Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 31, 2020
As if a pandemic wasn’t enough, now I have to muddle through a tropical storm (it was a hurricane but lost some of its punch overnight on Saturday). Fortunately, Florida residents consider tropical storms as nothing more than a nuisance. I have my fingers crossed that we don’t pick up a hurricane until after our conference is over….
Congratulations to Mark Bush who was named the CEO for JSW USA.
It is going to be a busy week with a new flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday morning. Our service center data providers begin providing inventory and shipment data Monday as well. We should have a better feel for any shifts in momentum by the end of this week, although my gut feel is we are close to a bottom, if not at the bottom on hot rolled prices (with the low end being in the very low $400’s per ton).
We have not yet named a speaker for this Wednesday’s SMU Community Chat Webinar. We should have one confirmed in the morning, and we will advise as soon as we do.
Registrations are breaking through 600 executives and counting for the 2020 SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference. If you register by Aug. 5 you will be eligible to receive one of our welcome packages. Yes, we are sending a welcome box from SMU as well as a number of our gold and platinum sponsors. You can register by clicking here or going to www.smusteelsummit.com
Here are some of the companies who registered for the 2020 SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference late last week: Komatsu Mining Corp, Colakoglu Metalurji A.S., Wayne Brothers, Inc., Argus Media, UBS Securities*, NB Handy, Flack Global Metals*, Stelco, Griffin Trade Group, Metal One America, Steel & Pipe Supply, Jade Metals Corp, Viking Materials Inc., High Steel Service, Apex Tool Group, EXLTUBE*, ArcelorMttal Dofasco* (those with an * means more than one person registered). You can join them by clicking here or going to www.smusteelsummit.com
This will be another hectic week for me as we continue to prepare for our first virtual steel conference. If you are wondering about our platform, you can view the recording made last week during our SMU Community Chat when we unveiled the platform and explained how it will work. You can view the recording by clicking here or going to: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/blog/smu-community-chat-webinars
If you want to renew, upgrade or join Steel Market Update, please contact Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or by email: Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com
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!