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
Unless you've been under a rock, you know by know that Nucor's published HR price for this week is $760 per short ton, down $65/st from the company’s $825/st a week ago. I could use more colorful words. But I think it’s safe to say that most of the market was not expecting this. For starters, US sheet mills never announce price decreases. (OK, not never. It has come to my attention that Severstal North America rescinded a price increase back on Feb. 14, 2012. And it caused quite the ruckus.)
Final thoughts
Is it just me, or does it seem like the summer doldrums might have arrived a little early? I could be wrong there. It’s possible we could see a jump in prices should buyers need to step back into the market to restock. I’ll be curious to see what service center inventories are when we update those figures on May 15. In the meantime, just about everyone we survey thinks HR prices have peaked or soon will. (See slide 17 in the April 26 survey.) Lead times have flattened out. And some of you tell me that you’re starting to see signs of them pulling back. (We’ll know more when we update our lead time data on Thursday.)
Final thoughts
Everybody has a plan… until they’ve dealt with volatility in the HRC market. While Mike Tyson’s original quote was about getting punched in the mouth, it’s unlikely the ex-champ has gone many pricing rounds with hot-rolled coil.
Final thoughts
Hold-rolled (HR) prices held roughly steady this week after slipping for much of April. I don’t have any spicy quotes to offer about mostly flat prices. Besides, a lot of the questions I’ve gotten recently have been about demand. Some of you tell me that it’s still stable or improving. Others tell me that it’s suddenly dried up.
Final thoughts
What a difference a month makes. In late March, it seemed like the US hot-rolled (HR) coil market was poised to cycle upward. Large buyers had re-entered the market and placed big orders earlier in the month. Several outages were underway or upcoming. And expectations were that lead times would continue to extend. Cliffs said […]