Final Thoughts

Early this week we will send out an email to all of the attendees going over the logistics, program, dress code, how to get to the hotel and convention center and anything else we can think of that might be deemed important. The vast majority of attendees are arriving on Tuesday, so I think the Marriott bar will be the place to be on Tuesday evening.

We will have a registration desk set up at the Marriott from approximately 4 PM ET to 6 PM ET on Tuesday. On Wednesday the registration will take place at the south entrance (closest to the hotel) in the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC).

We are now expecting close to 180 people to attend our conference. We will try to update the website on Monday so you can get a feel for how many companies are represented. If you wish to attend, we are still taking registrations which can be done online or through our office: 800-432-3475.

I want to welcome a last minute sponsor: Steel Warehouse of Alabama.

A note that iron ore spot prices in China have been dropping again recently. 62% Fe is close to $90 per dry metric ton.

Now that the OCTG case has finally been resolved and six of the nine countries named have been hit with duties, is flat rolled steel next? One of the attorneys who will be speaking on the subject mentioned to me late last week that the mills have until the end of September to file or they have to start all over again. The rumor mill has been pointing to late this week or perhaps on September 2nd (which would be convenient for our Steel Summit Conference). However, we have heard rumors about Chinese cold rolled and coated products from China, Taiwan, India and South Korea for about a year now. So nothing is engraved in stone.

Speaking of registrations, don’t forget that our Steel 101: Introduction to Steelmaking & Market Fundamentals workshop is also available online. The next workshop is October 7 & 8 in Fort Wayne, Indiana and will include a tour of the Steel Dynamics Butler, Indiana facility. Details can be found on our website or you can speak to the instructors at our Steel Summit Conference.

A note about our publication schedule due to the upcoming Labor Day Holiday and our Steel Summit Conference. We will publish this week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as normal. We will not publish our newsletter on Sunday, August 31st. We will publish on Tuesday, September 2nd and we will not publish (unless it is a brief issue) on Thursday, September 4th. Back to our normal schedule on Sunday, September 7th.

As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update. Please tell your steel friends, customers and suppliers about us.

John Packard, Publisher