Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 17, 2020
On Monday, we will begin our mid-January flat rolled and plate steel market trends questionnaire, and by the end of the week we will publish our analysis. Our Premium level members will be able to review our analysis, which will be presented in a PowerPoint presentation on Friday. Those who participate in this week’s questionnaire will also be granted access to the presentation. If you would like to be added to our invitation list, or if you would like to learn more about becoming a Premium subscriber, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
I am deep in the process of putting together this year’s conference program. We are beginning to get responses to our invitations to speak, and the quality of the speakers we have confirmed so far is exceptional. Many of you already know of Dr. Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics. Beaulieu has been a fixture at our conferences since we moved to Atlanta many years ago. He is the best economic forecasting speaker I have seen, and I believe our attendees agree. Here is a video of Beaulieu from the 2019 Conference.
On Friday, I confirmed the keynote speaker for the youth segment of our program. His name is Ryan Avery and he is a fantastic speaker. I heard him speak twice at a recent HARDI conference, and I was duly impressed both with his skills as a speaker, and with the message he will share about companies attracting and keeping young leaders in their organizations. In 2012, Avery was the youngest winner of the prestigious World Championship of Public Speaking, besting more than 10,000 other speakers. Now in his early 30s, he will not disappoint. He will be speaking in the 1 p.m. slot on Wednesday as we kick off how to attract, train and maintain young people into your company. We will have three segments on this topic on Wednesday afternoon. Be sure to make plans to stay just a little longer. I promise you will not be disappointed. Here is a link to Ryan Avery website, and some of his videos.
We have already registered five times more people for the 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference than we did at this time last year for the 2019 event. Last year we topped out at 1,078 attendees. This year we expect close to 1,200 as the word is out – the SMU Steel Summit Conference is THE place to see and to be seen in the industry. You can register by clicking on this link. You can learn more about the conference and see what companies attended last year by going to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit
Speaking of registration being open, we also are registering those interested in attending our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop which will be held in Merrillville, Ind., (just outside of Chicago) on March 31 and April 1, 2020. We will tour the NLMK Portage electric arc furnace steel mill. For more details go to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101
We are moving closer to Feb. 1, 2020, which is the date when prices will increase on subscriptions for our Executive and Premium newsletters. If you would like to maintain current prices, you can do so by contacting Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or by email Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com. To keep prices as they are, payment will need to be received prior to Feb. 1.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
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!