Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
October 9, 2020
We are now 23 days from the close of the 2020 presidential election. I think all of us, no matter how we use our vote, are hoping for a quick decision and then an orderly move to either the second term of President Trump or the new Biden administration. If you have not already voted, I highly encourage you to do so as early as your state allows.
We are conducting one of our flat rolled and plate steel market trends surveys this week. We are going to canvass (confidentially) our respondents to see what steel industry executives are thinking when it comes to this year’s election. The last few months may have changed some minds since we took our straw poll at this year’s SMU Steel Summit Conference. Just to remind everyone, at the end of August, 53 percent of the respondents were supporting Trump, 41 percent Biden and 6 percent were supporting someone else or not yet committed to one candidate.
By a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent, our 2020 conference respondents also believed the Republicans will remain in control of the Senate.
Back in 2016, 48 percent of our conference attendees were supporting Trump with only 22 percent supporting Clinton.
If you receive an invitation at 8 a.m. ET tomorrow morning, please take a few minutes to respond to our inquiries. As noted above, your responses are confidential and neither you nor your company’s name will be shared with anyone.
On Oct. 21 our SMU Community Chat Webinar will feature Dr. David Schultz, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. Dr. Schultz is a nationally recognized expert on elections and election ethics. He spoke at our conference this year, and he will be speaking at a CRU event on Oct. 20. We will feature a recording of his Oct. 20 remarks, as well as Q&A. He will have an analysis of the state polling data and will detail his forecast for the presidential election as well as who will control the Senate. To register, please click here or go to www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/blog/smu-community-chat-webinars. You can also use the website address to view a recording of last week’s SMU Community Chat webinar with Timna Tanners of Bank of America (or any of the previous webinars).
We will not have a webinar this Wednesday as we are trying to space them out every other week, unless something happens that prompts us to have one early.
I read an article from Reuters about the steel industry and the impact President Trump has had on the market. I think some of you may wish to review the article. Here is a link to the Reuters article.
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
Sometimes new presidential administrations hit the ground running. No time for change like the present. And sometimes new administrations blast off on a SpaceX rocket bound for Mars. There’s a big universe, and we’ve got a lot of flags to plant. Such seems to be the case with the new Trump administration.
Final Thoughts
What’s been the impact of tariff threats on prices and demand? In short, not much – or at least that was the case when I was writing this column on Sunday afternoon. Spot activity for Canadian material, for example, has been put on hold over the last few weeks while the market waits to see what the new tariff landscape might look like.
Final Thoughts
Next Monday marks the start of the second Trump administration. The limbo we’ve been living in since Election Day in early November will finally come to an end. What better way to take a look at what’s coming up in Washington, D.C., than a conversation with Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) President Philip K. Bell. He […]
Final Thoughts
It’s another week of big headlines and ho-hum pricing moves – which is to say the start of 2025 is looking a lot like the end of 2024. Scrap has settled up $20 per gross ton (gt). Steel prices, however, were a soft sideways this week. Chalk it up to uneven demand and abundant supply. And while we’re not aware of any major outages, some of you tell us that you’ve lost some shipping days here and there because of the recent cold snap.
Final Thoughts
I wrote in a Final Thoughts a few years ago that it seemed all the swans were black. More recently, I’ve been asked by some of you what the wildcards are for 2025. You could probably make the case that all the cards are wild now.