Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 11, 2022
We are now 11 days away from the start of the 2022 SMU Steel Summit Conference at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta. As of Wednesday, we had 1,174 registered attendees from all over the world.
This year’s conference will be the largest one ever conducted by Steel Market Update, and it will be the largest flat-rolled and plate steel focused conference in North America.
Michael Cowden, David Schollaert, and I have been working closely with all our speakers to ensure we are touching on the most important subjects affecting the industry. This includes steel price forecasts, decarbonization, capacity expansions, changes to the global industry, trade, distribution, transportation, electric vehicles, the economy, and much more.
You will want to be there early on Monday, Aug. 22, and you will want to stay until the end at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Networking is one of the keys to our conference, and we highly recommend you wear golf shirts with your company name on it (or something similar) to help facilitate discussions with your peers.
Reservations continue to be strong, and we are now approaching 1,200 registered executives for this year’s conference.
The following companies registered over just the past few days. Those with an * have registered more than one person: Aisha Steel Mills Limited, Area Transportation*, ATW, Challgren International Iron Trade, Chamberlain Group, CMC Commercial Metals, Combined Metal Industries*, Controladora Mabe SA de CV*, Electrolux, Enmark Systems Inc.*, Global Principal Partners, GridBeyond, GS GLOBAL USA INC.*, Howard Industries Inc., Lakehead Constructors*, Liberty Steel Products, Madix Inc.*, Maverick Steel, Metal Sales Manufacturing, Miami Valley Steel Service*, Morgan Stanley, New Process Steel, Omni International Resources Co. Pte, Pencco, Pierce Aluminum, Port of Corpus Christi, Procure Analytics, Sector 3 Appraisals, Serviacero Tubulares, SMS group Inc.*, Southland Advisors, Steelinvest Ltd., USG Corp., Yıldız Demir Çelik*.
You can join the 450+ companies already registered by clicking here.
A Note on Hotels
The hotels within walking distance of the Georgia International Convention Center are sold out. This includes the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway, the SpringHill Suites, the AC Hotel, and the Renaissance. We still have a limited number of rooms available in our room block at the Atlanta Airport Marriott hotel, which is about one mile from the convention facility. We will have a shuttle running from that hotel to the convention center Monday through Friday. You can access our room block special rate by clicking here.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Atlanta.
John Packard, SMU Founder
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!