Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 15, 2016
We knew it would happen and it has, we learned late on Friday that our room block has been sold out. We are trying to see if there is anything we can do to expand the block and we will be working on that over the next couple of days. However, there is another option as there is a Springhill Suites Hotel (also owned by Marriott) across the street from the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway Hotel. If you are having an issue please let us know by sending us an email to: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will see if there is anything we can do on your behalf.
As of Sunday evening, there are 42 days until the start of our 6th Steel Summit Conference (August 29-31) in Atlanta.
Registrations have been quite strong over the past couple of weeks and we are already well over the total registrations for the 2015 Conference. If your company name is not already on our list (see our website for a listing of companies) you can register on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com or by contacting our office: 800-432-3475.
I have been traveling for the past three weeks as I tried to take a “semi-vacation” in Maine. Over the past three weeks I put 4300 miles on my car (which now has 280,000 miles on it), 1681 of which came from the drive back from Maine to Florida over the weekend. A warning to those traveling either north or south on I-95 between Richmond, Virginia and Connecticut – traffic is brutal.
I am back in the office and do not expect to travel again until we leave for Atlanta at the end of August. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please contact me at: 800-432-3475 or by email at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
We will begin our mid-July flat rolled steel market trends analysis on Monday morning. If you would like to be added to our invite list please shoot me an email.
As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
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.)