Final Thoughts

Nucor and USS/POSCO announced new coating extras today, and SMU learned U.S. Steel will provide their new extras in about a week and Steel Dynamics will announce their numbers within the next few days. Coating extras have dropped due to lower zinc costs on the LME over the past few months. SMU expects all of the domestic steel mills will have lower coating extras within the next week or two.

The 2018 SMU Steel Summit Conference was an outstanding success. We had 912 attendees, 182 new companies and 446 first-time attendees. I was told by virtually everyone with whom I had contact that the conference was the best one yet. This is especially gratifying to Ray Culley, Jill Waldman and myself as we spent many months vetting and selecting topics and speakers. The program was diverse yet timely. There were many sessions where our attendees made their way into the exhibition areas of the lobby of the GICC and discussed what they had just heard. We also heard from attendees some of these conversations would continue back at their offices.