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
We joked in our last Final Thoughts that Wiley trade attorney Tim Brightbill – one of the nation’s leading experts on trade law and policy – would probably be revising his presentation on Trump, trade policy, and tariffs for the Tampa Steel Conference. He did. And even after those last-minute revisions, he actually got trumped […]
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.