Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 16, 2019
As mentioned above, it is crunch time for me and my team as we prepare for the conference, now one week away.
I want to emphasize SMU will have a major announcement at the conference on Monday as we roll out our Service Center Inventories on Hand, on Order, Shipments and an analysis of what we believe the numbers mean for service centers, and for prices going forward. I have been working on this project for more than two years, and it is one of the reasons why I agreed to sell the company a little more than one year ago. I believe this data will become a standard for the industry to relate in the months and years ahead. There will be more information provided at the conference on Monday shortly after 1 PM.
It’s funny how trade, indexes, new mill capacities and politics as well as the economy are all at the forefront of people’s minds as we prepare for 2020. Our conference will touch these items in detail.
Our first SMU NexGen Leadership Award will be presented on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at the SMU Steel Summit Conference….
You can read more about the conference in the article I wrote for this evening’s newsletter (see above).
Our Oct. 8-9 Steel 101 workshop has maybe one, at most two, seats available. Registration is now on an “inquire only” basis. Please send an email to Events@SteelMarketUpdate.com if you, or a member of your company, is interested in attending the Cincinnati workshop, which will include a tour of Nucor Gallatin’s electric arc steel mill.
After the October Steel 101 workshop, the next one will be held in Ontario, Calif., on Jan. 7-8, 2020, and will include a tour of the California Steel Industries slab conversion mill, and if time permits their pipe and tube mill. I believe we will start taking registrations for this workshop within the next week or two (depending on how buried we get with the SMU Steel Summit Conference).
Now is an excellent time to upgrade your account. By this, I mean going from Executive to Premium membership (the Service Center Inventory data will be going to Premium subscribers beginning in September). You can also upgrade by going to one of our Regional or Global subscription plans, which allow unlimited members from your company to read SMU. For more information, contact Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or by email at: Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com
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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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.
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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.
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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
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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.