Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 18, 2019
Another hectic week for me as I travel to Chicago on Monday and Tuesday. I will be in the office on Wednesday, Thursday and part of the day on Friday before flying to London where I will be visiting CRU offices on Oct. 28, participating in the CRU Breakfast at the British Museum on the 29th as part of LME Week, and then the CRU 50th Anniversary Celebration at the House of Lords on the 30th. I will not return to the office until Monday, Nov. 4.
I am speaking to the North American Steel Alliance on Monday afternoon. During my presentation I will discuss many of the SMU proprietary indices including our pricing indices, Sentiment Index, Mill Lead Times and Mill Negotiations, Service Center Spot Pricing and what this means for the market, Demand Index and our SMU Service Center Inventories & Shipments Analysis. I am looking forward to speaking to NASA for the first time.
If you would like me to speak to your organization or company, please feel free to contact me at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com and I can advise what my schedule looks like, costs involved and any other details that would be of interest to you.
Our next highly recommended and industry acclaimed Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals workshop will be held in Ontario, Calif., on Jan. 7-8, 2020. We have a strong group of instructors including two metallurgists: Roger Walburn of NLMK USA and Chuck McDaniel who was with Bethlehem Sparrows Point (and all of the other names associated with the company prior to its demise as RG Steel). We also have a purchasing professional in Mario Briccetti and sales professional in Sandy Simon. Rounding out the crew is yours truly with my 42 years of experience in the service center, steel mills, trading company and now analytical segments of the industry. You can learn more about our unique program, which includes a tour of the California Steel Industries steel mill in Fontana, Calif., on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101. If you have any questions, we are here to answer them. Send all questions to Events@SteelMarketUpdate.com
I enjoyed speaking to many of our members at the Metalcon Show this past week in Pittsburgh. I hadn’t attended Metalcon in a few years, so it was good to reconnect with those involved in the metal building, roofing and related industries. Thank you for stopping by our booth and talking to either myself or Paige Mayhair who handles sales for SMU.
If you have questions regarding renewals, upgrading your account, adding more members by taking advantage of the new regional and global pricing options we have, or if you just have questions, please contact Paige at Paige@SteelMarketUpdate.com or by phone at 724-720-1012.
We will begin our mid-October flat rolled and plate steel market analysis on Monday morning, Oct. 21 at 8 a.m. If you did not get an invitation, check your SPAM folder. If you do get an invitation, all you have to do is answer the first question located at the end of the invite email and you will then be redirected to the rest of the questionnaire. We currently are inviting 480 individuals from about 460 companies to participate in our twice-monthly analysis. If you would like to be added to our invite list, or have questions about the survey, please contact Brett@SteelMarketUpdate.com or myself at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
It’s once again A Tale of Two Cities in the steel market. Some are almost euphoric about Trump’s victory. Others, some rather bearish, are more focused on the day-to-day market between now and Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Final Thoughts
One of the perhaps unintentional perks of being a trade journalist is the opportunity to travel and cover an array of industry conferences and events. Some I've attended have been at fun locations, like Palm Springs and Tampa, Fla. Others have been in more practical locations, like SMU’s Steel Summit in Atlanta and American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) meetings in Washington, D.C.
Final Thoughts
t this point in the game I think what we can say about Nippon Steel’s proposed buy of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel is that it will go through, it won’t go through, or the outcome will be something new and completely unexpected. Then again, I’m probably still missing a few options.
Final Thoughts
President-elect Donald Trump continues to send shockwaves through the political establishment (again). And steel markets and ferrous scrap markets continue to be, well, anything but shocking. As the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote in 1849, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." (I thought the quote might have been Yankees catcher Yogi Berra in 1949. Google taught me something new today.)
Final Thoughts
President-elect Donald Trump will officially retake the White House on Jan. 20. I’ve been getting questions about how his administration’s policies might reshape the steel industry and domestic manufacturing. I covered the tumult and norm busting of Trump's first term: Section 232, Section 301, USMCA - and that's just on the trade policy side of things. It's safe to say that we'll have no shortage of news in 2025 when it comes to trade and tariffs.