Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 15, 2020
The other day I mentioned I am open to suggestions regarding subjects to be discussed or possible speakers at this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. One of the suggestions I got was that we consider having a steel buyer’s panel. I like the idea and it has already been incorporated into the agenda. I have already gotten a few steel buyers to be on this panel. It will be diverse with manufacturing and steel distribution representatives. I am also looking at companies who cover different industries. This will allow us to get different perspectives than those being provided by our economists or analysts.
I continue to work on the program, and I am still open for suggestions. If you would like to give me your thoughts regarding the 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference (or anything else), you can reach me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
There do appear to be some “holes” opening up at a couple of mills. I received a note from a steel buyer today pointing out that one of his suppliers has had HRC lead times as being the week of Feb. 10 for the past few weeks. This is something we are trying to watch closely. If you have mill lead time information, please forward to my attention.
We got a note from Lewis Leibowitz today with the modification of a tariffs list, which were products (Chinese) hit with tariffs as of Sept. 1, 2019. The modification is part of the phase one deal with the Chinese. He reminded us that the exclusion deadline for List 4A products remains Jan. 31.
I mentioned the other day that Michael Smerconish of CNN will be our featured keynote speaker on Wednesday. He will be prior to lunch since we have added the “How to Attract and Retain Young People” segments in the afternoon. I decided to bring Smerconish back because he works hard on being fair and as neutral as possible, yet he does have opinions on what will happen and why during this election cycle. He was excellent a few years ago when we first brought him to our conference.
We do have a few sponsorships and exhibition spaces left for this year’s conference. If you would like more information, please contact Jill Waldman at Jill@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Regarding subscriptions for our newsletters. Prices will be rising come Feb. 1. If you want to renew now, you can do so at the current price levels by contacting Paige Mayhair – 724-720-1012 or by email: Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com
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John Packard, President & CEO
John Packard
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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!