Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 27, 2014
It snowed in Georgia and South Carolina today. Nucor Berkeley put out an announcement that their shipping and sales personnel had been sent home early. I thought it might be a good time to double check the forecast for Mobile for next Tuesday and Wednesday which is where we are holding our next Steel 101 workshop. The forecast is for 70 degrees on Tuesday and 60 degrees on Wednesday.
Going back to the snow in Georgia. My office is about 50 miles Northeast of downtown Atlanta. The forecast for here was flurries with the bulk of the snow forecast to hit south of Atlanta. It is now Tuesday evening and as I look out my window I am gazing at 3″ of snow on the ground.
Every time it snows in Georgia I go back to my first winter here. I had moved down from Minnesota where I had gone to college and lived for 10 years. That first winter here the forecast was for a few inches of snow and people were panicking in their apartments around me. For some reason people in the south can never have two many gallons of milk in their refrigerator when it snows…
The next day I woke up to 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground and I immediately got in my car and drove to work, which was about six miles away from my apartment. No one was on the road but me and one under-trained police vehicle. I know they were under trained as I watch the police car slow down as it approached a small hill. He was still doing donuts at the bottom of that hill when my little Toyota scampered by.
Of course, being a new guy I didn’t have keys to the office and I was the only one who showed up in that parking lot that day.
Not much has changed in the years since – except now I stay home and watch the crazies on TV who try to imitate that policeman of many years ago.
Snow or no snow our office is open in the morning.
As always we thank you for your business which is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Sometimes new presidential administrations hit the ground running. No time for change like the present. And sometimes new administrations blast off on a SpaceX rocket bound for Mars. There’s a big universe, and we’ve got a lot of flags to plant. Such seems to be the case with the new Trump administration.
Final Thoughts
What’s been the impact of tariff threats on prices and demand? In short, not much – or at least that was the case when I was writing this column on Sunday afternoon. Spot activity for Canadian material, for example, has been put on hold over the last few weeks while the market waits to see what the new tariff landscape might look like.
Final Thoughts
Next Monday marks the start of the second Trump administration. The limbo we’ve been living in since Election Day in early November will finally come to an end. What better way to take a look at what’s coming up in Washington, D.C., than a conversation with Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) President Philip K. Bell. He […]
Final Thoughts
It’s another week of big headlines and ho-hum pricing moves – which is to say the start of 2025 is looking a lot like the end of 2024. Scrap has settled up $20 per gross ton (gt). Steel prices, however, were a soft sideways this week. Chalk it up to uneven demand and abundant supply. And while we’re not aware of any major outages, some of you tell us that you’ve lost some shipping days here and there because of the recent cold snap.
Final Thoughts
I wrote in a Final Thoughts a few years ago that it seemed all the swans were black. More recently, I’ve been asked by some of you what the wildcards are for 2025. You could probably make the case that all the cards are wild now.