Final Thoughts

In tonight’s issue of SMU, we are covering the semifinished (slabs) exclusion request made by NLMK USA and objected to by U.S. Steel and Nucor. We have an interview with Bob Miller, president of NLMK USA, as the first article on the subject. We then have responses from both U.S. Steel and Nucor as to why they objected to the NLMK request for exclusions on slabs. Finally, we have a third article from Daniel Pearson, former chairman of the International Trade Commission, who provided some historical context to the debate. In particular, he speaks about the various personalities from 2001 and their counterparts in the Trump White House.

On Monday, Aug. 6, Steel Market Update will begin our early August flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis. Invitations should go out around 8 a.m. ET, and we will collect responses through 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday of this week. If you would like to be added to our invitation list, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com.

Registrations for our 8th SMU Steel Summit Conference continue to pour in, and we have passed 830 executives who are already registered. We expect attendance of 850+ when show time starts at 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 27 at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta. The conference will conclude at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 29. You will want to stay to the end as we have a presentation by economic and political analyst Ron Insana of CNBC, followed by a special program with Robert Perlman, Executive Chairman of the CRU Group, John Packard of Steel Market Update and a panel that includes Chris Houlden and Josh Spoores of CRU.

A reminder that Steel Market Update readers, as well as those who have attended a past SMU Steel Summit or a training workshop, have a unique opportunity to participate in a webinar about the North American steel market conducted by our parent company, CRU. The webinar entitled, “Mid-Year Update on the North American Steel Market,” will feature presentations from three experienced CRU analysts covering a range of North American economic, trade and flat-rolled steel price forecasts and insights. Any SMU customer can register for the webinar for free, and participants will be able to pose questions privately for speakers throughout the webinar. To register click here.

We are working on our flat rolled and plate steel service center inventories report. We should have our “flash” report out on Tuesday of this week. That will go first to the data providers and then to our Premium members (probably on Wednesday). If you would like information about how you can become a Premium subscriber, please send me a note at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or feel free to call my office: 800-432-3475.

As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.

John Packard, President & CEO