Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
November 25, 2019
Steel Market Update will not publish on Thursday, Nov. 28, or Sunday, Dec. 1, due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. Our offices will be closed on Friday, Nov. 29, and will reopen on Monday, Dec. 2.
Our early December flat rolled and plate steel market trends survey will begin on Monday, Dec. 2. We will also go out to our service center data providers for their inventory and shipment information on Monday.
I will be traveling to New Orleans on Dec. 7-10 to attend the annual HARDI conference. As many of you are aware, I have been participating in the HARDI steel conference call for a couple of decades, and I speak at their conference. I am looking forward to seeing my wholesaler friends in NOLA.
My next trip after New Orleans will be to Ontario, Calif., where SMU will be conducting one of our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshops. The workshop still has plenty of seats available. We will be touring the California Steel Industries (CSI) steel mill as part of our workshop. Our instructors include two metallurgists (Walburn & McDaniels), one sales and consulting expert (Simon), one purchasing and consulting expert (Briccetti) and me with my 42 years of sales, purchasing, management, marketing, reporting and analytical experience. This workshop comes highly recommend by past attendees. You can find more information on our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101
We want to wish those in the United States a happy and healthy Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends.
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
And just like that, we’re wrapping up the last SMU newsletter of 2024. We’re closing out our 19th year and looking with wide-eyed anticipation to what 2025 will bring.
Final Thoughts
SMU looks back at stories from Decembers past, one, five, 10, and 100 years ago.
Final Thoughts
It's that time of year again. You know, that time when people wonder if those things are drones in New Jersey or if the aliens are ready to come onto the stage just in time for Inauguration Day. What will that do for steel price volatility? In any case, the SMU team finds itself in Pittsburgh this week.
Final Thoughts
The Community Chat last Wednesday with ITR economist Taylor St. Germain is worth listening to if you couldn’t tune in live. You can find the replay and Taylor’s slide deck here. You can also find SMU reporter Stephanie Ritenbaugh’s writeup of the webinar here. Taylor is Alan Beaulieu’s protégé at ITR. Many of you know Alan from his talks at SMU Steel Summit. I found Taylor’s analysis just as insightful as Alan’s.
Final Thoughts
Cracks have formed in what has been presented as the Biden administration’s united front against Nippon Steel’s play for U.S. Steel. A report from the Financial Times said parts of the administration are at odds on the deal.