Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 1, 2015
As this issue started and I began working on my final thoughts for tonight’s issue, it began with comments from one of our service center friends about the prospect of dumping suits being filed. As the evening progressed I started to receive a number of credible comments from steel mills, service centers and others. The focus then changed to highlight what I was learning and move much of what I was writing from final thoughts into the lead article.
Here is how the original thought began:
A note from one of our readers, “Trade case, odds are 99.9% coated filed tomorrow.” (Tomorrow meaning Wednesday, June 3rd). If this service center (who also was the first person to register to attend this year’s Steel Summit Conference) is correct, kudos. If not, we will have to start some sort of contest to see who can select the date for a trade case. Maybe we should have a second contest to see what countries are filed against by product…
My thanks to those of you who have been sharing what you have been learning regarding trade cases (and other subjects). If anyone out there hears something that you believe to be credible (or raises a question that needs some research) please send it my way. You can reach me almost 24 hours a day at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
It is always good to have fresh eyes looking at your product and services and providing feedback in an effort to help you improve. Here at Steel Market Update we are constantly reviewing and revising our products, whether it be one of our workshops, upgrading our Steel Summit Conference, adding a new conference (Leadership Conference) or looking at our original product: our newsletter. Ray Culley has been reviewing our products and has been making suggestions and we are listening. After all, he was the head of Marketing for Severstal North America prior to his retirement.
We are going to change our newsletter slightly as we move away from producing the interactive graphics in the body of the newsletter. If you read the newsletter in your email inbox instead of going to our website to read it, you know there are huge gaps where the interactive graphics are and this is distracting to many readers.
So, we are going to provide links to the graphics and the newsletter should be easier for many of you to read and enjoy. I do want comments about the change to see if you prefer it the old way or the new way (no gaps).
Hectic day so I am going to sign off here.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us 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.