Final Thoughts
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Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
December 30, 2013
Happy New Year to our members and those viewing our steel industry newsletter for the first time. We wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. We are quite bullish on the North American flat rolled steel industry for the first six months of 2014. Not every segment is clicking on all cylinders – but it appears there will be more than there were last year. That is my opinion.
I will be speaking at a meeting of the AWMI in Chicago on January 16, 2014. If you are interested in attending you can contact Amanda Tomsovic at Amanda.Tomsovic@ArcelorMittal.com. The AWMI is asking for RSVP’s by the 10th (for the venue) but they are OK with walk-ins if someone has a last minute schedule change and would like to attend. Prices are as follows:
$55 – Individual/Corporate Member
$75 – Nonmember
$60 – Member Walk-In
$80 – Nonmember Walk-In
6:00 PM – Networking
6:30 PM – Dinner
7:30 PM – Program (me)
Address:
Erie Café
536 W. Erie St.
Chicago, IL
A note to our members – our developer opened our old website because we saw people were getting “Error 404 – Page Not Found” messages which were related to missing links (old blog postings or articles with links in them from our previous website). This action triggered a number of emails to those whose subscriptions came up for renewal in late November and December as the old system doesn’t know what has transpired in our new system.
You can recognize the email as an outdated one by the logo and the message asking you to contact Sophia (who no longer works for us) for renewal information. Please ignore these emails and our apologies for them being sent in the first place.
Premium Level members should have received a special supplement issue of our newsletter this afternoon. It contains the latest SMU Key Market Indicators as well as Construction Put in Place (CPIP) data.
The November Preliminary Census Data for imports was unusually low. I am holding off on publishing the numbers until I do a little more research and study the numbers further. Most likely, I will publish the data on Friday or Saturday to the front of the website (scrolling newsletter articles and in the “News” tab in the toolbar) for our members to read. We will also publish the data in our Sunday evening edition of our Executive Newsletter.
We have our Media Kit available to anyone who would like to get pricing for advertising on our newsletter and/or our website. You can request a kit by emailing advertising@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Tonight’s issue is a busy one (and long) due to the New Year Holiday. We hope that everyone enjoyed your time off and are ready to hit the street running (or have already hit the street). Our opinion is 2014 will be another interesting and challenging year for the steel industry. As you can tell by our “Future Bright” article we are bullish on the industry at the moment and believe the first half 2014 should be good for hopefully just about everyone in the industry.
That’s today’s opinion – I welcome yours: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
I want to thank you for your business as it is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update. Give us a call if you would like to consider upgrading to our new Premium Level service or would like to add more people to your membership: 800-432-3475 or info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
Sincerely,
John Packard, Publisher
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John Packard
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Sheet prices didn’t roar back after Labor Day. But steel market news sure came out of the gate strong (or maybe chaotically is the better way to put it). First, the nearly $15-billion proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel exploded into the news. And when I say exploded, I mean that all sides seem to be escalating things now.
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Welcome back from Labor Day, from Steel Summit, and from whatever fun you might have had over the long weekend. Personally, I enjoyed camping with friends and family near Starved Rock. No one starved, there were no major injuries, and we enjoyed the many splendors of Mystical Fire. (Speaking of which, does that have industrial uses? But I digress.)
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I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ from all of us at SMU to all of you (more than 1,500!) who attended Steel Summit this year. We appreciate you taking time out of busy schedules to join us – whether that was up on stage, submitting thoughtful questions, or catching up over a drink and bite to eat. Also, a bit shoutout to everyone at SMU and at CRU who made this event possible. It’s no understatement to say that we have a fantastic team.
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Day one and two of SMU's Steel Summit 2024 are officially in the books. We covered a lot of ground, and the agenda sure did deliver.
![](https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/SMU-Steel-Summit.png)
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The big show is just about here. SMU Steel Summit will be getting underway on Monday. Where does the networking begin? I’d say at the airport. So don’t forget your business cards. And it can't hurt to wear a company golf shirt.