SMU Virtual Steel Summit Agenda Coming Together Nicely

The process of putting together a virtual event agenda has created interesting challenges such as how to keep the attention of people who are sitting in their homes or offices watching on their computer screens. We believe we have solved (or are in the process of solving) those issues as we tighten the program and provide a wider array of speakers and subjects to be covered.

We will be discussing the full agenda and identifying speakers in more detail sometime next week. However, we can give you a sneak peek into some of the subjects we will be covering, and some of the speakers who will be interacting with our attendees.

We will discuss the pandemic with an expert in the field so our attendees better understand the issues the country is having with the virus in late August, the chances of a second wave and what that would look like, progress toward a vaccine (when and how potent) and what companies should be doing to keep their employees and businesses safe.

We will expand our program to include a wider view of the industry as we look at the steel industries in Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, Latin America and the Far East.

Forecasting will be a big part of our program. We will have Dr. Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics speak about the economy and provide his forecast. CRU economists will provide a world and North American view with various scenarios should the pandemic become more or less of an issue over the winter and into 2021. We will have Timna Tanners of Bank of America, John Anton of IHS Markit and Josh Spoores of CRU provide their steel forecasts, including pricing for the balance 2020 and all of 2021.

We will have a steel buyers group consisting of Frank Ruane of Olympic Steel, Steve Sukup of Sukup Manufacturing and Tom Valvo of MiTek discussing challenges and opportunities they are seeing in their businesses and supply chain.

Another panel will concentrate on construction, automotive and the energy markets (pipe and tube) as Ken Simonson, Chief Economist of the Associated General Contractors, joins Steven Brown of Fitch Ratings and Rick Preckel of Preston Pipe.

There will be many mills speaking this year in various formats. We will have keynote addresses from David Burritt, President & CEO of U.S. Steel, and Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman, President & CEO of Cleveland Cliffs/AK Steel. Other mills will be joining in the discussion including Leon Topalian, President & CEO of Nucor.

Steelmageddon or a possible steel shortage? Find out what side you are on as we tackle the subject with Timna Tanners of Bank of America and Paul Lowrey of Steel Research Associates.

We will have special segments on youth, trade and on the presidential election.

We are even throwing in a special Steel 101 training seminar as one of our “on-demand” items.

There will be an exhibition area, lounge, and special networking opportunities.

We are working on more agenda items and other surprises for those who register.

We are now pushing 400 registered attendees including those added today–GM Steel, Luminus Management, FCA US LLC, Lennox International*, Caterpillar Mexico, Mitsui Steel, North American Steel, Trinity Industries, and Steel Technologies*  (* denotes more than one person is registered). You can see a list of registered companies by clicking here. The list is updated every few days.

For more information about the conference click here.

To register for the conference click here.