Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 31, 2017
When we began planning for our 2017 SMU Steel Summit Conference I was actually thinking that I would be able to drop the subject of trade and perhaps work on other issues of “more importance” by the time we reached the end of August 2017. Even with the CORE, hot rolled, cold rolled and cut-to-length plate cases having been finalized in 2016 (CORE, CR, HR) and just last week (CTL Plate) the subject of trade is not fading away. In fact, there is perhaps a different discussion needed than what we had in the past. It is not just about anti-dumping and countervailing duties but about the rights of manufacturing, U.S. consumers and steel producers. The debate this year will be different than what we saw in the past and we are working to bring as many diverse opinions to the conference as possible. We expect to have a four-person panel with Philip Bell, President of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) which is an organization representing the interests of the steel mills, Daniel Pearson with the Cato Institute and a former Chairman of the International Trade Commission (ITC) the group of commissioners that determines “final duties” in trade cases and trade attorney Lewis Leibowitz. We are working very hard to bring in a fourth viewpoint that maybe hasn’t been heard before. We will have more details once we get closer to a confirmation of that 4th name.
I only fell for one April Fool’s prank this year but I have to hand it to DoubleDutch (our Events App provider) they had me eating it up on Saturday afternoon… (see article in tonight’s newsletter for more details).
On Monday morning we will send out invitations to our flat rolled steel market trends survey at approximately 8 AM ET. We send about 670 invitations and we appreciate those who take the time to click on the link in the invite and spend a few minutes responding to our questionnaire. At the end of the week we provide a Power Point presentation to those who respond to our invitations with many of the responses to the survey – not only from the survey you will take but also from the other market segments and the surveys they took as well. If you would like to be added to our invitee list please send your information to: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com. I will need your name, company name, position, email address and phone number.
I got a copy of a Bloomberg article that our readers may want to look over and think about. The forces of globalization are not going to stop because displaced workers will it to be so. The article talks about the Trump/Carrier deal and what happened in reality (and what is continuing to happen each and every day in the U.S.). Click on this link to see the full article.
The Bloomberg article is sad one for me personally as many of the companies mentioned in the article I used to personally sell steel directly to them or to them through their suppliers. At the same time, globalization has been going on for a long time and way back in the mid-1980’s I was responsible for Carrier Corporation. We sold steel to a large plant in California that was closed and moved to Tennessee. I also sold to Springer-Carrier in Brazil when they had an emergency need arise. I got to go on my first international business trip because of that Carrier Brazil business. Carrier had international plants making air-conditioners back in the mid-1980’s.
Anybody remember when Fedders made window air-conditioners in the United States? Used to be one of my larger accounts…
Not everyone is leaving – take a moment to read the article.
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John Packard
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