Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
May 23, 2018
The SMU Steel Summit Conference is steaming toward 550 registrations as we forge ahead to our goal of 800 attendees. We have 234 individual companies registered as of this morning. We did not break through the 500+ registration mark last year until the end of July.
Some more interesting facts for those thinking of attending the conference: Of the 523 people registered (as of earlier today), 301 or 58 percent of them are not active SMU members.
Some 186 or 36 percent of the registrants have never been to an SMU Steel Summit before.
We are seeing more Presidents, CEO’s and other top executives attending than in past years. Companies are bringing more people (decision makers) to the conference.
Hotel room update for SMU Steel Summit Conference: Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway – no rooms remaining in room block, rack rate only. Atlanta Airport Renaissance Gateway – 7 rooms remain in our room block, rack rate after they are gone. Atlanta Airport SpringHill Suites Gateway – 32 rooms remaining. Atlanta Airport Marriott (not in the convention center compound) – 100 rooms remaining (shuttle will ferry attendees from hotel to convention center and back).
SMU will not publish either our Executive or Premium newsletters on Sunday, May 27, due to Monday being a national holiday (Memorial Day). Have a wonderful weekend with your friends and family. If you are in southern Florida like I am…raindrops keep falling on my head (tropical storm developing in the Gulf of Mexico).
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
Have a good Memorial Day Weekend.
John Packard, Publisher
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
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, “