Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 28, 2015
From time to time you might find that our emailed newsletter gets put into your SPAM folder or even blocked within your system. Many SPAM programs look for key words such as the word used when you borrow funds to acquire a home (starts with an “m”). Another word that can fire up the SPAM software is the word survey (which we have used in tonight’s edition a number of times). We try to use the terminology “flat rolled steel market analysis” in the hope that you understand what we are really talking about is the “s” word.
Here are some tips to make sure you never miss an issue of Steel Market Update: 1) Have your IT department “whitelist” the following – my email address: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com; our domain name: SteelMarketUpdate.com; Mandrillapp.com and Mailchimp.com (we use Mandrill and Mailchimp to deliver our newsletters).
If you find one of our newsletters in your SPAM folder hit the “not SPAM” button.
Finally, if you are desperate to read one of our exceptional issues and for some reason you can’t find it in your inbox: go to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com and log into the website. Hover your mouse over the Newsletter tab and click on the Executive Newsletter Archives (for Executive members) or Premium Newsletter Archives (for Premium members). The latest newsletter as well as all past issues can be found here.
The only exception is the newsletter which has not yet been published. For example, on Thursday afternoon we were publishing articles to the front of our website but we had not yet put the newsletter together to be sent out this evening. Those articles can be read by (once again) being logged into the website and then clicking on the article in the rolling menu on our Home Page.
So, come drop by our Home Page from time to time and you might be surprised by what you find. Articles which are being produced for the next newsletter and we produce many blog posts about the industry which do not get put into our newsletter. You do not need to be logged into the website in order to access our blog posts.
For those of you who are interested in Social Media, SMU has a LinkedIn group (Steel Market Update is its name) which I try to keep stocked with news, events and questions about the industry. We also have a LinkedIn company page and I have a personal page. I have found that LinkedIn has been the best social media site for steel business. We do have a company Facebook page (probably the worst social media site for the steel industry) and I have a Google+ account. Lastly, we have a Twitter account which is #SMUsteel. Feel free to sign up/follow us on any of these sites.
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As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
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Final Thoughts
“We’ll always have Paris,” as the famous line in Casablanca goes. And this month, the global steel industry did as well. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Steel Committee met in the City of Lights earlier this month. There was also a meeting of the Global Forum addressing excess steel capacity.
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.)