Steel Products

SMU Steel Workshops: A Way to Stay Connected, Learn, Motivate, Network

January 21, 2021

Steel training workshops are a good way to learn something new, to help motivate yourself or your employees, to meet new people and develop new sources and contacts within the industry. SMU has developed excellent programs from the basics about how steel is made, bought and sold, and the market forces that move prices, all the way to advanced hedging strategies and how to execute them.

I miss seeing people face-to-face. I am sure you do as well. There is something special about being able to meet someone, listen and learn from them, introduce yourself to someone new, make contacts that will ultimately become new customers/suppliers or just to develop new friends within the industry.

When Steel Market Update was forced by the pandemic to take the SMU Steel Summit Conference to a virtual platform, we were determined to reproduce the experiences received from a live conference. The platform selected and expanded by our CRU Events teammates has been able to provide a quality training experience and to offer avenues to interact with others who are in the industry, those yearning for new experiences, and to meet new people.

Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals

After the success of last year’s SMU Steel Summit, which attracted 913 attendees, we decided to take the proven platform and apply the same concepts to our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop. We have run two Steel 101’s virtually, and in many ways, it is as good as, if not better than attending the workshop in-person. You do not have to travel, we don’t have to worry about our attendees not being able to see something during a steel mill tour, and attendees are still able to interact with instructors and the other attendees. Our next virtual Steel 101 workshop will be held on Feb. 9-10. The class is quickly filling up. If you would like to learn more about the agenda, instructors, testimonials, costs to attend and how to register, please click here.

New SMU Hedging Workshops

For many years flat rolled steel prices have been volatile. This volatility introduces risk into your business. Dealing with that risk has become a major task for purchasing managers and upper management at many companies. SMU is introducing three new workshops to address “risk” and how to use financial instruments to better manage price risk, or to offer your end customers a way to get firm long-term pricing. The workshops are: Steel Hedging 101: Introduction to Managing Price Risk, Steel Hedging 201: Advanced Strategies & Execution, and Galvanized Steel Hedging.

Steel Hedging 101

Our first Steel Hedging 101: Introduction to Managing Price Risk workshop with its instructor Spencer Johnson of StoneX will be conducted virtually on our platform on Jan. 26-27. If you would like to learn more about managing flat rolled steel price risk, if you are new to the industry and need to understand how hedging tools are used, you will want to participate. Unfortunately, you will need to wait until March (anticipated to be March 30-31, to be confirmed early next week) to join us as this workshop is SOLD OUT. You can learn more about the agenda, our instructors (which also include CRU and CME instructors), and costs to attend by clicking here. We will confirm the new date for the next Steel Hedging 101 workshop and provide a registration link early next week.

Steel Hedging 201

We realized many in the industry have already either been through an introductory hedging program or have begun the process of utilizing financial instruments to manage price risk, but they do not feel totally comfortable making trades or understanding the strategies needed to be successful. SMU, along with our instructor Spenser Johnson of StoneX, has developed an advanced hedging workshop for you. Our first Steel Hedging 201: Advanced Strategies & Execution will be held on Feb. 23-24; you can learn more about the agenda, instructor(s), costs to attend and how to register by clicking here.

Galvanized Steel Hedging: An Update

SMU, along with our instructor Spencer Johnson, is working on providing a final agenda for this half-day workshop, which we have planned for March 2021. There will be details on this coming out over the next couple of weeks. Please stay tuned.

New SMU Advanced Steel Training Workshop

We realized that, given the success of our Steel 101 workshop which has been educating individuals associated with the steel industry for about 10 years, we needed to add an advanced class. This goal will become a reality in 2021.

Steel 201: An Update

SMU is working on what is the most appropriate content, and who will be the instructors for this advanced steel training workshop. We are looking at there being a steel mill costing component as well as an introduction to the discussion of future carbon credits and what that might mean to North American manufacturing, the cost of steel and for the competitiveness of domestic steel mills. The first Steel 201 workshop (full name to be advised soon) will be held during April 2021.

There is a main training website for our workshops. You can click here to view what we have available, and we will provide information on the new workshops as soon as possible on this website.

You are also welcome to reach out to Events@SteelMarketUpdate.com and we will answer any questions you might have.