Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 24, 2014
We have to do a better job of learning military time. By mistake tonight’s newsletter was sent out at 20:00 hours not 22:00 hours as originally planned. Since I have a habit of working into the evening on publishing nights all of a sudden we published before the newsletter was complete. So, throw away your 20:00 hour copies and use the 22:00 hour ones (or read the newsletter online) and you will get the complete edition as opposed to the abbreviated one.
I am off to Austin, Texas in the morning to attend the FMA Toll Processing Conference. I am looking forward to visiting Austin for the first time in my life. I am also looking forward to the program which specializes in Advanced High Strength Steels.
Speaking of conferences – please take a moment to complete the survey we have linked you to in tonight’s newsletter. We are working on our Fall 2014 Steel Summit Conference and your responses will be very helpful to our planning.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
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John Packard
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Final Thoughts
We had an October surprise here at SMU on Wednesday. I was working from the CRU office in Pittsburgh, and the internet connection briefly went out. As luck would have it, that happened smack in the middle of a live Community Chat webinar. Fortunately, my colleague David Schollaert stepped in, Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman rolled with the punches – and the show went on. Could there be any more October surprises in store for us and for the steel market?
Final Thoughts
We just wrapped up another Steel 101 workshop, easily the most hands-on industry workshop on steelmaking and market fundamentals, in this humble opinion. Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, SMU’s Steel 101 was held in Starkville, Miss.
Final Thoughts
Everybody has an opinion about politics these days. More importantly for our readers, though, every business has a bottom line. A popular question in our most recent steel buyers survey asked how uncertainty around the upcoming US presidential election could affect that line.
Final Thoughts
I’m trying to make sure this is not a TL;DR Final Thoughts. As a journalism school professor once told me, ‘No one but your mom reads more than 1,000 words.’ Also, as the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand as well. With that in mind, below are a couple of charts that I think go a long way toward explaining how prices and lead times have been relatively stable despite concerns about demand.
Final Thoughts
It’s another week of big headlines for the world writ large – an expanding war in the Middle East, another potentially catastrophic hurricane – and not much going on in the world of steel prices. “Call me Stevie Wonder, I see nothing.” That’s how one service center executive described the current sheet market. There seems to be almost a competition among some of our Community Chat guests and contributors to outdo each other in flowery ways to say, “