Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

Written by John Packard


Good evening from Nashville, Tenn., and the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association annual meeting. It was a beautiful sunny day today, but a bit on the chilly side for my Florida bones…

I enjoyed the two speakers that I saw this afternoon. Dr. Chris Kuehl is back in good voice and humor. He entertained the audience about the economy as he is known to do. Perhaps I should bring him back to entertain our attendees at the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference…?

The early word is that scrap for March is settling up $20 per ton for all grades in Detroit, with the other markets expected to follow. 

We continue to build on the SMU Steel Summit Conference program we have already placed on our website. We will be rolling out new speakers and more of the program in the coming days. We will continue to have some of the tried and true from the past, but we will also have new faces, new topics and special speakers to complete your conference experience, and I hope leaving you wanting more. You can register by clicking here.

We are working on hotel arrangements right now, but our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop will be held in Iowa where we will be touring the SSAB plant in Montpelier. The dates on the workshop will be May 14-15, 2019. We hope to have details and registration open by the end of this week.

This evening I will be attending a dinner honoring Andy Gross, CEO of Alliance Steel, as the Association of Steel Distributors’ Steel Executive of the Year. Congratulations to Andy and his team.

On Wednesday I will be attending the FMA conference here in Nashville and I will return to my office on Thursday.

If you have questions about membership, renewal or want to upgrade or expand your existing account – please contact Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012.

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

John Packard, President & CEO

Latest in Final Thoughts