Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 5, 2016
Our corporate office building and my home are in the path of Hurricane Matthew. We have evacuated and are in Bradenton, Florida for the next couple of days with hopes that our office, home and neighborhood will still be there when we return over the weekend. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who decided to remain behind which includes two of my neighbors who are disabled and need special equipment and one of our employees.
The issue that worries me is the storm surge which in our area of Florida could be as high as six feet. To make matters worse the storm is hitting at high tide. Our office is located on the second floor of an older office building that did not protect their windows. Our office faces east (towards the ocean).
In the coming days there will be much written about the damage and for those in the steel industry there will be business to gain from the damage. Look for roofing, metal building panels, air conditioners, generators, HVAC, studs, transformers, water heaters, appliances and autos as well as storm shutters that are damaged or destroyed, etc.
We continue to work throughout the day and it has been helpful that we have been conducting one of our flat rolled steel market trends surveys which concluded earlier this afternoon. Our Premium customers will receive both a newsletter and a link to this week’s survey results by tomorrow afternoon.
If you would like to learn more about becoming a Premium level subscriber please contact either Brett Linton (Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com ) or myself (John@SteelMarketUpdate.com) .
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
Who could’ve guessed that the first stage to follow liberation would be confusion. Well, when things get this liberated this fast, perhaps it’s to be expected. From the 30,000-foot view, “Liberation Day” didn’t have a significant impact on steel tariff-wise. That is, the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs stand alone from the reciprocal tariffs […]

Final Thoughts
The market breathlessly awaits the arrival of President Trump's "Liberation Day."

Final Thoughts
I’m not sure what I can write today that won’t be old news after April 2. The Trump administration has dubbed Wednesday “Liberation Day.” Since it’s mostly about tariffs, let’s just call it “Tariff Day.” Or maybe we should call it “Tariff Week” – since tariffs typically dominate the news cycle in the first week […]

Final Thoughts
A personal perspective on Galvalume prices from SMU analyst Brett Linton.

Final Thoughts
After a March frenzy, are prices nearing a peak in April? Some of you have suggested that they are. Others think it's too early to make any such call.