Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
April 12, 2019
For all of you golf fanatics, it was fun to see Tiger Woods win after a 14-year drought at the Masters, and after his serious back injuries that made it look doubtful if he would ever be able to play again, never mind win a Masters Championship.
I don’t have the exact count of current registrations for the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference, only that the number exceeds 300 people with 4.5 months to go. Here are the companies that registered this past week. Those with an * after their name registered more than one person: Calstrip Industries*, Whirlpool, Ryerson*, JFE Shoji Trade America, Rheem Manufacturing*, Wallner Expac, Inc.*, Ram Steel Framing, Oshkosh Corporation*, Big River Steel, JSW Steel USA* and Midrex Technologies, Inc.
The SMU Steel Summit Conference will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta. The convention center is located right next to the Atlanta International Airport (not downtown). The dates of the conference are Aug. 26-28. If you would like to learn more about our conference, you can go to our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit or you can download our brochure by clicking on this link.
If you would like to register, you can click on the link on our website or you can click here to go directly to the registration page.
CRU is also conducting an Aluminum Market Update Conference on Aug. 28-29 at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway Hotel (next to the GICC convention center where the SMU Steel Summit is held). If you would like to learn more about the Aluminum Summit, please click here.
We are one month away from our next Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop. The workshop is being held in Davenport, Iowa, and includes a tour of the SSAB steel mill. The workshop dates are May 14 & 15, 2019. For more details about the workshop, costs to attend and how to register go to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101
Becoming a member of Steel Market Update has its privileges. Member companies (and all of their employees) get discounts to attend SMU events such as the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference and any of our Steel 101 Workshops. Members also can register to attend the CRU New York Steel Briefing on Monday, June 17 at the Westin Hotel, 811 7th Avenue, New York City. For more details and how to register for this free event, please click here.
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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Final thoughts
We got a little flack for adjusting our sheet momentum indicators to neutral last week. To be clear, we didn’t adjust them to lower. Part of the reason we moved them to neutral was because there are some unusual cross-currents in the current market. On the news side, you could make a case that there should nowhere to go but up.
Final thoughts
I think all of us know that sometimes courtships go wrong. A misplaced word or deed and soon things can go sideways, and not in the prices sense. Such could be the case with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel’s play for U.S. Steel.
Final thoughts
We’re starting to see some impacts of the big trade case filed last week against imports of coated flat-rolled steel from 10 nations. Namely, we’ve heard that a range of traders have stopped offering material from Vietnam. An alleged dumping margin of nearly 160% will do that. Especially amid chatter of critical circumstances.
Final thoughts
The phrase “political football” has been tossed around a lot lately. (Pun probably intended.) For the humble journalists at SMU who thought the week following Steel Summit would prove a quiet one… the news cycle had other ideas
Final thoughts
Sheet prices didn’t roar back after Labor Day. But steel market news sure came out of the gate strong (or maybe chaotically is the better way to put it). First, the nearly $15-billion proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel exploded into the news. And when I say exploded, I mean that all sides seem to be escalating things now.