Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 15, 2017
I have read reports that suggest the first fully integrated mill in Vietnam, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, has received permission to test their #1 blast furnace. The Vietnamese government has approved the pollution control equipment and the company is going to be allowed to run the blast furnace on a six-month trial period. In July 2016, this same mill caused a devastating toxic spill that impacted 125 miles of coastline in the province of Ha Tinh and three other provinces in Central Vietnam, affecting the country’s fishing and tourism industries.
We have been working on a new section for members in our website. The section is entitled “Trade Cases” and we have the results of the corrosion resistant (CORE), cold rolled, hot rolled and cut-to-length plate (CTL) in the site. The data can be found under the Resources tab (although we may move it to the Analysis tab at a future date). Please take a look and advise what adjustments or new information you would like to see contained in the data. These pages were created based on a question from one of our member companies. SMU does react to questions and suggestions so please keep them coming: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
I will be traveling to Atlanta and then on to Chicago on Wednesday. I will be available by email should you have any need to reach me: John@SteelMarketUpate.com.
On Thursday I will be attending the Metal Industry sponsored Boy Scout Dinner at the Hilton Chicago Hotel at 720 South Michigan Avenue. If you would like to meet with me please shoot me an email with your cell number. I will email or text you back once I am able to review my schedule.
We had 16 new registrations for the SMU Steel Summit Conference which takes place on August 28, 29 & 30th. We are now over 300 registrations and well on our way to 500+ executives at this year’s event. We invite you to join us if you have not already made arrangements to do so. It will be the largest conference featuring “pure” steel people in North America this year. You can find out more details here or by contacting our office at 772-932-7538 or info@SteelMarketUpdate.com (or ask me if you are at the Boy Scout Dinner in Chicago on Thursday). There are 103 days to go…
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
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.