Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
February 14, 2020
We will begin our mid-February flat rolled and plate steel market trends analysis at 8 a.m. on Monday. Currently we are inviting approximately 560 individuals to participate in the market questionnaire, which takes about 4-8 minutes to complete. If you receive an invitation, please take a few minutes to provide your insights as they are truly appreciated and provide important data for us regarding market sentiment, demand, inventories, price negotiations, steel prices and more. If you would like to be added to the invitation list, please contact us at info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
On Thursday, we shared an overview of the 2020 SMU Steel Summit Conference agenda. If you did not see Thursday evening’s issue of Steel Market Update, you can find the agenda on our website. We also published some of the “keys” regarding this our 10th SMU Steel Summit Conference. Those were also published in Thursday’s newsletter and you can find them on our blog on our website.
As you can see by our agenda, we have an exceptional program covering market forecasts, price forecasts, global and North American economic forecasts, conversations with steel mill CEOs, a steel buyers’ perspective panel, hedging workshop, AI workshop, trade panel, mill costing and how the mills need to deal with CO2 emissions, how to attract and maintain young people into your company, what to make of the political landscape and how it will affect you and the economy, and more…
We are now over 200 registrations and counting… only 1,000 to go. You can register by clicking here or by going to the website address www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit.
We have a limited number of sponsorship slots for the SMU Steel Summit Conference available. If you would like your name associated with he largest flat rolled and plate steel conference, one that attracts close to 1,200 executives (most being decision makers) from manufacturing, distribution, steel mills, trading companies, toll processors and companies that supply products to those industries, please contact Jill Waldman at 303-570-6570 or by email: Jill@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Jill can also assist you if you would like to exhibit your company’s products. We do have a number of spots left for exhibitors as we have doubled the amount of exhibition space this year.
Our SMU Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop which will be held on March 31 through April 1, 2020, in Merrillville, Ind., is about one-half full. We will tour the NLMK Portage steel mill as part of the steel making portion of the instruction. NLMK is a “mini” mill, which means they produce steel by melting ferrous scrap using an electric arc furnace. There is no better way to remember the classroom instruction in the morning than seeing a charge of an EAF in the afternoon. You can register for the conference by clicking here or by going to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel101
I will be in my office all this week. I begin traveling again on March 27.
If you are looking to renew, upgrade or add more people to your existing SMU membership, or if you are new to Steel Market Update and would like information about Executive and Premium subscription options, please contact Paige Mayhair at 724-720-1012 or by email: 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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Final Thoughts
The whole SMU team is packing up our laptops and our SMU polos/cardigans, loading up the PowerPoint slides, and preparing to make the trek down to Florida for the Tampa Steel Conference. There will be plenty to talk about!
Final Thoughts
From one group of folks, I’ve heard that Trump might not wait until Feb. 1 – the date he threatened on to place tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico. They say he could act as soon as Friday. And then there are those who don’t think anything will happen before April 1. That’s the deadline for Commerce, Treasury, and USTR to submit key reports on “America First Trade Policy” to President Trump.
Final Thoughts
Trump made a clarification in a speech on Monday. Previously, he had declared the word “tariff” the most beautiful word in the dictionary. No longer.
Final Thoughts
President Donald Trump on Sunday hammered Colombia with 25% tariffs and threatened to increase them to 50%. Trump in a post on Truth Social said he took the action not because of a trade dispute but because the South American nation had refused to accept planes carrying deported immigrants. The president also cited "national security" concerns, just as he did to justify 25% Section 232 tariffs on steel in his first term. Even the 50% threat echoes his first term. Turkish steel, like that of most nations, was assessed a 25% tariff in March 2018. Trump doubled Turkey's tariff to 50% via a tweet in August of that year over a matter unrelated to steel.
Final Thoughts
We surveyed many of you this week and asked what you wanted to see from the new Trump administration. Responses were varied but fell largely into three groups: tariffs and trade policy, the Nippon-U.S. Steel deal, and those who are concerned about too much government sway in steel. Some also expressed hope that President Trump would continue the infrastructure spending that began under former President Biden.