Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
July 3, 2020
We don’t get to choose when we were born. We don’t choose what natural disasters, epidemiological emergencies, stock market crashes, tyrannical regimes, or wars our generations face. We only get to choose how we react. (Professor Wendy Beth Hyman of Oberlin College to her students on March 11, 2020).
Thank you for bearing with us over the past few days as we gave our employees some well-deserved time off and we did not publish on Thursday of last week and again on Sunday.
We are now back and working on all cylinders. If you have any questions for us, please feel free to ask away: info@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Ferrous scrap started trading today at down $20 on obsoletes and down $40 on prime grades (bundles and busheling). Ryan McKinley, scrap expert for CRU, will discuss what he is finding on buying activity and supply when he speaks during our SMU Community Chat webinar tomorrow at 11 AM ET. The webinar is free to anyone who would like to attend. This is a good way to expose your junior executives, sales, purchasing and those who continue to work outside the office to what is going on in the industry. You can register for this free webinar by clicking here or by going to our website: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/blog/smu-community-chat-webinars
We are conducting one of our flat rolled and plate steel market trends surveys this week. We will provide a sneak peek at a couple of items during tomorrow’s webinar. Otherwise, we will begin articles in the Thursday and Sunday night issues of SMU.
Our Service Center “Flash” report will go out to data providers tomorrow. If you are a service center selling prime flat rolled or plate products and you would like information about becoming a data provider, and what you receive for being a confidential data provider, please contact Estelle.Tran@crugroup.com or John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
We are now pushing 400 registered attendees for the 2020 SMU Virtual Steel Summit Conference including those added today: 3GM Steel, Luminus Management, FCA US LLC, Lennox International*, Caterpillar Mexico, Mitsui Steel, North American Steel, Trinity Industries, and Steel Technologies* (* denotes more than one person is registered). You can join the hundreds of companies who will be attending (and networking) if you click here. You can also find more information on our website www.SteelMarketUpdate.com and click on the SMU Virtual Steel Summit link on the site. You can see a more complete list of the registered companies by clicking on this link. The list is updated every few days.
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
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.