Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
March 20, 2019
I am traveling this week. I have been in Monterrey, Mexico, where I visited the Roberto Rocca Industrial School in Pesqueria in the state of Nuevo Leon (just outside of Monterrey). I also visited the Ternium Industrial Center, which is already a major rolling facility and where Ternium is expanding capacities dramatically so the mill can provide the full range of flat rolled and prepainted products to the Mexican markets.
I have to say I was impressed with the social commitment Ternium has made to the community where the mill is located. The dropout rate for Pesqueria was 80 percent, according to the school’s director, Jose Efren Castillo. The school has 370+ students, all of whom receive scholorships covering up to 99 percent of the tuition so they can attend a school none of their parents could ever afford. With the dropout rate of the general population around them so high, it is very impressive that the school will graduate 124 of the original 127 students in the school’s first class this July.
The school is rigourous as students start in August and attend classes nine hours a day, 11 months of the year. Students in the normal public high schools go to school five days a week, five hours a day during eight months of the year.
I had lunch later that day at a nature reserve area on the grounds of the Ternium Industrial Center. The company has set aside a percentage of the land in order to protect the environment.
I will speak more about the tour of the school, the existing mill and expansion, and my sit-down interview with Ternium Mexico CEO Cesar Jimenez later this week. I want to thank the efforts of Mike Guhl of Ternium USA, Diego Bonet, Luis Alberto Perez, Matias Rathkopf and Cesar Jimenez for their kind hospitality and for setting up the tours and meetings so I could better understand the direction of Ternium over the next one to fifty years. I also want to thank the cold mill manager, Fernando Rodriguez, for his help touring the pickle tandem cold mill. I also had an opportunity to tour the Tenigal automotive coating line, which was hosted by Gerardo Tervino, the Manager of Industrial Operations.
SMU would like to hear more from our members about what their company is doing to promote youth, take the lead on social responsibility or make the environment better for the generations to come. Send me your thoughts at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com.
The Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop will be held on May 14-15, 2019, in Davenport, Iowa. We will tour the SSAB plate mill. I expect another great program produced by our experienced instructors in metallurgy, sales, purchasing and management. You can learn more about this workshop and register by going to: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101
Registration is also open for the 9th SMU Steel Summit Conference, which will be held in Atlanta on Aug. 26-28, 2019. Once again we are at the excellent and convenient Georgia International Convention Center, which is located one very short (and free) SkyTrain ride from the airport to the Gateway Hotels and Convention Center area. Once you have your bags, you only need to plan on another 5-7 minutes before you will be checking into your reasonably priced hotel, or walking in the front doors of the convention center. This year, the CME Group will be hosting a Price Risk Management Workshop on Monday morning (Aug. 26) at 10:30 a.m. at the Marriott Gateway Hotel. At 1 p.m. on Monday, we will kick off the conference with SMU and CRU discussing some of our proprietary indices and new products, and CRU will produce their 2019 and 2020 price forecasts.
Networking is an important piece of an SMU Steel Summit Conference (as with any SMU event, including our Steel 101 workshops) and we are providing more time for networking and improved/expanded areas where businesses can focus on their customers/potential customers and/or suppliers. At the end of the day on Monday and Tuesday (4 p.m. each day), there will be a networking cocktail party to meet new people and set up plans for dinner or other meetings. On both days, the cocktail party concludes so there is plenty of time to make it to dinner in downtown Atlanta (15 minutes away by Uber) or locally.
The CRU Group has put together an excellent brochure, which you can download/review by clicking on this link.
To register for the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference click here.
I want to welcome our newest members (new subscribers) to the SMU family. I encourage interaction between members and our staff (and wider network). If there is some information you desire, have general questions or suggestions, please reach out to us at: info@SteelMarketUpate.com. If you would like to talk to me directly, shoot me an email at: John@SteelMarketUpdate.com or you can call me during normal workdays hours at 800-432-3475.
If you would like to become the newest member, or if you would like to renew or upgrade your membership, please contact Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or by email at: Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Please note I am on vacation and on the West Coast USA for the balance of this week. I will return to my office next Tuesday. I will try to respond to emails and texts as soon as I am availalbe. Feel free to reach out to Paige Mayhair or Brett Linton (706-216-2140) should you have immediate needs.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
John Packard
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