Steel Market Update Events Calendar for 2021

At the end of this month, Spencer Johnson of StoneX, the CME Group and CRU will present our second Steel Hedging 101: Introduction to Managing Price Risk Workshop. This will be a virtual workshop held on our exceptional platform designed to provide a comfortable atmosphere conducive to both learning and networking. The first time we produced this workshop earlier this year, it was well received and was sold out. We currently have plenty of seats available. You can learn more about the agenda, instructors, about our platform, costs and how to register by clicking here or going to: https://events.crugroup.com/steel101/about-steel-hedging-101

April 21: Galvanized Steel Hedging (virtual)

There is a new hedging product called HDG, which is offered on the CME trading platform. The purpose of the product is to assist companies that are interested in hedging both cold rolled and galvanized steel. The product is still relatively new and we thought it prudent to provide a short half-day workshop explaining what it is, how it might be useful to your company, how to use it, and more. Our instructor is Spencer Johnson of StoneX along with the CME Group and CRU. You can learn more about the agenda, costs and how to register by clicking here (more details will be put on the website over the next few days) or by going to: https://events.crugroup.com/steel101/about-galvanized-steel-hedging

May 5 & 6: Steel Hedging 201: Advanced Strategies & Execution (virtual)

In early May, SMU will conduct our second Steel Hedging 201: Advanced Strategies & Execution Workshop which will be held over two half days (tentatively this workshop will be held in the afternoon instead of the morning). This workshop is for those who have been through our Steel Hedging 101 workshop or who have an understanding as to how the futures markets work and understand the basic trading terminology. The purpose of this workshop is to provide more details regarding various hedging strategies based on various company profiles and needs. The instructor is Spencer Johnson of StoneX along with the CME Group, CRU and an independent active participant in the market.

Chris Shipp, Vice President Supply Chain for Priefert Farm, Ranch & Rodeo as well as Priefert Steel, attended the last virtual Steel Hedging 201 workshop and he told John Packard of SMU, “John, [I] loved the 201 Hedging class. Spencer is top notch, and easily brings things down to laymen terms. Jill facilitated very well, and lots of great interactions.” 

You can learn more about the Steel Hedging 201 agenda, instructors, costs to attend by clicking here. We should have the new registration pages up in the coming days.

May 11 & 12: Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals (virtual)

Steel Market Update has been conducting our Steel 101: Introduction to Steel Making & Market Fundamentals Workshop for 10 years. We have trained more than 1,000 members of the steel community (manufacturing, steel mills, service centers, toll processors, paint companies, suppliers to these industries and the financial community) during those 10 years. Due to the pandemic, we have taken this course to our virtual platform, which has allowed us to increase the amount of material and time we are able to spend with the attendees. The virtual workshop has been conducted twice to rave reviews from our students. The next Steel 101 workshop will be held on May 11 & 12, and you can find more information about the agenda, our instructors, costs to attend and how to register by clicking here or going to: https://events.crugroup.com/steel101/about-steel-101

Roger Walburn, a metallurgist and marketing expert with NLMK USA who is also one of our instructors, had this to say about the virtual tour we do various steel mills, “While there is nothing quite like seeing mill operations in person, our virtual Steel 101 class offers virtual tours via prepared videos covering both the BF/BOF and EAF process routes as well as what is common to both. Our course instructors walk you through what you are seeing and pause to highlight the key points covered in class, as well as to make sure any questions are answered along the way. Coupled with the course instruction, any attendees will walk away with a good overview of all the main processing steps, starting from the raw materials to finished mill products delivered to the marketplace.”

If you cannot make the May workshop, we will conduct another virtual Steel 101 workshop on July 20 & 21.

May Date to Be Advised: Steel 201: Commodities, Steel Pricing & Decarbonization of the Industry

We are developing an exciting new program with our CRU partners, which will cover in detail steel costs by looking at key commodities (iron ore, coal, energy) both from an international and North America basis. We will look at the carbon curve and explain why U.S. steel producers have a much smaller carbon footprint and what this will mean in a “Clean Steel” future. I will have more comments about this workshop in my Final Thoughts in tonight’s issue. This will be a two-day virtual conference.

Here is a look at our calendar of events through August 2021:

August 23, 24 & 25 SMU Steel Summit Conference – LIVE – Georgia International Convention Center, Atlanta

Welcome back to LIVE IN-PERSON events! Our plan is to conduct the 2021 SMU Steel Summit Conference at the Georgia International Convention Center on Aug. 23-25. The convention center is conveniently located adjacent to the Atlanta International Airport (ATL).

We have confirmed the following speakers to date: Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman, President & CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs; Mark Millett, President & CEO, Steel Dynamics; Leon Topalian, President & CEO, Nucor; Dr. Alan Beaulieu, Managing Partner, ITR Economics; Phil Bell, President, Steel Manufacturers Association; Lewis Leibowitz, Trade Attorney with the Law Offices of Lewis E. Leibowitz; Timna Tanners, Metals & Mining Analyst, Bank of America, Michael Smerconish, commentator and author with CNN; as well as a number of CRU Executives within their Economic and Steel Teams. More speakers to be advised in the coming days. I will have more comments about this year’s conference in my Final Thoughts in tonight’s newsletter (see below).

You can learn more about this year’s conference by clicking here or going to: https://www.events.crugroup.com/smusteelsummit/home