Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 30, 2017
Happy Independence Day Weekend for those in the United States and Happy Dominion Day (150 years) for those in Canada. I hope everyone is enjoying some extra time off with family and friends.
From here all is quiet – the only news we have to share is a change in the date of our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop, which will be held in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and will include a tour of the SDI Butler facility. The dates on this workshop are Wednesday, October 4th and Thursday, October 5th, 2017. We should have registration details up on our website right after the conclusion of the Independence Day Weekend. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our offices at 800-432-3475 or info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Have a good Holiday Weekend. We will be closed on Monday and Tuesday but we will check messages.
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 had an October surprise here at SMU on Wednesday. I was working from the CRU office in Pittsburgh, and the internet connection briefly went out. As luck would have it, that happened smack in the middle of a live Community Chat webinar. Fortunately, my colleague David Schollaert stepped in, Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman rolled with the punches – and the show went on. Could there be any more October surprises in store for us and for the steel market?
Final Thoughts
We just wrapped up another Steel 101 workshop, easily the most hands-on industry workshop on steelmaking and market fundamentals, in this humble opinion. Last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, SMU’s Steel 101 was held in Starkville, Miss.
Final Thoughts
Everybody has an opinion about politics these days. More importantly for our readers, though, every business has a bottom line. A popular question in our most recent steel buyers survey asked how uncertainty around the upcoming US presidential election could affect that line.
Final Thoughts
I’m trying to make sure this is not a TL;DR Final Thoughts. As a journalism school professor once told me, ‘No one but your mom reads more than 1,000 words.’ Also, as the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand as well. With that in mind, below are a couple of charts that I think go a long way toward explaining how prices and lead times have been relatively stable despite concerns about demand.
Final Thoughts
It’s another week of big headlines for the world writ large – an expanding war in the Middle East, another potentially catastrophic hurricane – and not much going on in the world of steel prices. “Call me Stevie Wonder, I see nothing.” That’s how one service center executive described the current sheet market. There seems to be almost a competition among some of our Community Chat guests and contributors to outdo each other in flowery ways to say, “