Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 15, 2017
I have a feeling if I were to write a long drawn-out final thoughts article that our readers would shoot me… I think we have 16 articles in tonight’s newsletter – many of them top-line articles (price increases, MSCI data, Sentiment, Lead Times, Negotiations, Section 232, etc.). What you don’t know is we actually moved five articles out of this newsletter to Sunday evening’s issue…
By the way, if there are any SBQ buyers out there, give me a call (or shoot me an email). Just trying to help out another SBQ end user who asked me a question I couldn’t answer (and I always try to answer questions when asked). You can reach me at 800-432-3475 or at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Quick note about next week’s publishing schedule. We will publish a larger than normal newsletter on Sunday evening…. Then we publish as normal on Tuesday. Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States and I have to give my exceptional employees the day off (and as much of the weekend as possible). Since we will be publishing a thicker than normal newsletter this Sunday we will publish a thinner than normal one on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
While I am talking about Holidays. One of the issues with having motivated employees is they don’t take a lot of time off. So, I fixed them and insisted that everyone take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s. For the first time since I started Steel Market Update I am going to leave the country for 12 days at that same time. Don’t worry, I am still a workaholic and I have made arrangements to make sure I have internet and my phone works while traveling (at least when we are near land with cell towers). If something happens I will cover it…
If you started reading from the top and you finally got to here – well, thank you for plowing through tonight’s issue.
And, as always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update – tell your steel friends about us…
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.