Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
April 3, 2022
We are now 140 days away, and I am getting very excited about this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. The agenda is coming together nicely, we have several new speakers, and I continue to work on a few special projects that I think you will enjoy. The conference dates are August 22-24, and the conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta – right next to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
We have added several speakers to the SMU Steel Summit Conference program this week. They include Pam Heglund CEO of Mill Steel, John Ganem CEO of Kloeckner, trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz, American Iron & Steel Institute president and CEO Kevin Dempsey President, Steel Manufacturers Association president Phil Bell, CSN LLC president Jerry Richardson, PGT Trucking CEO Gregg Troian, and Michael Setterdahl, a member of the GFG Alliance global advisory board. (Setterdahl is also former CEO of Liberty Steel USA, a former managing director of Nucor Trading, and a former CEO of Novosteel SA.)
We are working on several interesting programs with more emphasis on the future rather than the present.
Speaking of the future, the SMU NexGen Community – a free organization for those 40 years of age and younger – will hold its first in-person meeting in Atlanta in conjunction with the SMU Steel Summit Conference. The SMU NexGen Leadership Award will be wrapped under the banner of the SMU NexGen Community and will continue to be sponsored by the Steel Manufacturers Association.
SMU will be announcing the opening of the nomination process for the 2022 SMU NexGen Leadership Award the week of April 11th. I want to thank Cleveland-Cliffs chairman, president and CEO Lourenco Goncalves for agreeing to provide a mentor experience for the 2022 NexGen Leadership Award winner. Goncalves will also be meeting with the SMU NexGen Community members during their first in-person meeting.
We will have much more information coming out regarding both the SMU NexGen Leadership Award as well as the opening of registration for the SMU NexGen Community organization. Stay tuned.
Registrations for the SMU Steel Summit Conference are on pace to meet the 1,200 executive goal we have set for this year’s event. Over the past few working days, we have registered the following companies (an asterisk means more than one person is attending from that company): Acero Prime*, Alro Steel*, Anchor Danly, Bay Cities Metal Products*, BMG Latin America*, Evapco, Gerdau Steel, Grand Steel Products Inc., MiTek Inc.*, Mitsui & Co. (USA) Inc.*, Nova Steel Inc., OTI, PSI Metals North America Inc.*, RMS Manufacturing, Taylor Steel Inc.*, and Westman Steel Industries. You can join them by registering at the following website: https://events.crugroup.com/smusteelsummit/home
A reminder to those registering for the conference or interested in registering, we have large room blocks at all four of the hotels located close to the Georgia International Convention Center. This includes the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway, the SpringHill Suites, the Renaissance and the AC Hotel – all located in the Gateway Center. Once you are registered, you will receive a link that will allow you to register at one of these four hotels. SMU does not use third-party companies to make hotel reservations. We encourage you to ignore solicitations you might receive from non-SMU or non-CRU sources.
Your privacy is important, and we do not share your information. If you receive a solicitation offering to sell you a list of the attendees at this year’s event, know that the list will be bogus. We will be posting a list of the attending companies on the event website: https://events.crugroup.com/smusteelsummit/home
April Steel 101 Workshop Sold Out
Be advised registration for the April 19-20 Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop is now closed because we have reached the maximum capacity allowed. This workshop is being held in-person in Memphis and will include a tour of the Nucor Hickman (Arkansas) steel mill.
The next Steel 101 workshop will be held virtually on July 19-20, and registration is now open for that workshop. You can learn more and register by going to: https://events.crugroup.com/steel101/about-steel-101
We will have another in-person Steel 101 workshop in October of this year, and our plan is to tour the SDI Sinton (Texas) steel mill. Please watch this space for more information about the exact dates and location for this workshop.
Introduction to Steel Hedging Workshop
SMU is hosting one of our popular Introduction to Steel Hedging: Managing Price Risk (previously known as Steel Hedging 101) workshops on April 26-27. This will be a virtual workshop and will be conducted over two half days. For more information regarding the agenda, our instructors, costs to attend and how to register please go to: https://events.crugroup.com/steel101/about-steel-hedging-101
If you would like to know more about how your company can become a subscriber to Steel Market Update, please contact Paige Mayhair at Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us associated with Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Founder
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
I’m trying to make sure this is not a TL;DR Final Thoughts. As a journalism school professor once told me, ‘No one but your mom reads more than 1,000 words.’ Also, as the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand as well. With that in mind, below are a couple of charts that I think go a long way toward explaining how prices and lead times have been relatively stable despite concerns about demand.
Final Thoughts
It’s another week of big headlines for the world writ large – an expanding war in the Middle East, another potentially catastrophic hurricane – and not much going on in the world of steel prices. “Call me Stevie Wonder, I see nothing.” That’s how one service center executive described the current sheet market. There seems to be almost a competition among some of our Community Chat guests and contributors to outdo each other in flowery ways to say, “
Final Thoughts
Surprise, surprise. Forget Halloween, the trend this October is all around the unexpected. Known as the “October Surprise,” you never know what is in store for you in the month before a US presidential election. Still, if we pull back the dial back date-wise a little bit, a familiar theme has been added to the mix: kick the can.
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.