Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
September 11, 2013
The process of populating, testing, editing, fixing, testing, editing, adding content, editing, testing – well, you get the idea…. The website work continues and we continue to strive to meet the Friday the 13th deadline. My gut is telling me a week late may be a better target – but, we are going to try to get as much done and ready within the next few days as possible.
We have been testing the new newsletters for a few weeks now. This evening will be the first time we test an interactive graphic within the newsletter (sorry, you won’t be able to view it until we go live). This is one of the unique features we are building into the newsletter and elsewhere on our website. The idea of our clients being able to manipulate the time series of the data we are presenting appealed to me.
We have mentioned previously that our intention is to come up with three products: our Executive Newsletter – which is the newsletter we have been publishing all along, our Monthly Newsletter – which you have seen the first two issues which we have provided as complimentary until the website comes up and then we will have a Premium Product. The Premium Product is less about a specifically designed newsletter and more about having access to data and analysis that SMU has been collecting over the years. This includes access to a portion of our steel market surveys and history, analysis of data collected from U.S. government and other sources (such as our Key Market Indicators), special products such as our imports by product, port and country (hot rolled produced in tonight’s issue) and more. The Premium Product is not meant for the everyday reader (nor is our Monthly Newsletter). The core product will continue to be our Executive Newsletter.
We have provided a couple of articles this evening by Peter Wright which contain more data and analysis than what we have produced in the past. The Apparent Steel Supply article is one example that we be focused on those who are interested in data and working with the data for a clearer picture of the market. This is focused on those who would be interested in our Premium Product.
We hope you find the site interesting and adds value to your membership. Now we just need to get it online so you can see for yourselves….
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
It’s once again A Tale of Two Cities in the steel market. Some are almost euphoric about Trump’s victory. Others, some rather bearish, are more focused on the day-to-day market between now and Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Final Thoughts
One of the perhaps unintentional perks of being a trade journalist is the opportunity to travel and cover an array of industry conferences and events. Some I've attended have been at fun locations, like Palm Springs and Tampa, Fla. Others have been in more practical locations, like SMU’s Steel Summit in Atlanta and American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) meetings in Washington, D.C.
Final Thoughts
t this point in the game I think what we can say about Nippon Steel’s proposed buy of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel is that it will go through, it won’t go through, or the outcome will be something new and completely unexpected. Then again, I’m probably still missing a few options.
Final Thoughts
President-elect Donald Trump continues to send shockwaves through the political establishment (again). And steel markets and ferrous scrap markets continue to be, well, anything but shocking. As the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote in 1849, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." (I thought the quote might have been Yankees catcher Yogi Berra in 1949. Google taught me something new today.)
Final Thoughts
President-elect Donald Trump will officially retake the White House on Jan. 20. I’ve been getting questions about how his administration’s policies might reshape the steel industry and domestic manufacturing. I covered the tumult and norm busting of Trump's first term: Section 232, Section 301, USMCA - and that's just on the trade policy side of things. It's safe to say that we'll have no shortage of news in 2025 when it comes to trade and tariffs.