Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 23, 2015
Tonight’s issue should have plenty of “meat on the bone” for everyone to read and re-read over the Thanksgiving Holidays. Due to the Holidays we will not publish our Thursday and Sunday evening issues. Our next full issue will be Tuesday, December 1st. However, as always, if news breaks that we feel needs your attention we will publish a special issue.
With so many steel trade suits going at the same time it should not come as a surprised that the US Department of Commerce pushed out the Preliminary Determination date on hot rolled into March. Trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz has been advising SMU and our readers all along to expect push-outs. If you want to learn more about the history of antidumping, countervailing, critical circumstances, volunatry restraint agreements and Section 201’s – and how your company should be dealing with each – come join us in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida on March 7-9, 2016 for our Leadership Summit. Top executives need to know and they can learn from an experienced trade attorney how the system works. Registration is available on our website or through our office. We have early bird rates in effect through January 1, 2016 and SMU member companies also receive a second discount.
For those wanting to learn more about the basics of the steel industry – from the making of steel from iron ore or scrap – to how the steel is sold and what affects prices, come join us in Starkville, Mississippi for our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop. The workshop, which will be held on January 19-20, 2016 will include a tour of SDI Columbus steel mills which is located a short distance away from Starkville. You can learn more about our program on our website or feel free to contact our office: 800-432-3475.
We want to take this opportunity to wish all of our USA customers a very Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends.
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
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.)
Final Thoughts
President-elect Donald Trump will officially retake the White House on Jan. 20. I’ve been getting questions about how his administration’s policies might reshape the steel industry and domestic manufacturing. I covered the tumult and norm busting of Trump's first term: Section 232, Section 301, USMCA - and that's just on the trade policy side of things. It's safe to say that we'll have no shortage of news in 2025 when it comes to trade and tariffs.