Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
January 27, 2017
Please be advised that I will be traveling to Tampa, Florida and will be at the Port of Tampa Steel Conference on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I will return to my office on Wednesday. For those of you who have not been to a steel conference, the Port of Tampa is a good one that will not break the bank. Of course, if you only can go to one steel conference, I highly recommend our own Steel Summit Conference which will be in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of August (28th, 29th and 30th of August).
We are going to begin our early February flat rolled steel market analysis (survey) beginning at 8 AM ET on Monday, January 30th. We will send out approximately 630 invitations to people representing over 600 companies involved in the production, distribution, manufacturing or processing of flat rolled steel. The vast majority of the invitations focus on manufacturing and distribution which are the two largest buying segments for the steel mills. We will be asking questions about whether those in the industry think flat rolled steel prices have “peaked” or does the bull have room to run?
This coming week should be interesting (just like every other week in the steel industry). If something comes across your desk or, if you become aware of changes in the marketplace, please shoot me a note: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
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
“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.)