies. We still anticipate 1,000 decision-makers from more than 400 companies when the final tally comes in. If you would like to learn more about the agenda, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, hotels, costs to attend and how to register go to: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit. If you are having any issues with registration please contact Brett Linton at 770-299-9897 or email Events@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Paige Mayhair is on vacation this week and her job is being covered by Brett Linton. If you have questions about renewals, upgrading your membership or becoming a subscriber to SMU, please contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com or call him at 770-299-9897.
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
Another day, another massive gap between the news and market sentiment. On the news side, we’ve got war in the Middle East. The devastation facing western North Carolina coming into tragic focus. And the outcome of the presidential election remains a coin toss, according to current polling.
Final thoughts
There are markets where the headlines and the prices are both crazy. This does not appear to be one of them, at least not yet.
Final thoughts
Washington loomed large in our surveys this week. Two things actually: the upcoming presidential election and the trade case against imported coated products from 10 nations.
Final thoughts
Thanks to everyone who attended our Steel Hedging 101 workshop in Chicago on Wednesday. I learned a lot from StoneX Group’s Spencer Johnson, who instructs the course, and from your good questions. One thing that Spencer said sticks with me as I write this column. Namely, that momentum drives steel prices more than other commodity markets. If you watch steel futures, you’ll see up days and down days. But it’s rare to see the momentum shifting back and forth within any given day.
Final thoughts
SMU's prices ranges for flat-rolled steel were mostly sideways on Tuesday even as futures market shot higher. I got some questions as to why hot-rolled (HR) coil futures shot higher. As best as I can tell, it might have been in response to news that China plans to roll out stimulus measures. We have details on those measures here thanks to our colleagues at CRU. The chart below gives you some idea of just how sharply upward the move in HR futures was earlier on Tuesday: