Final Thoughts
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Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 13, 2015
I am scheduled to be in Two Harbors, Minnesota on July 27th. I anticipate touring an iron ore mine prior to boarding the M/V James R Barker along with Interlake Steamship Company Vice President, Brendan O’Conner. Once the vessel self loads approximately 58,000 tons of iron ore pellets we will move across Lake Superior, through the Sault Locks on our way to Lake Michigan. We will travel down the length of Lake Michigan to ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor plant where the vessel will unload its cargo. The voyage is expected to take 3 days during which I will be reporting from the deck (or cabin) of the ship and answering your questions and reporting about the ship, crew, Jones Act, pellets (vs. iron ore fines) and where is the Edmund Fitzgerald if time permits…
You can follow my travels in various ways – I will be writing articles for the Thursday, July 30th edition of our newsletter. I will also be writing blog posts which can be read on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com and I will be sending out Tweets from our company Twitter account #SMUsteel. If I have time I may post one or two articles on LinkedIn or our company facebook account. You won’t need to be a subscriber to follow along.
For those of you who attended last year’s 4th Steel Summit Conference you may be interested in knowing that we are very close to having already registered as many people for this year’s Summit as we had last year when the doors opened. We anticipate that we will host our largest crowd ever at this year’s conference in Atlanta.
Early bird registration ends at midnight, July 15th (end of the day on Wednesday of this week). If you don’t have all your permissions but know you are coming contact our office and we will provide you with an invoice at the early bird discounted rate. You can reach us at: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
On Thursday our full rate will apply which is $1200 per person with SMU member companies (subscribers) eligible for a $100 per person member discount.
We did have a little hiccup with the registration page on Tuesday afternoon. If you happen to not be able to access the web registration page for some reason please contact our office: 800-432-3475 or Diana at 770-561-4470 and we will make sure your information is collected and you are registered for the event.
We have been working diligently on our new Steel Market Update Events App (SMU Events). The little button to the left of this paragraph is what our App will look like on iTunes or the Google store. Anyone can download it once it is available (in about a week) but only those registered for our 5th Steel Summit Conference will have the ability to get into the App, navigate its features and most importantly network with the other attendees, sponsors, exhibitors and SMU Events staff. We believe this App will provide a new way of interacting with others prior to the conference. It will be crucial to maximizing your experience during the conference (including real-time polling during some of the speaker panels). We are very excited about launching this new product and enhancing the Value you will receive from a SMU Event.
There is a chance that you will see the App in iTunes and the Google store prior to us sending out the invitation to those registered to download the App. This is us testing what we have been loading into the App. We would ask that you hold off downloading it until we have it ready for you. You will need a password to get into the App so it is just a pretty button until we provide those passwords.
The App will be available for your smart phones and iPads. There will be a separate version that works with laptops and regular computers. We will soon be sending instructions on how to download the App and to set up your account (it is easy, I have already done it and I am no computer wiz…).
We are truly excited about the quality of the program, our speakers and the opportunity for some exceptional networking to occur between our attendees, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors. I hope that you and other members of your company will join us in Atlanta on the evening of August 31st, September 1st and 2nd for the 5th Steel Summit Conference.
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
Sheet prices didn’t roar back after Labor Day. But steel market news sure came out of the gate strong (or maybe chaotically is the better way to put it). First, the nearly $15-billion proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel exploded into the news. And when I say exploded, I mean that all sides seem to be escalating things now.
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Final thoughts
Welcome back from Labor Day, from Steel Summit, and from whatever fun you might have had over the long weekend. Personally, I enjoyed camping with friends and family near Starved Rock. No one starved, there were no major injuries, and we enjoyed the many splendors of Mystical Fire. (Speaking of which, does that have industrial uses? But I digress.)
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Final thoughts
I want to say a huge ‘thank you’ from all of us at SMU to all of you (more than 1,500!) who attended Steel Summit this year. We appreciate you taking time out of busy schedules to join us – whether that was up on stage, submitting thoughtful questions, or catching up over a drink and bite to eat. Also, a bit shoutout to everyone at SMU and at CRU who made this event possible. It’s no understatement to say that we have a fantastic team.
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Final thoughts
Day one and two of SMU's Steel Summit 2024 are officially in the books. We covered a lot of ground, and the agenda sure did deliver.
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Final thoughts
The big show is just about here. SMU Steel Summit will be getting underway on Monday. Where does the networking begin? I’d say at the airport. So don’t forget your business cards. And it can't hurt to wear a company golf shirt.